EFFECTS OF ORIENTATION ON BRAILLE READING BY PEOPLE WHO ARE VISUALLY-IMPAIRED - THE ROLE OF CONTEXT

Research by Heller suggested that speed and accuracy of reading may be seriously compromised by the inclusion of noncanonical (tilted) brail le text. The study presented here extended that research by including characters other than those used by Heller and whole words. Similar re sults were found for Heller's original character set (B-J), but the ef fect of orientation was reduced with other letters and whole words. Th e authors conclude that braille readers, especially experienced ones, have more facility with noncanonical braille than would be inferred fr om Heller's results.