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

• Create and Submit your family One Pager

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

• 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 non visual 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

• Participate in the Maryland Braille Challenge

• 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- 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

• Attend the MSB See Beyond Festival

• 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, 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-evaluate the Audio Descriptions

  • 3Play Media: What is AD?

Family activities

• Sign up for any of the MSB Summer Programs

• 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!)