Tactile Reading Research Articles

Paedagogica Historica themed issue: gaining momentum – new cultural histories of education and disability

ABSTRACT In this themed issue of Paedagogica Historica, editors Pieter Verstraete, Maria Romeiras, and Carlos Manique aim to merge the flourishing fields of disability history and the history of education. Despite past initiatives like the 2005 special issue on disability and education and the 34th ISCHE conference in 2012, these fields have largely remained separate. This issue presents three articles that intersect these domains, capitalising on recent historiographical evolutions. Both fields share activist origins, with the history of education emerging in the 19th century and disability history in the late 20th century. Recent trends in disability history, such as non-Western perspectives and renewed interest in institutional histories, align with the new cultural history of education. The included articles exemplify this synergy by exploring the architecture of French deaf institutions, tactile reading systems in East Asia, and the Perkins Institute for the Blind. This collection underscores the potential of integrating these research fields.

The tactile reading systems in East Asia: missionaries, colonialism, and unintended consequences

ABSTRACT In the late nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries introduced modern education for the blind people in Taiwan and Korea. They developed various tactile reading systems to enhance literacy and provided handicraft training for self-sufficiency. When these regions came under Japanese colonial rule in the first half of the twentieth century, the colonial government introduced Japanese Braille and massage training for blind students. However, most of these training programmes fell short in effectively equipping blind individuals for sustaining their livelihoods upon completing their education. As a result, paradoxically, tactile reading systems initially designed to discourage blind individuals from participating in traditional fortune-telling practices ended up inadvertently catalysing the modernisation of these longstanding traditions. This case study highlights the intricate and diverse nature of special education in East Asia.

Reading Braille by Touch Recruits Posterior Parietal Cortex.

Blind readers use a tactile reading system consisting of raised dot arrays: braille/⠃⠗⠇. How do human brains implement reading by touch? The current study looked for signatures of reading-specific orthographic processes in braille, separate from low-level somatosensory responses and semantic processes. Of specific interest were responses in posterior parietal cortices (PPCs), because of their role in high-level tactile perception. Congenitally blind, proficient braille readers read real words and pseudowords by touch while undergoing fMRI. We leveraged the system of contractions in English braille, where one braille cell can represent multiple English print letters (e.g., "ing" ⠬, "one" ⠐⠕), making it possible to separate physical and orthographic word length. All words in the study consisted of four braille cells, but their corresponding Roman letter spellings varied from four to seven letters (e.g., "con-c-er-t" ⠒⠉⠻⠞. contracted: four cells; uncontracted: seven letters). We found that the bilateral supramarginal gyrus in the PPC increased its activity as the uncontracted word length increased. By contrast, in the hand region of primary somatosensory cortex (S1), activity increased as a function of a low-level somatosensory feature: dot-number per word. The PPC also showed greater response to pseudowords than real words and distinguished between real and pseudowords in multivariate-pattern analysis. Parieto-occipital, early visual and ventral occipito-temporal, as well as prefrontal cortices also showed sensitivity to the real-versus-pseudoword distinction. We conclude that PPC is involved in orthographic processing for braille, that is, braille character and word recognition, possibly because of braille's tactile modality.

A comparative evaluation of sliding contact tactile systems displaying braille and raised print

BACKGROUND: Access to low-cost tactile displays that allow sliding contact between text and reading fingers remains a challenge for blind and visually impaired (BVI) users. This impedes the widespread learning of braille and tactile reading. Previous work demonstrated a high accuracy in the tactile reading of braille and raised print presented at varying refresh rates. OBJECTIVE: This work compares the most suitable spacing between embossed characters on a sliding contact tactile display for the accurate reading of words. METHODS: Two discs, differing in inter-character spacing (ICS), embossed with braille on one side and raised print on the reverse side are used here. MNREAD sentences are read for a period of 5 minutes by 17 participants, who are visually impaired, using both discs. RESULTS: The results show that an ICS of 8 mm is sufficient for reading braille with a low percentage error rate of 6.4. However, an ICS of 8 mm does not allow similar rates while reading raised print. CONCLUSION: The results presented here will be relevant towards the research that works towards the design of economical sliding contact tactile displays for BVI users.

