Braille Reading Speed: Are You Willing to Do What It Takes?
By Ford, Susan; Walhof, Ramona; Braille Monitor,Publication Date: June 1999
Suggestions from two Braille teachers and officers of the National Federation of the Blind for increasing Braille reading speed. Fifteen points for increasing reading speed are offered: (1) Avoid Braille printed on plastic pages; (2) Keep your touch light; (3) Use the most sensitive part of your fingertips; (4) Follow the lines of Braille using three fingers on each hand; (5) Let your left hand read the beginning of a line and your right hand read the end; (6) Learn to skim a text to get the sense of a passage; (7) Develop a sight vocabulary in Braille, entered on 3x5 index cards (8) Set achievable goals for improvement and be sure to read every day; (9) Begin with very short passages; (10) Make Braille convenient, keeping a book by your bed, a Braille calendar in your pocket, etc.; (11) Read along with someone else; (12) Subscribe to a Braille magazine; (13) As you see improvement, continue spending the same amount of time reading; (14) Avoid bad habits like double-checking, or rubbing the Braille as you read it; (15) Take some responsibility, such as making a report or giving a speech, using Braille.
Published by: National Federation of the Blind (Website:http://www.nfb.org)
Link to text: http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm99/bm990604.htm
