By: Carmen Willings
teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
​Updated March 11, 2018

It can be beneficial, and in some cases necessary, to formally instruct those new to the vision field, team members, or peers with the opportunity to experience some of what it is like to be blind or have a visual impairment.  Providing in-service training using vision simulators is an excellent teaching tool to help educators learn about the impact of vision impairment on their students. Low vision simulators can make for a fun and educational in-service!

It must be stressed that simulating a visual impairment is not the same as having a visual impairment. The sighted person has the visual memory and experiences to draw from and assist them in identifying information and navigating their way through the environment. 

Keep in mind that it is critical to ensure that everyone stays safe during any type of simulation especially during any movement activities. Each person under simulation should have a sighted monitor to ensure safety.

• Walk in a hallway to locate specific room numbers or areas. You may choose to provide the person with a verbal prompt or provide them with a card with the room number in print/braille and request they find the room.
• Locate a doorway leading to the outside.
• Go outdoors and locate a specific car in the parking lot or locate the correct bus.
• Walk in well lit and dimly lit areas. Similarly, walk from a brightly lit to a dimly lit environment and vice versa.
• Provide the person with a coin purse and encourage them to use a vending machine.
• Request the person to locate and use a water fountain.
• Find a requested item in a familiar and unfamiliar classroom.
• Provide the student with a set of keys and request that they open a locked door.
• Play catch with a playground ball, a tennis ball or a beach ball.
• Get a wet paper towel and clean the table top and sweep up crumbs from the floor.

• Arrange for participants to go through the lunch line and get their lunch.
• Alternatively, provide a "potluck" meal. Prepare labels in different fonts and sizes and have participants fix themselves a plate.
• Provide items to create a simple snack and encourage participants to assemble their snack including spreading cream cheese, peanut butter, etc.
• Present an educational video and quiz participants on information that was dependent on vision.
• Write information on the board and require participants to take notes.
• Provide participants with textbooks and call on different participants to take turns reading passages and locating different pages in the text as well as reading diagrams. Also, have the students look up information in the glossary.
• Encourage participants to locate specific websites and find specific information.
• Find a particular item in a flyer or on a menu.
• Provide participants with a word search and require that they complete it in a designated amount of time.
• Provide participants with an "I Spy" book and require that they locate items in the picture in a designated amount of time. 

Vision Simulation Kits & Resources...

The Zimmerman Low Vision Simulation Kit contains goggles and interchangeable visual acuity and visual pathology simulations, as well as peripheral field restriction simulations that allow family, friends, colleagues, and those who work with individuals who have low vision, to better understand the effect that low vision has on mobility, learning, employment, and activities of daily living.

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Vision Rehabilitation Services offers simulators that provide a reasonably accurate picture of some of the functional limitations and abilities that may be experienced with different types of visual impairments.

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App Resources...

Free. Braille Institute's VisionSim (v3.0) app for iPhone and iPad was developed to allow people with healthy vision to see the world through the eyes of a person experiencing one of nine degenerative eye diseases. The eye diseases that are simulated are age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, chronic open-angle glaucoma, corneal edema, diabetic retinopathy, homonymous hemianopia, macular degeneration, retinal detachment, retinitis pigmentosa.

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$0.99. ColorDeBlind is an app that allows users to experience what it is like to be colorblind. It also modifies the live video to help people who are color blind see the real world in ways they haven't before. 

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Handouts

Social Etiquette Handout

This Social Etiquette Handout can be provided to anyone as guidelines for how to interact appropriately with persons who are blind or visually impaired. 
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Free Membership

Sign up for free membership to access the FREE downloadable templates, handbooks and handouts on the Printables page. Simply click on the Log In | Register link in the navigation bar. If you haven't joined yet, you will be prompted to create a password. ​

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TVI's Guide Complete Set Bundle + BONUS Resources

$125.00 $100.00

Buy together at a reduced price and get BONUS resources!

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

The TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC is a digital pdf available for download. It is designed specifically for fellow itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI’s), and 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. 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.

In addition to the book, the following two supplements are included:

·      TVI’s Guide to the ECC Concept Checklist

·      TVI’s Guide to the ECC Activities Checklist

For complete product details and additional images, visit the TVI's Guide product page.

TVI's Guide to the ECC Product details

·      Digital pdf download: 346 pages (11 pt font)

·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

·      Author: Carmen Willings

·      Language: English

Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheets: TVI's Guide to the ECC Grab and Go Supplements

The Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheets is a Grab and Go supplement to the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC. 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 companion 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.  

For complete product details and additional images, visit the Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Product Page.

Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheet Details:

·      Digital pdf download: 210 pages

·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

·      Author: Carmen Willings

·      Language: English

Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency and Maintenance Worksheets: A TVI’s Guide to Teaching the ECC Grab & go Supplement

The Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency and Maintenance Grab and Go ECC worksheet packet is a print on demand workbook that contains worksheets in print and simulated braille to use for data collection. Present the student with a hard braille copy and use the worksheets to document accuracy and fluency in reading braille. As a companion to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to the ECC Thematic activities presented in the curriculum guide. These word lists and sentences will help the student refine their keyboarding or braille reading skills while bridging ECC concepts presented in the thematic units. Although the lists and passages can be produced using a manual braillewriter, you may also copy and paste the passages into any braille translation software for quick production on an embosser. They may also be entered into a typing program such as APH’s Talking Typer to build keyboarding fluency.

For complete product details and additional images, visit the Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency & Maintenance Product Page

Thematic Keyboarding & Braille Fluency Worksheet Details:

·      Digital pdf download: 338-page print and simulated braille worksheets

·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

·      Author: Carmen Willings

·      Language: English

Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists: Grab & Go ECC Supplement

The Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists Grab and Go ECC supplement is a 446 page pdf downloadable print on demand workbook that includes 2940 vocabulary card on 3 1/2" x 2" templates divided by each of the 32 Thematic Units along with a checklist of each unit words in print and simulated braille. As a companion to the TVI's Guide to the ECC, the vocabulary cards correspond to the ECC Thematic activities presented in the curriculum guide. 

Additional Use:

Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments can have a extremely varied caseloads. It is possible to go several years without having a student on your caseload who requires braille instruction. Like other skills, if you do not practice your braille regularly, it is easy to lose those skills. Use these checklists and cards to maintain your braille skills. Fold the checklist along the line dividing the print from the braille. Choose to either read the print and produce the word in braille using a braillewriter or read the simulated braille and decode it. Finally, these vocabulary cards and checklists may be used with family members or peers who are interested in learning and practicing the braille code.

For complete product details and additional images, visit the Thematic Vocabulary Cards & Checklists Product Page

Thematic Vocabulary Cards and Checklists Details:

·      Digital pdf download: 446-page print on demand resource

·      Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

·      Author: Carmen Willings

·      Language: English

BONUS!

Lotto Cards

The LOTTO Cards Grab and Go Supplement includes 37 theme related unit cards along with activity suggestions that support activities within the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC.

On My Way File Folder Cards

Print and use these cards to represent locations the student may visit that are related to the current thematic unit. Use these with the On My Way File Folder Game outlined in the TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC p. 27.

NEW! Access to TVI's Guide Bonus Membership Pages

Note:

All products are digital pdf downloads. 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. If you encounter any difficulty, please let me know and I can assist you.

*Please contact me if you need to purchase using a purchase order. I am happy to help guide you in the process of adding Teaching Students with Visual Impairments as an approved vendor for your school or program or you can visit the product support page for information on using a PO.

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