Some students with visual impairments have not learned to read print or braille due to a variety of factors. The inability to read proficiently affects all areas of a person's life. Thus, it is essential that teachers of students with visual impairments (hereafter called "teachers") are systematic and use research-based practices in…

Purpose: The main objective of the present study was to examine the effect of word length, word frequency and number of syllables on graphemic errors during a text-reading task via the braille code. Method: Thirty students with severe visual impairments participated in the present study. They were invited individually to read aloud a number of…

Students who are visually impaired may face unique literacy challenges as they learn to read and write braille. One such challenge relates to slower reading speeds for students who read braille as compared to those who read print. In addition to learning letters, sounds, grammar, and spelling, braille readers must learn contractions and…

Louis Braille developed a six-dot braille code in the early 1800s, thus creating an effective way for persons who are visually impaired to communicate through reading and writing (Holbrook, D'Andrea, & Sanford, 2011). Students with visual impairments require braille instruction from teachers of students with visual impairments, who are responsible…

Teachers at Perkins School for the Blind have been teaching braille to students of all ages for many years. As part of this experience, the teachers at Perkins have seen many capable students of different ages struggle to learn to read and write braille. In particular, they observed students who were unable to sound out or decode words because of…

Introduction: The present study assesses the performance of students who are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) in braille reading accuracy and examines potential correlations among the error categories on the basis of gender, age at loss of vision, and level of education. Methods: Twenty-one visually impaired…

Similar to many sighted children who struggle with learning to read, a proportion of blind children have specific difficulties related to reading braille which cannot be easily explained. A lot of research has been conducted to investigate the perceptual and cognitive processes behind (impairments in) print reading. Very few studies, however, have…

Reading development is said to progress in a series of developmental skills and stages that need to be acquired by emerging young readers. The literature on Greek braille reading and its development found that print readers opt for the same text decoding strategy even at the initial stages of development. This article explores the development of…

The miscues of 22 blind braille readers ages 6-21 were analyzed using Goodman's Reading Miscue Inventory, and compared to those reported for sighted readers. Results revealed greater similarities than differences. For example, print and braille readers had approximately the same proportion of miscues in substitutions, omissions, and insertions.…

Guidelines for working with remedial braille readers in the areas of attitude/motivation, mechanical skills, decoding skills, and comprehension are provided. Lists of suggestions are presented in each of the areas. (PHR)

Twenty-six expert adult readers, 13 of whom were blind, were compared for how they perceived and retrieved written information. The study found that braille readers were not limited to the isolated identification of individual braille characters as previously thought, but could integrate greater quantities of written information. Implications for…