A program of the Finnish Central Federation of the Visually Handicapped is described. The program's aim is to provide and develop teaching materials and instructional methods to help persons who lost their eyesight as adults to learn braille. Discussed are personal tutoring, correspondence studying, regional courses, and program plans. (Author/JDD)

Reports on a congenitally blind young girl who learned to read Braille. Suggests that phonological awareness can be well developed even without word or letter experience, and the logographic phase of reading can be bypassed in favor of an alphabetic phase. Notes that her level of skill is similar to that of sighted children. (RS)

A study involving 26 Spanish students (ages 14 through 18) and teachers found that, although some Braille reading processes were similar to those of reading printed text, Braille readers did not show any sensitivity to sublexical variables or to most of the variables that were assumed to be related to integration processes. (Author/CR)

Assesses fifteen 7- to 12-year-old blind children using standardized measures of intelligence, spelling and reading. Finds they performed poorer when reading than their chronological age would predict. Compares blind and age-matched children's ability to segment heard words, which are written in Braille with and without contractions. Finds words…

Describes how a braillewriter can be used as a calculation tool for students with visual impairments who are learning mathematics. Provides strategies for teaching students to use the braillewriter in the addition and subtraction of whole numbers and numbers with decimals, multiplication, division, and fractions. (CR)

Describes the Braille Transcription Center Project, a model demonstration project funded by the U.S. Department of Education that produces postsecondary instructional materials in Braille. The project has links throughout a large statewide university system and provides faculty development on reasonable accommodations for students unable to read…

In this systematic review of research, the author analyzes studies of neural cortical activation, brain plasticity, and braille reading. The conclusions regarding the brain's plasticity and ability to reorganize are encouraging for individuals with degenerative eye conditions or late-onset blindness because they indicate that the brain can make…

To determine the attitudes of teachers of students who are visually impaired or blind about the use of contracted or uncontracted Braille for emergent readers, the author posted a questionnaire on three electronic listservs from October through December 2002 and received responses from 40 teachers in India, Canada, the West Indies, and the United…

Six primary school-aged braille students were taught to name 4 to 10 braille letters as phonemes and another 4 to 10 braille letters as graphemes (Study 1). They were then taught to name 10 braille words as onset-rimes and another 10 braille words as whole words (Study 2). Instruction in phonemes and onset rimes resulted in fewer trials and a…

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,…