Assessing the impact of auditory media on Braille reading and writing skills: The case of elementary school students who are blind in Sudan

Abstract

This study explores the impact of using auditory media in school curricula on the braille-related skills of students who are blind at a Sudanese school. Three sets of braille-related skills (6-dot braille writing, Arabic alphabet writing, and Arabic text reading) were used to evaluate and compare the students’ ability to read braille versus listening to text via audio media. The purpose of testing full cells of braille writing was to determine writing speed while that of testing braille writing of the Arabic alphabet was to examine students’ accuracy and proficiency in writing. Arabic text reading was tested to determine braille-reading speed. The three braille-related skills were evaluated for a total of 34 students in two groups (Group 1: grades 3 and 4; Group 2: grades 5–8), but the listening speed test was only administered to the second group. T-tests were used to compare the results for the braille-related tests with those for the listening speed test to determine whether braille-related skills were affected by the use of auditory media when accessing school curricula in the early grades of elementary school. The statistical results indicated there were significant differences between the two groups in 6-dot writing and Arabic text reading, whereas there was no significant difference in Arabic alphabet writing. As mastery of braille is an integrated process that requires instruction towards the parallel development of all braille-related skills, the ratio of instructional time devoted to listening compared to that devoted to braille may require adjustment.

Keywords

Auditory mediums blind schools Braille evaluation study visually impaired

Information access by individuals who are visually impaired occurs via various sensory modalities, such as haptic (e.g., braille) and audio channels (e.g., oral reading by another person, recorded audio, and screen readers) (Garcia, 2004). Within the last two decades, the increased availability and use of handheld electronic devices have made audio material more accessible. The variety of available media devices raises the question of how they impact users, a subject that has recently become the focus of numerous studies (Allman, 1998; Jennings, 1999; Koenig & Holbrook, 1989; Lamb, 1996; Mangold & Mangold, 1989; Rogers, 2007). Researchers have expressed concerns regarding the effect of using only one type of media to assess the development of skills due to the other media types. In addition, efforts to identify the relationships between these media and their combined impact on users have illuminated many related issues, including the advantages and disadvantages of using braille, audiobooks, and screen readers. For example, the characteristics of braille (whether on paper or a braille display) provide advantages for accessing information that impact learning to spell; active reading; note-taking; book imagination; and the ability to find pages, paragraphs, and punctuation (Goudiras et al., 2009). However, the use of braille on paper is limited by the bulk of braille volumes and the relative scarcity of braille books compared to non-braille books. In addition to its high cost, the other challenges of braille use include the amount of effort necessary to acquire reading fluency.

Before the introduction of DAISY book technology, users who depended on audio channels to access information were confronted with several challenges. Although most of the disadvantages described by Goudiras et al. (2009) have been eliminated by DAISY, some disadvantages, such as the unavailability of efficient search options in recorded materials, make it difficult to find a specific passage or acquire help with spelling. Studies have been conducted with those who are visually impaired on the use of devices with speech synthesis to access information. The results indicate that a screen reader is required, particularly for learners who are at advanced levels of education and need to complete massive amounts of coursework or work with expository text.

Jackson and Presley (2012) proposed that students are more successful if they can select their favourite reading method. Thus, students should have the option to access text via braille reading or by listening to it read aloud; some may efficiently access information via haptic reading with braille hard copies or a braille display, while others may prefer using an auditory medium via DAISY or a screen reader. Jackson and Presley (2012) also emphasised the ability of users to interact with media when accessing informational or expository materials. The screen readers on a computer, for instance, offer the two options of controlling the reading rate and scanning backwards or forwards to explore the entire text. In addition, the readers allow users to simultaneously access listening, visual, and haptic reading if used with a braille display.

