BRAILLE APPS

By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com

The following apps allow the user to turn the iOS device into a braillewriter, provide braille instruction or provide help with the braille code.

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TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired

$50.00

Written specifically for fellow itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI’s), this book consists of over 400 activities and topic areas of discussion for instructing students in the Expanded Core Curriculum. The activities are age-neutral and multi-sensory and therefore can meet the needs of the broad range of students served on an itinerant caseload serving. The activities can be individualized to the students various learning modalities and scaffold in order to challenge students but ensure success. Select those activities that align with the student’s learning objects based on the student’s unique visual needs and academic and developmental level.

The core activities listed in the Activity section can be adapted to each thematic unit. These include:

• Object Characteristic Activities
• Quantity & Number Concepts
• Time Concept Activities
• Environment & Job Awareness Activities
• Listening Skills Activities
• Reading Foundation Activities
• Reading Fluency Activities
• Braille Basics Activities
• Writing Activities
• Tactual Efficiency Activities
• Developing Skillful Hands Activities
• Visual Efficiency Activities
• Optical Device Instruction Activities
• Recipe Activities

In addition to the core activity areas, each of the 32 Thematic Units incorporates additional unique ECC concepts and skills providing you with a years’ worth of activities. These units are cyclical and can be used repeatedly to help students build on prior knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of concepts. Each unit includes suggestions for activity adaptation associated with the unit. These include lists of objects, possible community based experiences, environmental print, poems, children & young reader books, children's songs, pop culture songs, movies, and websites.

Unique Concepts within the Units include:

• Self Advocacy Activities (e.g. advocating for safe classroom, presenting to class on visual impairment, requesting help and more)
• Social Skills Activities (e.g. Being bullied or teased, giving and receiving compliments, body language, "I" messages when upset and more)
• Recreation & Leisure Activities (e.g. exploring interest areas, getting involved in clubs and sports, playing games, and more)
• O&M Support Activities (e.g. Suggestions for community based experiences, dog guide information, locations in the school, bioptics, ride sharing, traffic signs, and more)
• Independent Living Skill Activities (e.g. chores, being responsible, using tools, recipe suggestions, hygiene, staying healthy, labeling foods and products, and more)
• Sensory Efficiency Activities (e.g. unique sensory experiences related to the unit, unique optical device activities, and more)
• Compensatory Activities (e.g. organizing materials, study habits, and many unique concepts related to the unit)
• Career & Vocational Activities (e.g. job awareness, completing applications, job task suggestions, and more)

Although the intended audience of this resource is fellow Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments, special education teachers may find these activities beneficial to the students in their classrooms as the activities are multisensory and include life skills and concepts needed by all students. This resource, however, is not intended to take the place of a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI). Readers are advised to consult their own TVI’s regarding instruction in the ECC and the unique visual needs of the student’s served in their programs.

Note: This curriculum is a digital pdf download. Once you make your purchase you will be directed to an order confirmation page where you will find the download link. This download will also be included on the receipt sent to the email address you provide. The pdf download can be found directly under the order number.

Each download is intended for single instructor use per copyright. Thank you for helping me preserve the content and not distributing copies to third parties.

Product details

Digital pdf download: 364 pages (11 pt font)

Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

Author: Carmen Willings

Language: English

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Visual Efficiency & Magnifier Fluency Grab & Go ECC Supplements

$20.00

This workbook is a pdf download that can be printed on demand for use with students. It contains five different types of worksheets for developing visual motor skills and near magnifier fluency skills particularly with the use of a video magnifier. As a supplement to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to each of the 32 ECC Thematic units. The worksheets, along with a list of environmental print for each thematic unit, are designed to help students refine their visual motor skills while reinforcing ECC concepts presented in the thematic units.  

Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheet Details:

Digital pdf download: 210 pages

Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

Author: Carmen Willings

Language: English

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Braille Keyboard

Free. BraillePad (EN) allows users to write SMS, mails and social posts, more quickly using the braille code. 

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Free. The MBraille app provides the user with a mobile braille keyboard. Type, edit and send tweets and text messages using contracted or uncontracted English braille. 

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Free. The Visual Brailler by the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) is a simple braille writer for the iPad. This app can be useful in practicing the UEB braille code!

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Touch Gesture Practice

$2.99. The Ballyland Magic App by Sonokids is an educational and fun iPad game specifically designed for children who are blind or have low vision to learn and practice a number of touch gestures for VoiceOver, Apple's built-in screen reader.

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Braille Code Reference Apps

$9.99. Braille Sonar Pro allows for the lookup of Contracted braille symbols, some basic computer braille symbols, and Nemeth code. The app is intended to be used as a reference and does not function as a full translation tool.

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PocketBraille Lite provides the ability for sighted and blind users of the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad to learn the Braille code. PocketBraille Lite lets the user learn the alphabet and punctuation symbols of the Braille code as an entry point to the language.

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Braille Tutorial/Practice Apps

$2.99 Braille Pro is a tutorial for self-paced braille instruction. It translates English letters and words into the six-dot cells of the characters comprising the braille alphabet. The app teaches letters, words, and contractions and has built-in quizzes and a Help section to reinforce learning.

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Free. The Braille Driller is for students with vision learning the braille alphabet. In includes a review of the braille alphabet and four activities of increasing difficulty to help become proficient with it. All drills can be performed timed or untimed. 

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Free+. Braille Tutor allows the user to learn and practice contracted braille (Unified English Braille) on the iOS device. The free version includes practice writing letters and the contractions And, For, Of, The, and With. For $1.99, you can upgrade to lessons that include wordsigns, groupsigns, shortforms, as well as beginning and final letter contractions. 

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$1.99 Exploring Braille with Madilyn and Ruff was created to introduce young children with visual impairments to the braille alphabet in a fun, interactive way.

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