ICEB General Assemblies and Mid-Terms

Braille Bonus by Cathy Rundle, Accessibility Consultancy and User Experience Team, Royal National Institute of Blind People.

Featuring Worcestershire Porcelain, Lea & Perrins (Worcestershire sauce), Sir Edward Elgar, Worcester Cathedral, the Three Choirs Festival, the River Severn, seaguls, the Worcester County Cricket Ground, flooding, the city walls, the Commandery and New College Worcester.

Includes braille literacy and learning papers, the Second Report of the Nominations Committee and a second Code Maintenance Committee discussion.

https://euromath.eu

For many students, mathematics represents a significant educational challenge. This is exacerbated in the context of blind students who must not only learn the concepts underpinning this discipline, but must also become proficient in the UEB linear representation. In this paper we outline a new tool, based on UEB, which aims to reduce the barriers of communication between the student and their teacher. We describe a web-based editor named Euromath and the newly designed conversion library which enables translation of mathematics presented in MathML into Unified English Braille (UEB).

Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired opened its doors in 1903, and is located in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Clovernook's Braille Printing House has been in operation since 1914, when a printing press was donated to the organization. Braille production has evolved considerably over the years, and today Clovernook is a global producer of braille – over 20 million pages of braille are shipped to libraries and individuals each year. Much of Clovernook's work is on a contractual basis with the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), Library of Congress, which provides accessible materials to their patrons.

Clovernook also produces a number of additional publications, as well as menus, business cards, calendars, and other assorted braille items. A recent addition to Clovernook's services is an Arts & Accessibility Initiative which subsidizes the production of accessible materials for cultural institutions. At Clovernook, each step of the braille production process is able to be performed in-house – this includes scanning, transcription, proofreading, embossing, binding, and shipping. Clovernook is also a founding member of the Braille Authority of North America (BANA).

NLS has offered braille transcription courses and professional certifications since the 1960s. These courses are available free of charge to any citizen or resident of the United States, function as an industry requirement for many state and federal braille production contracts, and aim to ensure that braille transcribers and proofreaders are familiar with the established rules and guidelines of braille codes used in the United States.

In November 2012, Unified English Braille (UEB) was adopted by BANA's United States members and implementation began in January 2016. Prior to UEB, English Braille American Edition (EBAE) and Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation (Nemeth) were the braille codes used for producing braille materials in the United States.

As NLS began updating its courses to reflect the new code, it was determined that a new course was needed. The Literary Braille Transcribing course focused on teaching the basics of how to transcribe “literary” materials – it did not address the transcription of mathematics or technical subjects. Moreover, with the adoption of UEB and retention of Nemeth, two viable mathematic codes were now official in the United States – however the Nemeth certification course was the only NLS course that covered mathematics.

In the fall of 2016, under contract with NLS, Clovernook began developing the Technical Braille Transcribing course – an NLS certification course for the transcription of mathematics and technical materials using UEB.

NCW is a secondary school for vision-impaired students. For decades, braille has been a fundamental tool enabling vision-impaired people to read and write. Yet fluency in the reading of braille, plus its ready availability, has been in decline of late. Through personal experience, case studies and conclusions we aim to explore how this is changing in today's world and how technology and braille are dynamically and successfully working together to promote wider reading, writing and much more.

As the prevalence of age-related vision loss continues to increase, rehabilitation specialists encounter a growing number of working-age and older adults who experience reading related difficulties. In the United States alone, the prevalence of age-related vision loss is expected to double by 2050, placing increasing burdens on healthcare and rehabilitation systems. Previous research on braille learning in the past has focused primarily on the needs of blind children who acquire braille as a literacy medium. Far less is known about the unique experience of braille learning in adulthood following acquired vision loss, or about the impact of aging and other factors on this process.

The primary goal of this multiphase research is to add to the limited body of knowledge about braille learning and usage among working-age and older adults. Collectively, these studies explore the influence of age-related physiological and cognitive factors on braille reading performance, as well as the enablers and obstacles encountered by working-age and older adults who pursue braille rehabilitation training. The findings shed much-needed light on the experience of learning and using braille in adulthood and will contribute to the development of evidence-based practices that better meet the unique needs of a rapidly aging population.