Mousty and Bertelson (1985) suggested that in long reading tasks, the possibility of the most appropriate information access will decrease if access declines. Thus, an increase in reading speed for braille, audiobooks, and screen readers is vital for more efficient reading. Previous studies emphasised the importance of reading speed for users with visual impairments when using different types of media to access information. Several studies have reported braille oral reading rates of 52–84 words per minute (WPM) for elementary students (Foulke et al., 1962; Lowenfeld, 1968; Mangold & Mangold, 1989). A detailed review of earlier studies can be found in Harley et al. (1997) who reported that the average reading rate of high school seniors who were blind was approximately 86 WPM using braille, but could reach approximately 175 WPM using audiobooks and other recorded materials. The researchers also reported that braille-reading students from Grades 6–10 can gain information by listening within one-third of the time required to acquire information via braille reading without a loss of comprehension.

Recent studies have examined whether reading rates have changed due to technological advances, instructional changes, or other factors. For example, Garcia (2004) and Junor and Junor (1994) reported mean reading speeds of 100–120 WPM for oral braille readers and 280–300 WPM for sighted individuals reading regular print. In comparison, Wang et al. (2017) reported reading rates of 100 WPM for oral braille readers. The reading rate recently reported for braille readers is similar to those reported by studies conducted in the early 20^th century, which indicated that listening is more time-efficient than braille and large print reading. However, Nolan (1963) examined the relationships between braille reading, comprehension, and listening and found that listening comprehension may be superior to reading comprehension if reading rates are slower than listening rates, but the reverse may hold if listening rates are slower than reading rates. He also noted that reading rates rarely exceed listening rates for braille readers. Research has also found that comprehension is reduced when listening to expository materials using audiobooks or a computer with a screen reader compared to reading via hard braille, copy braille, or digital braille display (Stepien-Bernabe et al., 2019).

The above-mentioned studies suggest that slow braille readers may find reading text cumbersome and tedious for long tasks. A more affordable option may be to shift to reliable and efficient media such as audiobooks and screen readers. Most previous studies have compared oral braille reading to accessing text via listening and have focussed on the issue of comprehension, especially for expository or informational content. Therefore, the current study will contribute to the literature by examining the relationship between braille reading and writing, and accessing text via listening, as well as the issues highlighted by previous studies.

This study was conducted in an academic setting at Elnour Institute for Those Who Are Blind (EITWAB), in Khartoum, the capital city of the Republic of Sudan. Within the academic environment for students with visual impairments in Sudan, students are urged to use more than one medium to access the school curriculum. They often cannot utilise their preferred medium, which makes access to the school curriculum even more difficult for them. For instance, although the students learned braille at EITWAB at lower grades, a lack of braille books forced them to shift to another medium in their later elementary education. One such medium is DAISY technology, which is an internationally recognised tool used by the visually impaired to read recorded books (Kerscher, 2001; Kimbrough, 2001; Leas et al., 2008). Unfortunately, this technology is not widely accessible in Sudan. Due to a shortage in standard services for recorded books at the educational institutions in Sudan, students have created their own recorded books through the help of peers who record the textbooks for them or by recording notes or class summaries (Salih & Kakizawa, 2016). Thus, this study investigates how the use of only auditory media to access school curricula affects the development of braille-related skills such as reading and writing.

Research hypothesis

This study hypothesises that for students who have shifted from the use of braille to the use of auditory media to access school curriculum during the lower elementary grades, improvement in the ability to understand texts via listening negatively affects their ability to write full braille cells and the Arabic alphabet and read Arabic text.

Method

Students from the EITWAB were selected for this study. The study design allowed for a comparison of participants who used braille alone to those who used both braille and audio methods to access their school curriculum. The experimental procedures of this study were approved by the ethics review board of the Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan, and all participants provided written informed consent before participation.

Participants

The study sample comprised 34 students at the elementary level. The number of male and female students was 19 and 15, respectively. Due to a lack of schools for students with visual impairments in Sudan, only students who are completely blind are usually accepted. Thus, all 34 participants were unable to read regular print. The students were selected because they were using braille as their main method to access the school curriculum in lower elementary grades. They began using audio materials in the upper elementary grades to access the school curriculum because of a shortage of braille printed materials. Therefore, the participants in this study can be regarded as an ideal sample in examining the impact of the use of auditory methods in early education classes to access school curriculum on Arabic braille writing and reading. In addition, the participants were available for follow-up meetings or further investigations.

