[blindkid] Question: Braille Displays or Paper Braille for Increased Reading Speed?

Wed Jul 17 01:11:13 UTC 2013

I maintain that Kendra is faster at reading books on her braillenote than paper (though I would like to time this soon if she will cooperate just to confirm this with actual data), but it should be said that the Braillenote has proven somewhat disastrous with certain textbooks which have been supplied electronically and without page numbers of any kind. 

When an assignment comes home that says to "read pages 87-93" and there are no page numbers chapter references, or content hints, the "find command" is entirely useless. 

Then there are the issues about having no tactile diagrams or illustrations on a note taker. Maybe with a full page Braille display one day that won't be an issue, but a simple text dump of a print textbook is insufficient to produce Braille diagrams, so much of the problem is probably as much related to the porting process from print to Braille as it is to any display limitations. 

We could probably quickly produce another lengthy thread about Braille text books. In our experience, certainly paper Braille texts work best, though ideally we would have paper Braille and electronic. 

Our biggest Braille text issues last year were probably the no-page-number issue for e-Braille-only books, and comments in paper Braille texts like "diagram omitted". Diagram of what? (And why could such diagrams not be produced as tactile pieces, if not well described in Braille?)

The problem of open-book quizzes was also a frustrating one for us. It seems to us that reading a lengthy Braille passage (perhaps a whole chapter) for answers is somewhat different than glancing visually for a headline to zero in on the right section of a textbook so you can read just the right paragraphs. It is doable, but surely a different (and slower) testing process. 

Then there is the web-based text solution that has become a new trend here-- the county supplies some texts on-line only and the site is entirely inaccessible without some sighted assistance. JAWS cannot navigate these books, and the text, though self-reading (it reads aloud) can't be started reasonably by a blind user, and stops at random locations (and needs another mouse click to restart, generally mid-paragraph, in a location that, so far, is generally impossible to find with a screen reader).  

I'm not clear why the county would license tens of thousands of electronic copies of various textbooks from a vendor supplying inaccessible products. I doubt the texts are even legal to sell in the configuration supplied. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 16, 2013, at 8:34 PM, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Sally,
> 
> It surprises me that your son couldn't efficiently navigate back to
> specific parts of the text on the BrailleNote. Although there is the
> disadvantage of not being able to locate section headings, the
> BrailleNote does have the find command, which allows one to search for
> a specific word or phrase anywhere in the text. Did he try using the
> Find command (space + F)? It may also be possible to replace section
> headings with double paragraph breaks.
> I agree with you, though, that hard-copy Braille allows us to see how
> documents are formatted.
> 
> Arielle
> 
> On 7/16/13, Sarah Thomas <seacknit at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Although I think a braille display could be a faster way to absorb braille
>> if one is an efficient user, I worry about the thought that the display
>> could be thought of as a replacement for paper braille.  One important
>> difference in my mind, is learning how a page is formatted.  Also,
>> formatting is a means of conveying information.
>> 
>> When the school district my son attended learned that print could be
>> converted to braille with a .doc file on the braillenote, they tried to give
>> him 40 (print) page reading assignments with questions at the end that
>> referred to specific paragraphs in the text.  It was not possible for him to
>> navigate the assignment on the braillenote with efficiency.  As unfortunate
>> as it is, there is not one solution to the braille reading issue.
>> 
>> Sally Thomas
>> 
>> 
>> On Jul 17, 2013, at 3:29 AM, Allison Hilliker <AllisonH at benetech.org>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Hi All,
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I had a question that came to my mind due in part to the fascinating
>>> Braille discussion we've had on this list lately. Do you know if Braille
>>> format has any impact on Braille reading speeds and fluency? In other
>>> words, is one more likely to increase their reading speed by using
>>> hardcopy Braille as opposed to a Braille display? Or does Braille reading
>>> speed simply increase with practice regardless of how one gets their
>>> Braille? Are your kids/students increasing reading speeds through their
>>> displays or do they still use hardcopy a lot when learning?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I ask because an NFB member who is also a Braille instructor once told me
>>> that It is harder to increase reading speed using a Braille display than
>>> it is using paper Braille. Does anyone know if this is true?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> 
>>> Allison
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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