2. Educating children has it’s challenges whether it is
behaviour modification or curriculum development.
Students with visual impairments can have very
different abilities and needs, some children can have
no vision, tunnel vision, peripheral vision or have
some other form of limited sight. Classroom
materials in the form of chalkboards and
whiteboards will be inaccessible to students with
visual impairments. Teachers therefore need to use
assistive technology in combination with classroom
materials to give students equal access.
3. Visual Input devices are equipment or technologies
that help people with visual loss access visual
information in the environment. These devices
enlarge print so that it is easy for a person with
visual loss to see and read. E.g. closed-circuit
television.
closed-circuit television
4. Assistive technology to help people with visual
disabilities by changing what would be seen into
information that is heard. E.g. talking ATM’s
Panopticon – This device
instant audio and braille
Feedback.
5. This is an assistive audio input technology that
presents visual information on screen or stage via
oral narrations. This system, initially developed for
television, uses the added sound track available in
stereo televisions to describe aspects important to a
fuller understanding of the story.
6. These are equipments/technologies that allow
people to use touch to gain information. A well-
known tactile device would be braille which allows
people to read by feeling letters that have been
translated into patterns of dots raised on a flat
surface such as paper.
Braille
7. Text-to-Speech- software that converts digital
text into audio. It is implemented in
talking programs, like word processors, or is
part of read aloud imported text.
Audio support-software or hardware that gives
information through auditory channel
in addition to the primary channel whether it
be visual or tactile.
8. Talking Web browsers – self-voiced browsers
that give access to many Websites
through auditory channel.
Tactile-audio - overlays and devices link to a
computer to output audio information
assigned to a specific area in the overly that is
put over a touch sensitive board.
Narrator (PC), Voice Over (Mac) – computer
operating systems come with built-in
voice output applications to support access.
9. Large or color-coded keys keyboard – modified
keyboard giving better access
because of the bigger size of the characters, and
various colors assigned to specific
groups of keys.
Portable word processing device – a stand-
alone tool for typing; its functionalities are
usually much simpler than those of a computer
system; it is also smaller and easier to
handle than desktop or laptop computer.
10. Using the information given about the different
types of technologies used to instruct the blind:
Give examples of ways you can utilize these
technologies and for which subject areas.
Given the information about the different types of
visual impairment, share your ideas on how the
technologies mentioned can foster a better
understanding of the information being presented.