Semi-automated Pipeline to Produce Customizable Tactile Maps of Street Intersections for People with Visual Impairments

Abstract. Street intersections are very challenging for people with visual impairments. Manually produced tactile maps are an important support in teaching and assisting independent journeys as they can be customized to serve the visually impaired audience with diverse tactile reading and mobility skills in different use scenarios. But the manual map production involves a huge workload that makes the maps less accessible. This paper explores the possibility of semi-automatically producing customizable tactile maps for street intersections. It presents a parameterized semi-automated pipeline based on OSM data that allows the maps to be customized in size, map features, geometry processing choices, and symbolizations. It produces street intersection maps in two scales of three sizes, with different levels of details and styles.

Need Analysis of Pre-Braille Skills Module as The Pedagogical Support in Early Braille Literacy Learning

Pupils with visual impairments adapt in a variety of ways, one of which is learning to "see" through touch. Therefore, tactual readiness is essential for them to have access to physical reading materials. However, conventional instructional methods emphasize on memorising braille codes and braille writing rather than tactile reading. As a result, pupils find reading braille materials physically less engaging, and in the worst possible case, these pupils suffer from academic deficiencies as a consequence of their inability to read tactile information. This will substantially reduce their prospects of success in the future. As a corollary, instructional strategies emphasising interventions to enhance tactile sensitivity are necessary for resolving this issue. On the basis of the discrepancy model, a questionnaire was created to identify whether teachers need specific interventions to suit the special educational needs of pupils with visual impairments, particularly during early braille learning lessons. This questionnaire was distributed randomly to 92 special education teachers who taught visually impaired pupils in a variety of special education programs (PPK) in Malaysia.Beforehand, seven experts were recruited to evaluate the content validity of the need analysis instrument, and an S-CVI value of 0.86 was determined. In the meanwhile, eleven experts evaluated the instrument's face validity; the S-FVI was 0.90. Meanwhile, the quantitative items in this questionnaire had an alpha value greater than.70, indicating that the instrument used is appropriate for obtaining responses from the intended group, since the instrument's alpha value surpassed >.07 and remained within the recommended range for good internal consistency, that could be interpreted as reliable. According to the results, all of the respondents claimed they need a comprehensive module for pre-braille skills that includes step-by-step instructions and video demonstrations. In essence, teachers need a guided module to implement pre-braille skill interventions that foster tactile awareness and tactile perception to support early braille development among pupils with visual impairment in schools and homes.

Where Shall I Touch? Vision-Guided Tactile Poking for Transparent Object Grasping

Picking up transparent objects is still a challenging task for robots. The visual properties of transparent objects such as reflection and refraction make the current grasping methods that rely on camera sensing fail to detect and localize them. However, humans can handle the transparent object well by first observing its coarse profile and then poking an area of interest to get a fine profile for grasping. Inspired by this, we propose a novel framework of vision-guided tactile poking for transparent objects grasping. In the proposed framework, a segmentation network is first used to predict the horizontal upper regions named as <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">poking regions</i> , where the robot can poke the object to obtain a good tactile reading, while leading to minimal disturbance to the object's state. A poke is then performed with a high-resolution GelSight tactile sensor. Given the local profiles improved with the tactile reading, a heuristic grasp is planned for grasping the transparent object. To mitigate the limitations of real-world data collection and labeling for transparent objects, a large-scale realistic synthetic dataset was constructed. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed segmentation network can predict the potential poking region with a high mean average precision (mAP) of 0.360, and the vision-guided tactile poking can enhance the grasping success rate significantly from 38.9% to 85.2%. Thanks to its simplicity, our proposed approach could also be adopted by other force or tactile sensors and could be used for grasping of other challenging objects.

Circling towards intimacy: Trees, tactile reading and ecosexual non-human companionship

Adopting a fresh approach to autoethnographic writing, this article unfurls tactile encounters with the more-than-human through an active exercise in readership. Situating this within ecosexual and psycho-somatic framings, the text queers kinaesthetic encounter, presenting it as holding the potential for deeper connection, understanding and amity across species. Drawing on Konik and Konik’s notion of a ‘barefoot epistemology’ (: 80), and an overlay of sensorial, critical and reflective writing, the structure of the essay enacts a mimesis of the author’s own kinaesthetic encounter, exploring the provision of research writing to offer the reader their own embodied experience. Questions of research materiality support an enlivened research encounter.

