Sensory Aids for Persons with Visual Impairments Presentation

Pros and Cons Sensory Aids for Persons With Visual Impairments

Fundamental Approaches to Sensory Aids  

Multisensory techniques are frequently used for children with learning differences. Studies from the National Institute of Child Health and Human development (United States of America) have shown that for children with difficulties in learning to read, a multisensory teaching method is the most effective teaching method. Multisensory teaching techniques and strategies stimulate learning by engaging students on multiple levels. They encourage students to use some or all their senses to:

• Gather information about a task
• Link information to ideas they already know and understand
• Perceive the logic involved in solving problems
• Learn problem solving tasks
• Tap into nonverbal reasoning skills
• Understand relationships between concepts
• Store information and store it for later recall

Principles of Computer Adaptations for Visual Impairments

Adaptations to materials can help reduce the negative impact of visual impairments. Adaptations and the use of assistive technology can "help level the playing field" for students with visual impairments. Keep in my, however, that in order for materials to be least-restrictive, they should be adapted only to the extent necessary for efficient learning. Students should not arbitrarily be provided with adaptations that are appropriate for some students but unnecessary for their needs. The student's unique learning needs must be the basis for all adaptations. In determining the appropriate adaptations, the Teacher of Student's with Visual Impairments (TVI) will consider the adaptations necessary to meet current curricular needs, but will also want to consider how restrictive the materials are and ensure they are least restrictive and adequately prepare the student to use adaptations that will be available once they leave school and enter the workforce.

Reading Aids for Persons with Visual Impairments

The severity of sight problems vary widely for the visually impaired. Those who are mildly nearsighted or farsighted may need visual aids while reading or driving. Others have such severe sight problems that surgery may be the only way to prevent them from going completely blind. In most cases, though, people can choose from a variety of aids to correct their vision. Microsoft products include accessibility features that make it easier to see your computer if you have low vision or colorblindness. Or, if you are blind, Windows allows you to receive information through sound or touch rather than the display.

 Mobility and Orientation Aids For Persons with Visual Impairments

Orientation and mobility training is of crucial importance to many people with vision impairments. Mobility training helps to develop skills required to move around safely in the environment. Some people with vision impairments have enough residual vision to move around independently. Other people may require a mobility aid such as a long cane which will help the person to find a safe way in front of them. Training may involve advising a person with low vision on how to use their residual vision to move around more safely. It may also involve more in-depth training in how to use a mobility aid such as a white cane or a guide dog.

Types of mobility aids are described below. Two organizations in Ireland provide orientation and mobility training for people with vision impairments the National Council for the Blind in Ireland and Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Special- Purpose Visual Aids
Meet the Needs of Visual People

·         Many people grasp information visually more easily than they do verbally. A pie chart, for example, gives them a clear picture of information and they are able to keep that image in their minds long after the presentation is over. Graphs, charts, diagrams and maps are all tools that speak volumes to visually inclined people.

Clarity

·         Visual aids strengthen the clarity of a speaker’s message. Key points can be highlighted by visual aids as well as key vocabulary. An outline of the presentation helps listeners pick up the key points and to be prepared for what is coming. This helps the audience listen better, which, in turn, helps them retain the information longer.

Concepts

·         Visual aids should be more than words on an overhead projector, flip chart or a slide presentation. Visual aids should be used to portray concepts that are more easily understood visually than verbally. For example, a profit pattern displayed in a bar graph is much easier to understand than a list of detailed data. Tangible objects are a good example of visual aids that express concepts. New concepts can be easily understood via hands-on experience. So providing the audience with real life examples and simulations will serve the purpose of making the content easier to understand and remember.

Confidence

·         Visual aids not only serve a purpose to support the listeners of a presentation but they also serve to support the speaker as well. Presenters can use visual aids to prompt themselves to the next section in their speech or the next key concept they want to present. Presenters often use an outline to guide them through the overall plan of their presentation and visual aids throughout the presentation to move them from one point to the next.

Summary

·      The primary purpose of visual aids is to make any kind of information easy for an audience to understand. Visual aids offer variety, diversion, memorable images, examples and opportunities for audience participation and interaction with the information

