The tactile reading systems in East Asia: missionaries, colonialism, and unintended consequences

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the late nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries introduced modern education for the blind people in Taiwan and Korea. They developed various tactile reading systems to enhance literacy and provided handicraft training for self-sufficiency. When these regions came under Japanese colonial rule in the first half of the twentieth century, the colonial government introduced Japanese Braille and massage training for blind students. However, most of these training programmes fell short in effectively equipping blind individuals for sustaining their livelihoods upon completing their education. As a result, paradoxically, tactile reading systems initially designed to discourage blind individuals from participating in traditional fortune-telling practices ended up inadvertently catalysing the modernisation of these longstanding traditions. This case study highlights the intricate and diverse nature of special education in East Asia.