[nabs-l] Learning to learn faster

Tue Feb 25 13:16:49 UTC 2014

Screen reader; I have my jaws up to more than sixty usually.  I may slow it
down to 55 or so when I am reading; I hae pretty good comprehention because
I read before class.  Also, I use learning ally; I speed it up as much as I
can.  Reading your emails I have my jaws on 65 or so.  If I am really
searching for something on the internet, I may speed it up to 70 or even 80
for greater speed.

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jamie
Principato
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 8:02 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Learning to learn faster

How many hours a night must you spend reading in order to keep up with and
be successful in your classes? Are you using Braille or a screen reader? I'd
love to hear everyone weigh in on this. If you don't read for class every
night, how many hours a week?

Jamie

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 24, 2014, at 5:34 PM, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com>
wrote:
> 
> 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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>> 
>> 
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