This article outlines a project (School of Education, University of Birmingham) which aims to develop a new comprehensive test of children's braille-reading skills. The Project Management Group has decided to adapt the new print Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (1989) for braille users. This diagnostic test of prose-reading ability yields measures of reading speed, accuracy and comprehension. When adapting narratives for use by braillists, several key areas require careful consideration including assessing comparative difficulties, capitalization and the replacement of pictures. These areas are addressed, as well as other matters concerned with the standardization sample and the rationale behind the decision to opt for the Neale test.The RNIB is currently funding work at the University of Birmingham on the development of a new test of children's braille-reading ability. The braille tests now in use in Britain were standardized some years ago (Tooze, 1962;Lorimer, 1962Lorimer, , 1977. The first two of these tests are straightforward word recognition tests; while the last test is a more comprehensive analysis of reading skills. The Tooze Braille Speed Test consists of 120 three-letter words, with no contracted forms.The number of words correctly identified within a minute can be converted into a reading-age or a standardized score. The Lorimer Braille Recognition Test was designed to test a child's ability to recognise words containing braille contractions. It contains 174 words (making use of 174 of the 189 signs of Standard English Braille). A child is allowed ten seconds to read each word and the test is terminated after eight successive failures. As before, the raw score can be converted to a reading-age or a standardized score. Both these word-recognition tests were standardized with samples of children that encompassed a large proportion of the population of braille users within the target age groups. They are quick and easy to administer, but neither test was designed to measure 'higherlevel' reading skills such as the comprehension of prose. These issues are addressed, however, in Lorimer's adaptation into braille (Lorimer, 1977) of the original Neale Analysis (1958), which consists of a series of prose passages of increasing difficulty, and which permits the simultaneous measurement of reading speed, accuracy and comprehension skills.However, the content of some of the passages is now out of date (e.g. in one narrative a horse and cart are used to deliver milk). In addition, there is a need to standardize a new test on the current population of school-age braille users.The standardization sample will consist of a high proportion of the population of school-age braille users in Britain. Testing every available braille user will present more problems than when Lorimer did his field work, since more pupils are now integrated into mainstream education rather than educated in special schools. The population of children using braille in Britain is very small: a recent RNIB survey found that only fourteen per ce...

Braille readers were invited to submit their views on issues relating to their reading habits. Interpretation of the resulting data provides valuable Insights into the materials and services which blind pupils currently use; and their responses give pointers to the ways in which resources could be developed so that these children and young people have better access to the literature enjoyed by their sighted peers.

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Chris Arter, the Commissioning Editor for the European section of this issue of the Journal, outlines recent progress in the International Council for the Education of the Visually Impaired (ICEVI) with special reference to teacher training and outlines some recent developments in the United Kingdom.