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Howe's Now is a publication of the Council of Schools for the Blind (COSB) that recognizes Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. Samuel Howe was the first Director of the Perkins School for the Blind in 1833. His ongoing efforts as an advocate for public school programs for the blind was instrumental in establishing a full continuum of placements and services.
On the Cover: "Ally Oop" is the title of this clay artwork completed by Tyson Thompson who is a 15 year-old high school freshman from Nebraska City, Nebraska. Tyson attends the Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired (NCECBVI), as well as, Nebraska City High School. Basketball is a favorite of Tyson's, and he recently helped NCECBVI bring home the trophy from the Nebraska Special Olympics Unified Basketball State Competition!
COSB
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
P.O. Box 698
Talladega, AL 35161
COSB President
Bernadette Kappen
President-Elect
Yvonne Howze
Secretary/Treasurer
Dean O. Stenehjem
Past President
Phil Hatlen
Directors
Margie Kaiser
Gene McMahon
Bill Daugherty
Consultant
Denise Rozell
Editor R. J. Beadles, Jr.
COSB Clips Editor
Dave Farrell
Braille, large print, and diskette copies are available upon request or can be viewed at http://www.tsbvi.edu
Direct correspondence to:
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
205 East South Street
Talladega, Alabama 35160
Individual opinions and views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the official position of COSB.
HOWE'S NOW is a quarterly newsletter of the Council of Schools for the Blind that is circulated to approximately 500 members and vision professionals. Issues will be published during the months of February, May, September, and December. The deadline for receipt of articles and advertisements is September 1st for the October issue.
Articles and advertisements may be submitted by e-mail to: rbead@aidb.state.al.us or can be submitted on a floppy diskette (preferably in MS Word or ASCII) with an accompanying hard copy.
Advertisements must be submitted in camera-ready format or on diskette. Ad fees: full-page (8.5" x 11") is $250; half-page is $150; and quarter-page is $100. Payment must accompany all advertisements. Make check or money order payable to COSB.
To submit articles or for questions contact: Robert J. Beadles, Jr., Ph.D. Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind 205 East South Street Talladega, AL 35160 (256) 761-3499 (Telephone) (256) 761-3520 (Fax) rbead@aidb.state.al.us (Email)
by R. J. Beadles, Jr., Research Director, Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
The economic and technological triumphs of the past few years have not solved as many problems as we thought they would, and, in fact, have brought us new problems we did not foresee. -- Henry Ford II
I think back to the early 1980's when computers were starting to replace typewriters in the workplace and am amazed when I look where we are today in terms of technology. I can remember when we would have to insert a 5.25" floppy disk into the personal computer to run word-processing programs and where 20 kilobyte hard disks where considered a luxury. Now we have personal computers that have "gigabyte" hard disks and computers that are so powerful that they have features that most of us don't even know how to use.
It is wonderful to see how technology has helped change the lives of individuals with disabilities. There are software programs that enlarge text, provide synthesized speech, allow an individual to dictate information directly into word processing packages, devices that allow individuals who have previously not been able to communicate to be able to communicate, and on and on. I am truly amazed at what technology is available and look forward to seeing how that technology will evolve over the next few years.
This issue of Howe's Now focuses on technology and assistive/adaptive equipment. As you read this issue you will be enlightened on how teachers are using technology to teach English as a second language, how to navigate around the World-Wide Web, and how technology is being used to enhance the educational programs and opportunities for students and staff.
I believe that we are just in the infancy of technology advancements for persons with disabilities. As Henry Ford forecast, we have not seen the problems that new technology presents, but we have some ideas. The key to solving this problem can start to be remedied by exposing students to age-appropriate technologies, including technology as part of a student's IEP, acquiring and providing specialized equipment and training directly to the student, and last but not least, providing training and professional development to our instructional staff in regards technology. If all these features are in place than I predict that our students will succeed in their classrooms, community, and workplace. I hope you enjoy this issue and have a great Summer...Take care...Bob
The William H. English Leadership Award is presented yearly to recognize a professional who makes significant contributions and exhibits leadership qualities in the field and to students who are blind and visually impaired. During the August meeting, the COSB Board will select nominees for the 2001 Bill English Award. These names will be forwarded to the Awards Committee for final selection. Members are urged to contact a board member with suggestions for nominees for this prestigious award. The board member will submit names you recommend for consideration by August 1, 2001. Please send nominations to:
Bernadette Kappen
Overbrook School for the Blind
6333 Malvern Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19151
215-877-0313 (Telephone)
BMK@obs.org (Email)
By Bernadette Kappen, Director, Overbrook School for the Blind
I am really excited about this issue on technology for students who are blind and visually impaired. Technology is playing a large role in the lives of our students and teachers. The schools for the blind can be centers of excellence in promoting the use of technology for students of all ages and ability levels. In our schools we have some of the best trained staff members in the use of access technology. We also have students with very good skills who can also be trainers.
When we think about technology, often we only think about the hardware and software. A successful program needs to include teacher training and a shift in how we think about the curriculum. Technology-rich classrooms offer a freedom that wasn't possible in past years. Students can have access to material in an appropriate format and can become good consumers of knowledge. In many articles or discussions, we hear people talk about the number of computers or assistive technology devices. This is often impressive, but the quantity is not what we should be looking at. Rather, we should be looking at how using technology will afford new learning opportunities for our students.
In many situations, students who are blind and visually impaired are not presented material at the same time as their sighted peers. Having access to appropriate technology breaks down this barrier. In addition to having the material, the student can find additional information and become a consumer of knowledge. Having access to the web provides our students opportunities to engage in activities that might otherwise be too difficult, dangerous or expensive. For example, students are often not presented information in science because the instructor fears the student might get hurt.
Communication and participation in day-to-day activities is a challenge for students with multiple disabilities. Using augmentative communication devices has opened up the learning opportunities for these students. They now can have a voice, make choices, participate in school activities, and be productive in the workplace. Students who struggled for many years with literacy are now motivated to write and read at more advanced levels. For some students, they are thrilled that for the first time they know more about a topic than the teacher.
Success in integrating technology into the curriculum requires good staff training and on-going opportunities for training. Technology is one more tool to improve the learning environment, not a replacement for the teacher. It is through the skill and creativity of the teacher that students are using communication devices and are able to successfully navigate the web. It takes time to learn how to use the hardware and software, but the real challenge is discovering how to integrate the use of the technology into the daily activities in the classroom. It is essential that we provide time and support for teachers to learn how to use the technology resources available. The financial and time commitment to training in this area will eventually change the teacher's role in the classroom. Creatively integrating technology into the classroom takes planning; I believe even more planning than the typical approaches to learning. The investment in the staff will result in our students being competent users, as well as, better communicators.
This is such an exciting time in our schools. Just think - every pre-school age child will never know a time without technology.
By Bruce McClanahan, Assistive Technology Specialist, Washington State School for the Blind
IntelliTools software can be used to provide visually impaired students access to educational software. IntelliTools can be contacted at www.intellitools.com. IntelliTools has been very supportive of the efforts that Washington State School for the Blind (WSSB) has made and has modified their latest product, IntelliTalk II, so that it is more accessible for blind students.
I have been creating educational software for visually impaired students using IntelliTools products since 1995. Colleen Lines, WSSB Braille Access Center, has also created a significant portion of the software listed below. The IntelliTools products that are used to provide access for visually impaired students are IntelliTalk II, IntelliPics, Overlay Maker, and ClickIt. All of the software that has been created is available for free download at the WSSB web site: www.wssb.wa.gov, then go to the Technology link. The focus of all of the work has been to create or provide access to educational software for students who are or will be Braille readers.
The following Access Packages for Edmark software have been created. These are Access Packages only, the software itself much be purchased from Edmark. Edmark can be contacted at www.edmark.com. Edmark has been very supportive in the development of the Access Packages. The following access packages were created using ClickIt and Overlay Maker. The Access Packages require a basic level of IntelliTools skill to run, but they will require an intermediate level of IntelliTools skill to install the following packages.
Talking orientation and mobility maps are used on a regular basis at WSSB. The maps were created using IntelliPics and Overlay Maker. Twelve orientation and mobility maps are available for download on the WSSB site.
Single digit math fact lessons for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division have been created using IntelliPics and Overlay Maker. Two preschool lessons have also been created.
Braille Keyboards and IntelliTalk II Braille keyboards have been created for IntelliTalk II and JFW. The keyboards were created using Overlay Maker. The keyboards are appropriate for blind students in grades K-2 and some blind students with additional impairments. The close spacing of the Braille cells in this overlay, particularly the alphabet, has made the keyboard very effective for young blind students. The Braille keyboard for IntelliTalk II has a supplemental IntelliTalk II activity. IntelliTalk II is a very full-featured word processing program. This word processor has locked text, answer fields, and on-screen palettes. IntelliTalk II has the following speech access:
The WSSB web page has an accessible IntelliTalk II lesson on the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery has been divided into six units. Individuals listen to the questions and answer them using the Talking Palettes. The format of the Lewis and Clark lesson can be used as a template to create accessible lessons for visually impaired students.
