Tools to Support Students with Visual Impairments and Blindness

The Visual Disability Spectrum

As with other disability visual impairment has a spectrum.

  • Low Vision/Visually Impaired - Low vision is defined as having corrected visual acuity between 20/70 and 20/160 or having a visual field of 20 degrees or less.

  • Legally Blind - Legal blindness is defined as having corrected visual acuity between 20/100 and 20/200 or having a visual field of 20 degrees or less.

  • Totally Blind - Total blindness is referred to a lack of light perception and the individual’s inability to see anything.

-From Helping Student with Visual Disbilities

There is a range of assistive technology designed to assists students with visual impairments. Like the tools for Augmentative and Alternative Communication this AT can also be divided into categories of no tech, low tech, and high tech. As with all other AT, it is important to match the support with the student's unique learning needs. If you are interested in doing a deep dive into AT for students with visual impairments or blindness, check out Chapter 12 from WATI's AT Manual.

Video Magnifiers

For students with low vision, handheld magnifiers, digital magnifiers, and CCTVs may be useful for viewing and manipulating objects, observing experiments, or viewing graphic information.

Video magnifiers are an ideal option when a student needs greater magnification and when contrast enhancement will assist the student in reading print. The video magnifier will allow access to regular print materials with the ability to enlarge and write on worksheets. The video magnifier also provides a larger field of view and gives the student a longer working distance when higher degrees of magnification is needed which is very beneficial when reading lengthier passages. This will prepare the student for adult life when most environmental, educational, and leisure reading materials will be available only in regular print. -- Teaching Students with Visual Impairments

This is a handheld video magnifier. It is compact, lightweight and portable. It has two viewing modes: Reading and Distance. Students use it to magnify their reading materials and look at what is posted on the walls, chalkboard, or whiteboard. .It has 2X to 14X magnification.

This is an 8-inch handheld video magnifiery. It is lightweight and portable. It has 2X to 30X magnification. Again, I can be used for distance viewing (like the chalkboard) and near view of reading materials.

This is a luggable video magnifier. It provides 3 viewing modes: reading, distance, and self-view. Often a device like this one is provided to younger students as they are slightly more rugged that other types of magnification devices.

This is a compact all-in-one magnifier combined with an android tablet. It is a powerful support for students with visual impairments. With the MATT connect a student can magnify a print document, read a book for an online library, conduct research view a smartboard, write and email assignments, and take a test.

It is lightweight and portable. It has 1X to 80X magnification. For distance viewing, you need an external camera.

Braille

For students who do not have sufficient vision to rely on other supports, Braille is an essential tool for teaching literacy skills and will serve as a lifelong skill. Learning Braille allows students to experience aspects of written language such as spelling, grammar and sentence structure, and will provide a valuable foundation for written language. Braille products can be obtained commercially or can be created using specialized software and a braille embosser. -- A Resource Guide to AT for Students with Visual Impairments

Layout of a braille cell

The alphabet in braille is represented through a series of 6 dots. Using a Perkins style keyboard, like the one shown above,

Louis Braille, developed this system from a tactile code known as night writing. He though that basic idea could give blind people an efficient method for reading and writing. After some experimentation, he figured out that a six-dot cell was small enough to fit under a fingertip, but had enough possible dot combinations to represent a wide range of letters and symbols. -- How Braille Works

Try it out

Using the free translation tool mentioned above, I made this short statement. Using the finger location for creating braille chart above, can you decipher what I wrote? To verify your answer, you can check the resources section below.

Braille production for a school

Ever wonder how a student gets the braille materials they need? Here is a video from one our local school districts that describes the process of getting materials produced for the student.

This is considered a braillenote taker. This device allows a person to enter braille on the touch screen or the student can use the Perkins Style Keyboard. This is a powerful tool for student, who can use braille. It has an 18 cell refreshable braille display. Students can use it to read and write documents, keep their calendar, maintain databases of information important, read and write e-mail, access the Internet, read books from a variety of sources, listen to their favorite FM radio station, or play music from their own collection. This is built on an android backbone and has access to Humanware’s Keysoft operating system and also the full range of options from the Google Play store.

This is another braillenotetaker. It uses a Perkins style keyboard for data entry. It has a refreshable braille display. Like the BrailleNote Touch Plus, students can use it to read and write documents, keep their calendar, maintain databases of information important, read and write e-mail, access the Internet, read books from a variety of sources, listen to their favorite FM radio station, or play music from their own collection. BrailleSense Polaris supports Google Apps, making it easy to utilize Google services like Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides as millions of other students do everyday.

Braille displays provide access to information on a computer, tablet or phone screen by electronically raising and lowering different combinations of pins in braille cells. It is refreshable in that it changes continuously as the user moves the cursor around.

This device is lightweight. It can have upto 5 Bluetooth connections so that you can connect to iOS and Android devices such as smart phones or iPads. You can use the Perkins style keyboard to input information to your computer, phone, or tablet.


The Taptilo is an interactive way to teach young student about braille. It has large braille blocks that can be manipulated by a child, which can help strengthen and refine finger movement. There are games and activities for them to reinforce the learning process.


Talking and Large Print Calculators

Large print and talking calculators are an example of how everyday tools are being made accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired and assisting them in the classroom, at work, and at home.

Large button, big display scientific graphing calculator designed specifically for users with low vision. Performs scientific, statistical and trigonometric calculations, and fractions. It has the ability to evaluate functions, evaluate mathematical expressions, plot equations, analyze values along a curve and determine y-intercepts, poles, and more.

Fully accessible handheld graphing calculator. The orbit unit added to the TI-84 calculator allows for a screen reader to read the mathematical information displayed on the screen. There is full access to graphs through speech output of the coordinated and different sounds for the negative and axis crossing points. It uses haptic feedback for multi-modal visualization of the graph.

iPad

An iPad is not a disability specific device. Apple has been working on providing accessibility features within its operating system. Here’s a link to Apple’s Accessibility Features for Vision: https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ipad/vision/.

What's on My iPad for School

This video is from a college student, who is describing the apps that are on her iPad and iPhone. Here's a link to information on all the apps she discussed: https://bit.ly/36kgiO1.

Resources