For the education of visually impaired children, it is necessary to use a variety of teaching aids and equipment to help them to learn. What aids and equipment to use will depend on the children's visual functioning and educational levels. Owing to rapid development in technology, the list of adaptive aids and equipment shown below is not exhaustive. However, they can be categorized into visual, tactile, auditory and computer aids and equipment.
1. Visual Aids and Equipment
a. Closed circuit television : used to enlarge images on a television screen with variable sizes, contrasts and illumination.
b. Lighting : using lamps to provide the amount and angle of light required for maximum reading efficiency.
c. Textbooks and instructional materials : learning materials to be presented in large print.
d. Book-stand or raised desk-top : to bring printed materials closer to the children's eyes for better lighting and easy reading.
e. Optical aids : spectacles, contact lens, telescopes and magnifiers, which are important low vision aids and should best be prescribed by qualified professionals.
2. Tactile Aids and Equipment
a. Braille books : books transcribed into Braille.
b. Optacon : an electronic reading device which transforms ink-print characters in books with an electronic lens into vibrating shapes that can be read tactilely with a single finger
c. Paperless Braille writer : a Braille writing and reading device which can store Braille written information on audio cassette tapes, floppy disks or computer chips and can be retrieved later .
d. Slates and stylus : writing slates made either in a plastic or metal frame with openings through which Braille dots are punched with a pointed stylus.
e. Thermoform duplicators: duplicating machines for mass-producing plastic Braille pages and raised pictures for Braille users.
3. Auditory Aids and Equipment
a. Print access reading systems for totally blind and severe low vision children : the Kurzweil Reading Machine, OSCAR or Arkenstone Reading Systems using computer scanning technology to convert print into synthetic speech output.
b. Audio tapes and recorders: useful for taking notes, recording homework, listening to assignments, etc.
c. Talking calculators, clocks, electronic dictionaries, etc. : aids available with synthetic speech output.
d. Computer Applications -Microcomputers, operated with appropriate special software and computer adaptive devices, make it possible for visually impaired children to have equal access to electronic data like their sighted peers. Besides learning the computer as a subject in special schools, visually ipaired children can use the computer to assist them in learning other academic subjects and as an aid to communication with sighted children.
francis1897 answered the question on March 9, 2023 at 12:37
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