How Braille Dot Height Influences Braille Reading

Abstract:

Regressions back to previously read words have been extensively studied by manipulating the linguistic aspects of the reading material. Previous research in the sighted literature have also shown that deteriorating the physical text quality can lead to increased regressions during reading. We explored whether this also occurs in the haptic domain during braille reading by manipulating the height of the braille dots. We asked twelve blind adult braille readers to read braille at three different heights (high, medium, or low). Finger movements were recorded while participants read the braille versions of the International Reading Speed Texts (IReST). The results show that reading braille in the low braille dot height condition lead to significantly more regressive finger movements compared to the medium and high conditions, but there was no significant difference between the medium and high conditions. This finding suggest that the influence of deteriorating the physical input of the reading material is cross-modal.