Using a Braille Tachistoscope to Improve Braille Reading Speed

Parallel versus sequential processing in print and braille reading

The purpose of the study reported here was to determine the validity of the Blind Learning Aptitude Test (BLAT). The findings revealed significant correlations between scores on the BLAT and braille oral reading speed, comprehension, age, grade, years of blindness, intelligence, and achievement. The relationship between the BLAT scores and comprehension was stronger than the relationship between BLAT scores and braille reading speed.

The brain is capable of large-scale reorganization in blindness or after massive injury. Such reorganization crosses the division into separate sensory cortices (visual, somatosensory...). As its result, the visual cortex of the blind becomes active during tactile Braille reading. Although the possibility of such reorganization in the normal, adult brain has been raised, definitive evidence has been lacking. Here, we demonstrate such extensive reorganization in normal, sighted adults who learned Braille while their brain activity was investigated with fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Subjects showed enhanced activity for tactile reading in the visual cortex, including the visual word form area (VWFA) that was modulated by their Braille reading speed and strengthened resting-state connectivity between visual and somatosensory cortices. Moreover, TMS disruption of VWFA activity decreased their tactile reading accuracy. Our results indicate that large-scale reorganization is a viable mechanism recruited when learning complex skills.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10762.001

Braille reading is a crucial literacy skill for blind individuals and an important model to study non-visual modes of communication. Many studies have addressed Braille reading in English, but no previous study targeted Arabic Braille reading. Here we report our findings on Braille reading accuracy and speed in three different age-groups of Arab participants in Israel: 10(± 2.5) year-olds attending elementary schools (N = 20), 16(± 1.7) year-old high-school students (N = 13) and young adults (23 ± 2.6 years) (N = 24). All participants read vowelized and unvowelized word lists and vowelized and unvowelized texts printed in Arabic Braille. The results showed that as in studies of English Braille reading, Braille reading rates in Arabic improve as a function of the readers’ age. However, Arabic Braille readers were consistently slower compared to English Braille readers. In addition, Arabic Braille readers were prone to read less accurately, with participants of all age-groups committing more phonetic reading errors in the unvowelized word lists and texts compared to the vowelized reading tasks. On the other hand, the older participants did not commit mirror-image errors or letter-skipping errors, which were noted in the younger participants. We discuss the results in the light of the specific characteristics of Arabic, especially diglossia and the homography of unvowelized Arabic.

Increasing the Braille Reading Rate, by Emerson Foulke, published in the October 1979 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Volume 73, Number 8, pp. 318-323. Although I have been a braille user for a long time, it was not until I began my doctoral program at the University of Arizona that I could examine the technical aspects of braille, including its acquisition, instruction, and construction. My dissertation topic, which was directly related to instructional braille methods, provided me with many opportunities to study and gain a deeper understanding of braille. My personal interests as well as my professional inquiries combined to prompt me to search for ways in which braille reading speed could be improved, but there were very few studies aimed at increasing braille reading speed. Furthermore, it was very difficult to comprehend the complex perspectives of the topic, recognizing that numerous factors would be associated with the query. An article by Emerson Foulke about increasing braille reading speed gave me the framework in which to approach the topic. The article I chose to highlight in this essay was one of the first to summarize the findings of previous studies on increasing the speed of braille reading and offer practical applications. By contrasting the differences between visual and tactual reading, Foulke viewed braille not simply as a code, but as a tool to facilitate reading for people with visual impairments. More important, Foulke suggested ways in which the theories outlined in the articles he summarized could be implemented in practice. FOULKE'S VIEW OF BRAILLE Foulke saw reading behaviors and perceptual ability of readers as two of the biggest obstacles to increasing braille reading speed. It is not surprising to modern readers that the importance of proper hand movements, appropriate mechanical skills, and constant and fluid touch skills have been regarded as crucial factors in braille reading. Perceptual ability relates to potential modifications of ways in which braille text is being displayed. Foulke also perceived that using all fingers in the braille reading process would assist in improving reading speed. Furthermore, he proposed alternative methods of presenting braille characters, such as presenting braille characters in columns. Foulke examined changing the braille code as a viable option for improving the system and outlined a blueprint for making modifications to it. Since 1979, much has changed. There are now more people with visual impairments whose needs for braille are functional. …

The effects of reading mode and braille reading patterns on braille reading speed and comprehension: A study of students with visual impairments in China

Introduction The inability to read quickly can be a disadvantage throughout life. This study focused on the associations of braille reading fluency and individual factors, such as the age at onset of blindness and number of years reading braille, and the tactile sensitivity of people with early and late blindness. The relationship between reading speed and these other factors was examined to identify factors that influence reading speed. Methods Nine people with early blindness and 10 people with late blindness participated in this study, which included the measurement of accuracy of word recognition, braille reading speed, and tactile sensitivity. Results We found a significant partial correlation between reading speed and the age at onset of blindness, controlling for number of years reading braille ( r = −0.68, p < .005), and no significant partial correlation between tactile sensitivity and reading speed after controlling for the age at onset of blindness ( r = −0.08, ns). Discussion A direct relationship between reading speed and tactile sensitivity was not confirmed, and the age at onset of blindness appears not only to mediate the relationship between reading speed and tactile sensitivity but also may be a crucial factor influencing braille reading fluency. Implications for practitioners Our results suggested that a crucial factor that influences braille reading fluency was the age at onset of blindness, and that individuals should begin learning braille as early as possible.

