Overview

For blind students, using standard educational materials is a daily struggle. In this module, we provide a range of assistive technology device suggestions so that information can be understood by touch or sound.

To make print materials accessible to people who are blind or have low vision, four methods are widely used. These are sometimes referred to as alternate formats:

• Audiocassettes,
• Braille,
• Electronic Documents, and
• Large Print.

For this module, we will focus on the first three methods. First, we provide a background of the availability of adapted educational materials for blind students.

Federal Quota Program

The Federal Act to Promote the Education of the Blind was enacted by Congress in 1879. This act is a means for providing adapted educational materials to eligible students who meet the definition of blindness. The system through which these specialized materials are distributed is known as the Federal Quota Program. An annual registration of eligible students determines a per capita amount of money designated for the purchase of educational materials produced by the American Printing House for the Blind (APH).

APH also maintains and supports Louis, an international online database and reference service, which furnishes information on the availability of books and materials in accessible media.

Several of the assistive technology devices described within can be found on Federal Quota lists.

Low Tech Classroom Devices

Blind students can use a variety of low-tech devices and materials for improved access to the general curriculum. The list below offers some assistive technology solutions. The Resource section describes more sources.

Raised Line Drawings

Why use Raised Line drawings?
Blind students must have opportunities to explore shapes, maps and other concepts of design in order to:

• Produce simple maps,
• Allow children to draw,
• Practice handwriting,
• Make graphs, and
• Teach beginning tactual skills.

The following aids and devices help to provide these opportunities:

• Quick Draw Paper™
• Tactile Marking Map
• Spot 'n Line Pen
• Embossed line graphs
• Thermo-Pen with Flexi Paper
• Fuse Machine

Books & Games

Books in Braille

There are several sources of books in Braille format for beginning to mature readers. For early readers, books are available from the National Braille Press Children's Book Club with thermoform overlays for each page so that they can read along in the Braille version while a sighted person reads the story to them. Join the Children's Book Club to receive print Braille titles for ages preschool through third grade. They are the same price as the print book!

Other sources:

• Seedlings Braille Books for Children

• APH Products for Early Literacy This series of 18 storybooks contain information and activities to enhance development of literacy. Each storybook contains large print, tactile illustrations and Braille. Other books can be accessed through the Louis database.

• The Braille Bookstore

• National Library Service for the Blind (NLS)
  (membership required)

• Web-Braille is a web-based service that provides in Grade-2 electronic format the full text of thousands of NLS-produced Braille books and magazines.
  
  
• International Electronic Braille Book Library, a project of the International Braille Research Center.

Due to recent legislation mandating that classroom materials be in accessible formats for all students, booksellers such as Amazon.com provide materials in audiocassette and CD, large-print and Braille formats.

Harry Potter Formats: Amazon.com: $6.99 National Braille Press:$6.99

Books on Tape

Free sources of taped textbooks are available for anyone with a documented disability (including a visual impairment, learning disability or other physical disability) that makes reading standard print difficult or impossible. Membership is required.

• Recordings for the Blind & Dyslexic

Games in Braille

Everyone loves to play games. Check the Resource section for sources of many card and board games designed with Braille labels. Scrabble and Uno are two examples:

Online Games
Accessible Games are designed for the blind and visually impaired user. The games require a sound board as they are for users with limited vision. Download games to play or play against an opponent over the Internet.

Audyssey Magazine On-line is the gaming magazine for the blind and visually impaired community. It is a great place to discover accessible new and old games.

Bavisoft creates games for the blind including the popular Grizzly Gulch Western Extravaganza, a world set in the Old West created purely from sound imagery. No vision is required.

Hark the Sound: Sound Games for Kids 15 games are included with Braille Letters and Words, Name That Tune and Name That Sound as just a few. You can even make you own games to play! (By Diane Brauner and Gary Bishop)

Teaching Sighted Students About Braille
Braille Bug (AFB) These interactive games teach about Braille. Send a friend a "secret message" or change the colors on your screen.

Communications: Create Your Own Code From the BrickLab, all students become more aware of written Braille language by participating in four activities where they learn and use Braille to read "special codes".

Computer Aids

Because of their ability to provide a variety of alternate formats for learning, computers hold great potential for blind students.

Keyboard Alternatives

Students with disabilities often learn keyboarding skills early, because the computer offers an accessible way for both writing and reading. Typing tutorials are available for this purpose. Alternate keyboards are sometimes sought due to multiple disabilities or efficiency of use.

One alternative for blind students is IntelliKeys, which uses standard and customized overlays for software control. Resources that create Braille overlays are available, as well as kits to make any overlay accessible to blind users.

