Content area
Full text
Abstract:
Reading rate data was collected from both print and braille readers in the areas of mathematics and literary braille. Literary braille data was collected for contracted and uncontracted braille text with dropped whole-word contractions and part-word contractions as they would appear in the Unified English Braille Code. No significant differences were found between contracted and uncontracted braille reading rates or between print and Nemeth oral reading rates. Reading rates in cells per second for mathematics were slower than for literary material in both print and braille.
This article is the third in a series of three articles that address the concerns of the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) regarding the Unified English Braille Code (UEBC)-also known as Unified English Braille (UEB). The first article (Wetzel & Knowlton, 2006) focused on groups of transcribers, teachers, and users of braille who expressed their professional opinions and concerns about UEBC and proposed areas for future research. The second article (Knowlton & Wetzel, 2006) addressed differences in the length of text between UEBC and the English Braille American Edition (EBAE), the Nemeth code, and the braille computer code as used in the United States. This article addresses reading rates for different types of literary and mathematical text and relates the findings to the proposed UEBC.
With the development of UEBC over the past decade, BANA has been faced with the challenging decision of whether to adopt the new unified code, adopt portions of the new code, or maintain the status quo of EBAE. The research presented here examined the impact of making changes in the current braille code. The results provide insights into, not definitive answers to, questions about braille codes, and provide direction for additional research that is needed to answer significant questions before wholesale changes to the code are adopted.
Earlier research (Knowlton & Wetzel, 1996) demonstrated that braille reading rates are not constant, but vary widely, depending on the purpose of the reading task. Further research (Wetzel & Knowlton, 2000) demonstrated that braille and print reading rates varied in a parallel manner, with the braille rates always slower than the print rates, but affected to a similar degree by the task. Using this information as a starting point, we decided to address...