Special Photo: The New York Institute for Special Education recently concluded an extensive capital improvement project that includes a new gym and dormitory, computer labs with high-speed access to the internet, and a 200-seat auditorium. The gymnasium features an elevated running track and a state-of-the-art scoreboard. The renovations improve access for the disabled and are specifically designed to make the classroom and student environment more user-friendly for the blind and visually impaired. (Photo shows the first student "Pep Rally" in the new gymnasium)
By L. Penny Rosenblum, Ph.D., University of Arizona
With the start of 2001, the Early Intervention Training Center for Infants and Toddlers Project was initiated. Though the project will not provide direct services to children and families, its mission is to develop materials that will ultimately support early intervention for children birth to three who have visual impairments including those with multiple disabilities.
Dr. Deborah Hatton, Project Director, of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was awarded a five-year federal grant to develop training materials for university faculty and others that will enhance their ability to prepare individuals to serve children birth to age three.
Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum, Investigator, at the University of Arizona is part of the extensive team of university faculty, early interventionists, families, and other partners who will have a role in developing the training materials. The goals that will guide the implementation of this five-year project are:
Goal 1. To form partnerships with faculty in order to share knowledge, skills, and resources that will build the capacity of universities to prepare personnel to serve infants/toddlers who have visual impairments.
Goal 2. To develop and disseminate content modules that are family-centered, based on recommended practice, flexible, and accessible to individuals with/without disabilities.
Goal 3. To strengthen linkages between universities that train personnel to work with infants and toddlers who have visual impairments and their families and other agencies and organizations that are involved in providing services to this group.
Goal 4. To develop a website that: disseminates interactive content modules; provides a continuously updated list of resources and training opportunities; provides access to a discussion group for faculty at universities; and allows continuous evaluation of project resources; links users to other pertinent websites.
Goal 5. To develop research activities that increase our knowledge and understanding of factors associated with preparing personnel to serve infants and toddlers who have visual impairments and their families.
As we begin the first year of the Project, input from individuals serving children birth to three is needed. We want to develop a network of professionals who are providing best-practice services to young children and their families throughout the United States.
If you are interested in joining our listserv to get updates on the project and to provide your feedback and ideas, please send an e-mail to Pam de Steiguer at j.desteiguer@worldnet.att.net asking to be added to the Early Intervention VI listserv.
You may also add yourself by sending a message to listserv@listserv.arizona.edu and in the body writing: subscribe early_interventionvi e-mail address first-name last-name.
For more information about the project you can contact:
Deborah D. Hatton, Ph.D.,
Project Director and Principal Investigator
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8180
(919) 966-7186 (Telephone)
Deborah_Hatton@unc.edu (Email)
L. Penny Rosenblum, Ph.D.,
Investigator Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation and School Psychology
University of Arizona
P.O. Box 210069
Tucson, AZ 85721-0069
(520) 621-1223 (Telephone)
rosenblu@u.arizona.edu (Email)
By Maria J. Rossman, Teacher, Overbrook School for the Blind
The 2000 United States Census has revealed that the number of households that use a language other than English is increasing, and that soon, speakers of Spanish will comprise the largest minority in the United States. The members of these households who attend our schools bring much in terms of language diversity and multiculturalism, but these children and young adults face unique hurdles besides those presented by a visual impairment. They need much support in order to succeed, and it is the schools' obligation to help students whose first language is not English overcome the hurdles they face.
Who are these students and what are their special needs? The students that I will refer to as LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students are also known as ESL (English as a Second Language), ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages), ELL (English Language Learners), Language Minority students, and, by those who choose to look at the glass as half full rather than half empty, PEP (Potentially English Proficient)! There are many program models, but, generally, ESOL teachers do not use the students' native language for instruction. Rather, they attempt to immerse the students in English as much as possible by providing them with authentic learning experiences, cultural instruction, and instruction and practice in strategies - study, language-learning, and survival - to lessen or circumvent their weaknesses. In Bilingual Education programs, LEP students have some content-area classes in their native language and others with ESOL teachers.
These students are members of a diverse group. They are the children of immigrants to the United States, some by choice, but most out of economic or health necessity; the children of migrant workers, who may only spend a few months at a particular school before moving with their families to follow the harvest; youngsters who have come here without their families, perhaps with older siblings or aunts and uncles; and, interestingly, students who have been born in the United States but grew up and continue to live in a non-English-speaking environment: not only at home, but also in the community.
With the regular updating and development of software for our students who are visually impaired, we have a rich resource with which we can adapt strategies and techniques to help LEPs succeed. When LEPs who are visually impaired and blind and their teachers take advantage of this technology, it provides them with the staples of ESOL teaching methodology:
Young people have a remarkable capacity to acquire second languages, and they soak up language and cultural knowledge from their peers. And this knowledge of English for interpersonal uses, which makes them excellent communicators with their peers as well as their teachers, is what often misguides administrators and teachers into believing that these students, therefore, must be fluent in all uses of English. What LEPs may be lacking, however, is proficiency in English as it is used in academic contexts: speaking formally with teachers or in job situations, comprehending textbooks, understanding the layout of math equations, writing paragraphs and essays.
It is a lack of proficiency in abstract, theoretical, academic English - which involves reading and writing more than speaking - that puts up obstacles for LEP students. Some LEP students have had excellent educations in their home countries and may, therefore, be conversant with Algebra and Geometry or with Southeast Asian History, but they do not have the knowledge of English to work on a par with their native-English-speaking peers. In some cases, they may not know the Roman alphabet.
In contrast, other LEP students have had little or no formal schooling, so they may not only lack knowledge of sophisticated academic concepts, but they may also be illiterate in any language.
For both sets of LEP students, it generally takes from 5 to 10 years for a second language learner to perform like a native speaker academically.
One area in which technology can bolster LEPs' abilities is the writing process. Writing is a struggle for native English users, let alone for those who are not native English users. Besides the words and grammar, the structure of modern American English paragraphs may be new. The convention that includes a topic sentence, supporting details, transitions, and moving from least to most important, is not universal.
One path to overcoming these hurdles is based on the Language Experience Approach, in whose purest form the students talk about a topic or event, the teacher writes exactly what the student says, and the resulting text is used for instruction. When the teacher serves as secretary and the student as dictator, the student can express herself and bypass the hurdles of English mechanics: spelling, punctuation, and forming the alphabet for those newly literate or newly literate in the Roman alphabet. Furthermore, the thought process often operates faster than the fingers can push the pencil or the keys. By serving as secretary, the teacher allows the student to express herself with an immediacy that she hadn't known before. Students are frequently amazed at the volume of thoughts they had about the assigned topic.
Once the student writer's thoughts have been recorded by the teacher, the student can use word processor features to edit. For lower-proficiency students, they can read and reread this new text with screen reading software, copy and paste words to study or to use in other sentences, and copy it to reinforce spelling and sentence patterns and to practice keyboarding.
Word processing software all by itself offers tools to help LEPs overcome writing obstacles. Here are some suggestions:Students are frequently assigned reading comprehension exercises. Have them identify key words in a question, and then direct them to use the find feature to locate those key words in the text and search for the answer.
Use word-prediction software with speech. This kind of software is the epitome of a hurdle-leveler! Users can focus on their ideas and let the software help them with spelling, prefixes and suffixes, using third-person's with verbs, capitalization, and definite and indefinite articles (the bane of English language learners!). Furthermore, this software repeats what students have written, giving them excellent reinforcement. The sound also helps LEP students choose the correct word. English spelling and pronunciation are frequently unrelated, and LEP students can more easily choose the correct word when it has been spoken for them.
Use screen reading software for all electronic texts. Screen readers are a valuable teaching tool to LEPs because the users are getting multiple modes of language input (reading aurally and visually or tactually). Scan the content-area reading assignments and have them read with screen readers. Have LEPs listen to the text first, and then have them read it actively. Make sure the students are familiar with the software commands for reading, repeating, spelling word, and moving forward or back within the text.
Use the internet as an esteem-booster for LEPs by focusing on their language and culture. Integrate the vocabulary, language, and culture into lessons in all content areas. Use websites with the following:
Use the Internet as a motivator. LEP students new to the US are not familiar with US school culture, let alone their own school. Once students feel more comfortable in their learning environment, they have one less hurdle for learning English. Assign the LEPs to gather information for a guidebook to their school. Interview teachers and students for what to expect, survey students about their fashion or musical tastes, include photos, interview food service staff, and administrative staff. Encourage the students to generate ideas for the guidebook. Publish the work on the school's website. New students and teachers can refer to it and it can be updated every year.