IntelliTactiles™ Standard Overlay Companions (APH)
IntelliTactiles™ make the IntelliTools Standard Overlays accessible to Braille readers. These durable clear-plastic tactile overlays slip under the ledges of the IntelliKeys keyboard on top of the visual overlays. The tactile overlays feature Braille markings and special tactile point symbols.

Washington State School for the Blind
This school creates downloadable Brailled IntelliKeys overlays for several popular software programs (Access Programs) and other activities. The overlays are for MS Windows products only. Macintosh versions of this software are available at the Special Education Technology in British Columbia site.

Hints to Using IntelliKeys with Blind Students

Problem: Students using Braille need to touch key areas to determine their label. They don't want the computer to interpret this exploration as a key selection.

Solution: Use the IntelliKeys set-up overlay and DELAY the Response Rate. This adjusts the time required to press on a key before it is activated. There is a scale from 1-15, with 15 being the fastest rate. SLOW the rate to 1 so that the student has time to explore, and then press. She will need to hold her selection a little longer. As she becomes familiar with the key layout, the rate can be increased.

Make sure the auditory feedback is ON!

Problem: Using Braille overlays with a beginning reader
(The following solutions are from Alida P Ryerson.)

Solution: When working with a beginning Brailler on IntelliKeys, I put the Braille in a non-responding (send nothing) box so she can read it without activating anything. When she makes her choice, she drops to a second box below it, which sends the message. Putting tactile borders on the send boxes prevents a lot of unintended messages and gives her the freedom to explore the Braille words before making a choice.

Problem: Creating e-mail overlays

Solution: With IntelliKeys, you can place a series of commands under a single key. We identified select key commands on an overlay to open Netscape, open mail, receive, send and write emails, and delete or save them. We also used a screen reader program so that additional commands (select all, read all, etc.) could also be managed with one key. When we started, we entered generic greeting messages, "Hello, How are you doing," "Hello, I am in school," "See you when I get home." You can't imagine the excitement when we helped Amy send her mother an email.

Amy had to listen to the sports announcements in the morning, and then decide to which coach to send a message. The "Morning Activity" overlay had the e-mail addresses of the High School, Junior High and the boys and girls soccer and basketball coaches. She had to select the right coach and then select the appropriate message, either

We used symbols and photos on the keys to help her select the right keys. Sometimes the coach would post her message on the team bulletin board!!!

Mouse Alternatives

Using Keyboard Commands

The most popular way of interacting with computer software is by using a mouse to point and click on pictures and menus. This is impossible for blind users. Many people are unaware that you can navigate the computer's graphic interface by keyboard commands alone.

Students who are totally blind can access the computer by screen reader software and/or refreshable Braille displays and by keyboard commands. With this access, students can independently use the computer to read, write, send and receive e-mail and do research.

Did you know that:

	The "Windows" key does the same thing as pointing and clicking on the button?
	The "Shortcut Menu" key does the same thing as clicking the right mouse button?
	The "ALT" key places the focus in the Menu Bar to provide keyboard access to the pull-down menus?
	The "TAB" key moves the focus from area to area in a dialog box?

Looking for Keyboard Commands?
Check out individual software programs for a list of keyboard shortcuts. Here are some lists for operating systems:

Windows Keyboard Commands

Internet Browser Commands (General)

Macintosh Keyboard Commands

Common Keyboard Commands: Mac + Windows

Writing & Computers

Blind students often use standard keyboards with computers. Tactile key labels help identify keys, while Talking Word Processors and Typing Tutorials are available with speech output. Portable note takers provide complete independence for writing!

Tactile Key Indicators

Tactile Indicators
Commercially available, adhesive-backed, clear or colored dots with a raised bump in the middle are unobtrusive. They help non-visually impaired typists as well.

Tactile indicators are helpful in positioning the fingers on the home row keys and for quickly finding the left and right WINDOWS keys . They can be found as home row indicators, loc-dots and bump dots at Hoolean and MaxiAids.

HINT: For beginning computer users, placing a small piece of Velcro™ on the BACKSPACE key, the TAB key, the HOME key and the F4 key and on additional keys that are particularly troublesome to the specific user can help achieve more immediate success. As proficiency increases, these indicators can be removed.

Typing Tutorials

Special typing tutorials with speech output are available for blind students. Some are available on audiocassette, others are software programs.

Typing for Everyone (Hadley School for the Blind)
audiotape

Talking Typing Teacher (I Can See Books)
audiotape & software

Talking Typer for Windows (American Printing House for the Blind)
software - (free, downloadable demo available)

Talking Word Processors

IntelliTalk II (Intellitools)
Once blind students learn keyboard commands, IntelliTalk II provides independent access to most word processing and reading tasks. It may be a good choice for a very young student just beginning to use the computer. See our Tips for using IntelliTalk II.

