Lesson 2 Accommodations: Blindness

Provide audiotaped, Brailled, or electronic-formatted lecture notes, handouts, and texts.

Give clear verbal descriptions of visual aids including video and printed content used throughout your presentation.

For writing activities, provide computer accommodations. Provide a document format that can be edited electronically by the student, such as an accessible PDF file, a Word document, or a plain text document. Consider a computer with optical character recognition, voice output, Braille screen display, and/or embossed Braille output. For more information, consult the video presentation and publication Working Together: Computers and People with Sensory Impairments or the AccessSTEM Knowledge Base.

To find calculators for students who are blind, consult the National Federation of the Blind Independence Market Online or American Printing House for the Blind.

Use tactile accommodations of graphic materials:

• Tools for creating raised-line drawings can be found at the American Printing House for the Blind.
• One method for drawing tactile lines on a map or diagram is to go over the lines with a pattern tracing wheel; to do this effectively, put something soft under the drawing or map first.
• Raised-line drawings can be created with fabric paint, a glue gun, or other commercially available materials, such as Wikki Stix.
• Additional information is available at Access2Science.

For students who are legally blind yet have a fair amount of usable sight, consider the accommodations listed for individuals with low vision.

Consider making shapes for flow charts or room layouts from tagboard or foam core for the student to manipulate.

Consider having the student work with a partner and providing extra assistance if this activity presents significant challenges.