Blind people are known to have superior perceptual abilities in their remaining senses. Several studies suggest that these enhancements are dependent on the specific experience of blind individuals, who use those remaining senses more than sighted subjects. In line with this view, sighted subjects, when trained, are able to significantly progress in relatively simple tactile tasks. However, the case of complex tactile tasks is less obvious, as some studies suggest that visual deprivation itself could confer large advantages in learning them. It remains unclear to what extent those complex skills, such as braille reading, can be learnt by sighted subjects. Here we enrolled twenty-nine sighted adults, mostly braille teachers and educators, in a 9-month braille reading course. At the beginning of the course, all subjects were naive in tactile braille reading. After the course, almost all were able to read whole braille words at a mean speed of 6 words-per-minute. Subjects with low tactile acuity did not differ significantly in braille reading speed from the rest of the group, indicating that low tactile acuity is not a limiting factor for learning braille, at least at this early stage of learning. Our study shows that most sighted adults can learn whole-word braille reading, given the right method and a considerable amount of motivation. The adult sensorimotor system can thus adapt, to some level, to very complex tactile tasks without visual deprivation. The pace of learning in our group was comparable to congenitally and early blind children learning braille in primary school, which suggests that the blind’s mastery of complex tactile tasks can, to a large extent, be explained by experience-dependent mechanisms.

In order to investigate braille reading behavior, we need a device capable of tracking readers' finger movements in real-time. This paper presents software for tracking the fingers of braille readers. The software is developed to observe reading braille-embossed paper on an Android tablet. It provides online visual information of finger movement patterns, reading durations on cells, total reading time, and the average reading rate. This allows researchers to investigate braille reading in more depth in order to help improve the readers' braille reading skills.

Tactile, motor and cognitive capacities decline with age, but little is known about how this relates to braille reading outcomes. This study investigated correlates of braille reading speed among working-age and older adults. Texts were read in two modes (oral/silent) and two media (paper/electronic braille display) by 46 blind adults (age range 23–88) who learned braille between the ages of 4 and 63. Participants completed demographic questionnaires and tests of tactile acuity, fine-motor dexterity and working-memory. A relationship between decreased performance in tactile sensitivity and increased age was observed, but no relationship between increased age and braille reading speed was found. Active tactile acuity, reading frequency and braille learning age were significantly correlated with braille reading speed. No significant difference based on medium was observed, though silent reading was significantly faster than reading aloud. Findings underscore the importance of providing opportunities for older braille learners to secure training and to have frequent opportunities to practice braille between sessions. Findings also challenge the suggestion that increased age alone will impede braille learning. The most significant barrier faced by older braille learners is not their age, but challenges that could instead be addressed through policy and practice changes.

This study aims to investigate the literacy skills of Braille readers in the areas of reading fluency, reading and listening comprehension, and spelling. A total of 119 German-speaking, Braille readers aged between 11.0 and 22.11 years were tested for this purpose. Data collection was carried out using a questionnaire, psychometric tests, and self-constructed assessments. Wherever possible, the results were compared with the standards of sighted peers. Regarding reading fluency, Braille readers performed significantly slower than print readers. In terms of spelling, the Braille users performed within an average range of sighted peers. Furthermore, a positive correlation was obtained between Braille reading fluency and spelling, whereas the use of auditory aids (e.g., speech output) showed a negative correlation with Braille reading fluency and spelling. In addition, a comparison between listening and reading within the study sample revealed that reading Braille proved to be better for comprehension, although listening was significantly faster. In conclusion, the findings provide evidence that Braille reading skills are important for the development of literacy skills in general. Nevertheless, listening skills are important and need to be systematically promoted.

