Braille Training for Blindness Professionals at the Hadley School for the Blind

Abstract

Ideal models for teaching students with visual impairments that take into account budgetary (Wittenstein, 2010) and staffing constraints, significant geographic dispersion, and low student ratios have yet to be widely implemented in the United States. The lack of sufficient degree programs to certify teachers of visually impaired students and rehabilitation professionals has been eloquently documented by many (Ambrose-Zaken & Bozeman, 2010; Huebner & Wiener, 2001). The itinerant model of teaching students with visual impairments leaves little time for continuing education for teachers of students with visual impairments (Brown & Beamish, 2012; Olmstead, 1991; Spungin, 2003). Although braille instruction is understood to be the best literacy medium for most students with visual impairments (Kapperman & Sticken, 2003), barriers to its teaching are considerable. False assumptions about the waning need for braille usage due to burgeoning technology have been debunked by the academic literature (Gerber, 2003; Ryles, 1996) but remain ubiquitous nonetheless. Certified blindness professionals who have not provided braille instruction for several years may require brush-up training to recall the intricacies of formatting and contraction rules when welcoming new students on their caseloads (Gilson, 2014). Furthermore, very few general education teachers or paraeducators assigned to support the learning needs of students with visual impairments read braille themselves (Lewis & McKenzie, 2010). Although blindness professionals may study braille independently through transcription certification courses and examinations such as those offered by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) (Bell, 2010), NFB cautions that its courses are not intended for learning braille as a personal reading and writing skill (National Federation of the Blind, 2014). Alternatively, The Hadley School for the Blind (Hadley) offers braille-instruction courses through digital correspondence that are delivered via the Internet in an asynchronous manner; students communicate with instructors via e-mail or telephone. More information about Hadley's courses can be found online at: . HADLEY'S BRAILLE TRAINING PROGRAM FOR BLINDNESS PROFESSIONALS Distance education has been a successful way of delivering braille course content through universities (Kim, Lee, & Skellenger, 2012) and state-run programs (Harrison, Kooch, & Alsup, 2003), as well as the Hadley School for the Blind (Gilson, 2014; Gilson & Xia, 2007; Hathaway, 1977; Wolffe, 2001). Hadley has offered teachers of students with visual impairments, other school professionals, rehabilitation practitioners, and other blindness service providers the opportunity to enroll in tuition-free introduction to alphabetic and contracted braille courses because of two iterations of a Braille Training Program grant from the Rehabilitation Services Administration, U.S. Department of Education. Program evaluation design The Department of Education funds allowed Hadley to hire Thomas Kenemore of Chicago State University to conduct focus groups and telephone interviews with the goal of creating three surveys designed to collect data from alphabetic and contracted braille students at course registration, upon course completion, and at six months following completion (Kenemore, 2010). The surveys were administered online, and survey completion was not a requirement for course enrollment or completion. For the past three fiscal years, the author has analyzed the survey data and evaluated the braille training program on an annual basis for Hadley. From its inaugural year in January 2001 to March 1, 2014, Hadley's alphabetic braille course enrolled 6,431 students who identified themselves as professionals in the blindness field. In comparison, Hadley's contracted braille course enrolled 2,358 students from January 2003 to March 1, 2014 (L. …