The first group, Group 1, included the 34 students in Grades 3 and 4 when they used braille alone to access their school curriculum. The second group, Group 2, included the same 34 students when they were in Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 and used both braille and audio methods to access their school curriculum.

Materials

The following tests were conducted to assess braille 6-dot writing, Arabic alphabet writing, Arabic text reading, and the ability to listen to audio recorded material.

Test 1: Braille 6-dot writing

Participants were given 2 min to write the six dots of a braille cell using a regular braille paper slate and stylus. This test was intended to measure the participants’ braille writing ability and speed.

Test 2: Braille writing of the Arabic alphabet

There are 28 letters in the Arabic language, which have a specific order and are known collectively as the Arabic alphabet (Figure 1). Participants were given 2 min to write the Arabic alphabet in order. This test was intended to check the participants’ accuracy of braille writing.

Figure 1.

Order of Arabic alphabet in 8-dots Braille coding.

Test 3: Braille reading of Arabic text

All materials were typed in Grade 1, uncontracted braille, with up to 40 characters and intervals in each of the 28 lines on each page. Each participant was allowed 3 min to read part of the grade 1 braille text in Arabic. This test was recorded for analysis, and the reading speed for the first minute was documented.

Test 4: Assessment of listening speed

The goal of this test was to evaluate the listening speed within Group 2 to understand the growth in students’ listening speed as their grade level increased. The participants were asked to listen to a 1-min fragment of an audio recording at different speeds (80, 100, 120, and 140 WPM) using a multispeed audio player. The same auditory text at each speed was presented only once in a counterbalanced order from the fastest to successively slower versions. Then, the participants were asked to report the most suitable rate for which they could easily recognise all of the text without exertion while listening to it.

Reading passage

A moderately long expository text selected by the schoolteacher was used to test the participants’ reading skills. The passage was written at a fourth- to fifth-grade reading level according to the school readability test. Although the reading level of the text is considered advanced for the lower grade students, the contents underwent moderate modifications by the schoolteachers to enable students’ comprehension at all grade levels.

Listening passage

An expository text selected by the schoolteacher at the fifth- to sixth-grade level was recorded at different speeds in MP3 audio format using a free Arabic text to speech engine (TTS) that was familiar to the participants. The text used in the braille test was substituted with different versions of the audio text to assess students’ listening speeds; the purpose of the substitution was to minimise the effect of users’ prior knowledge of the information presented in the text on their listening test performance. However, prior knowledge of the subject proved to be irrelevant because students were not required to analyse the passage or make inferences based on the information presented in the text. The selected passage contained frequently used words, and the use of specialised and technical words was avoided to make the passage easier to understand.

Procedures

The four tests were conducted before the morning classes of the school schedule and were monitored by two schoolteachers in order to conduct the braille-related tests during routine classes without interfering with normal activities. Group 1 took Tests 1–3, the tests on braille 6-dot writing, Arabic alphabet writing, and Arabic reading, but did not take Test 4, the assessment of listening speed, because students in the lower grades (1–4) were not allowed to use auditory means to access the school curriculum. Group 2 took the same three tests in the same order, and then completed the assessment of listening speed.

Scoring

The total score was the number of cells completed by each participant for Test 1, the number of letters written within 2 min for Test 2, and the reading speed for 1 min (WPM) for Test 3.

Statistical analysis

T-tests were used to determine differences in the levels of related skills between the two groups and between braille-related skills and listening skills for Group 2. The strength of the correlation between each pair of measured variables was estimated using an independent sample t test to determine the relationships between listening, writing, and reading using the braille 6-dot alphabet for Group 2.

Results

Test 1: 6-dot Braille writing

Students in Group 1 obtained a lower mean score (M = 36.53, SD = 9.08) than those in Group 2 (M = 55.32, SD = 14.64). A box plot representing these results, along with the median, first quartile, and third quartile, is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Box plot representing the results for Tests 1, 2, and 3.

