Preparation Manual

Section 3: Overview and Exam Framework
Braille (283)

Exam Overview

Table outlining the test format, number of questions, time, and passing score.

Exam Name	Braille
Exam Code	283
Time	5 hours
Number of Questions	29 selected-response questions 4 transcription assignments
Format	Computer-administered test (CAT)

The TExES Braille (283) exam is designed to assess whether an examinee has the requisite braille knowledge and skills that an entry-level teacher of students who are visually impaired (TVI) in Texas public schools must possess. The 29 selected-response questions and 4 transcription assignments are based on the Braille exam framework. The exam may contain questions that do not count toward the score. Your final scaled score will be based only on scored questions.

The Standards

Transitioning to Unified English Braille (UEB)

Unified English Braille (UEB) replaced English Braille American Edition (EBAE) as an official braille code of the United States on January 4, 2016. See the Braille Authority of North America (BANA) announcement at
www.brailleauthority.org/ueb/implementation/statement.html.

Texas is working toward implementing the transition from EBAE to UEB. In keeping with the planned transition, this exam assesses knowledge of UEB rather than EBAE.
(See www.brailleauthority.org/ueb/implementation/statement.html.)

Note: The following list of domains and competencies reflects the fact that this exam assesses knowledge of UEB rather than EBAE.

Domains and Competencies

Table outlining test content subject weighting by domain.

Domain	Domain Title	Approx. Percentage of Exam	Standards Assessed
I	Reading Unified English Braille (UEB) and Nemeth Code	50%	Braille VII
II	Producing Unified English Braille (UEB) and Nemeth Code	50%	Braille VIII

The content covered by this exam is organized into broad areas of content called domains. Each domain covers one or more of the educator standards for this field. Within each domain, the content is further defined by a set of competencies. Each competency is composed of two major parts:

• The competency statement, which broadly defines what an entry-level educator in this field in Texas public schools should know and be able to do.
• The descriptive statements, which describe in greater detail the knowledge and skills eligible for testing.

Domain I—Reading Unified English Braille (UEB) and Nemeth Code

Competency 001—The teacher of students with visual impairments, including those with additional disabilities, knows how to read UEB.

The beginning teacher:

1. Identifies the correct UEB transcription of text.
2. Identifies and corrects errors in a UEB transcription.

Competency 002—The teacher of students with visual impairments, including those with additional disabilities, knows how to read Nemeth Code.

The beginning teacher:

1. Identifies the correct Nemeth Code transcription of math expressions.

Domain II—Producing Unified English Braille (UEB) and Nemeth Code

Competency 001—The teacher of students with visual impairments, including those with additional disabilities, knows how to produce UEB using a slate and stylus.

The beginning teacher:

1. Transcribes short selections into UEB using a 27- or 28-cell standard slate and stylus and 8½-by-11-inch paper.

Competency 002—The teacher of students with visual impairments, including those with additional disabilities, knows how to produce UEB and Nemeth Code using a braillewriter.

The beginning teacher:

1. Transcribes passages into UEB.
2. Transcribes math expressions into Nemeth Code.
3. Demonstrates competence in referring to reference material to produce Nemeth Code.

Knowledge of Unified English Braille (UEB) and Nemeth Code

The following is a list of the aspects of UEB and the Nemeth Code that will be assessed in the exam. Aspects of UEB and Nemeth Code marked (R) will be included in the reference guide provided with the production section of the exam, and will be tested only in the production section. Aspects to be tested only in the production section (but not included in the reference guide) are marked (P). In either case, aspects that are tested only in the production section may appear in the reading section but will not be tested there (i.e., no transcription errors involving those aspects will be introduced in the answer choices of a question in the reading section).

