THE INFLUENCE OF EDUCATIONAL SETTING ON BRAILLE USAGE

Abstract

Whether a visually impaired child attends residential or mainstream school will have  a great effect on his or her academic achievement, as well as on social skills. Therefore, it is very important to make an appropriate decision when choosing an adequate education setting for the blind child. Braille, as a fundamental communication mean for the blind people, enables visually impaired students to fulfil their academic goals. Even though there has been an undeniable decline in braille usage over the last decades, braille remains basic literacy skill for the blind and mastering that skill leads to positive outcomes in many life areas.

This study was conducted with the purpose of finding out whether educational settings have effect on the braille usage in academic and functional literacy.

Differences in braille usage in educational activities, leisure time activities, daily living activities, and organization and management activities among groups of visually impaired adolescents placed in different types of educational settings were sought. Nineteen (N=19) braille-literate visually impaired students participated in this research conducted in2016.

The results indicate that there was a statistically significant difference between the groups of students who attended residential school, mainstream school, or both residential and mainstream school. The best results in the area of educational activities were achieved by the students who attended both mainstream and residential schools, while in all other areas students of mainstream schools had the highest scores.