When LEPs learn vocabulary, they must learn not only how it is spelled and what it looks like on paper, but they must also know how it sounds, how to pronounce it, and what it means. Before they come up against hurdles in their use of technology, make sure they know what they will encounter. Here are some suggestions:
Taking into consideration the great need among Americans to learn other languages and to increase their awareness of geography, the presence of LEP students can only be an asset to our schools. I count myself in the group of teachers who view LEPs as PEPs and as valuable resources: they are already experts in at least one language and set of cultural conventions. When we view our English Language Learners as resources with unique and valuable skills and knowledge, then they and we can approach learning with confidence.
Maria Rossman
Overbrook School for the Blind
(215) 877-0313 Ext. 325 (Telephone)
mariad@obs.org (Email)
By Penny Leigh, South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind
Individuals with disabilities have better access to governmental information with the addition of a new technology center at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind (SCSDB). The center's equipment was installed as part of a state study on providing better access to public information through assisted technology. SCSDB is the first pilot site in South Carolina. "The idea is for everyone to have access to government information that by law they are entitled to get," said Jim Little, coordinator of SCSDB's pilot project and the school's director of counseling and assessment.
The SCSDB technology center will officially open on Monday, April 30, in the Swearingen Center on the school's campus. Following opening remarks by SCSDB Board Chairman Norman Pulliam and Vice Chairman Donald Capps, Gary Walsh, executive director of the Public Service Commission of South Carolina, will speak about the overall project. South Carolina Rep. Merita Allison, chairman of the Spartanburg delegation, will speak on behalf of the General Assembly. The luncheon will be followed with a demonstration of the technology center located in the Cleveland Learning Resource Center. The center consists of a computer that is equipped to easily provide information for anyone with special needs. The SCSDB technology center is available to the public to look up information on federal, state and local governments.
The kiosk is stationed at a table that is height adjustable for wheelchairs. For people who are blind, the computer will provide audio information or print copy in Braille. "Those who have difficulty maneuvering a mouse can use their hand to touch the screen and obtain information," Little said. People without hand function can use a "head mouse" to make selections on the computer.
The information kiosks were the idea of an interagency committee formed by the South Carolina Legislature to determine the feasibility of providing access to information via assisted technology. The project's purpose is to meet the standards set in Section 508 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973. That act was revised last year, and new standards for accessible information were adopted in December. The revised act states that electronic information technology provided by the federal government must be "compatible with, or adaptive to, assistive technology," and individuals with functional impairments must be able to use the equipment.
"This information is not always accessible to people with various disabilities. They may be unable to get information because of the shortage of user-friendly computers or kiosks or work stations," Little said.
SCSDB is a specialized instructional and resource center. It provides services statewide for individuals (children and adults) who are deaf, blind and sensory multidisabled, their families and the professionals who work with them. SCSDB offers programs for preschool, elementary, middle school, high school, sensory multidisabled, vocational and postsecondary educational students, as well as a variety of outreach and support services. The main campus is located in Spartanburg, and regional centers are located throughout the state. SCSDB's website address is www.scsdb.k12.sc.us.
Penny Leigh
SCSDB Public Information Office
(864) 577-7508 (office)
(828) 697-0971 (home)
pleigh@scsdb.k12.sc.us
Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
Nebraska City, NE October 25-26, 2001
Featured keynote speakers: Sandy Lewis, Florida State University Donna McNear
Also a variety of breakout sessions will be offered on various assessment topics.
For more information contact:
Sally Giittinger, Administrator
Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
sgiittin@esu6.esu6.k12.ne.us
Following are topics relevant to transition needs of individuals who are blind and/or visually impaired. Topics will be addressed in one-hour sessions, and may be in the format of research papers, panel discussions, case studies, hands-on demonstrations. Information presented may highlight your school program.
CALL FOR PAPERS, POSTERS, EXHIBITS, AND DEMONSTRATIONS
SUGGESTED TOPICS
Equipment Needs:
Affiliation:
E-mail:
Fax:
Telephone:
Address:
Title of Presentation:
Presenter:
Contact: Debra Harvey, Helen Keller School, dharv@aidb.state.al.us
By Cheryl Misialek, North Dakota School for the Blind
This is a human interest story I wanted to share with you about a teacher and staff member, two very special individuals who work at the North Dakota School for the Blind.
Donna Iszler has been teaching persons who are blind or visually impaired from 1956 to the present - a total of 45 years. Her teaching career began in 1956 at the SD School for the Blind in Gary, SD, where she taught music for one year. In 1975 she began teaching music at the ND School for the Blind which at that time was located in Bathgate, ND. The school moved to Grand Forks in 1961 at which time Donna relocated to Grand Forks and continues to provide services statewide. Her areas of instruction include music, Braille, and Braille music. She also taught at the Wyoming Lions Camp in Casper, WY, for 18 years. Donna was honored as the recipient of the 2000 Alfred Allen Award in July, 2000, at the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired International Conference in Denver, CO.
In addition to her teaching profession, she has made vital contributions to her community and church. She is a member of the Red River Lions Club and has spoken at numerous Lions Clubs in ND plus state and multi-district conventions. Donna is a long time member of Augustana Lutheran Church where she plays for the contemporary service and coordinates the contemporary music group. During the summer months, she has played for worship services at Camp Shalom at Maple Lake, an outreach ministry of United Lutheran Church, Grand Forks. She is also a member of the Epsilon Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma and the ND Association of the Blind.
On April 25, 2001 in Rochester, MN Donna Iszler will undergo surgery to have a kidney transplant. The donor of this gift is Donna's friend and co-worker at North Dakota Vision Services/School for the Blind (NDVS/SB), Beth Bakke Stenehjem. Beth is the director of the Vision Resource Center at NDVS/SB. She administers a program that provides specialized equipment and materials to persons who are blind or visually impaired residing in ND. She has taught English at the McClusky, Langdon, and Hillsboro High Schools. She is an active member of the ND Education Association and was a delegate to its national convention for two years. In addition, she is an active member of the Christus Rex Lutheran Campus Center where she currently serves as a volunteer on two committees.
Over and above insurance benefits, there are huge costs involved with the major surgery including travel, lodging, and the rejection medications required after the surgery. We are creating the opportunity for people to express their love, support, and appreciation to Donna and Beth by giving donations for Donna Iszler - the kidney transplant recipient and Beth Bakke Stenehjem - the kidney donor. If you would like more information contact:
Carmen Grove-Suminski
Superintendent
North Dakota School for the Blind
csuminsk@pioneer.state.nd.us
or
Cheryl Misialek
Vision Resource Center
ND Vision Services/School for the Blind
cmisiale@pioneer.state.nd.us
By Robert J. Beadles Jr., Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
This past March I had the opportunity to attend an outstanding meeting and training session regarding the Education of Students with Visual Impairments. The National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) sponsored a two-day workshop for a diverse group of professionals in the field of visual impairments following AFB's Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute.
The workshop program was developed by NASDSE, Council of Schools for the Blind (COSB), and the Hilton/Perkins Program. During the workshop, attendees were instructed and exposed to various teaching methodologies that could be used in the state training programs. The workshop instructors included:
Individuals who have been identified and who will serve as "national trainers" for this program come from a diverse background in regards to their involvement in the field. The following individuals will be providing training and are identified by their professionally-affiliated areas of expertise:
| Higher Education | Superintendents | State Consultants | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anne Corn | Mike Bina | Carol Allman | Robert Beadles |
| Jane Erin | Phil Hatlen | Jack Hazekamp | Bob Brasher |
| Kay Ferrell | Sharon Sacks | Dennis Kelleher | Mary Nelle McLennan |
| Alan Koenig | Elaine Sveen | Mary P. King | Tom Miller |
| Rosanne Silberman | Stuart Wittenstein | George Zimmerman | Susan Spungin, Mary Ann Siller |
The state training workshops are designed to provide information on the education of a child with a visual impairment to directors of local education agencies, special schools, intermediate units, institutions of higher education, service providers, and parents. The workshops include specialized training modules that have been developed as a guide for delivering: the most current information on federal and target state statutes, regulations, and policy guidance, and the best methods of instructing students with visual impairments in regards to promising educational practices in selected content areas. The training information has been prepared for use in personnel development and preparation activities that will enhance the delivery of educational services to students with visual impairments.
There has been a widespread interest in bringing this outstanding educational training program to the states around the country. Upcoming workshops have been scheduled for Mississippi, Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky, New Mexico, California, Nevada, and Connecticut.
For additional information on the workshops or to schedule a workshop in your state contact:
Gaylen Pugh, Project Director
(256) 772-4350 (Telephone)
hlpughjr@aol.com (Email)
Editor's Note: Many special individuals deserve recognition for their hard work and the contributions they made to developing the national training program. These individuals have spent countless hours of their time providing their expertise in a way that will benefit all students with visual impairments. A huge thanks goes out to Bill East, Yvonne Howze, Bernadette Kappen, Gene McMahon, Herb Miller, Gaylen Pugh, and Lou Tutt.
by Dave Farrell, Principal, Colorado School for Deaf and Blind
ALABAMA The good news from the Alabama School for the Blind is that all six seniors have successfully passed the recently revised and more difficult Alabama High School Graduation Examination. It is impossible to improve upon a 100% graduation rate!
