Welcome to Visual Impairments 101!
An estimated 6% of Americans are Visually Impaired, that means about 14 million Americans over the age of 12 have a Visual Impairment. Vision problems can seriously affect the quality of life. People with vision impairments can excel in many of the activities of their sighted peers. Their range of abilities are as varied as their range of personalities and skill level. There is no typical vision impaired person. THEY ARE ABLE TO LEARN TO DO THINGS THAT OTHER STUDENTS DO, HOWEVER, THEY NEED TO LEARN IN A DIFFERENT WAY and to work at their own pace. Check out the following site to learn more about visual impairments: http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/sight/visual_impairment.html
Common MYTHS about vision:
- All people who are visually impaired should wear glasses.
- People who are blind cannot see anything or they only see black.
- People who are blind can hear better than people who are sighted.
- Eyes can be damaged by holding a book too close when reading.
All these myths are UNTRUE!
Teachers for the Visually Impaired (TVI's) can provide educational programming modifications that can assist children in accessing an educational program and the materials used in that program. Large print or Braille textbooks/materials can be produced and provided to the student. Modified writing paper, optical devices and other assistive tech devices can be available in the educational setting. If needed, instruction for learning the Braille code can be provided. Services for the Visually Impaired can be direct working 1-1 with the student or consultative.
Computers are in every classroom and school building and may even be in your home. Here are some simple things you can do to enlarge material that appears on the computer screen:
1. On the computer, click on the START button and then click on PROGRAMS - find ACCESSIBILTY (handicap wheelchair symbol) and you can enlarge the pointer and even change the contrast (how sharp/dark images on the screen appear).
2. On the computer click on the START button, and then click on PROGRAMS - find ACCESSORIES - click on ACCESSIBILTY - ACCESSIBILITY WIZARD - start the wizard and click on CHANGE THE FONT SIZE (make sure there is a check mark in that box), click NEXT and place a check mark in the box that says I AM BLIND AND HAVE TROUBLE SEEING THINGS ON THE SCREEN. You can choose to create larger icons, mouse pointer, scroll bar and you can change the size and blink rate for the cursor too!
3. Perhaps you are looking something up on the Internet - once you pull up the item to review - HOLD DOWN THE SHIFT KEY AND ROLL THE WHEEL ON THE MOUSE - this will change the size of the material.
Check out Google - it has a home page designed to be more accessible for the visually impaired. there are no advertismements and less graphic that might interfere with speech readers. The shortcut is http://labs.google.com/accessible/