by Penny Reeder
The National Science Foundation is supporting the development of a unique technology that offers new instructional strategies for teaching braille, as well as a multitude of academic and non- academic subjects to braille readers. The system, dubbed “SAL,” will be appealing to both children and adults. The project director, Sally Mangold, Ph.D., and Exceptional Teaching Aids, Inc. are currently evaluating the hardware, software and specialized curricula with ten prototype devices.
The braille stand-alone Speech Assisted Learning (SAL) system offers an exciting opportunity to overcome critical problems that have plagued educators and rehabilitation teachers for decades.
SAL is an innovative stand-alone braille learning station which provides computer-assisted instruction to support a full-page paper braille display. The system’s synthesized speech is used for spoken tutorials, presenting questions, and giving positive reinforcement for correct answers. The instruction which the system facilitates can be very effective with any subject.
A student merely slides a braille exercise, embossed on 11” x 11- ½” braille paper, onto SAL’s pressure-sensitive platform and SAL instantly recognizes the page and voices the appropriate directions.
Students insert a data disk into SAL, place one of the exercise pages on the platform, listen to the instructions, and then start to work. Children and adults smile when they discover that a slight press on the paper makes SAL voice the name of whatever is under their fingers. SAL can read a character or a word. Exercises may be written so that when a student presses the correct answer SAL makes an encouraging response such as “Excellent,” “Perfect,” or “Right.” If the incorrect answer is pressed, the student will hear responses such as, “Wrong Answer,” “Try Again,” or “Not Correct.”
SAL is user-friendly. A standard electronic braille keyboard allows students to enter written responses to questions and receive immediate feedback.
Educators, rehabilitation professionals, librarians, and braille users will appreciate this revolutionary advancement in technology. SAL will enable blind children to augment the instruction they receive from vision teachers and special-needs instructors.
Youth and adults can accelerate their learning of new braille codes or study new academic areas with programmed assistance. It is possible to program SAL to speak languages other than English. Educators will be able to select total curriculum packages that teach skills in academic and non-academic areas. The opportunities for instruction stretch to the horizon and beyond.
“Creative ideas for uses of SAL keep multiplying,” says Mangold. “Several people have asked about using SAL to take SAT tests. I’m certain this could be made available, if there were enough requests.”
It is anticipated that the SAL device and supporting curricula will be available for purchase in the fall of 2001. The system is expected to retail for about $3,000.
“That’s quite a bargain,” says Mangold, “especially considering that it has its own powerful computer and all the features needed for a totally stand-alone system.”
Updated information about the SAL system will be posted at the Exceptional Teaching Aids, Inc. web site: www.exceptionalteaching.com.