The annual Race Fever event just prior to the Talladega 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway was a rousing success once again. Over $100,000 was collected for disbursement to the schools comprising the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind. Among the NASCAR Winston Cup drivers participating were Bobby Labonte, Johnny Benson, and Steve Park. Master of Ceremonies Ned Jarrett hosted the evening consisting of food, silent and live auctions, and entertainment by Alabama School for the Blind staff and alumni. - Butch Ponder [cpond@aidb,state.al.us]
The Helen Keller School is gearing up for the Spring Arts Festival to be held on May 11, 2001. Many activities are planned for the day. We will have Art with Russell Everett, Pottery with Gail Ritchey, Creative Movement with Mary Foshee of the Children's Dance Foundation, Japanese Fan Painting, Paul the Magician, HKS Student Art Show, HKS Student Leisure Skills items, HKS Student Horticulture Program, Face Painting, Sun Visor Decoration, Ragan's Jazz Ensemble and many other fun activities. Everyone is looking forward to a day in the sun. Bring your lawn chairs and join in with the students and have a good time!
Three of HKS teachers-Ms. Rosie Lawler, Ms. Lynn Horton and Ms. Stephanie McGhee just returned from Kansas City, Missouri where they were presenters at the National CEC Conference. We are very proud of their accomplishments.- Debra Harvey [dharv@aidb.state.al.us]
ARIZONA Arizona School for the Blind (ASB) is making a concerted effort to increase parent involvement in our program. A parent association has been established and an email newsletter is distributed bi-weekly. A large group of Native American families with children having albinism from Northern AZ visited ASB as part of their parent support group.
Our students are involved in a GEAR UP grant through Northern Arizona University. The grant provides enrichment activities to encourage students to go on to college. Several students will attend a summer enrichment program at the Grand Canyon. Nearly 30 students from around the state will participate in a VI summer sports camp at the University of Arizona.
The Spring Concert featured selections from Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 2, Aladdin, and Newsies. Students participated in the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) for the first time this spring. - Alan Myklebust [AMyklebust@asdb.state.az.us]
California The California School for the Blind served as host for this year's State conference. "Putting It All Together," the conference of the California Transcribers and Teachers of the Visually Handicapped, has an audience of 800-900 consumers, teachers and transcribers. CSB staff is presenting approximately twenty workshops covering a wide range of topics. - Stuart Wittenstein [swittens@csb.cde.ca.gov]
COLORADO The Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind (CSDB) Science Instructor, Ben Wentworth, and his students hosted 160 public school students for a Space Day Open House. The day provided the students the opportunity to view our tactile planetarium project. It also provided our students with the chance to educate others about the capacities of blind and visually impaired students. CSDB Board Member Susan Stewart celebrated the day's success in a note to our Superintendent.
"I amazed at the enthusiasm, intelligence and wonderful teaching abilities of the blind students. . Probably most of those visiting children had never even seen a blind person before. If those children left our school with nothing else, I guarantee that some of the fears and prejudices against "disabled" people were greatly affected and I venture a guess, altered, today." - Dave Farrell [dfarrell@CSDB.org]
IOWA This summer the Iowa Braille School will offer a unique sports camp experience for 30 students ages 9-17. Camp Abilities provides an opportunity to participate in sports and recreational activities designed to meet the special needs of visually impaired youngsters. Activities included during the week are swimming, track and field, goalball, tandem biking, beeper baseball, wrestling and canoeing.
Each student will leave with a written assessment to be used by their local school physical education departments to provide appropriate activities for the student during the school year. The Iowa Braille staff will follow up on each student during the school year to provide support to the local programs and to the student's families. - Dennis Thurman [smokehouse@iowa-braille.k12.ia.us]
MARYLAND GOING TO KANSAS CITY! Lou Tutt and four of his staff attended the CEC Convention in Kansas City, April 18-21, 2001. Paula Hamilton presented a poster session entitled "Monthly Themes and Learning Centers for Young Children with Visual and Multiple Impairments", for which she won an award. Sharon Whited and Karin Nord presented a demonstration on "Environmental Modifications: It's a Matter of APPLES and ORANGES." Lou Tutt, along with Donna McNear and David Ross, presented a panel discussion, "From the University Through Employment: Promoting Mentorships, Professionalism, and Joy of Teaching." Minnesota State Academy for the Blind (MSAB.) - Lou Tutt [lout@mdschblind.org]
NEBRASKA As the school year winds down, Nebraska is busy gearing up for the 2001 Summer offerings. The PAL (Parents Always Learning) Training Program will again be held at NCECBVI. There are four levels available for parents - infant, preschool, elementary, and middle/high school.
While their children attend camp, parents attend a variety of training sessions. In addition to PAL, Lazy Hazy Days for Elementary Students, Here I Come World! - Transition Camp, Math Rules Camp, and Space Camp will also be offered. Also - mark your calendars for October 25-26, 2001 as Nebraska will be hosting the National Assessment Conference featuring Donna McNear and Sandy Lewis! - Sally Giittinger [sgiittin@esu6.esu6.k12.ne.us]
NORTH DAKOTA North Dakota Summer Programs 2001 include the following:
Contact Barb Brubakken at 701-795-2721 or bbrubakk@sendit.nodak.edu for additional information. - Carmen Grove Suminski [csuminsk@pioneer.state.nd.us]
OREGON The Oregon School for the Blind has begun a futures planning process that will incorporate input from all "customers" of the school. By July, an updated mission and vision statement for OSB is anticipated. We expect that this process will lead to a long-term plan that moves OSB towards being the statewide resource that needed by local and regional programs in Oregon.
OSB students participated in educational events with Scott Nelson, curator of the Art of the Eye Exhibition that was held in Beaverton, Oregon from February 24-March 16, 2001. The exhibition, hosted by the Portland Alumni Chapter of Delta Gamma Fraternity, raised funds for OSB's summer programs. - Don Ouimet [Don.Ouimet@ode-ex1.ode.state.or.us]
PENNSYLVANNIA In early March Overbrook School for the Blind hosted a two-day technology conference. Members of our staff shared information on what they learned during the Overbrook 2001 Technology Project and we also had presenters from around the country.
The goalball team took home a first place trophy in a five-way EAAB tournament. The mid-Atlantic blind golfers hosted a golf clinic for students from several of the EAAB schools. The high school students ended a unit on medieval history with an all day event, which included art and music from the period. The students made costumes to wear at the feast and participated in a variety of games. - Jay Doudna [Jay@osb.org]
SOUTH CAROLINA Since 1986 (pre-ADA), the SC School for the Deaf and the Blind and Spartanburg Technical College, a public community college, has offered a statewide residential program serving deaf and blind adults. The program provides interpreters, note-takers, reader-writers, tutors, and advisors employed by SCSDB in the Student Disabilities Office at the College. Students from throughout South Carolina can be transported through the statewide bus system, live in apartments and have meals on the SCSDB campus, be transported daily to the college campus, and have access to a separate assistive technology lab at the college.
Thirty-one (31) deaf, blind and deaf/blind students are enrolled in associate degree and certificate programs at the College in Spring, 2001, the largest enrollment of any postsecondary institution in South Carolina. The program has graduated over 300 students since its inception, and recently earned an award as a model program by the National Transition Alliance for Youth with Disabilities of the U. S. Department of Education. For more information, contact Dr. Bob Day, Director, Career and Technology Education at SCSDB, at (864) 577-7744 [rday@scsdb.k12.sc.us]
We are so excited to have so much going on at the school. We have been pursuing HUD money for a new multihandicapped accessible dorm, phase one for Walker hall, and the renovations of Voss gym for the PAN AM games. Everywhere we look there are fences, dirt piles, and moving vehicles. Dr. Breitweiser is in motion in our state capitol looking for funding for many programs and that much needed infrastructure maintenance. She is seeking bond monies to enhance the Herbert Center for accessibility by our special needs population. We had an artist selection for the Helen Keller Art display in Washington and one of our students won the T-shirt design for the Footsteps to Fitness March of Dimes contest for the local public school district. - Lin Mackechnie [LMackechnie@scsdb.k12.sc.us]
SOUTH DAKOTA Each spring the Aberdeen Mayor's Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities hosts "Barrier Awareness Day" for second graders. The goal of the activity is to reduce both physical and attitudinal barrier that exist in our community. This half-day event takes place at the SDSBVI and is organized by the participating agencies and individuals with disabilities. The second graders are involved in numerous hands-on experiences ranging from making a sandwich to wheel chair basketball. They see a wide variety of assistive technology and have a chance to meet students with disabilities who explain how they manage their lives. Our students have an opportunity to demonstrate their skills and help educate the community about blindness.