Test 2: Braille writing of the Arabic alphabet

Students in Group 2 (M = 45.09, SD = 16.96) demonstrated a higher mean score than those in Group 1 (M = 39.38, SD = 14.78), as shown in Figure 2.

Test 3: Braille reading of Arabic text

There was higher variability in the scores for Test 3 (see Figure 2), but students in Group 2 (M = 37.34, SD = 21.95) had a higher mean reading speed of Arabic braille than those in Group 1 (M = 26.44, SD = 8.00). In addition, two exceptionally high values were considered outliers for Group 2.

Test 4: Assessment of the participants’ listening speed

Figure 3 reveals the results for the assessment of the participants’ listening speed. Students in grades 5 and 6 scored the lowest, with mean scores of 85.71 (SD = 9.76) WPM and 96.00 (SD = 12.65) WPM, respectively. The scores were significantly higher for grades 7 and 8, with mean scores of 115.56 (SD = 16.67) WPM and 132.50 (SD = 10.35) WPM, respectively.

Figure 3.

Results of Test 4 for Group 2.

Comparative analysis

In addition, the three tests were compared for each group separately. The comparison of the three tests was based on an understanding of the relationships among braille full cell writing, alphabet writing, and Arabic text reading at each grade level. Table 1 demonstrates a significant difference between the two groups for Tests 1, 2, and 4, with p < .05. However, there was no significant difference between the groups for Test 3 (p > .05). These results can also be easily recognised from the box plots in Figure 2.

Table 1.

T-Test results by Group and Test.

	Test 1		Test 2		Test 3
	Group 1	Group 2	Group 1	Group 2	Group 1	Group 2
M	36.53	55.32	39.38	45.09	26.44	37.24
Variance	82.44	214.47	218.49	287.78	64.07	481.94
t(66)	–6.36		–1.48		–2.69
p	<.001		.145		.013
r	0.33		–0.48		–0.11

Note. N = 34 for Groups 1 and 2.

Discussion

The results of this study emphasised the relationship between the acquisition of information through auditory media and braille, as well as the negative effect of using audio methods to access information during the early school years on braille-reading ability. Therefore, the results support the hypothesis that braille-reading ability is adversely impacted by the use of audio methods to access information. In addition, the lack of a significant difference in the ability to write the Arabic alphabet in Group 2 supports the research hypothesis. However, students in Group 2 had begun to access the school curriculum via listening methods, which deteriorated or had an indirect impact on their braille-related skills. In contrast to the findings revealed here, the students in Group 2 may, in fact, continue to exhibit improvement in their scores for braille writing and reading skills as their grade level increases. If such improvement occurs, the hypothesis should be rejected. Conversely, students in Group 2 may become long-term audio users, which may ultimately minimise their ability to use braille as their primary method for accessing information.

Based on the results of this study, two main factors are worthy of discussion. First, all participants in Group 1 had the opportunity to learn braille early in their education, which is the most important period for mastering braille and attaining the required level of proficiency to fully utilise braille throughout the educational and vocational stages of life (Lamb, 1996, 1998; Rex et al., 1994; Swenson, 1991). However, the deterioration in braille-related skills for the participants in Group 2 after they shifted to the use of auditory media, may eventually lead to a failure to master braille as an original reading medium. This result may render the significant advantage of learning braille at an early stage of their educational lives worthless. As stated by Schroeder (1989), having knowledge of braille as a primary reading medium will favourably enhance the employment qualifications of people with visual impairments, as extensive use and early acquisition of braille-reading skills are the two factors that promote vocational opportunity.

Another factor that is exclusive to the study setting is the lack of braille printed text, which forced the participants of Group 2 to depend on other media to access information related to the school curriculum and other written materials. This lack of braille text has had a tremendous effect on the academic environment of the students by limiting their selection of study media to access the school curriculum. Shifting to the use of audiobooks as a study medium has undoubtedly affected the other braille-related skills for students in Group 2 as demonstrated in this study. Although this study found that braille writing and reading skills exhibited a progressive decline for participants in Group 2, there was a noticeable increase in listening skills.