From the Editor: The Next Generation

Sorry, Star Trek fans, the TV series is not the topic of interest here. Instead, the starting of the fourth decade of Interface calls for not only looking back, but also looking forward. I looked back in the Spring 2022 editorial, with a sneak peek of the future of an all-digital Interface. I am happy to note that the print-on-demand option has already been a big hit for those with the continued desire for a tactile reading experience, not to mention the best-looking covers for displays on coffee tables worldwide. Now is the time to look forward and start involving the next generation of members across all the activities of the Society.

THE BRAILLE SYSTEM: THE WRITING AND READING SYSTEM THAT BRINGS INDEPENDENCE TO THE BLIND PERSON

The braille System is the most adopted writing and reading process in relief worldwide and includes the writing of the alphabet and of mathematical, chemical, phonetic, computer, and musical symbols. This text aims to explain what the braille System is and its importance for the independence of the blind person. In addition to demonstrating the appropriate distance between the points and proving that writing on the conventional slate is the best resource for correct writing in braille, the main objective of the research is to emphasize the importance of using the braille System and to value the conventional slate as a braille writing instrument. From the reading of theoretical texts and writings performed using both slates, the result is even more evident that writing on the conventional slate meets the tactile reading of the blind person, who uses the pad of the index finger to feel the braille dots.&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt; Article visualizations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0941/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Determinants of Reading Efficiency of the Students with Visual Impairment

Successive, serial mode of language input during tactile reading has certain limitations compared to reading print and requires a lot of effort during decoding. The aim of this causal-comparative study was to identify some determinants of the students with visual impairment reading efficiency in Serbia. The sample consisted of 35 students of both genders, aged between 13 and 21, who used braille as primary reading medium. Three-dimensional Reading Test was used for the assessment. The measures of reading efficiency were oral reading speed and reading comprehension. Reading technique (one-handed vs. two-handed) and experience in tactile reading were monitored as determinates which could impede reading efficiency. ANOVA and Scheffe’s post hoc tests were used to detect differences between various categories of readers who have visual impairment. Results showed that in average students with visual impairment read 51.61 words per minute, with great variability of reading speed. Statistically significant differences were found between the reading speed and reading experience, as well as between the readers who have visual impairment and use different reading techniques. Two-handed readers achieve good reading speed, while one-handed readers are considered as poor readers. The reading comprehension of the students who have visual impairment ranges high regardless of the reading speed, reading experience, or reading techniques. These results indicated that tactile reading does not jeopardize reading comprehension, it only threatens reading rate. Obtained findings could serve as meaningful guidelines for educational approaches to children with visual impairment.

An exploratory study to improve reading and comprehending mathematical expressions in braille

Braille readers read and comprehend mathematical expressions while moving their fingertips over braille characters. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the effect of an intervention that teaches braille readers who use a braille display to use finger movements with a focus on the expression’s mathematical structure. The finger movements involved movements where the two index fingers are about one or two braille cells apart and movements where the index fingers explore different parts of the expression. We investigated to what extent the intervention supports an interplay between finger movements and the expression’s mathematical structure to make the process of calculating the value of an expression easier and to make braille readers more aware of the expression’s structure. Three braille readers, respectively in Grades 7, 8, and 11, received the intervention consisting of five individual lessons. During the pre-, post-, and retention test, the braille readers’ finger movements were video recorded, as well as the time needed to read and process the mathematical tasks. Four expressions were selected for further analysis. The results show that during the posttest, each braille reader required at least 29% less time to read and process the expressions. The retention test results were even better. Scanpaths indicated that braille readers picked up features of mathematical structures more easily after the intervention. Based on our findings, we recommend that braille readers receive lessons in tactile reading strategies that support the reading and processing of mathematical expressions and equations.

Temporal Dynamics of Brain White Matter Plasticity in Sighted Subjects during Tactile Braille Learning: A Longitudinal Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study.

