This study investigates the priority needs of museum service accessibility for visually impaired visitors. For this purpose, conjoint analysis was utilized. Four conjoint attributes of museum services were selected: A--facilities for wayfinding; B--exhibitions and collections including objects for touching, hearing, smelling, etc.; C--information…

English and language arts teachers of braille-reading students in general education classes rated these students' academic engagement and the academic achievement of low- and average-achieving sighted students in the same classrooms. The braille readers were found to be statistically similar to the low-achieving students with regard to effort,…

This literature review outlines the history of the braille code as used in the United States and Canada, illustrating how both the code itself and instructional strategies for teaching it changed over time. The review sets the stage for the research questions of the recently completed Alphabetic Braille and Contracted Braille Study.

European legislation requires new pharmaceutical packaging to include both the name and strength of the drug in braille on boxes and bottles. Much of the braille on medical packaging is currently produced by an embossing process on boxes. The height of the dots that can be achieved through these methods is less than 0.3 mm. The physical dimensions…

This study investigated the effectiveness of training workshops in braille literacy for teachers of students who are visually impaired and have additional disabilities. Participants in the training workshops in the Individualized Meaning-Centered Approach indicated general satisfaction with the training. Most reported using the approach with…

This exploratory study investigated the techniques used by teachers of the visually impaired when administering math questions with graphics to students with blindness or low vision. The researcher observed and videotaped 10 pairs of students with visual impairments and their teachers while the students were taking a test that consisted of 12…

This article presents a review of research on the development of phonological awareness by braille readers. The review determined that the relationship between phonological awareness and braille is uncertain because of the lack of commonality among the studies, the extent of contradictory findings, and the small number of studies involving…

This study investigated the intelligibility and comprehensibility of natural speech in comparison to synthetic speech. The results demonstrate the type of errors; the relationship between intelligibility and comprehensibility; and the correlation between intelligibility and comprehensibility and key factors, such as the frequency of use of…

Deafblind readers are heterogeneous in reading skill acquisition. This qualitative study uses in-depth interviews and protocol analyses and queries the three deafblind adult participants in describing their metacomprehension, metacognitive and metalinguistic strategies used when reading different types of text. Using retrospective analysis, the…

This study compared the spelling skills of students who are braille readers to a normative sample. The Test of Written Spelling was administered to 23 students who are blind at various grade levels to ascertain their spelling ability. A one-sample t-test indicated no significant difference in spelling ability. Implications are discussed. (Contains…

Introduction: Parents who were the primary caretakers of children in the Alphabetic and Contracted Braille Study (ABC Braille Study) revealed their perspectives about braille literacy. Methods: A 30-item questionnaire was constructed by the ABC Braille research team, and researchers conducted telephone interviews with 31 parents who were the…

The general purpose of the present study was to test the effectiveness of various psycho-acoustic manipulations for the understanding of specific information (typographic attributes such as bold and italic) which was included in texts by individuals with and without blindness. Thirty blind and thirty sighted students participated and were asked to…

This study analyzed the quality of brailled instructional materials transcribed by 40 public school personnel. The authors calculated the correlation of the certification status of the personnel and the average amount of time spent transcribing per week with the total number of transcription errors. The findings suggest that students who read…

This research contributes to efforts in assessment studies related to science and technology interventions. The work presented in this thesis focuses on understanding the effects of policies that influence science and technology interventions, and determining the impact of science and technology interventions themselves. Chapter 1 explores how…

An increased emphasis on the use of technology and the focus on "multiliteracies" in the classroom has great implications for both teachers and students regarding the expectation that all students will become skilled and critical users of computers and other technology for literacy-related tasks. Students who are braille readers use…