The following issue of The Bulletin was prepared by Deb Lewis (Co-ordinator, Statewide Vision Resource Centre).
The SVRC PD program for term 3 appears below. For the complete list of activities for 2004 go to: http://www.svrc.vic.edu.au/PD2004.html
All activities are open to subject teachers, integration teachers and aides, careers teachers, therapists, parents, VTs, students etc. Please remember to register: tel (03) 9841 0242, fax (03) 9841 0878 or email svrc@svrc.vic.edu.au
Professional Development Event
– Term 3 |
Date |
| JAWS Workshop 10am-12 noon - BYO laptop | Thursday 19 August |
| Enlargement Options 10am-12.30pm | Tuesday 24 August |
| MAGic Workshop 10am-12 noon - BYO laptop | Tuesday 7 September |
Following raisin toast, brewed coffee and a bit of a chat, the Visiting Teachers – country and city – settled in for yet another quality professional development session!
The issue of siblings of children with disabilities was discussed at length by Geoff Bowen the SVRC Psychologist in his session, ‘Students in active stage of degenerative eye condition’. His handout, adapted from the Siblings Australia website and other sources mentioned below, noted:
The sibling relationship is a very important one. Most times it carries over a lifetime and has a significant effect on our development. Through siblings, children...
Most siblings of a person with a disability will be able to say there were
good and not so good aspects to their experience.
Those who can look back and see benefits in their situation say they have found
inspiration through their brothers and sisters, become more tolerant, more compassionate,
more aware of their blessings and, in many ways, more mature than young people
who have not had these experiences. They say growing up with their brother or
sister gave true meaning to their lives, that “they made me who I am”.
Some children, however, have a more difficult time. They can experience confusion over the feelings that arise. On the one hand, a child may feel loving and protective toward their brother or sister, but at the same time feel a mixture of more negative feelings such as resentment, fear, guilt, embarrassment and sorrow.
Some of the specific concerns mentioned by authors, parents and siblings themselves, include:
NOT ALL siblings will experience the concerns mentioned above. Most children can deal with stress better if they feel they are listened to and understood. And with an increased understanding of the issues for siblings, it is fairly easy to support children so their adjustment can become more positive.
For more information, see the following websites:
Karen Underwood, Manager Student Wellbeing, a speaker at the recent Visiting Teacher Professional Development Day, reflected that Visiting Teachers represented a “small cohort” within the staffing compliment of the Department of Education & Training. She stated that it was important to utilise the electronic media (edumail, sofweb etc) to keep up to date with the various “iterations” (drafts) of departmental guidelines and priorities enabling Visiting Teachers to better “unpack information” in their “interfacing with schools”. She noted that one of the greatest skills that Visiting Teachers bring to schools was the craft of pedagogy – that is the craft of learning and teaching.
One document that Karen highly recommended that Visiting Teachers made themselves familiar with was the Blueprint for Government Schools. In the Minister’s forward, Lynne Kosky notes:
“Some groups of students continue to have poor levels of literacy and other basic skills. These students can be concentrated in particular schools and particular areas of the state. They tend to have high rates of absenteeism from school and are more likely to leave school early. There are also high variations in outcomes between classes within schools and between schools with similar student populations.
The demands of our increasingly sophisticated economy and a more complex and rapidly changing society require us to address these poor outcomes and, indeed, to improve educational outcomes for all students. Education and training underpin the development of a highly skilled, innovative workforce as a critical enabling factor for social, cultural and economic growth in Australia.
And it is a key to personal development and to a wide array of life opportunities.
Every Victorian is entitled to the benefits of a quality school education. In Victoria, the large majority of people are educated in our government schools. Therefore our state education system plays a central role in advancing their economic and social wellbeing.
In addition, the government school system has specific responsibility to serve all young people in the state. It guarantees an education for all children, irrespective of their location or background.”
The Blueprint for Government Schools outlines the government’s reform agenda for the government school system, which includes the implementation of the following strategies:
To read the Blueprint, go to: http://www.det.vic.gov.au/det/resources/blueprint.htm
The Word version can be found at: http://www.det.vic.gov.au/det/resources/docs/blueprint.doc
Ramona Mandy from Pulse Data Australia kindly conducted a Window Eyes workshop recently, attended by a number of Visiting Teachers (DE&T and RVIB), SVRC staff and our work experience student Alice Chilton who compiled the following report:
Window Eyes is a program that you download onto your computer or laptop. It is very helpful for the visually impaired. It is a voice that reads out what is shown on the screen. Once you get the hang of it, it is very easy to work. The speed, pitch etc of the voice can be changed to how you like it. Also, you can change the language you would like it to speak. It has been made to work using the keyboard instead of the mouse, although the mouse still can be used. There are many shortcuts that can be used to find what you want quickly.
