The 2025 - 2026 ECC Challenge

Student Activities: 

• Make a goal of how many ECC submissions you will complete this year.

  • Watch this video on how to set and achieve goals 

• Make a list of your accommodations.

  • Read this article on Learning to Self Advocate with sample letters

• Write an email to your teacher letting them know your needs.

  • Check out Perkins list of common low vision accommodations

• Write/develop an assertive way to refuse assistance.

  • Watch this video on assertive communication

Teacher Activities

• Teach your student about their rights under the law.

  • Perkins: Guide your student to know their rights

• Prompt your student to follow up and finish the task on their own.

  • Check out Paths to Literacy Lesson plans on Self Determination

• Have your student watch the Self Determination Video and write a summary.

  • Self Determination Video

• Work with your student to write a transition vision statement.

  • Read this article from Perkins on Writing a Transition Statement

Family Activities

• Have your child select their own outfit for school.

• Make a list of what your child likes and dislikes about them.

• Create and submit your family One Pager.

• Have your child take ownership of a home chore.

  • Self Determination Video Link

  • Molly Burke: Advocacy Video

Enter this month to win a $50 gift card. Deadline: October 1, 2025 (to be eligible to win!)

Student Activities

• Walk around the perimeter of your house/yard & make a mental map.

  • Smartphone apps for orientation and mobility

•  Find the center of a store/mall.

  • Video: Using route patterns and shapes

• Gather Materials and create a tactile map.

  • Perkins: Tactile Maps and Teaching Map Skills

• Wipe a table using a pattern.

  • Using a Systematic Pattern to Wipe a Table 

Teacher Activities

• Check out the O & M standards and use them in a lesson..

  • O & M Career, College and Community Readiness Standards

• Have your student point out landmarks in their school or community.

  • 3D Destination Symbols for Students with Multiple Disabilities

• Submit your own O&M lesson.

  • Check out the Perkins Lessons Library for O&M

• Create a tactile map for your student to use.

  • Check out APH Tactile Town materials

Family Activities

• Play follow the leader- have your child lead.

• Play follow the leader- have your child lead.

• Download the MTA Mobility Application. 

  • Have your child explain cardinal directions to you

  • Parent Mobility: Orientation & Mobility Resources for Families

  • Watch the O&M Intro Video

Enter this month to win a $50 gift card. Deadline: November 1, 2025 (to be eligible to win!)

Student Activities

• Clean and organize your room.

  • Perkins: Learning about laundry

• Take out the trash and replace the bag.

  • Video: Taking out the Trash as a VI Person

• Learn how to use a new item in the kitchen.

  • The Blind Kitchen

•  Create a list of foods you want to learn how to make.

  • Perkins: Meal Preparation

Teacher Activities

• Teach your student about following a pattern to clean.

  • APH Connect Center: Kitchen Appliance Accessibility

• Label an appliance with your student.

  • North Dakota School: Labeling Appliances

• Work with your student to identify money.

  • Perkins: Coin Identification

• Use an ILS checklist with your student.

  • Check out the Michigan ILS Checklist

Family Activities

•  Have your child help with laundry and match/fold clothes.

• Create your family’s emergency response plan.

• Create and follow a chore chart for your child for 1 week.

• Complete the Handwashing and Making Lunch Module.

  • Watch the IL Intro Video

  • APH Connect: Chores for Your Child

Enter this month to win a $50 gift card. Deadline: December 1, 2025 (to be eligible to win!)

Student Activities

• Create a list of characteristics of a good friend.

  • Paths to Literacy: Supporting and Encouraging Friendships

•  Write an email to a friend or teacher giving them a compliment.

  • Paths to Literacy: Overview of Writing

• Write a social story of how you interact with others.

  • Perkins Social Interaction: A student's perspective

• Ask an AI model to give you step by step directions on a social skill.

  • AI for Visually Impaired Learners

Teacher Activities

• Discuss internet safety in regards to social media.

  • NetSmartz: Internet Safety

• Have your student use their AAC device to respond to social cues.

  • Perkins: Social Skills

• Have your student write a routine for interacting with new people.

  • Paths to Literacy: Presenting Yourself Positively

• Have your student make a presentation to their classmates.

  • AFB: Glossary of Eye Conditions

Family Activities

• Attend a social event at school or in the community.

• Attend MSB Holiday Happenings event.

• Have your child plan a family outing.

• Volunteer as a family in the community.

  • Watch the Social Skills Intro Video

  • Read About Social Skills on the Perkins Website

  • Social Skills Live Binder

Enter this month to win a $50 gift card. Deadline: January 1, 2026 (to be eligible to win!)

Student Activities

•  Utilize a calendar for appointments/due dates.

  • Google: Using Google Calendar with a Screen Reader

•  Create a list of people who would be a good reference for you.

  • Paths to Literacy: Social Conversations over Zoom

•  Volunteer somewhere to gain a new experience.

  • How to Engage Volunteers with Vision Loss

•  Ask people in your neighborhood what they do for a career and why.

  • Paths to Literacy: Using the ECC for interviewing

Teacher Activities

• Host a mock interview with your student.

  • Video: Career Education with Dr. Wolffe

• Have your students write a poem about their future occupation.

  • Paths to Literacy: Future Occupation Poem

• Conduct a career readiness checklist on your student.

  • Perkins: High School Checklist for College Readiness

• Have your student watch the webinars on where the blind work.

  • NFB: Where the Blind Work Webinars

Family Activities 

•  Give your child a regular chore/responsibility to complete at home.

• Take the ONET Career Profiler yourself to explore!

