By: Carmen Willings teachingvisuallyimpaired.com Updated February 26, 2016
The student who is blind or visually impaired will need assistance to be included in all the school activities including movies and assemblies. Teachers will need to collaborate and communicate with guest speakers, principals, and other school personnel to ensure that the total school and educational environment are accessible.
Guest Speakers
If the school is planning to have a guest speaker, contact the guest speaker well in advance to discuss the adaptations needed for the presentation. Let the speaker know that assistance will be provided to modify materials and decide on a date to gather the materials that need to be adapted.
Ask the speaker to arrive a little early on the day of the presentation so the student can have the opportunity to examine any manipulative materials in advance of the speaker’s presentation.
Assemblies & Movies
Students with visual impairments should be provided with preferential seating during assemblies and movies unless their behaviors are disruptive to the whole and would distract from the presentation. In order to help the student not feel isolated, allow the student to choose a friend or two to sit with them.
It would also be helpful to arrange for someone to sit next to the student during movies, assemblies, or special events to explain what is happening. This will help the student make sense of the occasion, helps them stay focused, and also helps to discourage daydreaming.
If the class is watching television or movies within the classroom, in addition to preferential seating, it may help to leave a light on in the room. Low lighting will help to decrease the bright lights and flickering that may bother the student.
Audio Description
Audio Description (AD) may be required for some students. AD provides narration of the visual elements (action, costumes, settings, etc.) of theater, television/film, museum exhibitions, and other events. The technique allows those who are blind or have low vision the opportunity to experience the event more completely. In providing audio description it is important for the describer to observe what is seen but not verbalized and if it is important. The describer must edit from what they see and provide the rich language to describe what is happening. Additionally, it describes visuals (pictures, charts, graphs, etc.), actions, and settings not explained in the dialogue or existing narration.
Audio Description Associates professionals use their expertise with description fundamentals and the arts to create access for people who are blind or have low vision-and their families.
The Described and Captioned Media Program provides services designed to support and improve the academic achievement of students (early learning through grade 12) who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind. These services include (1) a library of free-loan described and captioned educational media, (2) a learning center of information related to educational media access, (3) a gateway to Internet resources related to accessibility, and (4) guidelines for adding descriptions and captions to media. There are no user registration or service fees. The DCMP is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the National Association of the Deaf.
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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
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