Window Eyes works with lots of programs including the internet. It reads out the internet pages for you, and you can skip down the page to what ever you want. It can read out your emails to you also.
The workshop was very helpful. Ramona Mandy took it. She was amazing and knew all the answers to our questions plus more! Window Eyes would be great for children or adults.
Cost: $775-$1,628 depending on the features
Email Ramona Mandy: ramonam@pulsedata.com
Lea Nagel’s lively discussion of e-text production and access by students with vision impairments kept us all amused! She reminded us that font size can be enlarged by:
Lea encouraged us to get more out of our students’ laptops by organising e-text for handouts, text books etc through the school or SVRC – you can enlarge, change contrast, voice output etc etc
Electronic texts are books in digital format, sometimes referred to as ‘Digital Talking Books’, ‘Ebooks’ or ‘Etexts’. There are many types of electronic books which come in different formats. For example you can obtain e-books from the internet in text (txt) or html files or you can obtain e-books in audio formats such as wav or mp3 files. There is quite a selection of hardware and software for playing your e-book.
Some internet sources of e-text offer free downloads; others are commercial producers and charge a fee. If you have come across anyone supplying electronic texts that you think others might like to know about please email Lyn at: lynrobin@svrc.vic.edu.au
For more information about Ebook Websites and Digital Talking Books on CD-ROM see http://www.svrc.vic.edu.au/etexts.html
Adapted from: Technology Guide to Assist Students with Visual Impairments in Meeting Curriculum Goals http://www.setbc.org/special/virg/part2.html
Keyboarding can be fun and young students are often very happy to work on the computer. By the time a student reaches year 7 they should, ideally be able to type 20-30 words per minute. If the student has basic typing skills it will be a lot easier to learn the more advanced features on the keyboard, and use them efficiently.
When to introduce keyboarding instruction requires an individual appraisal. Students as young as Grade 1 have had success using the QWERTY keyboard. Generally short lessons (five to ten minutes) works best with young students. The time can be lengthened as progress is made.
The student who uses braille can use a typing program in a taped format. However, this can be time consuming and it may be more useful to dictate letters, words or phrases for the student to type. For older students quotations or passages from plays or poetry can be typed from memory or dictated. The following method is only one of many which are available to teach keyboarding skills to students.
Two resources that can assist in teaching keyboarding skills are:
Touch Typing Tutor
University of Birmingham http://www.education.bham.ac.uk/research/victar/resources/tech/centre.htm
Free download Systematic lessons
Ability to manipulate font size and colour
All visual information can be presented as synthetic speech output
TTAPS (Touch Typing at Primary School)
Edsoft http://www.edsoft.com.au
A$79
A$699 unlimited site license PC and Apple – ages 7 - 12
Accompanied by animations and voice explaining fingering, speaks letters
Program notes and printed copy included
Australian voice
For more keyboarding and computer skills resources see: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/keyboarding.htm
Adapted from notes prepared by Visiting Teacher Denise Probert in 1993.
Some students seem to just hate the repetitive nature of learning touch typing in the traditional way – from a keyboarding manual or a typing tape. In order to motivate such students Denise developed a number of activities which may prove useful. The activities offer a mental challenge or involve memory or imagination. Students may also benefit from discussion about and during the typing task. It may also help if the students try to moderate their fixation with making mistakes, so lots of encouragement is needed and possibly even your disregard of their mistakes!
Thanks to Visiting Teacher Helen Caldow for this contribution:
This keyboard features extra large keys with high contrast letters. It is available in three different colour combinations – black letters on white keys, white letters on black keys and black letters on multi-coloured keys. The keyboard is available with the letters set up in either a standard QWERTY keyboard or ABC layout. It is possible to change layouts by flicking a switch under the keyboard then physically rearranging the keys.
The keyboard operates with most software including word processing programmes, email, Internet and JAWS. The cost is around $300.
Check out the web site: http://wsww.bigkeys.com
When: 6-10 December 2004
What: Guide Dogs Victoria is offering a five day program in
Sydney for students aged 14 to 19 years. They must be highly motivated and looking
to expand their existing high level O&M skills and be capable of managing
their own daily living skills.
