Classroom
Accommodations – for Blind Students (cont.)
Web pages used in
your classes can be designed to be accessible to those using
Braille or speech output software. (The Center for
Students with Disabilities can advise you on this!)
Allow student to
bring a guide dog to class. Service (guide) animals are "working" when
they are with a low-vision or blind student and should not be
distracted or pet.
Speak to the class
upon entering and leaving the room or site.
Have other
students state their names prior to speaking in discussions.
Call the student
by name if you want his/her attention.
Use descriptive
words such as straight, forward, left, etc. in relation to the
student's body orientation. Be specific in directions and avoid
the use of vague terms with unusable information, such as "over
there", "here", "this", etc.
It is not
necessary to speak loudly to people with visual impairments.
Identify yourself
by name. Don't assume that the student who is visually impaired
will recognize you by your voice even though you have met
before.
Describe, in
detail, pertinent visual occurrences of the learning activities.
When there
is a blind student in the classroom, the instructor
should remember that "this and that" phrases are
basically meaningless to the student.
Instead of saying,"the
sum of this plus that equals eleven" , the instructor or student
can just as easily say, "the sum of 4 plus 7 equals 11."
The student who is blind will be getting the same information as
the sighted student.