The Braille Challenge hosted by The Braille Institute is an exciting competition of braille skills! The braille challenge encourages students to hone their braille skills in the hopes of placing first in their level. There are five levels: Apprentice...
Braille
Posted by Lacey Long
As an itinerant TVI/COMS for a multi-district special education unit, it can be difficult to provide quality professional development for teachers specifically for students with visual impairments. One area that I felt was necessary to provide training for...
Posted by Liamsmom
My son Liam is 7 years old and is deafblind. He is a braille reader and as of lately (this school year especially) he has really taken an interest in writing in braille as well! Below are 10 ways that I try to encourage this new skill at...
Posted by Tracy Fitch
As Teachers of the Visually Impaired one of the major parts of our jobs is to ensure that our students have access to the general education curriculum. This can be difficult throughout a student's school career, and can prove more difficult as the...
Posted by Tracy Fitch
You've got to think outside of the box!
It's NOT about being pretty!
It's NOT about looking exactly like the print!
It IS about being meaningful!
It IS about being understandable!
Our...
Posted by Charlotte Cushman
A member of our community asked if we had any activities or resources for teaching braille mechanics to students with Cerebral Palsy (CP) or decreased tactile sensitivity. We have included tips for both reading and writing braille. There are many...
Posted by Liz Eagan
Why is the grass greener on the other side? “'The grass is always greener on the other side' because the other side knows what fertilizer to buy," I often heard growing up. But is it? Is the grass greener because they...
Posted by Charlotte Cushman
The holidays are an exciting time of year for children and there are lots of opportunities to incorporate literacy into the fun! The ideas here include suggestions to make Christmas and Hanukkah more accessible to children with visual impairments or...
Posted by Sharon@TSBVI
JAWS, Job Access With Speech, is a popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and braille output for the most popular computer applications...
Posted by Gwyn McCormack
This is the first post in a series about adapting worksheets for students who are blind or visually impaired. It is designed to help teachers and assistants to think through the steps involved in providing access to materials.
Before you...
Posted by Cheryl Brown
These tips and tools are designed to address skills for the young beginning braille reader who is ready to start braille instruction and who has received preschool instruction on concept development. For experienced TVIs, this will be a review of ideas and...
Posted by Liamsmom
It's all about the experience! We have been using experiences to teach concepts or new ideas and vocabulary.
It is so important, especially for our children with vision impairments, to have real-life tangible experiences!...
Posted by Liamsmom
Taking purposeful trips to places in the community can be prove to be a motivating and meaningful way to focus on language goals.
My son, Liam, is 7 years old and happens to be deafblind. American Sign Language (ASL) is his first...
Posted by Katie Armstrong
A resource for teachers or parents of tactual learners
When many people first think of literacy skills, or pre-braille skills they think of things like tracking braille lines, identifying tactual or textured pictures or exploring objects in a story box, just...
Posted by Tracy Fitch
Braille writing instruction will happen at the same time as braille reading instruction. It is important to teach all braille learners the parts of the brailler, along with inserting paper. There are a number of braille writers available and...
Posted by Tracy Fitch
A Swing Cell is designed to help students understand the relationship between the braille cell and the keys on a braillewriter. In the closed position, the removable pegs inserted into the blocks represent the dots in a braille cell. In the open position, the...
Posted by Tracy Fitch
This post will specifically discuss braille instruction strategies for students with multiple impairments or intellectual disabilities.
We are assuming that you have done pre-braille activities up to this point. Examples of tools and resources for the pre...
Posted by Charlotte Cushman
It’s that time of the year again! The start of a new school year always brings a range of emotions: excitement, worry, anticipation, wistfulness to say goodbye to summer… We hope that these ideas and resources will help to get the...
Posted by Liamsmom
My son Liam is 7 years old and will be starting 2nd grade this school year. He is deafblind, uses tactile American Sign Language and is a braille reader.
I love TACK-TILES®. I have often been asked how we used Tack-Tiles with Liam...
Posted by Liamsmom
My son Liam is 7 years old and he is deafblind. Liam loves reading and writing braille. I thought a great activity for summer break would be to learn about writing letters to our friends and family. It was my hope that it would be fun and...