One possible explanation for this finding is that reading materials in the early schooling years, including academic and storybooks, are limited and reading tasks are relatively short in duration. As students gradually progress through school, the size and number of pages of the textbooks increase (Koenig & Holbrook, 1989). Logically, these differences will significantly increase the duration of reading tasks, making it impossible for slow braille readers to keep pace with their classes and cause them to replace braille with alternative methods for accessing school curriculum (Hamilton & Pascual-Leone, 1998).

There are many other important factors regarding braille instruction that should be considered when assessing academic performance for students who are blind, including the duration of teaching time, sufficient funding, and the availability of quality braille tools and reading materials (Allman, 1998; Rogers, 2007; Trent & Truan, 1997). These factors have a profound influence on the entire pedagogical process and the development of braille skills in particular. Offering instruction on the use of appropriate technology and having instructors who are competent in teaching both braille and the use of other media for accessing information, including audiobooks and computers with screen readers, are equally vital (Allman, 1998; Hall & Newman, 1987; Lamb, 1996; Stephens, 1989). It is also important to test the flexibility of the school curriculum and ensure that teachers have sufficient time to offer additional instruction regarding necessary braille skills and the daily life activities of students who are blind.

Conclusion

The results of this study indicate that the decline in braille skills is associated with two main factors. First, the students’ complete reliance on auditory media to access the school curriculum has a tangible effect on braille-related skills in the upper grades. Further attention must be given to the adjustment of the ratio of working time devoted to listening to the working time devoted to braille, as the results of this study indicate that depending on listening skills as the main medium to access school curricula will have a negative effect on other braille-related skills.

Second, the systematic assessment of students’ progress in braille competency is deficient, which leads teachers to cease monitoring of student progress in the upper grades. This study reveals that the students may find working with text during long tasks burdensome and tedious; ultimately, this will lead them to use audio to access the school curriculum as an effective and efficient option. Thus, it is necessary to closely monitor students’ braille using, particularly their reading skills. These skills relate to comprehension, which is directly affected by the use of auditory study materials.

Limitations

One of the limitations of this study was the failure to introduce audiobooks to the first group as an intervention. Such a procedure would be ideal to test the progress of braille-related skills while using audio methods in the two groups; however, this step would contradict the school policy, which prohibits the introduction of auditory media to students in the lower grade levels. In addition, it is recommended that this study’s findings be tested on a larger sample of students to determine its ultimate impact on the progress of their education. This information would be useful when designing an individual education programme (IEP), and when decisions are made regarding the time needed for students to practise and improve their braille writing or reading abilities.

Implications and future research

Mastery of braille is an integrated process that requires instructional work towards the parallel development of all braille-related skills, as confirmed by Rex et al. (1994, p. 9). Consequently, the parallel development of braille-related skills may be reflected in the comprehensive mastery of braille. As students who are blind gain fluency in braille, it inevitably increases their confidence and boosts their aspirations of using braille as an essential means for educational attainment and vocational purposes. Accordingly, an instructional strategy should include the monitoring of a student’s performance in the practice of reading and writing braille. A follow-up strategy should include monitoring the development of a student’s equivalent use of various braille-related skills. For example, based on a student’s progress in their grade level, supervision should include not only writing braille full cells, but an evaluation to monitor note-taking using braille to prevent partial progress in one skill over the others.

Furthermore, as students move forward in their education, it would be appropriate to develop a curriculum that includes basic literacy instruction in using braille and listening skills. The results imply that proficient assessments should be conducted by professionals and experienced educators, to ensure that this integrated programme encompasses the specific requirements necessary to advance braille-related skills. It is also vitally important to determine whether adequate steps have been taken to ensure that students develop sufficient competency to properly utilise braille as a study method by the end of their elementary education.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions, which helped improve the quality of this manuscript.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Hisham E Bilal Salih

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