The SDSBVI exhibit "Visions of Success" opened Tuesday, April 3, at the Dacotah Prairie Museum in Aberdeen. The exhibit reflects the school's history as well as considerable information about teaching students with vision loss. "Visions of Success" will remain open for a year in Aberdeen, and is being considered for a statewide traveling exhibit the following year.
Through a successful collaboration with the Art Department at Northern State University, a Tactile Art exhibit has been installed in the elementary hallway. The panels were created by students in the Design I class with guidance of art instructor Mark McGinnis. All of the panels have a botanical theme and are rich in both color and texture. Each artist "signed" their name in Braille. These panels will remain on display for a year and will be replaced with the work of the succeeding class. - Marjorie Kaiser [kaiserm@sdsbvi.northern.edu]
TENNESSEE The campus of the Tennessee School for the Blind will be a busy place this Summer. Following are just some of the activities that will be occurring this Summer:
TEXAS Well-deserved congratulations go to the eleven students from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired who participated, along with 8,000 other bicyclists, in a 25-mile tandem bike ride on Sunday April 8, 2001. They rode in the "Ride for the Roses", an event sponsored by two-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, to help raise $1 million for cancer research.
Armstrong and movie star Robin Williams also participated in the ride. The students were partnered with TSBVI recreation staff and volunteers from the Junior League of Austin and United Youth Sports (UYS). The weather was perfect and the students enjoyed the event. Student racer Cody Gootee said, "It was fun - I wanted to ride another 25 miles."
The Curriculum Department is proud to announce the summer release of three new products. The Elementary Concepts Curriculum, a thematic-based instruction guide for pre-K through 3rd grade level, includes an assessment of readiness skills. The Calendar Guide explains the benefits of a calendar system, how to create various types of calendars, and how to use them to support communication.
The Braille Curriculum has been designed for use at four levels - primary, upper elementary, middle school and high school - and includes review, introduction of new contractions, discrimination, listening, reading and writing. For more information contact (512) 206-9240. - Gloria Bennett [bennettg@tsbvi.edu]
WASHINGTON The Washington State School for the Blind, Department of Services for the Blind and Lions Sight, Hearing Foundation of Washington and Northern Idaho, both blind consumer organizations, various optometrist, ophthalmologists and low vision clinics have been named the recipient of one of the Governor of Washington's Quality Awards for work in helping to create a system change in the area of low vision.
Low Vision Task Force In Washington State, more than 102,000 individuals have severe visual impairment. Vision loss has become a national health issue. Out of a shared concern for the lack of public awareness and quality services for individuals with low vision, the Washington Lions Low Vision Task Force was formed. Experts in the fields of medicine, education and vision rehabilitation and individuals who are blind and partially sighted have formed a unique public/private partnerships to address this problem and implement a system change that will help restore independence and freedom to many individuals.
Activities of the task force are supported through partnership funding from: Department of Services for the Blind, Washington State School for the Blind, Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation of Washington and Northern Idaho, and the Washington School for the Blind Foundation. This collaboration has provided a forum to bring an interdisciplinary team of experts and consumers together to redefine and enhance the service delivery system and to heighten awareness of low vision services and issues:
- Dean O. Stenehjem [Dean.Stenehjem@wssb.wa.gov]
WISCONSIN The Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped will have its second annual daily living challenge day. This year's events will include: a muffin making contest, the swiftest server, the fastest cashier and other fun activities. Each homeroom will compete in events designed for their level of abilities. Judges will be from the local newspaper, the state department of education, and WSVH administrators. - Thomas Hanson [thomas.hanson@dpi.state.wi.us]
November 8-11, 2001
Franklin Wyndham Plaza Hotel
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The following are topics which will be addressed in concurrent and/or poster sessions relevant to literacy for people who are blind or visually impaired. Sessions consist of research reports, panel discussions, hands-on demonstrations or round table discussions.
Proposals for sessions or posters need to address at least one of the many aspects of literacy as listed below:
For each submission, please indicate the following on a separate sheet of paper: Whether the submission is for a concurrent presentation session or poster session. Both will be approximately one and a half (1 1/2) hours in length.
Title of presentation or poster.
Presenter(s):
Address(es):
Affiliation(s):
Phone Numbers: (Indicate day and evening, please)
Fax Number:
Email address:
A One (1) page abstract of the paper or poster.
Please submit the above information by December 21, 2000 to:
Debby Holzapfel, Program Chair
Western Instructional Support Center
5347 William Flynn Highway
Gibsonia, PA 15044
(724) 443 -7821 (Telephone)
(724) 443 -1310 (Fax)
holzapfel@wisc.org (Email)
By Dr. Dean O. Stenehjem, Superintendent, Washington State School for the Blind
As the needs for services for blind and visually impaired children continue to grow throughout our country, residential schools need to continue to evolve in meeting these needs. Over the past 15 years many residential schools have stepped forward in expanding outreach services in an attempt to develop strong partnerships with local school districts' as a means of meeting the needs of blind and visually impaired children. The expansion of a variety of outreach services has been very successful in many states and thousands of children, their parents, and school staff have gained valuable training. This has been a good start, but what else could we be doing in reaching out and providing services to those in remote areas of our states that are difficult to reach on a regular basis, and require specialized services that can be very expensive? What can be done to help eliminate the barriers of each of our states unique geography? And, what can be done to assist in bringing parents and children together for socialization, peer to peer interaction, learning/sharing, and the good old fashion comparing of notes?
I don't know if WSSB has the answer, but we do plan on utilizing technology as a tool to assist in bringing people together, networking resources, and reaching people in those hard to reach locations in a cost effective and efficient manner. During the next two years, WSSB will embark on a new venture of developing a distance learning program that will incorporate many technologies currently available, explore new technologies and approaches as a means of reaching out to those in need of specialized training. The school has two major capital projects in the legislative process at this time and will be seeking funding to implement new approaches to old problems. Stay tuned for more information in the future.
By Brenda Stewart, Technology Specialist, Illinois School for the Visually Impaired
At the start of this school year, Cindy Miller, Middle School Life Skills Educator, and Diane Wayne, Speech and Language Specialist at the Illinois School for the Blind, began looking for a way to provide students with current events to "talk" about.
At a conference in Minnesota, Mrs. Wayne heard about a symbol-based newspaper that could be downloaded from the Internet every week. The newspaper is designed to provide " big picture" news to special needs individuals, is illustrated with the Mayer-Johnson Company Picture Communication Symbols. Weekly, it features articles on current events, recipes, a joke page, activity pages, and vocabulary words within its typical 12-15 pages. This ready-to-use newspaper also allows you to create articles specific to your school.
In October, Mrs. Miller's class took on the job of "delivering" the paper to students who would benefit from this format (high interest, low vocabulary and reading abilities). Not only has it been an excellent way of providing content to make students' conversations more interesting and meaningful, but it also has provided Mrs. Miller's class with a variety of pre-vocational opportunities. Since starting the subscription, several editions have included guest articles by students ranging from campus sports reviews to student interviews and recipes.
In addition to the job of delivering the papers, the Braille Dot Print Shop, a campus student-operated business, has been involved in reformatting and producing braille copies. Mrs. Miller states, "The students have been a tremendous help in supporting our efforts to provide braille readers access to this weekly newspaper". Mrs. Wayne is excited that the students now anticipate the weekly newspaper and are anxious to "discuss" what's happening in the world around them. For more information on subscribing to the paper visit: www.news-4-you.com.
The Illinois School for the Visually Impaired (ISVI) offers its students a wide array of assistive technology. The school has at least one computer in every classroom that is available for student use, with many classrooms having several computers available. Two technology centers are also available throughout each school day that also offers evening hours so students may access this equipment at almost any time. Additionally, the dormitories have two to three computers available for student use on each floor. These computers offer screen enlargement software along with screen reading software. The ISVI is on a LAN system (Local Area Network) which also allows all computers on the campus to be networked to numerous locations where laser printers and Braille embossers are readily available. Complete Internet access is available campus-wide as well.
The Illinois School for the Visually Impaired also provides instruction in the use of various note-taking devices such as the Type-n-Speak and the Braille-n-Speak. In the near future, Voice Note and Braille Note will also be available for student instruction and use at ISVI. Additionally, scanners are also available for instructional and student use at the school. A wide variety of other technology is also available that include the use of CCTV's, the Braille Lite, and other assistive technology equipment.
Several ISVI educators also employ the use of Intellikeys with students who may have multiple disabilities. These teachers are quite creative in producing many of their own overlays to use with this specialized software and hardware. This technology is used to teach a variety of concepts while promoting improved communication skills with these young people. This equipment implements tactual, visual, and auditory input and output that facilitates physical and cognitive access on behalf of the student user. The ISVI continues to be a statewide resource, reaching out to offer assistance in the education of blind and visually impaired young persons across the state. The school remains a knowledgeable leader in assistive technology for individuals who are blind and visually impaired in the state of Illinois.