Note Taking

Examples:

• Braille Lite

• The Braille Note

• The Braille Window

Creating Braille Copies

Once text is entered or scanned into the computer, it can be converted into hard copy Braille by connecting a Braille embosser -- a Braille printer -- and using Braille translation software that converts text into Braille.

Some programs actually produce a simulated Braille font on the screen so you can see how the final product looks. In general, one text page will be converted into three Braille pages.

Translation Software Examples

Duxbury Braille Translator (Duxbury Systems, Inc.)

Mega Dots (Duxbury Systems, Inc.)

Braille Embossers

These printers create the actual raised Braille dots on Braille paper. Embossers range in price, size and speed. Speed is indicated by the number of characters printed per second ("cps"). Which embosser you purchase depends on the volume of material to be Brailled. For example, a personal embosser is fine for use for one or two students. If more than two students frequently require Braille, consider a mid-range embosser. The high volume embossers are designed for commercial production. See our handout on Braille Embossers as well as other Resources for Children with Visual Impairments.

Other Resources

State Pals
Pen pals who write in Braille

Reading & Computers

Computer environments offer flexible reading options for blind students. Information on the computer screen -- software programs, Internet webpages, files from personal note takers or other sources -- can be read aloud with Screen Reader software. Refreshable Braille peripheral devices actively produce Braille translation of what appears on the screen.

Screen Readers

Screen reader software (sometimes called a "screen review" or "text-to-speech" program) works with the sound card to provide synthesized speech output to read what is presented on any screen when using the computer.

Most screen reader software allows the user to:

• Change the volume, pitch, and speed of the voice, as well as to stop the speech output,

• Set keyboard echo when typing to speak letters, words or both,

• Read and re-read information on the screen by character, word, line, screen, entire document, and sometimes by sentence and paragraph,

• Hear the current screen focus such as a drop down menu or dialog box,

• Control the amount of punctuation spoken,

• Add words to a phonetic dictionary to correct mispronunciations, and

• Connect a refreshable Braille device.

How do screen readers work?

Using a Screen reader with Web Pages

Talking Web Browsers

These programs interpret web pages by converting them directly into speech, without the need for a screen-reader. pwWebSpeak and IBM Home Page Reader are speech-based Internet Browsers designed for users who wish to access the Internet in a non-visual or combined auditory and visual ways. The speech tells you the name of hyperlinks and recognizes labeled images, paragraphs, section-headings, tables and forms. This is important because these visual constructs are very confusing for a screen-reader trying to make sense of a complex layout. Magnified displays of the webpage information is also available.

Both are available from Soundlinks. Home Page is also available at Amazon.com

Refreshable Braille Devices

Refreshable Braille allows the blind and the deaf-blind to read information that appears on the computer monitor. Refreshable Braille devices use moveable small pins that raise and lower as needed to form Braille characters. After a line of Braille is read, the user can press the advance bar above the display area to "refresh" the Braille in order to read additional lines. These computer display units instantly translate screen data into 6-dot or 8-dot refreshable Braille for those using many popular software screen readers, such as JAWS® for Windows®. These displays usually come in 20, 40, 65 or 80 Braille cells.

Examples

The Power Braille (Freedom Scientific)
Power Braille devices offer instant cursor routing and ergonomic controls; they come in 40, 65 and 80-cell models to accommodate individual needs of students

Braille Window (Humanware )
This refreshable Braille device that connects to a computer to display in Braille what is on the monitor. It includes 85 cells for more efficient reading.

Math & Computers

There are several math aids available to assist blind students in participating in math activities. The American Printing House for the Blind offers several math devices:

Resources

American Printing House for the Blind, Inc.
1839 Frankfort Avenue
P.O. Box 6085
Louisville, Kentucky 40206-0085
(800) 223-1839

Blazie Engineering, Inc.
Freedom Scientific, BLV Group, LLC
2850 SE Market Place, Unit #3
Stuart, FL 34997
(800) 336-5658

Don Johnston, Inc.
26799 W. Commerce Dr.
Volo, IL 60073
(800) 999-4660

Duxbury Systems, Inc.
270 Littleton Road, Unit 6
Westford, MA 01886-3523
(978) 692-3000

Hooleon, Inc.
411 S. 6th St. Bldg. B
Cottonwood, AZ 86326
(800) 937-1337

HumanWare
6245 King Road
Loomis, California 95650
(800) 722-3393

IntelliTools
55 Leveroni Court, Suite 9
Novato, CA 94949
(800) 899-6687

Learning Resource Centre (LRC)
12360 - 142 Street, NW
Edmonton, AB T5L 4X9
Canada
(780) 427-2767

Maxi Aids
PO Box 3209
Farmingdale, NY 11735
(800) 522-6294

Phone Merchants
(877) 291-1076

TACK-TILES(R) Braille Systems LLC.
P.O. Box 475 S
Plaistow, NH 03865-0475
(603) 382-1904