UEB

1. Punctuation: period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, semicolon, colon, hyphen, quotation mark (double “ ” only), apostrophe, dash (long dash), ellipsis (P), forward slash (P), omission indicator/underscore/low-line symbol (R)
2. Enclosures: Parentheses ( )
3. Other symbols: at sign/commercial at (@), percent (%), dollars ($), cents (¢), bullet (•) (R), degrees (°) (R), ampersand (&) (R), asterisk (*) (R), plus (+), minus ( −), equals (=) (R), Arabic numbers, dates with slash (e.g., 3/15/2015), time with colon (e.g., 9:15 a.m.), common fractions with fraction written vertically (e.g., 1/2 or ¹/₂1 half )
4. Simple formats: center heading (P), paragraph indentation (P), simple list with text that goes to next line (P)
5. Indicators and typeforms: capitalization (capital letter indicator, capitalized word indicator, capitalized passage indicator, terminator); grade 1 mode (including grade 1 indicators and the use of grade 1 mode for initials); italics typeform (symbol, word, passage, terminator)
6. Alphabetic wordsigns: but, can, do, every, from, go, have, just, knowledge, like, more, not, people, quite, rather, so, that, us, very, will, it, you, as
7. Strong contractions: and, for, of, the, with as wordsigns (i.e., standing alone) and groupsigns (i.e., as parts of words)
8. Strong wordsigns: child, shall, this, which, out, still
9. Strong groupsigns: ch, gh, sh, th, wh, ed, er, ou, ow, st, ing, ar
10. Lower wordsigns: be, enough, were, his, in, was
11. Lower groupsigns: ea, be, bb, con, cc, dis, en, ff, gg, in
12. Initial-letter contractions both as groupsigns and when standing alone: upon, these, those, whose, word, cannot, had, many, spirit, their, world, day, ever, father, here, know, lord, mother, name, one, part, question, right, some, time, under, young, there, character, through, where, ought, work
13. Final-letter groupsigns: ound, ance, sion, less, ount, ence, ong, ful, tion, ness, ment, ity
14. Shortforms: All 75 shortform words standing alone; rules for use of 10 special shortform words (among the 75) within a longer word: braille, great, children, blind, first, friend, good, letter, little, quick (UEB Rules 10.9.3)

Nemeth Code

1. Signs of operation/comparison: plus (+), minus (–), multiplication cross (×), multiplication dot ( ⋅ ) (R), division ( ÷ ), equals (=), less than (<) (R), greater than (>) (R)
2. Numbers and numeric mode: Arabic numbers, dates with slash (e.g., 3/15/2015), time with colon (e.g., 9:15 am), common fractions with fraction written vertically (e.g., ¹/₂1 half), mixed numbers (R)
3. Grouping symbols: parentheses ( )
4. Sign of omission (R)
5. Miscellaneous signs and symbols: percent (%), dollars ($), cents (¢), degrees (°) (R)
6. Punctuation: comma, colon, decimal point, punctuation indicator
7. Algebraic expressions and equations (R) (e.g., 2x + 3 = 12 or x + 3x = ?)
8. Geometry shape symbols and symbols of comparison: triangle ( ∆ ) (R), square () (R), angle ( ∠ ) (R), parallel ( || ) (R), perpendicular ( ⊥ ) (R), and congruent ( ≅ ) (R)

Important Information About the Exam

For the TExES Braille exam, you must bring the following:

• a manual (nonelectric) braillewriter that accommodates standard 11½-by-11- inch braille paper
• a 4-line, 27- or 28-cell traditional (that is, used from right to left, not a direct slate that is used from left to right) slate and stylus that accommodates 8½- by-11-inch braille paper.

Please note the following important information:

• Before exam day, make sure your braillewriter is functioning properly; problems caused by malfunctioning braillewriters (e.g., ghost/shadow dots) might negatively affect the scoring of your transcriptions.
• If you do not bring an appropriate braillewriter and slate and stylus with you to the test center, you will not be permitted to test.
• Because erasures detectable by touch might negatively affect the scoring of your transcriptions (i.e., they are counted as errors), it is recommended that you bring and use a braille eraser.
• Braille paper will be provided at the test center; you may not bring your own braille paper.
• All equipment is subject to inspection before being allowed into the testing room.
• For each of the four transcription assignments, you must use the device specified in the exam instructions.
• You must transcribe each assignment in the braille code specified in the exam instructions. Transcriptions in a braille code other than the one specified will receive a score of 0.
• Unscorable transcriptions will receive a score of 0. Unscorable transcriptions include those produced on the wrong device and unreadable transcriptions (e.g., too lightly embossed, overlapping lines of text, prevalent ghost/shadow dots, etc.).

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