CISLL Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

International Journal of Psychology

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) affirms a right to education for disabled persons and aims to ensure braille instruction for blind individuals. However, there is evidence that braille instruction is often circumvented or abandoned early in CRPD nations because it is perceived as an inefficient learning medium for blind students. This perception persists despite insufficient empirical evidence and a lack of understanding of the efficiency of reading versus listening for learning in sighted individuals. We therefore investigated the efficiency of learning written versus spoken words in blind and sighted samples. Participants (23 blind, 20 sighted) studied the written definitions of 70 rare English words in successive rounds, presented in conjunction with written or spoken wordforms. Blind participants learned with equal efficiency across modalities, whereas sighted participants learned spoken words more efficiently. The findings indicate the inefficiency argument against teaching braille is groundless, both because braille word learning is not less efficient than auditory word learning for blind individuals, and because reading is valued in the education of sighted individuals despite its apparent inefficiency in that population.

DOI

http://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12879

Publication Date

9-20-2022

Department

Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literature| Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology, and Foundations (LEPF)| Department of Psychology| School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders

Special Interest Group

Diversity and Language Processing

Comments

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Harris, L.N., Gladfelter, A., Santuzzi, A.M., Lech, I.B., Rodriguez, R., Lopez, L.E., Soto, D. and Li, A. (2022), Braille literacy as a human right: A challenge to the “inefficiency” argument against braille instruction. Int J Psychol. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12879, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12879.This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.

Original Citation

Harris, L.N., Gladfelter, A., Santuzzi, A.M., Lech, I.B., Rodriguez, R., Lopez, L.E., Soto, D. and Li, A. (2022), Braille literacy as a human right: A challenge to the “inefficiency” argument against braille instruction. Int J Psychol. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12879

Sponsorship

This research was supported by a Great Journeys Assistantship from the Northern Illinois University Graduate School and two Proposal or Pilot Awards from the Northern Illinois University Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literacy to the first author.

ISSN

1464-066X

Publisher

Wiley

Rights Statement

© 2022 International Union of Psychological Science

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