The white matter (WM) architecture of the human brain changes in response to training, though fine-grained temporal characteristics of training-induced white matter plasticity remain unexplored. We investigated white matter microstructural changes using diffusion tensor imaging at five different time points in 26 sighted female adults during 8 months of training on tactile braille reading. Our results show that training-induced white matter plasticity occurs both within and beyond the trained sensory modality, as reflected by fractional anisotropy (FA) increases in somatosensory and visual cortex, respectively. The observed changes followed distinct time courses, with gradual linear FA increase along the training in the somatosensory cortex and sudden visual cortex cross-modal plasticity occurring after braille input became linguistically meaningful. WM changes observed in these areas returned to baseline after the cessation of learning in line with the supply-demand model of plasticity. These results also indicate that the temporal dynamics of microstructural plasticity in different cortical regions might be modulated by the nature of computational demands. We provide additional evidence that observed FA training-induced changes are behaviorally relevant to tactile reading. Together, these results demonstrate that WM plasticity is a highly dynamic process modulated by the introduction of novel experiences.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Throughout the lifetime the human brain is shaped by various experiences. Training-induced reorganization in white matter (WM) microstructure has been reported, but we know little about its temporal dynamics. To fill this gap, we scanned sighted subjects five times during tactile braille reading training. We observed different dynamics of WM plasticity in the somatosensory and visual cortices implicated in braille reading. The former showed a continuous increase in WM tissue anisotropy along with tactile training, while microstructural changes in the latter were observed only after the participants learned to read braille words. Our results confirm the supply-demand model of brain plasticity and provide evidence that WM reorganization depends on distinct computational demands and functional roles of regions involved in the trained skill.

Magnetic braille using ferrofluids

Braille provides an invaluable tactile reading system for the visually impaired. However, current braille keyboards and technology are external mechanical devices limited by their large form factor, high expense and long refresh rates. A magnetic touchpad in which braille dots are formed through a ferrofluid medium is a potential device that could promise to replace current braille technology by providing higher refresh rates, lower cost and give easy integration into current devices. In this report, work is shown towards developing a proof of concept magnetic braille touch pad, wherein a braille dot is formed using a ferrofluid by a controlled magnetic field produced by a small scale electromagnet. Attempted optimisation of braille dot formation is also undertaken, varying ferrofluid properties and electromagnet architecture to form accurate braille dots. Results show that magnetic braille touch pads are realistic devices that can be built and that there are clearly extensive opportunities for further research. In the future magnetic braille touch pads could be fully implemented into information technology devices for use by the visually impaired.

The sound of reading: Color-to-timbre substitution boosts reading performance via OVAL, a novel auditory orthography optimized for visual-to-auditory mapping.

Reading is a unique human cognitive skill and its acquisition was proven to extensively affect both brain organization and neuroanatomy. Differently from western sighted individuals, literacy rates via tactile reading systems, such as Braille, are declining, thus imposing an alarming threat to literacy among non-visual readers. This decline is due to many reasons including the length of training needed to master Braille, which must also include extensive tactile sensitivity exercises, the lack of proper Braille instruction and the high costs of Braille devices. The far-reaching consequences of low literacy rates, raise the need to develop alternative, cheap and easy-to-master non-visual reading systems. To this aim, we developed OVAL, a new auditory orthography based on a visual-to-auditory sensory-substitution algorithm. Here we present its efficacy for successful words-reading, and investigation of the extent to which redundant features defining characters (i.e., adding specific colors to letters conveyed into audition via different musical instruments) facilitate or impede auditory reading outcomes. Thus, we tested two groups of blindfolded sighted participants who were either exposed to a monochromatic or to a color version of OVAL. First, we showed that even before training, all participants were able to discriminate between 11 OVAL characters significantly more than chance level. Following 6 hours of specific OVAL training, participants were able to identify all the learned characters, differentiate them from untrained letters, and read short words/pseudo-words of up to 5 characters. The Color group outperformed the Monochromatic group in all tasks, suggesting that redundant characters' features are beneficial for auditory reading. Overall, these results suggest that OVAL is a promising auditory-reading tool that can be used by blind individuals, by people with reading deficits as well as for the investigation of reading specific processing dissociated from the visual modality.

Asymmetric Bálint’s syndrome with multimodal agnosia, bilateral agraphesthesia, and ineffective kinesthetic reading due to subcortical hemorrhage in the left parieto-occipito-temporal area

ABSTRACT We report a patient with asymmetric Bálint’s syndrome (predominantly right-sided oculomotor apraxia and simultanagnosia and optic ataxia for the right hemispace), and multimodal agnosia (apperceptive visual agnosia and bilateral associative tactile agnosia) with accompanying right hemianopia, bilateral agraphesthesia, hemispatial neglect, global alexia with unavailable kinesthetic reading, and lexical agraphia for kanji (Japanese morphograms), after hemorrhage in the left parieto-occipito-temporal area. The coexistence of tactile agnosia, bilateral agraphesthesia, and ineffective kinesthetic reading suggests that tactile-kinesthetic information can be interrupted because of damage to the fiber connection from the parietal lobe to the occipito-temporal area, leading to these tactually related cognitive impairments.

