Reading Accommodations for Students With Visual Impairments

Dean Traylor is a freelance writer and teacher who writes about various subjects, including pedagogy and creative writing.

by Michael Macor, The Relate

Visual learning is a luxury many students have in school. Books, pictures, movies and computer graphics have become critical tools for teaching numerous curricula. Even the power to learn to read and play music or athletics is seriously hindered when in that location are no visual cues to larn from.

Yet, not all students accept this luxury. Students with visual impairments are at a serious disadvantage and frequently must rely on their other senses to learn. Even this process tin have its limitation and seriously impact what the student can learn.

In cases like these, teachers (general or special educational activity teachers) must employ various forms of accommodations to help students with visual impairments obtain the aforementioned blazon of education that their non-disabled peers are getting.

Accommodating these students in the classroom is essential. There are techniques, styles and assistive technologies that tin can be used to help them acquire the same curriculum as their non-disabled peers. Many of these accommodations can be institute on the adaptation/modification pages of an IEP (individual education plan). Other suggestions for accommodations exist on numerous websites specializing in special education, learning disabilities and visual impairments.

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What Does the Term Visual Impairment Mean?

To begin, 1 must sympathise what the designation of visual harm ways. Students with visual impairment accept express or diminished apply of vision. This damage will affect the students in diverse ways. Some volition be totally blind, while others may have tunnel vision, peripheral vision or accept some form of limited sight.

Many students with visual impairments can run into the globe around them; withal, the vision is limited. In some cases, they may need words in a volume, mag, website or other forms of written media magnified (In part, these impairments are responsible for large impress books).

Blindness is often the most extreme form of visual impairment. There are varying degrees of blindness. Students labeled every bit beingness legally blind volition have vision worse than xx/200 and have a visual field of less than 20 degrees diameter.

People who are legally blind can read books, become to movies, and enjoy other visual arts or communications. Still, they demand the help of magnifications, seeing-eye dogs, or canes when reading or traveling.

Incomprehension is often the well-nigh farthermost form of visual damage. There are varying degrees of blindness. Students labeled as being legally blind will have vision worse than xx/200 and have a visual field of less than twenty degrees bore.

Accommodations

In that location are several forms of accommodations. These accommodations will be based on the individual student'southward needs. It is of import that a teacher collaborates with a specialist, the pupil's case-carrier, or obtain data from the student'southward IEP and its Accommodation/Modifications page.

Usually, an IEP will list the following accommodations:

• Flexible time on exams and assignments
• Culling testing such as oral tests Sound book Flexible seating (i.e. in forepart of the form or by the board)
• Breaking lessons into smaller pieces
• Braile lesson materials
• Ane-on-one assistance (aid from paraprofessional)
• Note-taking support Assistive engineering

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Assistive technology has get a popular medium to arrange students with visual impairment. Some class that exists is a screen magnification or reading software. Some other is a reckoner-reading plan such as a reader or software that tin convert a book onto a computer, have its words enlarged, and use audio recording to aid the students in reading comprehension.

Other assistive technologies are Blazon-and-speak, Braille-and-Speak devices or voice recognition software.

Testing Accommodations

Standardized testing is increasingly being used in schools throughout the land. Even students with learning disabilities are beingness routinely tested through these assessments. Testing accommodations are needed for students with visual impairments.

A teacher administering a examination for students with visual impairments may do the following (again, it'due south based on the individual pupil's educational needs and functional abilities):

• The employ of readers, scribes, word processors, or big print magnifying equipment.
• Take questions read to the students by a reader.
• Have exam reproduced to large print.
• Permit actress time for exam taking in an culling site.
• Have students respond questions orally and have a scriber or paraprofessional tape the reply.

Students with visual impairments can learn the same curriculum that their not-disabled peers are exposed to. Still, these students need accommodations in order to level the field for them and help them acquire.

One example of accommodation for visually impaired students

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author's noesis and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2014 Dean Traylor

Tim Truzy from The statesA. on December 05, 2018:

It's important to note: Students with visual impairments with advisable accommodations, like most students with special needs, learn at about the same rate as their peers without visual impairments. Vision loss is not a cognitive thing; it'southward a sensory issue. Students with visual impairments have reduced access to the visual environs which impacts their power to appoint in incidental learning. These deficits in learning must be addressed sequentially through straight instruction led by the Teacher of the Visually Impaired.

Also, a general education teacher should not attempt to implement accommodations without consulting with a licensed Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI), which should be on staff at the school or working in an itinerant capacity for the district. This may include having the TVI administer tests when advisable.

Notwithstanding, your recommendations are generally not bad, provided the TVI is involved with these processes considering it's failure to do so which results in misunderstandings about vision loss.

Thanks for a great commodity on how to improve pedagogy for this population of students.

Sincerely,

Tim

joneswillearrimay.blogspot.com

Source: https://owlcation.com/academia/Effective-Classroom-Accommodations-for-Visually-Impaired-Students

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