Glossary of Terms Sensory Aids for Persons With Visual Impairments

Glossary of Terms	Definitions	Examples
Accessibility Options	Software adaptions included in Windows that address common problems that persons with disabilities have in using a standard keyboard.	Accessibility features are installed on your computer by default.
Alternative Mobility Device	In assistive technologies, a different way of accomplishing the same task.	can provide as much protection (or more!) as a long cane, but without having to use proper cane technique
Alternative Sensory System	The use of a different sensory channel to substitute for nonfictional one; common examples of this approach are the use of braille for reading by persons with visual impairment and the use of manual sign language by person who are deaf.	A sensory system is a part of the nervous system responsible for processing sensory information. A sensory system consists of sensory receptors, neural pathways, and parts of the brain involved in sensory perception. Commonly recognized sensory systems are those for vision, auditory (hearing), somatic sensation (touch), gustatory (taste), olfaction (smell) and vestibular (balance/movement).
Braille	Raised dots that can be read by touch; a cell of either six or eight dots is used to portray letters and special computer symbols.	is a tactile writing system used by the blind and the visually impaired. It is traditionally written with embossed paper.
Clear Path Indicator	A sensory device that provides signals to the user only if an object is detected in a field about 2 feet in diameter and about 6 feet from user.	multisensor strategies to assist blind people
Closed-Circuit Television	A video camera and monitor used to enlarge text and other print material.	Closed-circuit television, also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly transmitted, though it may employ point to point, point to multipoint, or mesh wireless links.
Digital Audio-Based Information System	An international consortium of organizations that produce reading material for the blind; has developed standards for digital books on a tape.	Talking books; output to the reader by audio clips, screen magnification, synthetic speech, refreshable braille, or printouts in either print or braille
Digital Talking Books	Reading material for individuals who are blind; produced on digital media and can be reproduced and read on a variety of hardware platforms and operating systems.	DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) is a technical standard for digital audio books, periodicals and computerized text
Electronic Travel Aid	Sensory devices that supplement rather than replace the long cane or guide dog, designed to provide additional environmental information and to detect those obstacles typically missed by the long cane.	is a form of assistive technology having the purpose of enhancing mobility for the blind pedestrian
Graphical User Interface	Characterized by three distinguished features: a mouse pointer, which is moved around the screen; a graphical menu bar, which appears on the screen; and one or more windows, which provide a menu of choices.	takes advantage of the computer's graphics capabilities to make the program easier to use with pointing devices, menus and icons.
Human/Technology Interface	The portion of the assistive technology system with which the user interacts.	The hardware and software through which the user interacts with any technology.
Information Processor	The portion of a sensory aid that converts the raw sensory data from the environmental sensor to a form suitable for presentation via the user display.	a machine for performing calculations automatically computer, computing device, computing machine, and data processor.
Internet	Worldwide computer network available via modem that connects users globally for electronic mail, file transfer, electronic commerce, and similar functions.	World wide web.
Magnification Aids	Low vision aids for reading point material.	works to help many low vision patients.
Optical Aids	Devices that allow individuals with low vision to see point, do work requiring fine detail, or increase the range of their vision fields.	eyeglasses (spectacles), and the technical design of eyeglass lenses has advanced considerably.
Optical Character Recognition	A software program that runs on a standard PC; its primary function is to analyze the raw video data and assemble it into letters, spaces, and punctuation for synthetic speech or braille output.	the mechanical or electronic conversion of images of typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text.
Orientation and Mobility	The process by which an individual who is blind is able to achieve independent movement in the environment.	is a profession specific to blindness and low vision that teaches safe, efficient, and effective travel skills to people of all ages.
Reading Aid	A sensory device designed to provide access to print materials for an individual who is blind.	book covers and book holders for paperback and hardcover books provide the ultimate in E-Z Flex, hand-free reading of paperback and hardcover books.
Refreshable Braille Display	The use of mechanically raised pins to represent braille cells, organized in arrays of from 1 to 80 cells.	displays are electronic devices used to read text tactually that is typically displayed visually on a computer monitor.
Screen Readers	Systems that provide speech synthesis or braille output for blind users.	is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen.
Spatial Display	The overall physical and shape of the control interface, the number of targets available for activation, the size of each target and the spacing between targets.	any display hardware which is capable of giving the illusion of physical depth
Universal Access	Software adaptions included in Apple Macintosh operating systems that address common problems that persons with disabilities have in using a standard keyboard and in seeing characters on the screen.	education is the ability of all people to have equal opportunity in education, regardless of their social class, gender, or ethnicity background.
User Agent	Software to access Web content; includes desktop graphical browsers, text and voice browsers, mobile phones, multimedia players, and software assistive technologies used with browsers.	It shows details of your web browser, operating system, architecture and rendering engine.
User Display	The portion of a sensory device that portrays the sensory information for the human user.	which visualizes alert information.

Glossary of Terms Sensory Aids for Persons With Auditory Impairments

Glossary of Terms	Definitions	Examples
Accessibility Options	Software adaptions included in Windows that address common problems that persons with disabilities have in using a standard keyboard.	Accessibility features are installed on your computer by default. You can quickly select the options you want by using the Accessibility Wizard or you can enable them through Control Panel. The options allow you to adjust your keyboard, to set colors and fonts for easier reading, to control the mouse pointer with the numeric keypad, and to set visual and sound warnings
Alerting Devices	Sensory devices that detect sounds and then cause a vibration or a flashing light signal, or both, to call attention to the sound for a person who is deaf.	Alerting technology include monitoring and alerting systems to help the deaf and hard of hearing stay in touch with the world around them.
Assistive Listening Devices	A class of assistive devices that are intended to be in group settings such ass in lecture halls, churches, business meetings, courtrooms, and broadcast television to amplify sounds and broadcast them to receivers worn by persons who are hard of hearing.	Assistive Listening Devices are designed to help people hear more effectively.
Captioning	Captions are text versions of the spoken word presented within multimedia.	Captions allow the content of web audio and video to be accessible to those who do not have access to audio.
Closed Captioning	A process whereby the audio portion of a television program is converted into written words, which appear in a window on the screen.	Closed captioning allows persons with hearing disabilities to have access to television programming by displaying the audio portion of a television program as text on the television screen. Closed captioning provides a critical link to news, entertainment and information for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Cochlear Implants	An auditory prosthesis that provides some sound perception by directly applying electrical stimulation to the basilar membranes of the cochlea.	Is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf?
Environment Sensor	The portion of a sensory device that detects the data that the human cannot obtain via her own sensory system.	Devices that are designed to accurately detect the magnitude of external field applications.
Hearing Aids	Sensory devices that provide amplification of sounds, including speech, for individuals who are hard of hearing.	Amplify sounds so they may be detected by damaged ears.