By Jim Allan, Webmaster, Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Permission to reprint this article has been granted by the author and the Council of Exceptional Children - Division on Visual Impairments Quarterly)
Given the number of "visits" (an average of 1,700 a day) it seems that many people know about the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) website. However, with more than 2,500 pages, contemplating the site can be a little daunting. As the webmaster, I wanted to take this opportunity to solicit content, provide some information about the site; the vision, the type of resources that are available, and some hints for negotiating through the nearly 100 megabytes of information.
The reason this is such a great site is that many people have taken the time to share. On thing we have found, with apologies to "The Field of Dreams" - 'if you put it on the web, they will come!' All of us (schools, administrators, teachers, residential staff, students, etc.) have a wealth of information, experience, and knowledge. The field is too small and too disconnected for all of us NOT to share.
Let us say that your school or someone on your staff has information (teacher developed assessment protocol, lesson plans, workshop handouts, etc. [please do not be limited by categories presented]) that you think might be useful. And, you want to share this wonderful information with your peers (the world). But, you are not sure how to do it, or if it is appropriate. Then, contact the webmaster, Jim Allan, and work it out together. Of particular need is information in the areas of Orientation & Mobility, daily living skills, recreation, residential programming, and vocational/rehabilitation teaching.
If you find something that is not working, is misspelled, or just does not seem right on the website. Or even if you have not been able to find it on the web, this is also a good time to contact Jim Allan. If he does not know something is broken, it cannot be fixed. You will be able to find his address at the bottom of every page.
In 1996, with support from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), TSBVI had an opportunity to develop a state-of-the-art, accessible website that focused on visual impairments. The website is an extension of the mission of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. That is, to act as a resource for children with visual impairments, their families and the professionals who serve them. Specifically, the site strives to act as a clearinghouse for information, to provide families and skilled professionals with a place to ensure that their skills and experiences can be shared with others. It is also intended to be a model of accessible web design.
Just as every reference book must have a table of contents, index or other organizing tool, so must a website. In a book, the "table of contents" is on the front page. On the website the major areas are on the home page. There are 13 major areas on the TSBVI website, each of these areas are followed by a description of the individual topics included.
About Our School - general information and events occurring at TSBVI.
Adaptive Technology Resources - assistive technology manufacturer's
contact information, assessment, training, web accessibility, accessible textbooks,
and accessibility guidelines.
Texas Deafblind Project - information about technical assistance to
families and schools involved with children with deafblindness who are between
the ages of birth and twenty-two, including census, workshops and resources.
Curriculum Publications - ordering and pricing information for all
those materials that TSBVI has published over the years. Detailed listing of
each table of contents for 14 curriculum guides and more...
Instructional Resources - links to curriculum, math, multiple impairments,
assessments, subject resources, download Braille materials and fonts, monitor
progress of the AFB Solutions Forum, and more...
National Agenda Home Page - including the core curriculum, goals, the
board, contact information, endorsing agencies, and more...
Outreach Program - overview of outreach services and staff, statewide
in-service calendar, and more...
Program & Administrative Resources - information and resources
to assist in the provision and evaluation of quality programming for students
with visual impairments.
Professional Preparation & Mentoring - The Visually Impaired Preparation
(VIP) Program is a collaborative project which links consumers, ESCs (Education
Service Centers), universities, TSBVI, TEA, and TCB (Texas Department of Assistive
and Rehabilitative Services (formerly known as Texas Commision for the Blind)
). The overall goal is to provide enough quality VI professionals (VI teachers
and O&M specialists) to meet the needs of children with visual impairments
in Texas. The Project focuses on recruitment, mentoring, instruction, and advocacy.
See/Hear Newsletter - in English and Spanish, is a quarterly newsletter
for families and professionals on visual impairments and deafblindness. This
is the most popular section of the website.
Space Camp for the Visually Impaired - information, registration, and
pictures about an exciting, accessible, and fun one-week program about space!
The TSBVI website wanted to be more than just a repository for information; it also wants to provide service. With input and assistance from countless others, the website also has the following resources:
Free! Downloadable Braille books (http://www.tsbvi.edu/braille/) - over 90 library books already translated and ready for embossing. These books are produced at the school and by other professionals around the country. If you have Braille files for books, please share and send them to jimallan@tsbvi.edu for inclusion on the website for all to benefit.
Assessment Resources for Vision and Hearing (http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/dbassments.htm) - Texas Deafblind Outreach has compiled a variety of assessment tools which we hope will help parents and educational staff gather functional information that may then be shared with these doctors to aid them in making a definitive determination of hearing or vision loss. Field input is requested, if you know of a useful assessment resource, please complete the form and share the information with others.
Employment Resources for VI Professionals (http://www.tsbvi.edu/programs/jobbank.htm) - rather than looking for school districts, etc. that are post positions, this is a vehicle for VI Professionals to present themselves as available for employment. A simple form to complete, and your posting remain active for 6 months. Links to other sites and resources.
All of the information is available because of the generosity of authors, organizations, families and specialists. Now, all that remains is to tame the information into a useable body of knowledge. Moving through this much information can be a daunting challenge, almost overwhelming.
Use the search functions. At the top of the home page is a search box. Use it. If you are not quite sure what you are looking for, or if you are not quite sure where it might be, just search the site. In addition to the search on the home page, each page has a search button on the top of the page.
Color orientation. Most major sections have different background colors. For example, all of the education pages have a peach background. This can be useful as you move through the website. Now you know if you change sections or websites as you follow an information path.
Right-hand navigation bar. On the right hand side of the home page and major section home page (e.g. About Our School, Instruction Resources) is a list of links to the major sections of the website. It is provided on the right side because the scroll bar is on that side and to serve as index tabs much like a dictionary.
Top of page navigation bar. At the top of every page are links to the "Home Page," "Site TOC" (table of contents), "Search," and a link back to the major section home page. For example, if you are on a page in the Instructional Resources section, the final link in the top navigation bar will be "Education"
Adding to favorites/bookmark. Always add important pages to your favorites or bookmarks list so you can find that information quickly.
For more information contact: Jim Allan at jimallan@tsbvi.edu or visit the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired website at http://www.tsbvi.edu
By Margie Goldware and Vic Trierweiler, California School for the Blind
At the California School for the Blind, technology is a central component of our language development program for younger students who are visually impaired and have multiple disabilities. We attempt to provide students with the tools which will help them participate, take turns and initiate language, even when they have limited verbal language skills. An array of augmentative communication devices may be found in our preschool and primary classes, some with story lines or songs programmed in and others with social language for making choices, requesting items and greeting others.
For more language stimulation, children are treated to songs and stories on the computer which they activate via overlays adapted with tactile markers on Intellikeys keyboards. Some programs are commercially available, such as those by Softtouch Kidtech, and others are programmed by our speech and language staff. As students mature, their needs are continually assessed to provide them with the voice output communication aids which will best fit their cognitive and physical abilities. Many students with visual impairments who are nonverbal become excellent communicators when provided with the devices which permit them to express their thoughts and feelings.
For older students who demonstrate good oral, verbal language but do not have the tactile abilities to read braille, our speech and language staff support curriculum activities by designing programs and quizzes utilizing Intellitools software and IntelliKeys keyboards. Installation of iMac computers fitted with IntelliKeys keyboards in classrooms rather than in the technology lab has facilitated increased development of activities, more time for each student on the computer and more opportunities for teacher input and training.
Based on the concept of word by word reading and writing, as opposed to the more traditional letter by letter method, the Intellitools software enables our students with multiple disabilities to "read" and "write" about topics which interest them. Since the classroom computers were installed a few months ago, students and teachers have requested, received, and are using programs and overlays to learn orientation and mobility routes, practice telephoning, and study facts about daily schedules, animal homes, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, famous people, favorite activities and more. Students are delighted to be able to hear what they have written by pushing a "Read" marker placed in the top left corner of every overlay and many students also ask to print out their work to bring home to show family members.
We look forward to finding more exciting ways to integrate technology into the everyday learning experiences of our students with visual impairments and multiple disabilities.
For more information, please contact:
Margie Goldware
mgoldwar@csb.cde.ca.gov (Email)
or
Vic Trierweiler
vtrierwe@csb.cde.ca.gov (Email)
California School for the Blind
By Dana Foster, Helen Keller School, Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
Allyson Bass is a 21-year-old student with a visual impairment attending the Helen Keller School at the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind. She is speech delayed and uses only a few understandable words. Allyson also uses a walker for mobility in getting from one location to another. As a teacher, I was interested in some form of communication device that she could carry with her.
