Refreshable braille displays and reading fluency: A pilot study in individuals with blindness
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Refreshable braille displays and reading fluency: A pilot study in individuals with blindness Vassilios Argyropoulos 1 & Georgios Sideridis 2 & Magda Nikolaraizi 3 & Aineas Martos 4 & Suzana Padeliadu 5 & Konstantinos Gkyrtis 6 & Sofia-Marina Koutsogiorgou 7 Received: 11 August 2019 / Accepted: 30 January 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The purpose of the present report was to evaluate the time individuals spent in reading using the 6-dot braille code versus the 8-dot braille code. Twenty individuals with blindness participated in a series of experiments using refreshable braille displays. Each participant was invited to read structured texts by touch and then to answer to reading comprehension question. Each text had different font style (such as bold, italic, underline) and was rendered differently by the 6-dot and 8-dot braille code. Data were evaluated on a quantitative context in conjunction with qualitative elements in a withinsubject design. Results indicated that the participants dedicated less time in reading texts through the 6-dot braille code rather than reading equivalent texts via the 8-dot braille code. On the contrary, participants needed significantly more time to answer reading comprehension questions when they read the texts via the 6-dot compared to the 8-dot braille system. Results are discussed into the context of assistive technology, reading comprehension, and literacy skills. Keywords Individuals with blindness . Six and eight-dot braille codes . Reading .
Refreshable braille display . Repeated measures
1 Introduction Reading and writing braille compose two cornerstones of braille literacy which are not separated and cannot be taught in isolation (Swenson 1999). Braille literacy is strongly linked not only to schooling but also to employment and is significant for a person’s self-sufficiency and self-esteem (Koenig and Holbrook 2000; Wormsley 1997). Braille is considered to be the primary means by which people with blindness can become literate (Napier 1988; Schroeder 1989; Stephens 1989) and therefore achieve higher * Vassilios Argyropoulos [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Education and Information Technologies
levels of education and employment (Ryles 1996). Within this stream of evolution in braille education, assistive technology (AT) has made a “dynamic entry”, introducing advances and expansions in conveying more information to people with visual impairment and blindness (VIB); having said that, this new and dynamic input has created some kind of imbalance in braille instruction which has to be investigated before any systematic intervention takes place in educational settings. More specifically, the domain of AT, over the last 30 years, has presented a great number of educational-technological implementations which have been applied towards the education of students with visual impairment and blindness (VIB). Technology has influenced tremendously traditional schemes of inst
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