Learning to read in the dark

LIKE many five-year-olds, Mikaella Bresson is learning to read. So is her mother, who at 32 recently earned graduate degrees in law and public policy.  

The two are studying Braille: Mikaella because she is blind, born with congenital cataracts and glaucoma that stole all but the faintest trace of her vision. Her mother, Nalida, although fully sighted, has been poring over a Braille manual designed to promote fluency in the medium that many advocates for the blind say offers the most effective path to literacy.