Explains the visual impairment and how to deal with the students who suffer from. Causes and effects is shown together with teaching strategies.

1. Visual Impairment
Georgie J. Emano (2nd year BEED)

2.  Across the world, learners with visua impairment are being educated more and more not in
segregated specia school but in an incusive classroom. Bindness is the condition of lacking visual
perception due to physiological and/or neurological factors. Complete blindness is the total lack of
form and light perception and is clinically recorded as “No Light Perception” or “NPL”. Eye injuries,
mostly occurring in people under 30, are the leading cause of monocular blindness (vision loss in
one eye). People who are blind or visually impaired have devised a number of techniques that
allow them to complete daily activities using their remaining senses and recently created accessible
technology such as screen reading software enables visually impaired people to use mainstream
computer applications including the Internet. Listed below are historically famous people with
visual impairments including total blindness, sight conditions, or blindness in one eye.ot

3.  Have problem with vision.
 Some visually impaired can read large prints and are functional in their environment
 Some have severe vision loss and cannot be thought visual methods
 Visual loss is measured with the help of the ‘Snellen chart’ (HERMAN SNELLEN 1862) Dutch
Opthalmologist depending upon the degree of loss based on visual acuity and vision field.

4. Herman Snellen

5. Snellen chart

6. The term Visual Impairment
 Continuum of loss of sight, which includes blindness unless it is made clear that the expression is
being used in a particular way.
 Where blindness is specifically referred to, it describes a level of sight loss of children who depend
mainly on tactile (touch) methods of learning.
 The expression ‘low vision’ is used with reference to children whose learning and teaching
involves predominantly methods relying on sight.

7.  REFERS TO A SIGNIFICANT FUNCTIONAL LOSS OF VISION THAT CONNOT BE CONNECTED BY
MEDICICATION, SURGICAL OPERATION, OR ORDINARY OPTICAL LENSES.
 AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND (1961): visual acuity is 20/200 or less in the better eye
with the best possible correction or those whose field of an arc of 20 degrees or less.

8. LEVELS OF VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
1. MILD VISUAL IMPAIRMENT – can read relatively larger characters, no difficulty in identifying
shapes, colors and brightness contracts.
2. MODERATE VISUAL IMPARMENT – can tell shapes and colors of objects and can distinguish
between brightness and darkness. Can only read characters with larger size and broader strokes.
3. SEVERE VISUAL IMPARMENT – can only distinguish more obvious changes in brightness and
darkness. May not see anything (completely blind)

9. HISTORY
 1784 The first school for the blind was established in Paris, France by Valentine Hauy.
 1791 First school for the blind established in Liverpool, England.
 1793 France had first mandatory school for the blind
 1827 James Gall publishes First Book for Teaching the Art of Reading to the Blind, the first English-
language work in raised type.
 1829 Louis Braille publishes an explanation of his embossed dot code
 Special education started in the Philippines in 1907 with the establishment of the Insular School for the
Deaf and the Blind, a residential school located in Pasay City, Metro Manila by M. Delia Delight Rice, an
American educator.
 India is now home to the world's largest number of blind people. Of the 37 million people across the
globe who are blind, over 15 million are from India

10.  Denis Diderot- French philosopher who made one of the first expositions to include significant
discussion of the blind and education. The essay proposed that the sense of touch could be
perfected for reading in blind people, foreshadowing the 19th-century invention of the Braille
writing system. In 1784 French calligraphy professor Valentin Haüy opened the first school for the
blind in Paris.
 Charles-Michel who had opened the first public school for deaf people in the 1770s influenced
Denis. By the early 19th century several schools appeared in Britain including in Liverpool (1791),
Edinburgh (1793), and Bristol (1793). These schools taught students a trade rather than to read and
write. Later on, in 1804 Johann Wilhelm Klein founded a school for the blind in Vienna. She believed
that blind students should be united with their sighted classmates. In 1831 Samuel Gridley Howe an
American educator opened the New England institution for the education of the blind in Boston
which was known as the Perkins School for the blind.

11. SYMPTOMS
 DAILY ACTIVITIES
 MOBILITY
 EATING/DRINKING
 READING/WRITING

12. CAUSES
1. INHIRITED CONDITIONS OF BLINDNESS AND VISION IMPAIRMENT
2. INFECTIONS
3. AIDS RELATED VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
4. CATARACT
5. EYES INJURY
6. BY GENDER
7. AGE

13. TYPES
 PARTIALLY SIGHTED: indicates some type of visual problem has resulted in a need for special
education
 TOTALLY BLIND STUDENTS: learn via Braille or other non visual media.
 LOW VISION: condition caused by eye disease, in which visual acuity is 20/70 or poorer in the
better-seeing eye and cannot be corrected with regular eyeglasses.