Travel: XPT train and plane
Cost: FREE – just approx $50 spending money
Applications close: Friday 27 August 2004
For more details: contact Rachel Morgan on (03) 9854 4469 ASAP
Here is an excerpt from a report that appeared in the July 2004 issue of “Get About” Newsletter:
The big challenge of the weekend was for the students to plan their way to a suburban restaurant in small groups. The instructors provided them with the Melways and a telephone to contact Telstra Directory, The Met and the Restaurant. They were then left to their own devices to work out things such as where the restaurant was and if it was close to public transport. Many students had not attempted to plan an outing for themselves before and were surprised at the amount of preparation that needed to go into it.
The staff and parents were very impressed with the students’ efforts in planning this exercise. Both groups made it to the restaurant safely and on time, which was great as we were all very hungry!! In addition to the students getting some experience with travelling in dark conditions and using aids such as torches, long canes, and sighted guide, the parents were also able to see how their child approached this task, and how their confidence changed with the varying levels of darkness. Most importantly it was a great opportunity for parents to stand back and let their child work out things for themselves.
Who: People with vision impairments under the age of 18 –
volunteers and parents also welcome
When: Friday 10th September 2004
Time: 10.00am to 2.00pm
Where: Scotch College Junior School Gym, Callantina Road Hawthorn
BYO: Lunch
Gold coin donation
RSVP and for more details: Hazel on (03) 9561 6331
Dr Mike Steer
Renwick College
Royal Institute for Deaf & Blind Children &
The University of Newcastle.
Australia, for historical (colonial) reasons inherited the British system of Braille rather than the American system. This situation was the case until the 1980s when, as Bill Jolley, currently President of the Australian Braille Authority (ABA) pointed out at a recent Round Table conference, the need for change became evident and the ABA took action. While the several changes made at that time happened for good reasons, the net result is that currently Australia has a hybrid system of Braille codes. With a small population of Braille readers and scarce resources to maintain the Braille-related infrastructure, there are currently no comprehensive code specifications and teaching manuals do not exist and, as Jolley pointed out, we lag behind in developing software for our own computerised Braille production.
In 1999 the ABA published a landmark paper; Braille 2000: Meeting the challenges of a new millennium. Its purpose was to provide background information and generate discussion that would influence decision-making at its meeting April meeting. This short article is intended to promote discussion within the Australian professional community on the future of our several Braille codes.
In particular, the proposed alternative to our present codes, the Unified English Braille Code (UEBC) has been with us now for well over a decade. As is well known, the alternative code represents a genuine attempt at coming up with a single code which would be used throughout the English-speaking world: the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, and South Africa. The UEBC project was initiated in 1992 by the Braille Authority of North America (BANA), whose standards are followed by the USA, Canada, and New Zealand. Apparently the original memo that inspired BANA to initiate the UEBC project was written in 1991 by Drs Tim Cranmer (of Cranmer Abacus fame) and Dr Abe Nemeth (of Nemeth maths code fame) both of the USA.
Since the UEBC Project commenced, Australia has been an active participant in the discussions and has been committed to the introduction of a more simple universal code for English Braille. In 1999, an ABA working party produced a comprehensive document entitled Braille 2000 (Australian Braille Authority, 1999). The document detailed the history and present day status of Braille in Australia including concerns about the decline of Braille use. It provided information on the background to the proposed changes and included recommendations that would be transmitted by Australia to the Assembly of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB) in Baltimore in November 1999. With its commitment to the introduction of the Unified English Braille Code (UEBC), Australia played a pivotal role at the meeting to ensure that deliberations on the proposed new code would be completed and be ready in time for consideration at the ICEB General Assembly in 2003.
It is likely that changes in the code might pose some difficulties for Australian Braille readers, particularly in the areas of mathematics and the other specialised codes (e.g., computer, chemistry, electronics). Nevertheless, these significant changes, should they occur, could mean that Australia will be able to access and provide texts on a global basis, provided that there are necessary changes to international copyright law.
Among the several benefits that would accrue from adoption of a universally accepted Braille code is an opportunity to have access to and share the Braille resources of such nations as the USA and the UK that have vastly larger populations than ours. A common code would be a boon for voracious readers and for students who are blind or vision impaired in our schools, since Braille production is highly expensive and good resources scarce.
Alas, recent negotiations appear not to have gone well and the current situation is that both the UK and the USA have decided not to adopt the unified code yet. New Zealand and South Africa (both nations with relatively small populations) have both agreed to adopt UEB (the C seems currently to have been either dropped from the acronym or replaced by a small c for code) as soon as practicable, and Braille authorities in Canada (another nation with a relatively small population) have already held a four-day workshop for transcribers and volunteers, to prepare training modules that will aid UEB adoption. At the Annual Meeting of the Australian Braille Authority held in Sydney as part of the May, 2004 Round Table Conference, a resolution was passed that Australia (yet another nation with a relatively small population) will consider whether or not to choose UEB or the British Braille code over the next 12 months with a final decision to be announced at the ABA’s 2005 Annual meeting.
