Giving Visually Impaired ESL Students Greater Access
Braille Converters Invaluable, Says Lorna Joy Swain
Recently on the TESL-L listserv, there was a query posted
regarding ideas and innovations for teaching English to visually
impaired ESL students. Lorna Joy Swain, of Contra Costa College,
in California, has graciously agreed to share with the readers
of the ESL MiniConference Online the suggestions she offered
in response to this question. (See also a related article
on Post-It Index Tabs)
ESL teachers who are working with blind or partially sighted students
should contact their campus "Disabled Students Services" or similar
campus organization if one exists. At the College of Alameda
(California) our DSPS group can provide equipment for a sighted
person to use to type in text and have it converted to braille. They
may even provide the conversion service for the teacher; I'm not
sure. They also have a tremendously nifty thermal machine that works
like a photocopier, but what it produces is a page that has the
original information raised. By using this machine, a teacher could
produce, for example, a map or diagram that the blind or visually
impaired student could "read" by touch.
Teachers can also contact local associations for the blind to see
what services they offer. Here is one:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/ (British Computer Association of the Blind)
Try doing a web search on "blind" "association" and your particular
country or nationality (American, British, UK, Canadian, Malasian,
etc.) Also, some of these associations have an interest in serving
low literacy or minority language speakers, and they might be able to
help in an ESL situation.
Good luck to all!
Comment by Lorna Joy Swain
2002 ESL MiniConference Online
Check out the "Links to Useful Web Resources". It takes you to links
about assistive technology and transcription services, as well as
others topics of interest.
lornajoy@jps.net
Contra Costa College
California