In my search for a device, I found the Hiptalk 4. This device has a four-message capacity that allows an individual to record and rerecord messages as often as they like. It comes in a soft, nylon zippered pack with a waist strap. The large recessed switch plates on the top make it easy to use by even the most profoundly physically challenged user.
The four messages chosen to use with Allyson were: 1) My name is Allyson Bass; 2) Restroom please.; 3) I would like a snack.; and 4) I am sick. After only four weeks, Allyson was up to a 60% accuracy rate using the device. She was very excited from the beginning and was always very cooperative. One good example of using the device with her was the time she was in the classroom with a male teacher and she pressed the restroom button and he immediately took her to a female teacher and she was taken to the restroom. She had been in the male teacher's classroom for several weeks and had never asked to go to the restroom. I am sure that the device made her more comfortable about that particular situation. I had always felt that given the opportunity, Allyson would communicate more.
For more information about Hiptalk 4 contact:
Enabling Devices - Toys for Special Children
385 Warburton Avenue
Hastings-on-the Hudson, NY 01706
1-800-932-9697 (Telephone)
www.enablingdevices.com (Website)
Future issues of Howe's Now will address:
To submit papers for publication contact:
Robert J. Beadles, Jr., Ph.D.
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
205 East South Street
Talladega, AL 35160
(256) 761-3499 (Telephone)
(256) 761-3520 (Fax)
rbead@aidb.state.al.us (Email)
By Robert Miller, Assistive Technology/Computer Lab Teacher, Oklahoma School for the Blind
The Oklahoma School for the Blind (OSB) has always used Assistive Technology in the classrooms to address the individual needs of our students. Assistive Technology is any item used to "... increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities" (PL 100-407, PL 101-476). Today, Assistive Technology is more advanced and widespread than it has ever been and our students are reaping the benefits.
In the early sixties, Assistive Technology meant either the Hall or Lavender Braillewriter. One was bulky and heavy and the other one, designed for portability, had keys that were difficult to press. By the mid-sixties, teachers had access to the Perkins Braillewriter to produce materials for their classes. "When I received my Perkins Braillewriter, I thought I had died and gone to heaven," said Jeanne Meyer, a retired OSB teacher. "The only way we had to produce Braille for our students' assignments was by manually using the Perkins Braillewriter." To produce multiple copies of a particular Braille assignment, the Braillewriter was only capable of producing two copies at a time, which made this a very time consuming task.
According to Ms. Meyer, the Perkins Braillewriter, slate 'n stylus, Taylor-slate (replaced with the abacus), and later the Thermoform (a machine that produced single-sheet raised-line drawings) were the basic Assistive Technology devices used by teachers until the 1980s. In addition to using technology for producing materials, teachers also needed to use creativity and anything within their means to modify their curriculum and class materials.
Prior to December 1999, most OSB classrooms had only one or two Apple computers. Some of them had printers, but most didn't, and the printers that were there often didn't work properly. There were only two computers with Internet connections on campus, one in the computer lab and one in the library media center.
Not anymore! Assistive technology at OSB has come a long way since the early days of Ms. Meyer. The Assistive Technology we use today offers our students unlimited access to the world around them. We now have a school-wide computer network with three to five computers with Internet access, a scanner, and a printer in every classroom. With the use of screen-readers, screen magnifiers, and scan and read software programs, our students can compose emails, send and receive email attachments, surf the Internet, scan a book and have it read back to them. Students can take notes and create assignments on electronic note-takers. In addition to the regular printers, we also have Braille printers (embossers) in the computer lab to produce Braille easily and efficiently.
With JAWS (Job Access With Speech), the computer screen reading software program, blind students are able log into our school-wide network and complete assignments with a word processor or the Internet. They can even develop PowerPoint presentations. JAWS gives the user speech output, announcing the keystrokes typed and where the user is within a program.
ZoomText, the screen magnification software, gives low vision students several ways to magnify the computer screen. Windows 95/98 also has a zoom feature that magnifies the screen on a limited basis. For our students who have trouble navigating the computer visually, these magnification programs provide them that opportunity.
Open Book, a scan and read program, gives our students the ability to scan documents, books, utility bills, paper currency, etc. and then have it read back to them. This program also allows our teachers to scan text documents, save them as a text files, and with some editing go to the Braille embossers and produce the documents in Braille. This requires special translation software, that we also have networked, allowing our teachers to scan, edit, and translate in their classrooms.
Several of our blind students have electronic note-takers, called Braille-Lites, that are like miniature laptop computers. These devices have a key layout similar to the manual Perkins Braillewriter. The students can take class notes, complete assignments, download and upload computer files, and, with the newest version, even check their email. They have the option of quickly sending their files to the regular printer or the Braille embosser.
It is amazing how technology, used appropriately, has equaled the playing field for our visually impaired and blind students. Our students can do almost anything with the use of Assistive Technology. However, it is important to note that technology is only effective when used appropriately. As teachers of the blind we should not forget to teach our students Braille skills. This should include, in my opinion, the slate 'n stylus. To be successful outside of school, our students need both Braille skills and technological skills.
As we place Assistive Technology in the hands of our students, we begin opening up a whole new world for them to travel. For me, as an Assistive Technology teacher, there is no better feeling than knowing that my visually impaired and blind students can use Assistive Technology to accomplish a task otherwise inaccessible to them.
The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Blindness and Low Vision at Mississippi State University is pleased to announce that the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) has provided funding for an Academic Certificate Program. The purpose of the program is to provide specialized training in vision disabilities for people who are employed in rehabilitation agencies serving persons who are blind and/or people who are in graduate training programs leading toward a Master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling.
The stipend-supported 2002 summer program provides four graduate courses for 12 semester credit hours, including a field experience, on specialized issues, techniques, services, and technology that are specific to the rehabilitation of people with visual impairments. A brochure with more detailed information regarding course work, stipends, admission requirements, program dates and an application, will be mailed in the summer of 2001. For more information contact:
Stacy Butler, Project Coordinator
RRTC on Blindness and Low Vision
(662) 325-2001 (Telephone)
(662) 325-2694 (TDD)
(662) 325-8989 (Fax)
Hundreds of athletes from around the world will vie for medals May 31-June 2 as the 2001 Pan American Games for the Blind come to Spartanburg. The South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind will host the biennial event. More than 300 athletes who are blind or vision impaired will compete in track and field, swimming and goalball. Participating countries in this year's event include Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Mexico, Niger, Peru, Uruguay, USA, and Venezuela.
The Pan Am games are sponsored by the International Blind Sports Association. The competition started in 1997 in Buenos Aires and was next held in 1999 in Mexico City. The 2001 games officially kick off at noon May 29 with a torch run that starts in Columbia, South Carolina. Athletes, politicians and other celebrities will run the torch across the state, culminating with the lighting of the cauldron at the opening ceremonies on the evening of May 30. The opening ceremonies will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on the SCSDB athletic field and will feature the traditional parade of athletes, music, dance and speakers.
"These games are the only multi-national athletic competition for the blind in the hemisphere this year," said Jack Todd, Pan American Games director and SCSDB director of library and media services. "We want people to come out and see the games and see what great competitors we have," Todd said. "I don't want anyone to use the word pity when they leave.maybe inspired, and definitely impressed, but not pity."
Track and field and goalball competitions will take place at the SCSDB. Goalball is a sport similar to soccer that is played inside a gymnasium. The teams are able to follow the ball because it contains a bell, and their goal is to get the ball over their opposing teams' goal line. Swimming will be held at the Middle Tyger YMCA in Duncan, S.C., about a half-hour from SCSDB. Athletes and support staff will be housed in the SCSDB dormitories. For more information about the games, call the SCSDB Public Information Office at (864) 577-7508. For information once the games start, call (864) 316-6123
By Janice Sowokinos, Technology Specialist, North Dakota Vision Services/School for the Blind
The Technology Center at North Dakota Vision Services/School for the Blind serves both students and adults in our state. These are examples of things taking place in the Technology Center in the coming months: 1) Five students will be on campus for a week of special programming will do fun computer activities using R.J. Cooper and other educational software. 2) A retired teacher is learning to use Connect OutLoud with email and the Internet. 3) A working adult with low vision will be trying out adaptations that might improve his working environment. 4) Screen filters will be sent out with Outreach staff for use by a student with albinism in a public school. 5) A group of university education students will tour and look at technology used by people with vision impairments.
We are fortunate to have an up-to-date collection of equipment for demonstration, training and loan. The equipment has been purchased using state dollars, foundation donations, and grants. The Technology Center has four to six computer stations, each with different adaptive hardware and software installed. We also handle a variety of equipment including CCTV's, note-takers, and talking calculators.
Some of our collection of equipment is available for short-term and long-term loan. In addition, our state's technology project, IPAT, has a technology lending library that is housed adjacent to the Technology Center. This library is a wonderful resource for us when working people who have additional disabilities. We strive to be a resource for people needing the amazing technology now available to improve their lives.
