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The Mountbatten Brailler Pilot Research Project

In October of '98 PRCVI and SET BC initiated a pilot research project to evaluate the Mountbatten.

The Mountbatten is an electronic braille notetaker and embosser featuring an ergonomic keyboard, memory, speech feedback and forward and backward braille/print translation.

In addition, a qwerty keyboard can be connected to the Mountbatten to produce contracted or uncontracted braille.
In order to be eligible for the project a student must be a beginning braille reader and writer who has completed, or is very close to completing braille readiness skills, and does not already have a computer system or braille notetaker. In addition, vision teacher support must be available regularly, if not daily. In October teachers across the province were invited to submit the names of students who met criteria.

The high level of interest in the project was demonstrated with twelve applications. This made the selection of five students very difficult. The 5 participants selected include a grade one student, 3 grade two students and 1 student in grade four. Their vision teachers are Roxanne DeMeyer, New Westminister S.D.; Harvinder Nahal, Richmond S.D.; Christine Purcell, Surrey S.D., Carol Yakura, Sunshine Coast S.D.; and Joan Inkster-Smith, Kamloops S.D. John Drescher is the SET BC contact person, Steve Barclay (AROGA Technologies) is providing inservice and technical support, Dr. Cay Holbrook is assisting with the research components, and Anne Wadsworth is coordinating the project.

In late November, teachers and teaching assistants supporting the selected students, attended a one day workshop at SET BC. The workshop focused on the operational features of the Mountbatten and project implementation ideas. Feedback from the workshop indicated that even though participants were overload with information, they were really excited about "the possibilities" the Mountbatten provides for their students.

Over the next five months, the research component of the project will examine the following questions.

  • What is the impact of the Mountbatten on the student's acquisition of Braille reading and writing skills?
  • How does the Mountbatten compare to other braille reading and writing devices, namely, the Perkins Brailler, the Braille 'n Speak and the Braille Lite?
  • What impact, if any, did the Mountbatten have on the student's access to braille materials?
  • What impact, if any, did the Mountbatten have on inclusion and classroom interactions.
  • How easy/difficult was it for the student to learn basic Mountbatten operations?
  • How easy/difficult was it for classroom staff and peers to use the Mountbatten?

    • The feedback we receive on these and other questions in the form of reports, examples of student work, and video tape will allow the project to draw conclusions on the advantages and disadvantages of this technology. We hope that at the end of the study period we will have a clearer understanding of which students might be best served by the use of a Mountbatten Brailler.