Emerging Braille Literacy Project 2001 - 2002

SET-BC is pleased to announce the Emerging Braille Literacy Project for 2001 - 2002. This project will provide timely educational and technological support for Braille-using students who need to develop reading and writing skills in the primary grades. BC vision teachers will be able to request the long-term loan of Mountbatten Braillers from SET-BC for these students, starting in the fall of 2001.

The Mountbatten Brailler is an electronic Braille notetaker and embosser with features that include an ergonomic keyboard, memory, speech feedback and forward and backward print/print translation. A qwerty keyboard can be connected to the Mountbatten to produce contracted or uncontracted Braille and a printer can be connected to produce a print translation of Braille output.

The current version, the MB Pro, now has both digitized and synthetic speech providing a multi-sensory approach to learning Braille. You can combine typing and touching Braille with the audio reinforcement of real speech confirming the letters or dot combinations you have Brailled. The synthetic speech features enable a student to create an assignment, edit text, modify, delete, block text and then produce a copy of the assignment in Braille.

Which students might benefit from using the Mountbatten Brailler?

How do students participate in the Emerging Braille Literacy Project?

BC school districts may put forward students for this project as part of SET-BC's Cycle 1 in the fall of 2001. The process of requesting an MB Pro for a student will follow the normal SET-BC process, with the addition of a CAP supplement form designed for the project.

Emerging Braille Literacy Research Project 1998 - 2000 Summary of Results

Over the past two years Special Education Technology-British Columbia (SET-BC), the Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired (PRCVI) and the University of British Columbia's Program for Visual Impairment have collaborated on a research project to investigate and evaluate the impact of the Mountbatten Brailler on literacy development and inclusion.

Sixteen primary age students, who are learning to use Braille as their primary or secondary literacy medium, and their teachers participated in the project. Results demonstrate that the Mountbatten Brailler positively affects the development of reading and writing skills in Braille. Based on these findings it is proposed that the Mountbatten Brailler be made available on a broader basis to all students in British Columbia who can benefit from this technology.

The Mountbatten Brailler

The Mountbatten Brailler is an electronic Braille notetaker and embosser with features that include an ergonomic keyboard, memory, speech feedback and forward and backward print/print translation. A qwerty keyboard can be connected to the Mountbatten to produce contracted or uncontracted Braille and a printer can be connected to produce a print translation of Braille output.

Project Description

Five beginning Braille readers and their vision teachers from across British Columbia were selected to participate in the research project in the fall of 1998. Positive preliminary findings and a demand to expand the project resulted in SET-BC accessing additional funding to add a further 11 primary-age students to the project in the fall of 1999.

All the students attend their neighbourhood school and have regular support from a teacher of students with visual impairments. Eleven of the students have little or no useful vision and use Braille as their primary literacy medium. Five of the students have varying degrees of useful vision and are learning to read and write in both Braille and print. Three of these students have additional physical and/or learning disabilities.

Vision teachers and other support personnel were trained in the operation of the Mountbatten Brailler. They also learned implementation strategies to enhance the development of Braille literacy and arithmetic skills. Students in the project were brought together several times to share their experiences, demonstrate their expertise, learn some new skills, and provide feedback.

Results of the Emerging Braille Literacy Investigation 1998 - 2000 Vision teachers and students provided feedback via surveys, questionnaires and focused discussion groups. Findings are summarized as follows:

1. Impact on Literacy Development - Writing

Teachers reported that their students made better progress in the acquisition of Braille writing skills because of the Mountbatten Brailler. They noted that beginning Braille readers often do not have adequate finger strength to produce readable dots on a manual Braille writer. When using the Mountbatten Brailler, these children can produce well-defined, raised, Braille dots that they can tactually discriminate and read. Students were more motivated to write for longer periods of time when using the Mountbatten Brailler, compared to a manual Braille writer. The speech feedback feature is not only very helpful for students who require multi-sensory feedback, but also reinforces learning new Braille contractions. It made writing more "fun" for most students.

2. Impact on Literacy Development - Reading

The Mountbatten Brailler contributed to improved progress in the development of Braille reading skills in 15 of the 16 students involved in the project. Students were better able to tactually discriminate and read the well-defined, consistent, raised dot output of the Mountbatten. The "hard copy" Braille output provides immediate tactile feedback and facilitates editing on the spot. The print-to-Braille translator provides students with increased access to "on the fly"; classroom teacher developed reading materials in Braille.

3. Impact on Inclusion

Most of the vision teachers and students reported that the Mountbatten Brailler provided more opportunities to be included in a wider range of classroom activities. Sighted primary age classmates are drawn to the "user friendly" appearance of the Mountbatten. Using the qwerty keyboard and the Mountbatten's print-to-Braille and print-to-print translation features, cooperative group writing projects can be composed simultaneously in Braille and print.

In addition, the use of regular paper makes Braille less "different" and more readily accepted. The print-to-print translation feature and the Braille visual display allow the regular classroom teacher to have instant access to the student"s Brailled work. In some classroom settings, however, the embossing and beeper noise from the Mountbatten was found to be disruptive from time to time.

4. Impact on Development of Basic Technology Skills

In general, teachers report that the technology-related skills their students develop while using a Mountbatten Brailler can serve as a foundation for learning more complex technologies, such as Braille notetakers and computers. These basic skills can be taught to young students who are still at a concrete level of reasoning, as the Mountbatten produces immediate and "real" hard copy Braille.