The Study of Russian as a Foreign Language for English-Speaking Braille Readers Using the Job Access With Speech or NonVisual Desktop Access Screen Reader and a Refreshable Braille Display

• Published in: Journal of visual impairment & blindness 2021-07, Vol.115 (4), p.347-351
• Main Authors: Kapperman, Gaylen, Kelly, Stacy M., LeRette-Kauffman, Heidi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Assistive Technology; Blind; Blindness; Braille; Education; Educational Technology; Employment; English; Language instruction; Methods; Printing and writing systems; Pronunciation; Reading devices for the disabled; Russian; Russian language; Second Language Instruction; Study and teaching; Teaching Methods; Technology application; Technology Uses in Education; Visual Impairments
• ISSN: 0145-482X; 1559-1476
• DOI: 10.1177/0145482X211027495

There is a critical need for Americans to study foreign languages to support the United States' participation in a global economy, commitment to national security, and actions in the political arena. However, there is a lack of American students learning what the US Department of State refers to as "critical languages," which are less commonly studied languages crucial to national security and the economy. The commonly accepted rate of unemployment among Americans who are blind or have low vision is slightly more than 70%, according to Erickson, Lee, and von Schrader (2017). Given that the majority of persons who are blind are unemployed in the United States, mastery of the Russian language may lead to gainful employment, given the demand for such linguistically skilled individuals. Thus, this article describes the procedures that will allow braille readers to use assistive technology to study the Russian language. Because most effective instruction for foreign language study is based on the multiple modalities of reading, writing, and listening, using a screen reader with a refreshable braille display is an advisable method for braille readers to study a foreign language. The work of Kapperman, Koster, and Burman (2018) and Kapperman, Kelly, and Foster (2019) demonstrated the effectiveness of using the screen readers Job Access With Speech (JAWS) and NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) with a refreshable braille display for students who are blind to study foreign languages. Their methods, which are possible to execute by students who are blind without input from individuals who are sighted, form the basis of this article. This article builds on their work and extends it to encompass the study of a foreign language that does not use the Latin alphabet: Russian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet in print and the Russian braille code in braille. English-speaking braille readers learning Russian can access foreign language content using JAWS or NVDA together with a refreshable braille display, using the methods described in this article.