[nabs-l] Learning to learn faster

[Courtney Stover]

Antonio,

I'll return with more thoughts later tonight when I've properly read
the article, but I thought I'd answer your questions, because they
interest me on a philosophical level.

This is one of the ways that, frankly, my life experience simply
hasn't jived with NFB philosophy.  NFB philosophy emphasizes the
importance of fast Braille reading, which I agree with; practice
absolutely must be maintained.  However, they also seem to strongly
insist on Braille textbooks, which I don't get behind so much.  Doing
college-level reading; I have never had to consume material as quickly
as I am right now.  And, at least for me, reading textbooks in Braille
is simply impractical, even if that Braille has shifted to electronic
instead of hardcopy.  I can read loads faster, even with something
like RFBD and the Bookmarks function on my player to find important
material again, than I ever thought about with Braille, particularly
because I can quickly skim over superfluous material like map
descriptions, vocabulary I already remember, or excerpts from outside
documents that are meant to enhance the readings, which are always
located at the end of the page, by simply going to the next one with
the press of a button.  With books read by a screen reader,
particularly if they're from somewhere like Bookshare and have Daisy
navigation, this is even more true.

I think your point is very true, about Braille readers only reading at
the pace of sighted ones.  I went in recently to take a test in
Braille (the one reason I keep my Braille skills sharp; my test
performance plummets when I have to have a reader), and was noted as
one of the fastest Braille readers the proctor had ever seen.
However, someone was taking the same test with a screen reader, and
was finished in half the time I was.  So, learning to take tests with
screen and human readers is something I wish to become proficient at.
After all, I may have Braille accommodation now, but I doubt a
workplace, such as a call center, that has a training process before
proper work begins, is going to allow me to have a Braille display.

Now, this says nothing about leisure activities, in which I vastly
prefer Braille to audio, save in rare cases.  If I'm going to read a
book, I want to actually be reading it.  Also, any proofing task would
be made immensely more difficult without the use of Braille.

I hope this at least provides an interesting perspective on your
questions, as you certainly provided a very interesting article I'm
looking forward to diving in to.
Warmly,
Courtney