Pedagogical Gaps in Teaching Braille Quran Reading to Visually Impaired Children

Abstract

Teaching Braille Qur'an reading to visually impaired children was a critical issue in special education and Islamic religious education, as it directly impacted students' access to religious literacy, independent learning, and spiritual participation. This article aimed to analyze pedagogical gaps in Braille Qur'an reading instruction based on a conceptual review of the characteristics of visually impaired children, the complexity of Braille literacy, and the prevailing tendency toward technically focused learning. The method used was a conceptual study employing a narrative literature review approach of internationally reputable literature from the past 10 years discussing Braille literacy, education for children with visual impairments, tactile learning, assistive technology, and meaningful learning. The results indicated that pedagogical gaps emerged in five main forms. First, instruction remained heavily oriented toward technical decoding, with little attention to students' conceptual understanding of Qur'anic text. Second, tactile experience was rarely scaffolded into coherent cognitive organization, leaving students unable to construct meaning from what they felt. Third, the complexity of Braille Qur'an symbols was frequently introduced without a structured learning sequence, overwhelming students before foundational skills were secured. Fourth, auditory approaches often overshadowed tactile reinforcement, creating dependency on listening rather than active reading. Fifth, the design of existing learning models failed to accommodate students' diverse individual needs, resulting in a one-size-fits-all approach that undermined meaningful participation. This article concluded that Braille Qur'an reading instruction needed to be directed toward a more explicitly structured and meaningful model, so that students were not only able to recite the text but also understand the relationship between Braille symbols, the sounds of the Hijaiyah letters, vowel marks, and the overall structure of the Qur'anic text