Planning Ahead Crucial in Teaching the Visually Impaired
Helen Adamson Suggests Using Post-It Tabs
Recently on the TESL-L listserv, there was a query posted
regarding ideas and innovations for teaching English to visually
impaired ESL students. Helen Adamson 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 braile converters)
I gave my blind one-on-one student some Post-It Index tabs
(they're little flags that stick to a page but can be easily removed
and reused) to mark pages in her Braille copy of the textbook. (One
tip about using index tabs--if you stick them to the side of the
page, rather than at the top of the page as you would with a
regular bookmark, it's much easier to quickly open the book to the
right page.) I called or e-mailed my student a day or two before
each lesson to tell her which exercises I planned to work on in
class, so that she could mark them and wouldn't have to waste
precious class time searching for them. I think it would be
particularly helpful for blind students who have to lug their
textbooks to class to know ahead of time precisely which pages
they will need to refer to in class, as a back-saver as well as a time-
saver. The Braille version of a regular-sized textbook consists of
several huge volumes.
Reported by Helen Adamson
2002 ESL MiniConference Online
hadamson@ERESMAS.NET