Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Advise to support visually impaired student? (self.Blind)
submitted by stacyssister
I came across this sub while looking for advice. I am entering my first year of teaching (high school history), and was just told that one of my students is “visually impaired” and basically blind. My school is all virtual for at least the first month, and typically this student is aided with large texts, someone who reads aloud, getting assignments ahead of time, brain when needed, etc. But now with the virtual learning I want to make sure they are accommodated to and am struggling with what this student needs- especially for video classes, back channel chats, and instruction. Has any one who has been in a similar situation from either side of this have any advise, or just general ideas to help this student not fall behind in virtual schooling and so I can accommodate them to the best of my ability?
I also have not “met” this student yet, and am waiting for a more structured class plan and for my teams IEP and 504 meetings before reaching out myself and speaking to this student about what we can both do to ensure they are comfortable in class.
I also have not “met” this student yet, and am waiting for a more structured class plan and for my teams IEP and 504 meetings before reaching out myself and speaking to this student about what we can both do to ensure they are comfortable in class.
Carnegie89 2 points 2y ago
I'm legally blind and have been attending an online university for the past 2 years. I'll be taking the virtual class starting September.
If you're going to use Zoom. It is screenreader (JAWS) and magnification (ZoomText) software friendly. I don't know about the accessibility of chats, however, if you use a dedicated chat service like Slack. It should be accessible with there accessibility software.
Figure out a schedule by which you'll be able to provide the lesson ahead of class time. Do share the schedule with the student and parent if necessary.
If you're going to screen share content, make sure you vocalize what's on the screen. The screenreader won't read screen shared content as it is a video. This will take some practice on your part as we're very used to saying statements with pronouns "this" and "that". When you can't see these pronouns lose their meaning.
I had a professor in College who refused to teach me math because I asked to verbalize the math instead of using terms like this and that. I had to file a complaint against for violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code and accessibility law.
If you're going to use Zoom. It is screenreader (JAWS) and magnification (ZoomText) software friendly. I don't know about the accessibility of chats, however, if you use a dedicated chat service like Slack. It should be accessible with there accessibility software.
Figure out a schedule by which you'll be able to provide the lesson ahead of class time. Do share the schedule with the student and parent if necessary.
If you're going to screen share content, make sure you vocalize what's on the screen. The screenreader won't read screen shared content as it is a video. This will take some practice on your part as we're very used to saying statements with pronouns "this" and "that". When you can't see these pronouns lose their meaning.
I had a professor in College who refused to teach me math because I asked to verbalize the math instead of using terms like this and that. I had to file a complaint against for violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code and accessibility law.
Rethunker 2 points 2y ago
A good resource is the QIAT listserv, which has featured many questions recently about working with students remotely--best practices, useful tools and software, etc. The number of emails varies per day.
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DrillInstructorJan 2 points 2y ago
I do a bit of unofficial mentoring of people who have recently hit sight loss and one of my padawans recently went back to school. It ended up being just a couple of months before lockdown messed it all up, which is another story, but we learned a few things.
If your student has full time classroom help, that's going to make life fairly easy. People are often really reticent to raise a hand to ask questions in front of the class, but if this person has a buddy to ask, that's often easier. That can also work out okay if it's just a friend. Sometimes it can create awkwardness if your student becomes reliant on schoolfriends they then fall out with, like kids do, but to an extent that's a life factor that people need to get used to handling and ideally this person needs to get used to managing sources of help, if you see what I mean.
The reason I mention that is that you also need not to let this situation become a universal excuse for slacking off which is just as bad. People still need to be held to some sort of standard and if there's an issue with getting (say) homework done on time, then that person needs to have a way of coming to you with questions or issues, not just turning up on the due date and saying "can't do it, I'm blind." That's not good enough. A large part of this is about planning, on your part and the student's, and frankly mainly the student. This person needs to be able to anticipate issues and take action to work around them. You should be helpful of course but it's not your disability to manage. If this person is older than say early teens, it's becoming his or her issue to manage and part of the school experience should be learning to manage it, especially if it's a new situation.
Maybe I seem a bit harsh, that's why I got this username, but at the end of the day we should be turning out well-rounded useful human beings who can deal with whatever life throws at them.
I do really hope I didn't just dig a hideous hole for someone with this post but I think it's reasonable!
If your student has full time classroom help, that's going to make life fairly easy. People are often really reticent to raise a hand to ask questions in front of the class, but if this person has a buddy to ask, that's often easier. That can also work out okay if it's just a friend. Sometimes it can create awkwardness if your student becomes reliant on schoolfriends they then fall out with, like kids do, but to an extent that's a life factor that people need to get used to handling and ideally this person needs to get used to managing sources of help, if you see what I mean.
The reason I mention that is that you also need not to let this situation become a universal excuse for slacking off which is just as bad. People still need to be held to some sort of standard and if there's an issue with getting (say) homework done on time, then that person needs to have a way of coming to you with questions or issues, not just turning up on the due date and saying "can't do it, I'm blind." That's not good enough. A large part of this is about planning, on your part and the student's, and frankly mainly the student. This person needs to be able to anticipate issues and take action to work around them. You should be helpful of course but it's not your disability to manage. If this person is older than say early teens, it's becoming his or her issue to manage and part of the school experience should be learning to manage it, especially if it's a new situation.
Maybe I seem a bit harsh, that's why I got this username, but at the end of the day we should be turning out well-rounded useful human beings who can deal with whatever life throws at them.
I do really hope I didn't just dig a hideous hole for someone with this post but I think it's reasonable!
awesomesaucesaywhat 1 points 2y ago
Can you send them slides beforehand, making sure they are accessible. Can the student demo the software the school will be using to make sure it’s accessible?
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