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April 2000, Week 1

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From:
LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 3 Apr 2000 14:48:33 EDT
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--- Forwarded Message from Mary Ball <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 13:51:18 -0800 (PST)
>From: Mary Ball <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum    <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #5581 Languages for Visually Impaired
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

------------------
Dear Linda,
        There are several plaintive messages on this subject in the LLTI
archives from a year or so back.  You might want to review them, but I'll
tell you what we are doing here in our first-ever case.  It happens that
the student is in my elementary French II class. 
        From my first-time experience, I'd suggest that your institution's
disability services office and the textbook publisher can offer a lot of 
help. In this case, the publisher made the textbook available
in cassette-tape form.  That is, all the material in the textbook that is
written out in text is read out loud on tape.  The student can listen to
the text readings, exercices, grammar notes, etc.  The disability services
office took care of ordering the book from the publisher.  Actually, that
office had already handled all the student's other courses last semester
and has a lot of experience getting publisher's materials.  
        Disability services also has several computers set up with a
screen reader program called Jaws, which reads text from many common
programs (word processors, spreadsheets, web browsers) out loud, albeit in
a somewhat machine-like voice.  The Windows version reads Spanish,French,
German, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish, if I'm not forgetting anything.  I
have not seen the program in action, though I downloaded a sample from the
company's website <http://www.hj.com/>.  So I give the student a diskette
with handouts, assignments, etc., and she goes to the Jaws computer to
hear the assignments.  She already goes there regularly for assignments
for her other courses, and to read her e-mail. I also asked her whether
she would prefer to read web pages, et this way or have another student
read the page to her and discuss it.  
        By chance, I had also just digitized--with permission, of
course--the video clips for the semester and put them on CDs, so the
student can answer questions on the video assignments by playing the
videos on computer and hearing the questions on Jaws. Fortunately for me,
she does read and write Braille, so she can write her answers down, and
she can take notes in class.  She has the lab tapes, but I do not have her
record answers to the lab materials.  On the one day per chapter when
class meets in a comptuer lab for a session on Daedalus Interchange, I
have recruited a French major to come and act as typist and screen reader
for her.
        In summary, we have been able to provide a lot of the materials so
that she can access them to study from, and some things I just don't ask
her to do.  Obviously, when we read maps and gave street directions
recently, the student couldn't do this task.  However, she could act as a
grammar and pronunciation checker for her partners in class. 

Mary Ball
Director, Language Lab
Ashland University
Ashland, OH  44805
tel (419) 289-5945
fax (419) 289-5791
[log in to unmask]


	

On Fri, 31 Mar 2000, LLTI-Editor wrote:

> --- Forwarded Message from Linda Jones <[log in to unmask]> ---
> 
> >Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 13:34:22 -0600 (CST)
> >From: Linda Jones <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Languages for Visually Impaired
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> There is a student at our University who is visually impaired and does not
> read braille due to problems with diabetes.  With that in mind, she is
> very interested in learning the Spanish language.  We are trying to
> determine how to go about teaching her since she will be unable to write
> the information or read the information with braille.  One thought by some
> was to let her speak her assignments into the computer.  However, those
> voice capturing programs are not reliable, not even for native speakers.
> So, her language learning strategies are limited to listening and
> speaking (speaking probably into a cassette for her assignments).
> 
> Have any of you worked with students who were visually impaired?  If so,
> how were you able to help them out?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Linda Jones
> Director, Language Learning Center
> University of Arkansas
> [log in to unmask]
> (501) 575-7608
> 

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