Assistive Technology for students with visual impairments

I choose to write about learning disabilities of students who are blind or visually impaired and how their education is effected by this disability. A student who has a visual disability cannot depend on their sense of sight for learning and instead have to use their other senses to acquire knowledge. This is difficult for many because sight is the main way children learn and gain experience of the world around them. Children who are blind tend to be afraid of the world around them and also have social issues due to the fact that they haven’t learned to trust the unknown and they are normally completely dependent on people with sight to tell them how the world works and what they can or cannot do.

One way AT’s can help students with visual issues is by providing programs that convert text to audio. Audio books help blind students understand and comprehend course work. They are the voice/audio versions of text and other school related works. Having an audio version of school works makes it a lot easier to understand the subject being taught and do a lesson along with the rest of the class. This is a great tool because a student can just put in headphones and use audio text in a class of their peers and learn exactly what the peers are learning.

I think this is awesome and I think the peers would be jealous of the students who get to listen to books and text and don’t have to sit and read them. If a child has a slight visual issue large print books may be hard to come across but a screen magnifier can easily be downloaded onto the students’ personal and school computer in order to complete their work.  Below is a link to a website that describes these AT options in greater detail.

http://www.tsbvi.edu/resources/1074-overview-of-technology-for-visually-impaired-and-blind-students

I think these AT’s should be accessible in all classrooms because they cannot only help students with learning disabilities and who are visually impaired but they can also help the entire student body learn easier. Reading a book is a lot harder for some children but sitting down and relaxing while having the book read to them is a lot more effective for some in processing information. I think AT is a great way to open the door to endless possibilities in future classroom learning and I believe it shouldn’t be limited to children with disabilities but made accessible to every child if it has a chance to help them be a more successful student.

                                                                                            References                  

http://www.projectidealonline.org/visualImpairments.php

http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/sight/visual_impaired.html#

https://www.learningally.org/success-story/adult-learners-2/