Title
Iterative design of a Braille writing tutor to combat illiteracy
Abstract
Less than 3% of the 145 million blind people living in developing countries are literate. This low literacy rate is partly due to the lack of trained teachers and the challenges associated with learning to write Braille on a traditional slate and stylus. These challenges include writing from right to left, writing mirrored images of letters, and receiving significantly delayed feedback. Extensive conversations with the Mathru School for the Blind near Bangalore, India, revealed the need for a robust, low-power, low-cost Braille writing tutor. We present an iterative and participatory design process resulting in the creation and refinement of a prototype Braille writing tutor system. This system uses a novel input device to capture a student's activity on a slate using a stylus and uses a range of techniques to teach Braille writing skills to both beginner and advanced students. We report on lessons learned from the implementation of this project and from a six-week pilot study at the Mathru school, and outline future directions for improvement.
Year
DOI
Venue
2007
10.1109/ICTD.2007.4937386
Bangalore
Keywords
Field
DocType
computer aided instruction,handicapped aids,interactive systems,teaching,vision defects,Braille writing learning,Braille writing tutor,blind people,illiteracy,input device,iterative design,slate,student activity,stylus,teaching,Developing nations,intelligent tutoring systems,user-centered design
Functional illiteracy,Literacy,TUTOR,Participatory design,Computer science,Stylus,Iterative design,Multimedia,Braille,User-centered design
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
978-1-4244-1991-3
8
1.59
References 
Authors
2
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Kalra, N.181.59
Lauwers, T.281.59
Dewey, D.381.59
Stepleton, T.481.59