Whether you’re new to braille or an experienced braillist, reading is an important and fundamental process. To fully appreciate the brilliance of braille for use in daily life, reading is something you should enjoy and feel comfortable with. But what can you do to improve your reading skills once you have learned all the letters and perhaps some contractions as well? How can you enhance your reading speed and accuracy even if you’ve been doing braille for a while?
On Tuesday 20 June 2023, Chantelle Griffiths, Co-Founder and CEO of New Zealand’s Tactile and Technology Literacy Centre, shared some practical tips and tricks to get you on the right track with your reading, no matter how much braille you’ve done or where you are on your braille journey. There is something here for everyone.
We learnt:
- What actually happens when we read and how reading by touch is different — or not — from reading visually.
- How to press the “reset button” for your fingers and brain when you’re just not feeling it. Literally.
- The fundamental braille technique you didn’t know you knew and how it enhances your reading.
- The three C’s of braille reading; what they are and how they work together to help you connect the dots between your brain and fingers.
- How playing the viola relates to reading in a straight line and how you can experience something similar yourself, even if you’re not a musician.
- How to start from exactly where you are and enjoy the process.
- Lots more practical tips, ideas and experiments you can try on your own.
This was a very practical session. If you’d like to follow along with the recording, please have some hardcopy or electronic braille handy and a couple of random objects that feel nothing like braille.
For further information please visit the Braillists Foundation Media Page.