Métodos y técnicas para la construcción de símbolos táctiles hacia una Cartografía Inclusiva

Este artículo presenta una reflexión sobre la experiencia de varios años de los autores con relación a la producción de representaciones gráficas táctiles, con énfasis en la generación de los símbolos (lineales, arenales y puntuales) empleados para representar informaciones geocartográficas. Se presentarán los símbolos que ya están estandarizados, así como las metodologías utilizadas para su definición y construcción. Aprovechando como ejemplo la simbología de algunos mapas táctiles turísticos serán discutidas las características necesarias para que los signos sean comprendidos por los usuarios, principalmente los que tienen deficiencia visual.Un producto cartográfico táctil permite al discapacitado visual acceder a la información y el conocimiento geográfico por medio de los símbolos táctiles y la escritura Braille que acompaña cada uno de los productos cartográficos. Este tipo de cartografía táctil permite representar la información de una forma adecuada y entendible para el usuario ciego, lo cual implica utilizar símbolos táctiles cuidadosamente diseñados lo que permitirá reconocer y generar una imagen mental del área geográfica representada.Es importante señalar, que la adecuada instrucción en la lectura táctil, en el lenguaje Braille y el conocimiento previo de la variable geográfica representada que tenga la persona ciega, le facilitará extraer información de un mapa táctil, de un gráfico o de imágenes en relieve.

Tracing the effectiveness of braille reading patterns in individuals with blindness: Handedness and error analysis

Braille reading is a very demanding active tactile process. Forefingers of both hands play a predominant role in braille reading, because the pulps are extremely sensitive in tactile exploration and recognition. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the potential effects of handedness on braille reading patterns during braille text reading. Thirty-two Greek students (from Grades 3 to 12) with visual impairments, who used systematically the braille code as a reading medium, participated in this study. Handedness was assessed through a modified version of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, while their reading level was estimated via a standardized test. In turn, participants read 18 texts, which were chosen randomly from their textbooks. Results indicated that handedness affected braille readers’ selected reading patterns during text reading. A variety of reading patterns were recorded and the selected data were correlated with tactile reading strategies in terms of dominant hands and fingers. It seems that readers who selected one-hand braille reading patterns performed significantly more errors with the index of their dominant hand, whereas those who chose to read with both hands faced more difficulties toward the effective collaboration of the indices of their hands. Finally, the findings of the present study are discussed in relation to educational practice, relevant theory, and subsequent research.

Exploring the design of a tactile reader for braille and non-braille users

BACKGROUND: Research focusses on providing economical and effective tactile readers which incorporate relative motion between the fingertip and the reading text. OBJECTIVE: Here, a novel design and prototype of a tactile reader is proposed for blind Braille and non-Braille users based on the sequen tial reading of text when using a single cell reader. METHODS: The accuracy of reading words using this design was evaluated on 17 visually challenged users who know Braille. With a slight modification in the design to benefit non-braille users, the reading of words on 10 blind-folded sighted individuals and 12 late-blind visually challenged users was investigated. Differences in recognition of English letters formed by dots and lines were explored. RESULTS: The results showed no significant difference in accuracy when reading words with this prototype compared to braille reading on paper. The percentage accuracy in reading words for the 39 users was 98.62% for blind braille readers, 90% for blindfolded sighted users and 96.8% for blind non-braille users. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that the proposed design for tactile reading can potentially benefit both groups of visually challenged users-those who know braille and those who do not.

Orthographic Priming in Braille Reading as Evidence for Task-specific Reorganization in the Ventral Visual Cortex of the Congenitally Blind.

The task-specific principle asserts that, following deafness or blindness, the deprived cortex is reorganized in a manner such that the task of a given area is preserved even though its input modality has been switched. Accordingly, tactile reading engages the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) in the blind in a similar way to regular reading in the sighted. Others, however, show that the vOT of the blind processes spoken sentence structure, which suggests that the task-specific principle might not apply to vOT. The strongest evidence for the vOT's engagement in sighted reading comes from orthographic repetition-suppression studies. Here, congenitally blind adults were tested in an fMRI repetition-suppression paradigm. Results reveal a double dissociation, with tactile orthographic priming in the vOT and auditory priming in general language areas. Reconciling our finding with other evidence, we propose that the vOT in the blind serves multiple functions, one of which, orthographic processing, overlaps with its function in the sighted.