  The fractionally charged quasiparticles appearing in the 5/2 fractional
quantum Hall plateau are predicted to have an extra non-local degree of
freedom, known as topological charge. We show how this topological charge can
block the tunnelling of these particles, and how such 'topological blockade'
can be used to readout their topological charge. We argue that the short time
scale required for this measurement is favorable for the detection of the
non-Abelian anyonic statistics of the quasiparticles. We also show how
topological blockade can be used to measure braiding statistics, and to couple
a topological qubit with a conventional one.
