Free Tactile Teaching Aids!

Oakmont Visual Aids Workshop provides free materials for children with visual impairments.  Located in Santa Rosa, California, volunteers at the workshop create tactile books and teaching aids.  Their materials include books on concept development or readiness skills, basic braille, math, and several games.  These are a wonderful way to help young children to develop basic concepts, such as big/little, same/different, positional concepts, textures, shapes, counting, and more.  The braille cards can be used to practice letter and number recognition.  This is a wonderful resource!

Current Products

2.0 BASIC BRAILLE CARDS:  All cards are 3x5 Thermoform plastic, printed and brailled.

• 2.1 Alphabet: Lower case letters with standard and enlarged braille
• 2.2 Alphabet: Upper and lower case letters with standard braille.
• 2.3 Numbers: 0-10 with enlarged literary braille
• 2.4 Punctuation: Names of punctuation signs with standard and enlarged braille

5. 0 READINESS BOOKS:  Each page has a tactile illustration, is printed and brailled.

• 5.l Familiar Articles:  5.1.4 Papers and Wraps
• 5.2 Matching:
• 5.2.2 Geometric Shapes: A pocket inside the front cover contains six simple geometric shapes. Three Thermoform plastic pages have three recesses into which the shapes fit.
• 5.3 Simple Comparisons: 5.3.0 – 5.3.9 Same or Different?, Big or Little?, Which is Biggest?, Larger and Smaller, Which is Longest?, Rough or Smooth?, Which is Different?, Which is Taller?, Wide or Narrow?.
• 5.4 Complex Concepts:  5.4.0 – 5.4.10 Above and Below, Among or Between?, Curved or Straight?, More or Less?, Off or On?, Open or Closed?, Inside or Outside?, Over and Under, Review of Concepts, Left or Right? Up or Down?
• 5.5 Special Books:
  • 5.5.1 Margin Book: Left, Right, Top, Bottom, All Four, None
  • 5.5.3 Relative Positions: Top, Bottom, Upper Right, etc.
  • 5.5.5 Lines of Direction: Vertical, Horizontal, Parallel, etc.

7. 0 GAMES

These are fun for your students!

• 7.l Categories (for low vision students): Labeled library pockets mounted on a cardboard with illustrated 3x5 cards to place in appropriate pockets.
• 7.4 Tic-Tac-Toe: That Old Favorite! Thermoform plastic with wooden circles and squares.

8.0 MATH STUDY AIDS

Books have tactile illustrations, are printed and Brailled. Cards and Aids, indicated by an asterisk, are Thermoform plastic.

• 8.1.0 Simple Geometric Shapes: Square, Rectangle, Circle, etc.
• 8.1.3 Sequences: First, Second, Last, etc.
• 8.1.4 One Form with Four Shapes: Four recesses and four removable basic shapes.
• 8.1.6 Math Symbols: NEMETH - Plus, Minus, Divide, Greater than, etc.
• 8.1.8 Fractions & Percents: Printed and NEMETH Braille.
• *8.1.9 Counting Cards: 0-10, 3x5, printed and NEMETH Braille.
• *8.1.11 Two forms with two sets of multiple-sized recesses and removable pieces in graduated sizes: 3 circles, 3 triangles, 3 rectangles, and 3 squares.
• *8.7 Braille Clock: Ten inch diameter with manually movable hands.