Natalina Martiniello MSc CVRT: Wittich Vision Impairment Research Laboratory, École d'optométrie, Université de Montréal, Canada; CRIR/Centre de réadaptation Lethbridge-Layton-Mackay du CIUSSS Centre-Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Canada

Walter Wittich PhD CVLT FAAO: École d'optométrie, Université de Montréal, Canada; CRIR/Centre de réadaptation Lethbridge-Layton-Mackay du CIUSSS Centre-Ouest-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Canada; CRIR/Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille du CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre, Montréal, Canada

A student who uses both print and braille for literacy tasks is referred to as a dual media learner. Some students begin literacy instruction as dual media learners, other students begin as print readers and later learn to read braille, and a few students initially read braille and later learn to read print. There is little understanding of how a student with a visual impairment who transitions from print to braille during his/her late elementary or secondary education utilizes both of these learning media in conjunction with technology to complete literacy tasks. The purpose of this study was to gather information directly from secondary students with visual impairments and their educational team regarding the complexities of completing literacy based tasks at school and home as they learn braille due to a recent loss of ability to see and read print efficiently.

Dr Tina S Herzberg: Professor and Coordinator, Visual Impairment Education Program, University of South Carolina Upstate

Dr Penny Rosenblum: American Foundation for the Blind

https://thesis.medinago.msu.domains/

This project was designed to improve the inclusive nature of courses on language learning and teaching through the creation of Adaptive English Phonetic tools (ADEPT) to provide better access to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols and the sounds they represent for blind and low vision learners and teachers of American English as a second or foreign language. This approach involved the integration of auditory and tactual information to facilitate the development of phonological literacy based on the effectiveness of multisensory training protocols.

ADEPT consists of sets of tactile IPA symbol cards, and a companion website based on the Universal Design for Learning framework. Each IPA symbol card includes the symbol, its typographical description, and a reference number associated with the website (all with corresponding Braille notations). The website includes printed and audio-recorded information on the articulation of American English consonants and vowels with recordings of each sound in isolation and in sample words.

The pedagogical efficacy of these tools was tested with 21 adult learners of English in Colombia with a focus on vowel production. A pretest-posttest design involving the delayed repetition technique was used. Learners' productions of short sentences with multiple exemplars of American English vowels were audio-recorded. Native-speaker ratings revealed a significant improvement in learners' pronunciation after 10 weeks of instruction. Qualitative data included pre- and post-study interviews and the researcher's instructional notes. Learners described the auditory-tactual approach as “invaluable”. Field testing of the symbol cards indicated that they should be 3D printed for sustainability. In sum, ADEPT can facilitate a collaborative learning environment for sighted and non-sighted individuals.

In social gatherings it is not unusual to hear someone say “I love to read,” and a discussion inevitably ensues that includes shared reading experiences and requests for book recommendations. These discussions often involve people from very diverse backgrounds with no limitations related to how the reader accesses the books (print, braille, hard copy book, electronic version). The declaration “I love to read” in these discussions reflects a love for story, curiosity about different life experiences, exploration of far-off lands, and playfulness within written language.

Somewhat related, but quite different, is a sentiment that is heard frequently from people who know braille, and that sentiment is often expressed as “I love braille,” which refers to a love for the usefulness, elegance, logic, and history of the six-dot cell. Love of braille is a reflection of respect for the way that braille represents English (and other languages). Love of braille also results in discussions among like-minded people about rules and characteristics of braille (favorite contractions could be discussed) and how braille was learned.

The difference between “I love to read” and “I love braille” is subtle but important when considering literacy instruction for young braille readers. Parents and teachers want children to develop foundational skills that support the acts of reading and writing braille and are also concerned with inspiring a love of reading.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of an approach to teaching braille reading and writing that provides a balance across complex instructional goals resulting in highly skilled readers and writers and also individuals who love, enjoy, and participate in literacy activities. While reading and writing skills provide a critical foundation for literacy, the way that these skills are fashioned into an individual love of reading and writing builds richness and power into the role literacy plays in the social, emotional, and employment aspects of students with visual impairments as they become adults. This paper will address the instructional needs and some strategies for developing reading and writing skills and a love of literacy. In order to be as specific as possible, an existing literacy program, Building on Patterns, will provide an example of a resource that assists educational teams address the instructional needs of young children to help them grow into mature readers and writers.