14. PROBLEM FACED BY THE CHILDREN IN THE
CLASSROOM
 Learning environment plays a vital role in effective learning.
 Learning environment includes not only at classroom but also laboratory, playground, library and
educational tour.
 Children faces hindrance in these learning environment

15. CLASSROOM HINDRANCE
 LETTERS ON THE BLACKBOARD ARE EATHER PARTLY VISIBLE OR FULLY INVISIBLE.
 STUDENTS FIND IT DIFFICULT IN DOING SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS IN THE LAB AND THE
IDENTIFICATION OF DIFFERENT COLORS.
 UNABLE TO PERFORM OR PARTICIPATE WITH THE OTHER STUDENTS IN DRAWING AND
ACTIVITIES.
 VISUAL BASED SUBJECT LIKE GEOMETRY POSSESS A GREAT PROBLEM IN ANSWERING THE
QUESTIONS IN EXAMINATION.
 SHOULD BE SEATED ON THE FIRST BENCH.

16. INSTRUMENTS
 Braille is a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or
who have low vision.

17. ABACUS
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
Abacus is a promising aid for the Blind to learn and calculate mental
arithmetic operations.

18. Fun Facts
Louis Braille (January 4, 1809 – January 6, 1852): Louis Braille became blind after he accidentally
stabbed himself in the eye with his father’s awl. He later became an inventor and the designer of
braille writing, which enables people who are blind to read by feeling a series of organized bumps
representing letters. This concept was beneficial to all blind people from around the world and is still
commonly used today. If it were not for Louis Braille’s blindness he may not have invented this
method of reading and no other blind person could have enjoyed a story or been able to
comprehend important written materials
Charles Barbier - sighted French military officer who invented a raised-dot system for officers which
allowed them to communicate among each other in the darkness. The French army and the Paris
school for the blind never cared for the system at first. However, Louis Braille changed up Barbier’s
system and made it simpler to read with fingertips by reducing six dots. The system allowed the
blind to read at a faster pace.

19. Tools
VoiceOver (in OS X & iOS)- provides speech, output
and screen magnification for the blind or low vision
user, and refreshable Braille displays can be
connected and used as well. The user has full
keyboard control over their Mac, and can utilize their
computer without any assistance .
Audio Exam Player (iOS)

20. BrailleTouch (iOS)- is a tactile code enabling blind and
visually impaired people to read and write by touch,
with various combinations of raised dots representing
the alphabet, words, punctuation and numbers.

21. Micro-Speak Plus- packed with useful features including
specifically designed software that provides spoken prompts and
beeps to assist Blind, low-vision, and visually impaired users. Its
8GB of built in memory allows you 96 hours of high quality
recordings.

22. Eye examination Equipment
ophthalmoscope - instrument used for examining the interior structures of the eye, especially the
retina, consisting of a mirror that reflects light into the eye and a central hole through which the eye
is examined

23. Tonometry -diagnostic test that measures the pressure inside your eye, which is called intraocular pressure
(IOP). This measurement can help your doctor determine whether or not you may be at risk of glaucoma.
Glaucoma is a serious eye disease that can eventually lead to vision loss if untreated

24. TEACHING STRATEGIES
1. EXPLAIN ANY VISUALS: When you are teaching a visually impaired or blind student, it is
important to clearly explain all visual materials. Dictating what you are writing on the chalkboard
or whiteboard. This way students who are unable to see the board can still follow along with the
material and take notes.
2. GIVE ORAL INSTRACTIONS: Do not provide your students with a handout that contains
assignment instructions.
3. ASK STUDENT TO CLAP TO ASK QUESTIONS: Visually impaired or blind students may not notice
when their peers raise their hands. Instead, you should replace visual cues with audio cues.

25.  Seat visually impaired students close to the front
 Consider lighting and glare
 Ensure there are large walkways between furniture
 Maintain a consistent classroom arrangement
 Clearly explain where classroom supplies are located
 Write with dark colors on the whiteboard
 Provide braille textbooks and handouts
 Record lessons

26. VISUALY IMPAIRED STUDENT MAY
 SEATING ACCOMMODATIONS TO HELP THEM SEE YOU , BOARD, OVERHEAD DISPLAYS ETC.
 USES EYE GLASSES, USE MAGNIFIERS OR EXTRA LIGHTNING FOR CLASS WORK
 REQUIRE LARGE BRINTED HANDOUT MATERIALS OR AUDIO BOOKS FOR READING
 VOICE ACTIVATED COMPUTERS OR OTHER ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

27.  https://youtu.be/WXdDBAHh3eM

28. THANK YOU FOR LISTINING