Center for Teaching and Learning, Western Kentucky University

Overview
Assistance in the Classroom
Improving Classroom Computer Demonstrations
Accommodations in the University Computer Laboratories
Software Product Solutions
Web and the Visually Challenged
Summary
References and Resources

Overview

There are over 26 million visually impaired people (over age 40)

Of these 26 million, 1.3 million are legally blind and 10% of the 1.3 million are sightless

892,000 visually impaired students (visually impaired or sightless) are enrolled in US post-secondary schools

The recent American Disabilities Act (ADA) requires "reasonable access" for disabled persons to educational and work environments

Assistance in the Classroom

Include in your syllabus a section that "invites" the student to discuss any special needs with the professor

Contact Student Disability Services, Michael Southern, Coordinator, Room 445 Potter Hall, phone (270) 745-5004

Try to foster an attitude of acceptance

Increase your verbalization of details during class lecture and discussions

Enlarge any illustrations, graphs, or diagrams

Give a page number reference to figures or illustrations in the textbook

Consider enlarged tests (use the enlarge feature of the Zerox machine or increase the font size in your word processor

Use a tape recorder or computer disk for tests with blind students

Use the golden rule, "How would you like to be treated"

Improving Classroom Computer Presentations (using the Windows platform)
(Note: Certain options described below may vary due to different mouse drivers, graphics adapters, etc. To find your information, select: Start/Settings/Control Panel/System.)

Change computer settings so that any sighted student can follow the mouse pointer better by:

enlarging the mouse pointer

turning on a pointer trail

finding the mouse on the screen

To enlarge the mouse pointer, select:

Start
Settings
Control Panel
Mouse
Pointer
Scheme
        Large
        Inverse (black)
        Inverse Large

To display pointer trails, select:

Start
Settings
Control Panel
Mouse
Visibility/or Motion
Trails

To "hone in" or find the mouse by pressing the CTRL (Control) key, select:

Start
Settings
Control Panel
Mouse
Visibility
Sonar

Change the display settings for the computer screen by:

Adjusting the display font size
Changing display color
Increasing display contrast

To change display font size, select:

Start
Settings
Control Panel
Display
Settings
Font Size

To change display colors, select:

Start
Settings
Control Panel
Display
Settings
Color Palette

To increase display contrast, select:

Start
Settings
Control Panel
Accessibility Option (You may need to install this option)
Display
High Contrast

If the accessibility Options are not installed on your computer, contact your department (classroom computers) or call 7000 (your desktop).

For class demonstrations, experiment with these options for your satisfaction and those of your class.

Assistance to Visually-impaired Students in the University Computer Lab

If you have a class that uses a WKU Computing Laboratory, call the lab manager to consider:

a. Any mouse pointer/display settings changes

b. Installing the Accessibility Options

c. Use of user profiles -- different settings for different users of the same workstation

d. Use of earphones if sounds are incorporated for blind users

A sightless student may use the Accessibility Option "Using Windows without a mouse."

Special Assistive Software

The State Department for the Blind may provide visually challenged students with special systems in their home or dorm rooms

For magnification, Zoomtext and Magic Screen software are popular.

For sightless students, JAWS, a screen reader for Windows, is a special product requiring extensive user training. JAWS is from Henter-Joyce, a division of Freedom Scientific -- www.FreedomScientific.com.

The Web and the Visually-challenged

On-line courses "should be" accessible to disabled students so Websites should be ADA compliant.

Not all browsers and Internet services work with special assistive software

Many visually impaired students use JAWS/Microsoft Explorer/earthlink.net. (Netscape has some problems working with JAWS. AOL, currently, doesn't work with JAWS.

Summary

As a teacher express concern and sensitivity

For the visually-impaired, give moe detailed verbal instructions and improve computer displays

For sightless students, realize that they depend on specialized screen readers

Realize the importance of Web access for the disabled.

References and Resources

Articles

Lazarrio, J. “Helping the Web Help the Disabled”, IEEE Spectrum, March 1999. pp 54-59

Pigford, D.V. and Baur, G. “Meeting the Learning Needs of Disabled Computer Science Students,” The Journal of Computing in Small Colleges, Volume 15, Number 1, November 1999, pp 7 – 11

Websites

Adaptive Research Project at Dawson College, Montreal
http://omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/adaptech/adengtoc.htm
email : j.asunc@alcor.concordia.ca
Free report on large scale study of Learning Technologies: Students with Disabilities in Post-Secondary Education.

Adjustment to Blindness and Visual Impairment
http://falcon.creighton.edu/vip
Unique counseling and educational forum for the frank discussion of vision loss issues. Maintained by Robert Leslie Newman.

The American Foundation for the Blind
http://www.afb.org

Auditory User Interfaces
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/info/people/raman/
Work being done by IBM Researcher T.V. Raman on auditory user interfaces.

The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
http://www.cast.org
This web site is a very elaborate web sited, with lots of information about disabilities and products to help the disabled. A program called Bobby rates your web page on its ability to be seen and used by disabled web surfers.

Center for Disability Resources
http://www.cdd.sc.edu/
This web site outlines the goals and mission of the center at the University of South Carolina.

Easy Access to Software and Information (EASI)
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/

Freedom Scientific (July 2000)
http://www.freedomscientific.com/
Products for the merged companies of Blaize, Henter-Joyce (JAWS), and Arkenstone Products.

IBM Accessibility Center
http://www.austin.ibm.com/sns/index.html

National Association of Visual Handicaps
http://www.navh.org

Trace Research and Development Center
http://www.tracecenter.org/world/web
Information on constructing web sites that are accessible. Trace is a non-profit research center that focuses on making computer, telecommunications and information technologies more accessible to everyone.

TLTR Group (Teaching and Learning with Technology Roundtable)
National program to help universities integrate technology.

V. I Guide Home page for parents and teachers of blind and visually impaired
http://www.viguide.com
Resources about Education, Assistive Technology, Legal issues, Books and more.

Visually Impaired Resource Guide
http://www.set.gov.bc.ca
Technology Guide to Assist Students with Visual Impairments in Meeting Curriculum Goals. This guide provides a sequential framework addressing a range of technology options to meet general learning expectations.

Web Accessibility Initiative
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/existingtools.html
This site reviews other programs, like Bobby, that evaluate web pages.

Support Groups

Disability Access Information Support
A non-profit group that advises schools on serving students with disabilities.

Helping Visually Impaired Students Cope with the Windows Environment