Assessing the impact of auditory media on Braille reading and writing skills: The case of elementary school students who are blind in Sudan

Abstract

This study explores the impact of using auditory media in school curricula on the braille-related skills of students who are blind at a Sudanese school. Three sets of braille-related skills (6-dot braille writing, Arabic alphabet writing, and Arabic text reading) were used to evaluate and compare the students’ ability to read braille versus listening to text via audio media. The purpose of testing full cells of braille writing was to determine writing speed while that of testing braille writing of the Arabic alphabet was to examine students’ accuracy and proficiency in writing. Arabic text reading was tested to determine braille-reading speed. The three braille-related skills were evaluated for a total of 34 students in two groups (Group 1: grades 3 and 4; Group 2: grades 5–8), but the listening speed test was only administered to the second group. T-tests were used to compare the results for the braille-related tests with those for the listening speed test to determine whether braille-related skills were affected by the use of auditory media when accessing school curricula in the early grades of elementary school. The statistical results indicated there were significant differences between the two groups in 6-dot writing and Arabic text reading, whereas there was no significant difference in Arabic alphabet writing. As mastery of braille is an integrated process that requires instruction towards the parallel development of all braille-related skills, the ratio of instructional time devoted to listening compared to that devoted to braille may require adjustment.