This paper summarises the reading ability data collected from 476 children with low vision using the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (NARA). The project aimed to generate standard reading ages for pupils with low vision using the NARA reading test. This would enable children's reading to be assessed against their partially sighted peers as well as their fully sighted peers. Standardised reading ages were generated using a linear regression technique to smooth the data. The data shows that the average reading ages for accuracy, comprehension and speed for the sample are generally below their chronological age when the comparison is made with their fully sighted peers. Guidelines for using the NARA with low vision students are presented.

Changes to braille to produce a Unified English Braille (UEB) have caused grave concerns among some braillists. Proponents of UEB claim it will make braille easier to learn and produce and ensure uniformity of practice in the English-speaking world. Section ‘Introduction’ puts the controversy into its wider historical context, citing research showing braille has always been changing. Part A brings out some of braille’s problems in relation to ink-print: quantity and complexity of braille signs, heavier demands on children and newly blind adults in learning their rules of use, the paper-space requirements and bulk of braille books, lower redundancy, lower reading speeds, limited/slower scanning strategies for accessing information, and difficulties with tools for reading and writing. Research is presented from a longitudinal investigation into the cognitive factors affecting the development of braille reading accuracy, comprehension, and speed. Part B argues that there is evidence underlining the need for early teaching to compensate for the absence of casual, unstructured learning available to sighted infants and for continuing the teaching of braille, especially speed of reading, beyond the Primary School Stage of education. It is inferred that contrary to claims that computer technology will render this unique tactile code obsolete, it is in fact making access to braille easier, faster, and cheaper. The code’s flexibility and contribution to the personal, social, and economic independence of blind people are so important that it is vital that teachers, rehabilitation professionals, and psychologists recognise their roles in fostering the attainment of literacy through braille.

Young learners with severe visual impairments are restricted in many ways, and psychologists and special needs teachers require information about the nature and extent of the possible educationally handicapping effects. This article, written by Michael Tobin, Emeritus Professor of Special Education within the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, and Eileen Hill, a teacher at Queen Alexandra College, Birmingham, reports the use of a longitudinal approach to measure how reading development is affected in these children and to uncover the relationships with and among other cognitive factors. The 60 participants were part of a larger cohort of children registered as blind or partially sighted, their reading progress being monitored from seven to 12 years of age. While improving in all three skill areas as measured by the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability, there were significant deficits/lags in development as compared with the norms for their fully‐sighted age peers, especially in speed of reading. Even more disturbing was the finding that the deficits increased with age. Significant correlates of reading, changing in importance over time, were intelligence, visual efficiency, phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge and short‐term memory. It is proposed that, if the educationally handicapping effects of the impairment are to be overcome, a formal, regular cycle of testing to monitor progress be instituted by specialist teachers and educational psychologists. together with the design, development and standardisation of a new reading assessment procedure; and that the professionals collaborate in the construction of programmes of continuing structured teaching to improve speed of reading throughout primary and early secondary schooling.

The article discusses some problems confronting teachers and psychologists when making decisions as to how to use the currently available test procedures. It reports data gathered on three separate occasions on the performance of a group of blind and partially sighted children on the Williams Intelligence Test which is the only specialist IQ test standardized in the UK. Correlation co-efficients indicate that the test achieves very satisfactory levels of test-retest reliability. Attention is drawn to changes, including improvements, in individual scores over time that have implications for educational advisers. Some of these improvements are attributed to the widening of experiences in the physical exploration of the environment, in language opportunities, and in socialization that are due to the effects of good pre-school and early-school placements. Despite the test's good reliability as revealed by this longitudinal study, it is suggested that the time has now come for the design and standardization of a new test incorporating current developments and thinking.

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...