It has been hypothesized that efficient reading is possible because all reading scripts have been matched, through cultural evolution, to the natural capabilities of the visual cortex. This matching has resulted in all scripts being made of line-junctions, such as T, X, or L. Our aim was to test a critical prediction of this hypothesis: visual reading in an atypical script that is devoid of line-junctions (such as the Braille alphabet read visually) should be much less efficient than reading in a “normal” script (e.g., Cyrillic). Using a lexical decision task, we examined Visual Braille reading speed and efficiency in sighted Braille teachers. As a control, we tested learners of a natural visual script, Cyrillic. Both groups participated in a two semester course of either visual Braille or Russian while their reading speed and accuracy was tested at regular intervals. The results show that visual Braille reading is slow, prone to errors and highly serial, even in Braille readers with years of prior reading experience. Although subjects showed some improvements in their visual Braille reading accuracy and speed following the course, the effect of word length on reading speed (typically observed in beginning readers) was remained very sizeable through all testing sessions. These results are in stark contrast to Cyrillic, a natural script, where only 3 months of learning were sufficient to achieve relative proficiency. Taken together, these results suggest that visual features such as line junctions and their combinations might be necessary for efficient reading.

For module design and development studies, a needs analysis study is very important to explore the needs of teachers as module users. This study aims to explore the need to develop a braille early reading skills teaching module for children with visual impairment preschool. This needs analysis was conducted on four special education preschool teachers with disabilities at the Ministry of Education Malaysia. Data collection was conducted using semi-structured interview method to obtain insights and ideas in teaching braille early reading skills based on Discrepancy Model McKillip. The findings identified four main objectives: (1) challenges during the teaching of Braille early reading skills; (2) methods of teaching braille early reading skills; (3) development needs of braille early reading skills module and (4) characteristics of braille early reading skills module. The findings of this needs analysis indicate that the Braille early reading skills module has a need to be developed to overcome the challenges faced by preschool teachers in teaching braille early reading skills. This study is also expected to assist researchers in the production of quality modules and to solve the challenges faced by teachers in teaching braille early reading skills for preschool children. This is in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) which promotes quality and equitable inclusive education for all children.

In one of several recent two-week workshops, blind and visually handicapped persons have increased their braille reading speed from an average of 138 words per minute to 710. The techniques, which vary with the individual readers, are developed through a series of exercises involving the rapid scanning of each page, using one or both hands and from one to six fingers. Comprehension is affected only slightly.

The joy is in the journey. We all know that, but how often do any of us have the time to reflect on our careers in this wonderful field of ours? Well, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), where I have worked since 1972--some 36 years--has asked me to do just that. The long journey of my professional career began, appropriately enough, with a weeklong road trip across the United States from New York to San Francisco. The year was 1963, and I had just completed my undergraduate studies in music education. I could not be certified to teach in California until I took a course in the state's history. Off I went to San Francisco State University for a night course and ended up staying until I earned a master's degree in creative arts with emphasis on voice and keyboard. Meanwhile, I became certified to teach elementary school, which I did in Oakland. Because of a requirement for my degree, I learned music braille and wrote about it for my master's thesis. Little did I know that some day I would be chair of the Braille Authority of North America at a time when the final revision of the International Braille Music Code would be reviewed and passed! THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME I continue to be amazed by how much I have learned and changed, as the ideas of the field have changed, over the years. For instance, in the early days of my career there was a strong belief that a teacher of a blind or partially child had to determine as early as possible whether a student was a print or braille reader. The idea that a student could learn both print and braille at the same time was heresy. It was a given that everything in print had to be reproduced exactly in braille. Although the method I used wasn't widely practiced at the time, I taught every one of my students who were blind to sign their names in block writing, using the braille cell as a guide to making each letter. You could certainly pick the signatures of my blind students out in a crowd, because their handwriting was all the same. Raised-line drawings were considered useless, especially for congenitally blind children, and the use of raised-line coloring books was completely out! Verbalism was a hot topic. The accepted belief at the time was that one should never assume that a visual description articulated by a child who is blind reflected intrinsic knowledge of the concept the blind child was describing. Perhaps it is true that a blind child's visual descriptions are more an imitation of the world's descriptions. By the old model, however, even Helen Keller would have been supposedly uninformed about the things she described. So much for the importance of assimilation into the sighted world! For many decades, it was believed that only orientation and mobility (O&M) instructors were acceptable, even though there were wonderful teachers at the time who were visually impaired. The practice of excluding visually impaired people from training as O&M specialists changed, like so many others, in the course of my career. Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Ghandi FINDING A HOME IN THE BLINDNESS FIELD After working as an itinerant teacher in Daly City, California, I returned to the east coast, to Princeton, New Jersey, to marry and teach at the New Jersey Commission for the Blind. Georgie Lee Abel, who was then part of the education faculty at San Francisco State, had given my name to Josephine Taylor, then director of the New Jersey Commission for the Blind, as someone with potential, and Jo Taylor hired me. I had found my new family. By 1972, I had completed all but the dissertation for my doctorate coursework at Teachers College, Columbia University, and was just starting at AFB. My dissertation, on defining competencies for university personnel preparation programs in the field of blindness, turned out to be a springboard for much of my future work. …