AudioStoryTeller: Enforcing blind children reading skills

Abstract

Children tend to learn language conventions through processing environment stimuli. Thus, strategies for reading comprehension are commonly used for this purpose. This paper introduces AudioStoryTeller, a tool for pocketPC to support the development of reading and writing skills in learners with visual disabilities (LWVD) through storytelling, providing diverse evaluation tools to measure those skills. We implemented usability and cognitive evaluation to the AudioStoryTeller software. In the usability evaluation, the easiness of use of the proposed hardware by LWVD was established. The goal of the cognitive evaluation was to measure the development of reading skills through interactive audio narrations using a pocketPC device. Results indicate that users were able to utilize effortless the pocketPC device. AudioStoryTeller software together with cognitive tasks, can contribute to the development of cognitive skills in LWVD. This application allows LVD to have access to unlimited scope of books not available in printed Braille. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.