Only a small percentage of the 40 million blind population around the world actually learn Braille, with research estimates of roughly 10-15 percent. This is due to numerous factors, primarily the learning gaps between visually and tactically comprehending braille. For example, according to studies, visually impaired kids made more mistakes in pronouncing the word “mistook” than they did with “crystal.” This is since in braille, “mistook” includes a contraction “ST” that combines “s” and “t” into one cell, leading to incorrectly stressed syllables; whereas “crystal” does not include the “ST” braille letter.
Furthermore, of the teachers who do understand and teach braille, the majority learned braille visually and are thus less likely to understand these specific issues students may face. This is problematic because understanding these different language modes can be critical for teachers to boost literacy skills for their visually impaired students
To address this issue of learning with braille properly, we are proposing a learning device with a dynamic physical braille display. This display will be able to produce braille encodings of words and provide audio feedback to the users. The aim is to better aid the visually impaired learn braille as well as proliferate the knowledge of braille among this population.