This article describes the Early Braille Readers Project, which provided a Mountbatten Pro Brailler and peripheral equipment to 20 kindergarteners, first-, and second graders in Texas. The project included training and support in the form of site visits and teacher training for both teachers of students with visual impairments and classroom…

The National Center for Accessible Media has developed a technology and protocol for inserting extended, enhanced descriptions of visually based concepts into artificially paused digital video. These "eDescriptions" describe material not fully explained by a narrator and provide analogies and explanation specifically designed for…

This is a descriptive listing of periodicals available in special media to blind and physically handicapped persons throughout the country. Part 1 lists all magazines produced by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) for its free reading program. Magazines listed in Part 1 are available at no charge through…

Three short articles about foreign language braille are presented for braille transcribers and teachers of the visually handicapped. Because dictionaries of languages other than English rarely show syllable division, the articles provide guidelines to the syllabication of Spanish, French, and German. The guidelines give specific rules concerning…

The guide provides information about the availability of approximately 275 magazines in media suitable for use by persons unable to read or handle conventional print materials. The alphabetical listing (by title) includes information on magazine title, frequency on issue, special medium or media in which it is available, source or sources from…

The study examined modality effects in the learning of Braille through providing a variety of either study or test trials in either the visual or haptic modalities. Subjects were 144 right handed college students. Results supported previous experiments demonstrating the visual modality superior to the combined visual-haptic or the haptic modality…

Two experiments, each involving 96 sighted undergraduates, investigated the effects on braille learning of presenting information about the number of dots a symbol contains at the beginning of the study interval (prompting condition). In study 1, prompting was compared with presenting no information during the study interval. In experiment 2,…

DISCUSSED IS THE DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF BRAILLE-TYPE SCIENCE SYMBOLS FOR BLIND SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCE STUDENTS. A REVIEW OF SECONDARY SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS, STATE SCIENCE SYLLABUSES, COURSES OF STUDY, AND VOCABULARY LISTS WAS USED TO IDENTIFY 50 IMPORTANT RECURRING SCIENCE TERMS. THE TERMS WERE SUBMITTED FOR EVALUATION TO UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS,…

THIS THREE-PART REPORT DESCRIBES THE STATUS OF BRAILLE READING INSTRUCTION IN LOCAL AND RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1965, PRESENTS STATISTICS DESCRIBING PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF 200 STUDENTS TESTED AS PART OF THIS STUDY, AND PRESENTS ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE DATA GATHERED FROM THE TESTS. THE STATUS OF BRAILLE READING…

A BATTERY OF TESTS WAS DEVELOPED AND STANDARDIZED TO MEASURE MASTERY OF TWO BRAILLE CODES--THE GRADE 2 LITERARY CODE AND THE NEMETH CODE FOR MATHEMATICAL NOTATION. DESIGNATED AS THE "COLORADO BRAILLE BATTERY," THESE TESTS PROVIDED OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENT DATA REGARDING A STUDENT'S OVERALL DEVELOPMENT IN BRAILLE, AS WELL AS A MEANS OF…

Analysis of late-blind Norwegian adults' (N=35) reading rates (texts and single words) in contracted and uncontracted Braille revealed that: rates were higher for reading contracted versions of text and single words, and highest for contracted single words. "Slow" readers saved more time when reading texts which frequently used…

The article outlines advantages and limitations of five types of access to microcomputer technology for visually impaired students: electronic braille, paper braille, Optacon, synthetic speech, and enlarged print. Additional considerations in access decisions are noted. (CL)

In one of several 2-week workshops, 35 blind and visually handicapped persons increased their braille reading speed from an average of 138 words per minute (wpm) to 710 wpm. (Author)