Out of Sight Teaching

This weekend, I had the privilege of attending New Jersey's Division of Parent's of Blind Children Conference: When I Grow Up . I met many incredible families and VI professionals who had much valuable information to share. Today I would like to share an Apple application that I had the opportunity to experience at the conference. For years, individuals with visual impairment have had their own ways of insuring they received the correct change when in the community. Some always used their credit card or wrote checks to avoid the need for change. Others requested their change in all $1 dollar bills so that they could count their change back to themselves. Now, with the LookTel Money Reader Application, individuals with visual impairment can easily determine if they received the correct change. The LookTell Money Reader uses an Apple devices's camera to instantly identify currency and speak its value.  When looking for a video of the application to share, I fou...

As a TVI or a parent of a Braille reader who is partially sighted, you may find that it can often be difficult to convince your child/student to read Braille. Below are some games/activities I use to make Braille fun for students who are partially sighted. TWINGO Players: 2-4  Materials: Twister Board Twister Spinner High Contrast Tape 24 BINGO Chips or Math Counters How to Make TWINGO: 1. Use black tape to box off 4 Braille cells on a Twister Board. (The picture above shows 1/2 of a TWINGO Board) 2. Put at least 25 BINGO chips or Math counters in a zip lock bag. How to Play TWINGO: 1. The teacher/parent assigns each player a contraction and a section of the TWINGO board.  2. The teacher/parent spins the spinner and calls out the color it landed on. 3. If a player need that color to build their contraction, they should put a chip/counter on their board. 4. The teacher/parent should continue calling colors until a player is able to build their contract...