A special tribute was held on the campus of the NCEBVI for Jerry and Anita Regler. Jerry was a former superintendent at the Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired (NCECBVI). Anita is celebrating her 60th year as an alumni from our school. She was one of four graduates from the class of 1941.
Following the ceremony, Anita's children and grandchildren helped plant a tree in their honor. We chose to do this on April 27th - as the community was also celebrating Arbor Day - as Nebraska City is the home of Arbor Day!
Alex Rodriguez, a student at Overbrook School for the Blind, uses a simple communication device to help him deliver newspapers.
Students and faculty from the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind visited the Biosphere this past Spring. Alyssa Perez a student at ASDB and a teacher aide discuss the Biosphere with a Steve Russell, director of the Biosphere's educational outreach programs.
By Larry Skutchan, Project Leader for Technology, American Printing House for the Blind
As the Internet explodes and the pace of our lives becomes faster, most of us find we have increasing amounts of material to read. The advent of the PC has been a tremendous access breakthrough for blind students and professionals, but reading has traditionally meant being chained to the computer. RoadRunner changes all that. This brief article gives you some clues about getting material for your RoadRunner.
RoadRunner is a small device (not much larger than a single cassette tape) that is used to read books away from your computer. It uses a high quality, built-in RC Systems DoubleTalk® speech synthesizer to read, and it holds about 2000 pages of text. RoadRunner is powered with two AA batteries, which last for about 50 hours of continuous reading.
Finding books on the Internet When one thinks of references to electronic text available on the Internet, the Gutenberg Project comes first to mind. The Gutenberg Project is a library of several thousand books in the public domain. They are freely available from several places on the Internet. www.gutenberg.net is a good place to get books and a list of other sites where the Gutenberg Project material is archived. A group of interested individuals volunteers to scan or type these books into plain ASCII files and make them available free to anyone who wants to read them.
While the Gutenberg Project is admirable and certainly provides some interesting reading material, chances are you already have subject matter that your study or profession requires. Most likely, you will have to either obtain this material from other places on the Internet or by scanning it in with an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program.
As the growth of the Internet explodes, so does the quality and quantity of material in electronic format. There are hundreds of magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and books available from various places on the Internet. We already mentioned the Gutenberg Project. What follows is a list of some interesting places to obtain electronic reading material, but the most important thing to keep in mind when looking for text on the Internet is to search often. Do not be surprised to find new listings every time you do. Use key words like e-text, electronic text, e-books, on-line books, and online newsletters. Any of the major search engines will yield results with these key words. If you get too many hits or if you want to narrow the scope of your search, try adding key words for the subject material you are looking for.
Ask Jeeves® at www.aj.com is a good search engine that submits your search request to several of the other popular search engines. You may also want to try Alta Vista® at www.altavista.com, Lycos® at www.lycos.com, and Yahoo® at www.yahoo.com for good search engines that will all find more material than you might think. For an extremely speech friendly interface that lets you select the search engine you want to use, try www.seti-search.com.
One relatively new phenomenon is the advent of electronic publishers. Electronic publishers are alternatives to traditional paper publishing, and they represent a breakthrough for material available to blind and visually impaired people.
Electronic publishers market themselves to both readers and authors. The reader gets a book for less than he can purchase it on paper because it is easier to distribute, and the authors get their work published because there are no high initial costs to get the book printed and distributed. It is truly a win-win situation. The only slight drawback is that you would not find Daniel Steel or Robert Ludlum at the electronic publishers. You are more likely to find new authors who cannot get published by the traditional publishers or who find that electronic distribution works better for them. Authors also receive a much higher royalty from electronic books because there are no high printing and distribution costs. It is nice to be able to browse the titles without sighted assistance, and when you purchase the book, you can begin reading it immediately instead of waiting for days while you scan the book into your OCR program.
www.booklocker.com is an example of such an electronic publishing house. They have hundreds of books to choose from in a number of categories. Their price ranges from just over $5 to around $20 per title. Their ordering system works well with speech, and you will get your book emailed to you within hours of your purchase.
www.hardshell.com is another electronic publishing house that sells books online.
www.netbooks.com sells books in its online bookstore. This site also offers free books.
One thing you will have to be careful of and aware of is the format in which the books are supplied. PDF files are the worst, and you will have to convert them to text before you can do anything with them. PDF stands for Page Description Format, and while they do a great job of showing what the printed page looks like on a computer screen, they do not maintain any of the structure of the original work. Fortunately, Adobe offers a text extraction utility that does a good job at converting text from .PDF to .TXT format.
Likewise, you will have to convert HTML into text before you can upload it to RoadRunner. Fortunately, this is usually very easy to do. Consult your browser's documentation for details about your specific program, but in general, you can use the Save As function from the File menu in Windows browsers to save the document as plain text. If you are using Lynx, use the Print command and select Save as a Local File to convert the HTML into text.
In addition to electronic publishing houses that sell books to you, there are lots of places on the Internet to obtain materials free. Cathy's News Stand at www.cathyanne.com is a great source for electronic text of all kinds. Cathy's Web page contains links to magazines, reference works, newspapers, and just about anything else you can think of. Cathy makes it her business to keep up to date on electronic sources of reading materials, and she shares that work through her Web page.
Electric Books at www.electricbook.com is another good place to start when looking for material, especially about a specific subject. This site categorizes its magazine listings by subject and its newspapers by state, so it is easy to narrow down the amount of material you have to plow through.
Ask Magpie Magazines at www.askmagpie.com contain links to over 7000 online magazines and journals. As they say, "The bigger the Web gets, the harder it gets to find what you want." Ask Magpie Magazines let you search by category or travel through common categories to find what you want. Once you select a category, Ask Magpie presents a sub-category, so it is painless to narrow your focus through its database. Once you do find the specific magazine you are looking for (or find a new one you did not know about,) you can go directly to that magazine's site with the provided links.
It should be noted that not all magazine websites contain the entire text of their magazine. Some provide the entire text, of course, but others provide only teasers or supplemental material. Others offer back issues online.
When looking for a specific magazine online, try just using that magazine's address as the URL you want to open with your browser's Open command. www.readersdigest.com, www.newsweek.com, and www.time.com are all valid addresses that will take you right to the site you imagine they would.
The American Printing House for the Blind Technology Update is available at www.aph.org/techup.
The Library of Congress maintains an excellent page of e-text sources at www.loc.gov/global/etext/etext.html. It contains links to magazines, newsletters, and government publications and documents.
In addition to Web sites you can travel to, many newsletters supply a service that will email you the latest issue when it becomes available. There are two magazines of particular interest to blind consumers that you will probably want to subscribe to and read with your RoadRunner right away. They are American Council for the Blind's Braille Forum and National Federation for the Blind's Braille Monitor.
http://e-newsletters.internet.com is a great site that holds over 2000 electronic newsletters from a variety of topics. Some of the newsletters are paid subscription types, but many are also free. There are hundreds of sites like this one that gather and distribute email newsletters, and you can find them by using the word "newsletters" in your favorite search engine.
Note that when you get a newsletter emailed to you, you will also have to save the text of that file into a .txt file. Some newsletters come as part of the main message in which case you would use your email program's Save As option to save the email as a text file. Others come as an attachment to your message. In that case, you will have to use your email program's Save Attachments command. The attachment will generally come as a text file already, and you can specify what format you want your attachments in when you subscribe to the newsletter.
In addition to all the generally available electronic text you may find on the Internet, do not forget to check American Printing House for the Blind's Louis database of accessible materials for electronic textbooks from a variety of alternate media suppliers.
The Louis database of accessible materials is accessible through APH's main Web page at www.aph.org. In addition to Braille, large print, and recorded listings, Louis contains an electronic text media type, and you can use that as a criterion for searching the database.
As you can tell from this article, the question is not "Where do I get text for RoadRunner?" It is really, "How do I narrow down the amount of material to read?" Hopefully, this article gives you some places to look for reading material, but more importantly, it gives you ways to work smart while finding the text that interests you.
Group picture at Walnut Hill restaurant in Vicksburg, Mississippi of Outreach Forum participants. The Outreach Forum is an annual meeting of educators involved in outreach services related to blindness. See anyone you know?
New York State School for the Blind Staff Share Their Expertise A blacksmith demonstrates a variety of forging techniques to students at the New York State School for the Blind (NYSSB). The activity was made more meaningful to the visually impaired students by providing a second set of tools and a supply of modeling clay so students could safely bend, flatten, and twist along with the blacksmith.
A week in advance of the activity, teachers at the school showed the students various articles and artifacts made by blacksmiths, the tools and equipment used by blacksmiths, and worked with students on the necessary vocabulary so they would better understand the demonstration.
The blacksmith is none other than NYSSB Orientation and Mobility Specialist, Charles Canterbury. Chuck has been employed at the school for over 30 years.
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