[nabs-l] Learning to learn faster

Tue Feb 25 00:34:00 UTC 2014

I find it easier to skim in Braille than in audio or E-text. You can
skim in Braille by looking for indented text, sliding your fingers
down the leftmost edge of the page looking for spaces where the text
is indented or centered to indicate a new paragraph or section
heading, or of course, flip to the next physical page.
Also, I'm not sure speed is  the end goal, at least not all the time.
I think a better goal is to achieve a good speed-to-accuracy ratio.
That is, you want to understand as much  as possible in as little time
as possible. Anyone can put their screen reader on 500 words a minute
and just breeze through, but if you comprehended less than half what
was spoken, that's not useful at all. Similarly, carefully reading in
Braille at 100 words per minute but understanding everything you read,
and remembering it later so you don't have to re-read right before the
test, is valuable.
I'm one of those Braille readers who reads very quickly, and I've
often found, especially as an adult reading denser material and having
less practice with Braille, that I have to force myself to slow down
or I start missing stuff.

Arielle

On 2/24/14, Carly Mihalakis <carlymih at comcast.net> wrote:
> Good afternoon, Sophie,
>
>          Growing up,I admit, I took braille very much for granted,
> couldn't fathom those blinks I heard about who, didn't read braille.
> Served the Federation's summer program as the braille instructor, was
> a devotee of this page slate I have. Was beginning to learn Grade 3,
> the whole bit. I forgot, in studying Japanese language, I, with the
> help of a key my Dad found for me On-line, began teaching myself
> nihongo tenji (Japanese braille) Then, at age 19, I was hit by a car
> which caused severe brain damage, a symptom of which has been acute
> tactile appraxia which for me, refers to an inability of hand to
> perceive that which is sent to it via the brain. thus reducing
> braille reading pretty much to a very rich and stimulating  pipe
> dream. And, It isn't about the spacing of the dots, like you see with
> neuropathy people, as if anything was produced in jumbo braille,
> anyway. I just don't perceive what my finger feels!
> But, I say aoll this to make the point of my also not retaining,
> during the time i did use hard copy braille as well as a Braille
> Light 40 purchased by the school district and, having no alternative,
> I have forced myself to learn audotorally on the comput as well as
> talking books.... so, it can be possible in case, got help you, you
> find yourself in this way.
> for today, Car
> 408-209-3239
>
> Courtney, I have to disagree with you on braille textbooks. I
> actually find them more useful than audio textbooks. Granted, I'm in
> high school, so I'm probably not moving at as fast a pace as college
> students, but still. If you read a braille book in an electric format
> with a notetaker (I use a braillenote apex), you can use the Find
> command to search for important keywords if you're trying to look up
> something quickly. You can also move by paragraph and by page if you
> wish to skip irrelevant material. For me at least, I comprehend more
> when I read braille. I do okay with audio, but when I read it with my
> fingers, I tend to absorb more of the information, whereas when I'm
> listening to it, I occasionally zone out and miss something. This is
> more important for some classes than others, but reading braille
> tells us how to spell things. Braille also allows us to see what's
> underlined or italicized, which may be important for some lessons.
> These are just my thoughts. Have a great day!
>
>>Sincerely,
>>Sophie
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: Courtney Stover <liamskitten at gmail.com
>>To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>Date sent: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 14:20:35 -0600
>>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Learning to learn faster
>>
>>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
>>
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