Pearson’s Braille Services team ensures blind and visually impaired students have the best experiences possible to learn and succeed. We speak to the team about how they produce their assessment materials, and what this means to them.
Have you ever wondered how a blind or visually impaired person might experience a science test, or a geometry exam? How do you represent tables, graphs, and diagrams in braille so that they can be easily understood? How do we ensure equity of opportunity so that all students have the same shot at the assessment?
Ask Pearson’s Braille Services team. Based in a state-of-the-art production facility in Houston, Texas, our team of experts produce braille and tactile graphics for customers all over the US. Pearson continues to be among a very small number of companies to produce braille for assessments.
How it’s done
The process of transcribing assessments to braille is complex. It starts by examining each print test question to determine how it will be modified (as necessary) for braille. Text is transcribed into braille, and charts, graphs, images are transcribed into tactile graphics.
Kim Rowland, development manager and senior program lead for Pearson Braille Services offers an example. "Consider a test question that relies on a map to complete the answer. That map may have rivers, streets, canals. In transcribing this to braille and a tactile graphic we must think critically about what elements of the map are essential to answer the test question. We must simplify the transcribed version without compromising the integrity of what the question is assessing."
Once test questions are vetted for braille, the tests are transcribed, and tactile graphics developed. A rigorous proofreading step is followed by embossing (braille text reproduction), thermoforming (graphic reproduction), binding, and a final quality check.
The quality of our transcriptions, machines, technology, equipment, paper, delivers a braille experience that is, what braille readers call, very clean –– and that is critical for student accessibility.
Building inclusive learning experiences
At Pearson, we strive to create learning experiences that build a more inclusive world. Producing superior-quality braille assessment materials is part of our mission to create vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact.
"Students with visual impairments deserve the same opportunities as students that are sighted, and that is why we strive to provide the best quality products that we can" says the team’s Senior Proofreader, Tenchita Urteaga-Diego. "We understand these students. Some of us in the team have gone through school using braille; we know what it means to need quality braille materials. It's rewarding to make sure students have the best braille products possible to learn and succeed."
Rowland agrees “At the end of the day, we produce high stakes assessments for students who are relying on us to support their education. We have to get it right.”
— Written by Elaine Gary, Senior Development Manager, Pearson Braille Services, and Scott Weinholzer, Senior Production Manager, Pearson Braille Services.
A braille tactile graphic showing part of a graph with vertical labels and three plotted points.
A braille tactile graphic showing sound waves traveling between a dolphin and a school of fish.
A braille tactile graphic of a clock showing 9:18.