BRAILLET

BRAILLET: a data-driven investigation into the cognitive demands of braille reading

Contacts
Abstract
BRAILLET will address a wide range of theoretical and educational issues concerning Braille Reading (BR) through the following lines of activity: 1. create a large dataset of carefully classified BR sessions of Italian blind readers 2. investigate and model BR strategies 3. compare BR data and models with data and models of print reading 4. design a prototype screening tool for online assessment of BR skills. The four activity lines are tightly integrated within a problem-oriented methodological loop: i) existing BR models will be used to inform the design and implementation of ecological elicitation protocols for collecting and classifying large amount of BR data using state-of-the-art IC and NLP technology; ii) ICT-supported protocols will be used to collect multimodal (auditory and tactile) BR data; iii) collected BR data will be time-aligned, classified and compared with existing and newly collected data of print reading for better models of BR to be developed; iv) the new models can be used for online assessment of BR skills, and eventually feed back to step i) for better elicitation protocols to be implemented. BRAILLET will advance our current understanding of the processes and strategies underpinning BR by: 1. focusing on commonalities and differences between print and braille reading strategies, to gain further insights in the invariant mechanisms underlying the human ability to read 2. shedding light on the ways BR is affected by the complexity and interactivity of a reader’s language knowledge 3. making braille readers aware of specific issues with BR and helping them circumvent problems and risks of reading underperformance by recommending effective practices for BR education 

Duration

24 Months

Financial Institution

Ministeriale/Governativo