• Talk to your child about opening an ABLE Account

• Create a Transition Portfolio for your child.

  • Watch the Career Education Intro Video

  • Resource: APH Career Connect

  • Career Education Live Binder

Enter this month to win a $50 gift card. Deadline: February 1, 2026 (to be eligible to win!)

Student Activities

• Create a document that describes how you access print materials. 

  • Article: From Taking Notes to Taking out the Trash

• Practice to Increase your typing speed/accuracy.

  • Paths to Literacy: Typing ideas

• Evaluate an image description.

  • Writing Image Descriptions

• Have a teacher or peer evaluate your note-taking skills.

  • Paths to Literacy: Note Taking Strategies

Teacher Activities

• Do a lesson with your student on tactual or nonvisual skills.

  • Paths to Literacy: Tactual Skills

• Have your student write out steps on how to use an AT device.

  • A Guide for AT

• Have your student describe their organizational methods.

  • Paths to Literacy: Organization

• Have your student estimate how long something will need to cook for and compare real time for accuracy. 

  • Organization and Time Management Strategies

Family Activities

•  Have your child teach the family how to use one of their low vision tools.

• Have your child sort and put away silverware.

• Identify all of the spices in your home without vision.

• Decode your name in braille.

  • APH: Braille

  • Compensatory Access Video Link

  • Perkins: Compensatory Access

Enter this month to win a $50 gift card. Deadline: March 1, 2026 (to be eligible to win!)

Student Activities

•  Create a maintenance schedule for charging/updating your electronics.

  • Paths to Literacy: Technology to Access Curriculum

• Take a creative photograph in a style that could be used in a magazine.

  • The Art of Blind Photography

•  Tell us what your favorite app is and why.

  • Paths to Literacy: Where AT and Braille Meet

• Make a list of all of your adaptive equipment and tell what each is used for.

  • Paths to Literacy: Overview of AT

Teacher Activities

• Have your student make a video on an AT device they use.

  • Paths to Literacy: Tech for Students with low vision

• Conduct an AT assessment on your student.

  • Paths to Literacy: AT assessment

• Do a lesson with your student on their iPad.

  • Paths to Literacy: iPads as AT

• Have your student set up a bluetooth speaker/device.

  • Paths to Literacy: AT to Support STEM

Family Activities

• Have your child sign up for Bookshare.

• Download the BARD mobile app for access to braille and audio books.

• Try an AT loan through the MTAP Loan Library.

  • Access Tech Video

  • Live Binder for Assistive Technolgy 

Enter this month to win a $50 gift card. Deadline: April 1, 2026 (to be eligible to win!)

Student Activities

• Try a new food and evaluate the flavor/taste/smell.

  • Understood.org: Sensory Seeking and Sensory Avoiding

• Match your socks/outfits based on feel only.

  • Paths to Literacy: Overview of Dual Media

• List the sound/smell cues/clues along a familiar travel route.

  • Blind Birding

• Listen to a song and list all the instruments you hear used.

  • RNIB: Spotify and Accessibility

Teacher Activities

• Make a Sensory Bottle.

  • Paths to Literacy: Sensory Bottles

• Have your student smell various spices and see if they can name them.

  • Paths to Literacy: TVI Guide to teaching the ECC

• Have your student describe various clothing/fabric textures to you.

  • Paths to Literacy: Overview of Auditory Strategies

• Have your student evaluate the effectiveness of a tactile graphic.

  • Paths to Literacy: Environmental Checklist

Family Activities

• Make one of the items in this article: DIY vision materials for students with complex needs.

• Do a family taste test where everyone wears blindfolds.

• Count the number of sounds you hear while shopping.

  • Sensory Efficiency Video

Enter this month to win a $50 gift card. Deadline: May 1, 2026 (to be eligible to win!)

Student Activities

• Complete a 15-minute exercise routine.

  • APH: PE and Sports for VI

• Create a list of new hobbies/skills that you want to try. As a bonus, try one!

  • Video: 6 Hobbies You Can Do with VI

• Create or adapt a game you can play with friends.

  • Paths to Literacy: Tips to Adapt Games

• Learn a new dance move or line dance steps. Send us a video!

  • Teaching VI: Dancing Adaptations

Teacher Activities

• Have your student make a craft.

  • Craft Activities for VI 

• Explore goalball with your student.

  • USABA: Goalball

• Play an adapted card game with your students.

  • Braille Uno

  • 64 oz Games

• Watch a movie and evaluate the audio descriptions.

  • 3Play Media: What is AD?

Family activities

• Use a recreation item from MDTAP & send us a pic!

• Join the Metro Washington Association of Blind Athletes

• Listen to an entire O’s game on the radio.

  • Recreation & Leisure Video

Enter this month to win a $50 gift card. Deadline: June 1, 2026 (to be eligible to win!)

ECC de Mayo en Español 

Actividades para estudiantes

• Aprenda sobre Golbol en esta video

  • Golbol

• Crea una lista de cosas que te gusta hacer o quieres tratar por primera vez y hazlas. 

• Crea o adapta un juego para jugar con amigos o en familia. 

  • GUÍA PARA ADAPTAR JUEGOS PARA ALUMNOS CON BAJA VISIÓN Y CEGUERA

• Aprende pasos de baile nuevos

  • Cómo enseñar ballet a personas que no pueden ver

Actividades Familiares

• Puede prestar un artículo de MDTAP  y mandarnos una foto. 

• Aprenda sobre la Metro Washington Association of Blind Athletes

• Escuche un juego deportivo por radio.