The unhappy result is that international Braille appears now to be entering another balkanization phase, in which there are likely to be three sets of codes; the US; UK and UEB. The end result of this scenario will be difficulties for Australia in gaining access to the resources of the World’s two major Braille producers, while having better access to the resources of three countries where small population size has resulted in smaller Braille production. If opportunities for more resources are important to the children in our schools, and I suggest they are, then surely we ought to be thinking of sharing codes with one or other of the major producers (preferably the larger) rather than with the smaller nations that have traditionally experienced the same sorts of resource problems we have. As a further inducement to thoughtful change, Sydney-based high-tech guru Nigel Herring pointed out at a recent ABA meeting in Sydney, that the further we move away from the American maths and computer codes, the more difficult will it be to effectively use the masses of new American high-tech equipment that is flowing onto the Australian market even as I write.
I would urge you and fellow BCA and ABA members to think hard and fast, and contribute their thoughts to the all important discussions that will determine where we go with our Braille in the coming years. The best way this might be done is to get in touch with a policy officer BCA and make known your thoughts on this important topic.
Contact details:
Blind Citizens Australia
PO Box 24
Sunshine, Vic 3031
Telephone: 03 9372 6400
Fax 03 9372 6466
Email: bca@bca.org.au
Source: Education Times, 29th July 2004
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) recently announced some changes to the requirements for Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) eligibility. To complete VCE in 2005, students:
The 16 units may now include an unlimited number of Vocational Education and Training (VET) subjects.
Note: these changes to VCE eligibility rules do not change the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre requirements for student eligibility for an Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank (ENTER).
RMIT has two new Co-ordination Officers, Natalia Klarica and Joanne Webber.
Natalia will be covering the central and South West and Bayside areas and can
be contacted as follows:
Disability Co-ordination Officer
C/O RMIT University
Building 13
GPO Box 2476V
Melbourne 3001
Tel: 9925 3531
natalia.klarica@rmit.edu.au
Joanne is covering the North and East Melbourne areas and can be contacted via email at: joanne.webber@rmit.edu.au
Another contribution from Visiting Teacher, Helen Caldow:
In a recent article (The Age, 19/7/04) Dr Michael Carr Gregg nominated 10 ways to help boys at school. This is an abridged version. The complete article is available at SVRC.
Level 1: $4030
Level 2: $9320
Level 3: $14, 711
Level 4: $20,078
Level 5: $25,403
Level 6: $30,757
Source: LiveWire, July 2004
The Freedom Scientific Scholarship Program will award eight free copies of JAWS Professional to students making the transition between secondary or TAFE studies and tertiary education in 2005.
Recipients will be identified by agencies providing services to the blind and vision impaired in each state, with one scholarship being awarded by Quantum Technology. Applicants must be Australian and New Zealand citizens who are blind or vision impaired and planning to pursue full-time courses of study at university level.
To apply, please write in 500 words or less, why you need a Freedom Scientific Scholarship and how it will assist you in your studies. Each state has a contact – in Victoria the contact is Chris Edwards, Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind, call (03) 9520 5555 or email chris.edwards@rvib.org.au
Quantum’s award is open to applicants in Australia and New Zealand. Forward your applications to Matthew Cauchi by email mcauchi@quantech.com.au or call (02) 8844 9888.
Applications must be received by 30th September 2004, and winners will be announced in the next edition of LiveWire.
Here is a request (as it was brailled) from a volunteer teacher on behalf of students attending the Tan Miyat School for the Blind People in Indonesia:
“Dear the Prinkipal and teachers. I am from Indonesia and need many pen-pals by brailler, from all over the world. English is not our daily language, but I want klever in it… Put our address on the wall supposed then by your students, then they kan make letters with us.”
Post your letters to:
Basuki – Volunteer Teacher
Tan Miyat School for the Blind People
J1. Mulyadi Joyomartono 19
Bulak Kapal Bekasi Timur 17113
Indonesia
Attached to the print copy of The Bulletin is a braille order form adapted from one developed by Visiting Teacher Odette Budge. It includes space for: student, teacher and subject information as well as space for the teacher to list the topics/chapters etc that they plan to cover each week of that term. Odette hands this form out to all of her brailling student’s teachers at the beginning of each term. In this way:
Please contact us if you'd like a copy of this form.
Thanks to Annette Godfrey-Magee and Helen Caldow for contributing to this issue of The Bulletin. Thanks also to my fabulous proof-reader for edition 13, Lea Nagel.
Deb Lewis (who can be emailed at deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au).