--- Forwarded Message from David Kleinberg <[log in to unmask]> --- >Date: Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:46:01 -0400 >From: David Kleinberg <[log in to unmask]> >User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 (Windows/20090605) >To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: #9185 Supporting Blind FL Students >References: <[log in to unmask]> >In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]> Hi Sharon, Here are some things I learned while teaching two different blind students this last Spring. My understanding of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) says you need to provide equal access to students with disabilities, but not above and beyond what other students have access to. The instructors will have to take things one day at a time and be flexible, but still plan enough ahead that teaching materials can be made accessible to the students in time. 1. You should work closely with your university's disability services office. They will have the expertise regarding helping students with disabilities, and may have some of the resources already available, such as braille printers, screen reading software, etc. They may also be able to advise you whether or not the department's webpages (i.e. course web pages or Blackboard/WebCT/Moodle...) are accessible to a blind student. 2. Look into screen reading software like JAWS (http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp). Your university's office of disabilities services may be able to purchase this for you. At Winthrop, we had the software installed on every public lab computer (including the language lab), and the licenses were tied in to the blind students' Windows profiles, so they could use JAWS on any public computer and the university only purchased a small handful of licenses. JAWS can also be set to pronounce foreign languages fairly accurately. You can also put this on the student's personal laptop, or they may already have it. 3. Ask the textbook publishers for electronic versions of the German textbooks. They were willing to provide these to the blind student at the same price as a regular textbook. The electronic (PDF) version will be usable in conjunction with software like JAWS. Get your request in EARLY, as the publishers were very slow to respond to requests from disability services, but they did come through in the end. The online resources that a publisher provides as textbook supplements should also be very useful, in particular audio tracks. 4. Any class handouts that are originally Word documents, or PowerPoint lecture files (minus the graphics of course) are useful to the blind student if they are using JAWS. PDF handouts that are scans of other documents will not be usable, of course. If the student has limited or partial sight, they may be able to zoom into PDF files to read them. If handouts are from magazines or books, have the instructor check if there is an online version of the text that can be read by computers. 5. My university's disability services was willing to hire readers to read the textbooks out loud onto tape/mp3, and to retype texts into a computer file readable by Jaws. Do let them know that German characters such as A, a, O, o, U, u, B can written as Ae, ae, Oe, oe, Ue, ue, ss respectively. Braille does not allow for umlauts and double-S. They can also proctor exams and quizzes, including listening comprehension (record audio as MP3s using audacity) if you give them enough notice. 6. Try to schedule your courses in an easily accessible classroom space, especially if the student has a seeing-eye dog. Elevators are good, ground-floor classrooms are even better. I hope that helps. If I think of anything else I'll chime in later. -Dave -- David Kleinberg, Ph.D. Language Lab Director Instructor of German Department of Modern Languages Winthrop University Rock Hill, South Carolina Web: http://www.kleinberg.net LLTI-Editor wrote: > --- Forwarded Message from Sharon Scinicariello <[log in to unmask]> > --- > > >> From: Sharon Scinicariello <[log in to unmask]> >> To: Information Forum Learning and Technology International Language >> > <[log in to unmask]> > >> Subject: Supporting Blind FL Students >> Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:07:47 -0400 >> > > Hello! > > I have been asked to find out how our LRC can support a blind incoming > student who wants to continue his study of German. We currently have > no adaptive technology but are willing to acquire whatever might be > useful. > > Do those of you with experience in this area have recommendations? > > Thank you, > Sharon Scinicariello > Director, Global Studio > Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures > University of Richmond, VA 23173 > > *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives at http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A0=LLTI Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************