Sally Mangold
Inducted 2008
Sally Mangold (1935- 2005) was born and began school in Walnut, IL. After her parents moved to California she attended the California School for the Blind and finished high school in the cooperative Oakland program. She completed her undergraduate work in education and earned her master’s degree in special education from San Francisco State College in 1956 and a year later, married a fellow grad student, Phil Mangold. In 1977 she completed her Ph.D. from a joint Special education doctoral program between San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley.
Sally and her husband developed an outstanding resource program for visually impaired students in the public schools of Castro Valley, California, that served as a model for others. She was gifted with what has been describes as a pragmatic approach to instruction especially her techniques in teaching Braille reading. After eighteen years in Castro Valley, she was invited to join the faculty at San Francisco State University.
While a professor at San Francisco State University from 1977 to 1995 she was a pioneer in the Distance Education Program, an innovative model for preparation of teachers of the visually impaired. Throughout her life Sally had a passion for Braille Literacy. In 1973 she developed the "Mangold Developmental Program of Tactile Perception and Braille Letter Recognition," a tool widely used to teach tracking and beginning Braille which has been translated into seven languages.
Together with her husband, Phil, in 1974 she founded Exceptional Teaching Aids, a company which promoted and sold products for visually impaired students and their teachers. Some of the products they sold were designed and developed by them and others were included when, sensing a need, they found products to meet that need. The company has grown so much that it now offers over 500 products for the visually impaired and children with other special needs.
In 1997 Sally was awarded a National Science Foundation grant that enabled her to develop the Speech Assisted Learning (SAL) System, a portable, interactive, computer-based Braille tutor which enabled many blind teens and adults to teach themselves Braille. Her dream of opening doors for Braille learners who wanted to explore the fields of science, math and engineering motivated the emergence of SAL2. Her 45 books, articles, videos and technological innovations raised national and international awareness of the importance of Braille literacy.
Dr. Mangold was an effective communicator and popular speaker, her last was to keynote the APH 2004 Annual Meeting. Among her many honors and awards are the AER Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Award in 1996, the Holbrook-Humphries Literacy Award in 2001, AFB’s Miguel Medal in 2003 and APH’s Creative Use of Braille Award in 2003. Sally has been described as having grace and humor, with an upbeat, positive, energetic genuine love of people. She was a creative, energetic teacher who had high standards for her students and she never ran out of ideas of ways to help struggling students. Her frequent advice was "listen to your students, ask them what it is they want to learn."
Photos: Phil Hatlen, Phil Mangold, Sally Mangold, and Fred Sinclair; Pete Wurzburger, Phil Hatlen, and Sally Mangold.
- Phil Hatlen recalls Sally Mangold
- Susan Spungin’s introductory remarks from Sally Mangold’s Induction to the Hall of Fame, 10/03/2008
- Tribute to Sally Mangold at SFSU website
Video and Photos
Sally Mangold’s Keynote Address, APH Annual Meeting 2004:
The Changing Status of the Blind, a lecture by Berthold Lowenfeld. Introduction by Sally Mangold, 1986:
Hall of Fame: Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field is a project of the entire field of blindness. It is curated by the American Printing House for the Blind, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.
