Access to Digital Materials: What a Wonderful Gift to Give a Student with Visual Impairment

By Tiffany Barbieri and Susan Glaser

December 6, 2012Winter Wonderland of Technology Florida Instructional Materials Center for the Visually ImpairedWorking with the Experts

Digital Materials… What?!?!?!

Digital: All electronic files accessed with technology, including Audio and E-book.

Audio:

E-Book:

Where do I get this stuff?

Bookshare: E-books

Learning Ally: E-books and Audio Books

National Library Service: Mainly Audio Books

So many more resources available in upcoming sessions!

https://visionteacher.wikispaces.com/home(courtesy of Jill Pfluke and Andrea Wallace)

Why go digital?

Reduces eye fatigue

Hard copy Braille not instantly available

Print/Text may be inaccessible

Large print and Braille volumes = Lots of SPACE

Potential for increased Comprehension, Vocabulary and Rate of access

College and workplace: It’s competitive out there!

Improves overall quality of life

Successful College Students Read an Average of . . .

250-350 Words Per Minute

Who needs digital?

Primary sensory channels are typically visual or tactual. What about the secondary channel?

Braille readers, print readers, device users, Oh My!

A comprehensive Functional Vision/Learning Media Assessment tells all

All of our students with visual impairments can benefit from

listening and obtaining information through their auditory

sensory channel!!!!

When do we teach auditory skills?

Birth-3 Years: Auditory development

3-5 Years: Continued auditory development with Language emphasis

Elementary: Listening skills to include increased comprehension

Middle School: Guided active listening and more advanced listening skill development

High School: Expect independent active listening and knowledge of related technology at an advanced level

Great New Resource for Teaching Auditory Skills

‘Tis the Season to SHAREOnline Resources

Local Library System-

www.hcplc.org/hcplc/justkids/reading/booksonline.html

ABC learning Games and More

www.fisherprice.com/en_US/GamesAndActivities/OnlineGames/index.html

Story Place-www.storyplace.org/preschool/other.asp

Starfall.com

Harkthesound.org

Tumblebooks-

www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/home_tumblebooks.asp

*Think APPS, too. Thank you tablet inventors!

From the Groupwww.storylineonline.net

www.readinga-z.com

www.portablenorthpole.com

www.audible.com

www.myon.com

www.khanacademy.org

https://nfb.org/audio-newspaper-service

Career Connect: ww.afb.org/section.aspx?FolderID=2&SectionID=7

Apps

Braille Coder

Read 2 Go

Futaba

Going Digital at the Pre-K and Elementary Level

Read Aloud

Add meaning to auditory stories with story boxes, real objects, and experiences

Books on Tape/CD

Digital Voice Recorder - adult voices

Digital Voice Recorder - student voice

Utilize Internet and computer for online listening

Elementary Years Focus: Listening for Comprehension

Keep those experiences coming!

Attending behaviors

Use of playback devices

Use of screen readers

MUST begin computer skills early

Model downloading of materials

Order chapter books and other texts that are ‘non-academic’ in digital format

Use high interest materials

See Ike Presley’s 6 Stages of “Audio Assisted Reading” (page 138)

Middle School Students: Learn Active Listening

During lectures-facial orientation, posture, eye contact, head nods, responses…

Print book methods-note-taking, highlighters, post-its, underline, circle, stop and question, stop and discuss

Braille book methods-note-taking, post-its, high dots, paperclips, stop and question, stop and discuss

Digital book methods-note-taking, bookmarking, pausing, rewinding, stop and question, stop and discuss

Teach multiple strategies for note-taking, regardless of the medium

Keep materials high interest, short and age-appropriate

Order textbooks in more than one format

Students gather

Students locate

Students download

Students organize

Students utilize actively and independently

High School: TVIs, Hand over the Reigns!

Is it working?Jerry John’s Basic Reading Inventory

Frequent short story read-alouds with graded comprehension questions

Collect note samples

Take Data

What did you learn?

Think about your current caseload and students’ needs.

Name one thing that you will take away from this session and use with your students (next week).