dAPDots: Books for Early Braille Readers
dAp Dots is a collection of braille books and braille resources from Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (Australia) that are designed to help with learning and understanding the basics of the UEB (Unified English Braille) code. They are designed to provide an effective foundation to braille literacy for parents and children.
A recent research project by Tricia d'Apice found that braille reading fluency of 73 students around Australia and New Zealand was up to 4-5 years behind that of their sighted peers. dAp Dots was created to make braille books more readily available.
The website sells digital files of books that can be printed at home for braille readers. All files are available digitally in two formats – swell and emboss. The files are intended to be downloaded and printed using the correct printing machine.
Available books include:
- Early Contractions (ABC, Alpha Wordsigns, Groupsigns, Dot 5, Dot 45 and 456, Lower Contractions, Final Contractions and Shortforms)
- I Do Like It (simple books with contracted braille that is repetitious, thereby reinforcing the contractions)
- Tactile Graphics
- Checklists
- Reversals (videos)
- 3D Models
