The Bulletin
Statewide Vision Resource Centre
Number 14, Friday 30th August 2002

The following issue of The Bulletin was prepared by Deb Lewis (Statewide Vision Resource Centre).

Inside This Issue

- Braille Reading Comp and Braille Technologies Display
- Great Vic Bike Ride
- E-Book Finder
- Orientation and Mobility Morning
- Handwriting in the Early Years of Schooling
- Variety Club Christmas Party
- New Typeface for Large Print
- Accessibility Guidelines for Designers
- Braille Labelling
- Article: Sight Unseen
- Enlarged Print on Apple Computers
- RVIB Further Education Bursary
- Article Summary - RP and O&M
- More Tax News
- Powerful Picture Books
- Experience Stories for Functionally Blind Pre-Readers
- Mimio - from State Supply
- SCORE Camp: The Gretzky Story
- Student News
- SPEVI Networking Day

SVRC Professional Development 2002

Term	PD Event	Date
3	Mountbatten Day	Thursday 25 July
2	JAWS for Beginners Morning	Monday 29 July
3	Visiting Teacher PD Day	Monday 12 August
3	O&M Morning	Tuesday 10 September
4	SPEVI Combined Agencies Day	Monday 7 October
4	BCA/TALG EXPO (12 noon to 7pm)	Friday 18 October
4	Mountbatten Day	Tuesday 26 November
4	SVRC Technology Seminars	Friday 13 December

Braille Reading Competition and Braille Technologies Display Update

The Braille Reading Competition and Braille Technologies Display is to be held in the Vision Australia Foundation reception room and library foyer on 12 October 2002. Reading adjudicators will be John Marsden, Ramona Mandy, Frank Nolan and Gillian Gale.

Closing date for registration for the Junior Braille Reader section is now Friday 13 September.

There are some pretty exciting prizes to be won in the different divisions, so register now!

Contact: Vyvette Baptist on 9864 9626 or email vyvette.baptist@visionaustralia.org.au

The 2002 VicRoads Great Victorian Bike Ride

Jeni Blake is again organising a group of students with vision impairments to join the Great Victorian Bike Ride.

When: Saturday 30 November to Sunday 9 December (9 days)
Where: Warrock - Casterton - Hamilton - Halls Gap - Stawell - Maryborough - Daylesford - Hanging Rock - Melbourne
Cost: $395 plus $40 insurance

For more details call Jeni Blake on 0428 134 660 or after hours on 9772 6334.

E-Book Finder

The following information came from the August 2002 edition of E-Access Bulletin:

A free web-based search tool to help find details of book titles published in e-book format went live this week. The archive is said to contain information on tens of thousands of e-books issued by over 400 publishers.

Go to: http://www.ebooklocator.com

Orientation and Mobility Morning

Guide Dogs Victoria Children's Mobility Service staff will be conducting another O&M Morning for teachers, aides, parents and Visiting Teachers.

When: Tuesday September 10 from 9.30 to 12.30pm
Meet at: SVRC 370-380 Springvale Rd Donvale
The Program: A morning of practical exercises designed to increase your awareness and understanding of Orientation and Mobility issues surrounding travelling in the community. The program will focus on:
- understanding the social skills required for O&M
- the importance of developing students knowledge and understanding of environmental concepts
- the basics of cane travel

The session will involve discussions about O&M training, demonstration and practice of long cane use and a community travel experience under blindfold/simulators (this will be conducted in a local shopping centre). Cappuccino will be provided to the successful participants!!

Participants should wear comfortable shoes and clothing.

Apply to: Dean Johnson at the Children's Mobility Service on 9854 4506 or Deb Lewis at the SVRC on 9841 0242.

Handwriting in the Early Years of Schooling

Schools recently received a book and two CD-ROMS containing resources for teaching handwriting. You can also download the Victorian Modern Cursive Script from the SofWeb website.

Go to: http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/eys/lit/newresources.htm

There you will find a series of fonts including:
- unjoined for right-handers on single lines
- unjoined for left-handers on single lines
- unjoined for right-handers on dotted thirds
- unjoined for left-handers on dotted thirds
- joined using speed loops

Variety Club Christmas Party

Each year the Variety Club throws an enormous party for disadvantaged students and those with special needs or disabilities - around 5,000 students attend with their teachers and parents/carers.

When: Thursday 5th December 2002 - 10.00am to 1.00pm
Where: Melbourne Convention Centre

Please let Deb Lewis know by Friday 6th September if your student(s) would like to attend this party, as the tickets need to be booked immediately.

New Typeface for Large Print

RNIB have developed a new typeface specifically for large print publications for adults with low vision. For further information go to: www.tiresias.org/lpfont

Accessibility Guidelines for Designers

The Royal National Institute for the Blind in the UK are developing a set of accessibility guidelines for designers of information and communication technology systems such as cash dispensers, mobile telephones and ticket selling machines. They are interested in suggestions as to what should be added to these guidelines.
See the guidelines at: www.tiresias.org/guidelines

Braille Labelling

A new section on labelling systems has been added to the Tiresias website.
See: www.tiresias.org/equipment/labelling_intro.htm

Article: Sight Unseen

"Mike May was blind most of his life until surgery gave him his sight back. But two years later he still can't recognise his own wife. By learning why, psychologists are revealing the very origins of vision."

This article by Michael Abrams appeared in Discover, volume 23, number 6, June 2002. Please call if you would like a print copy of the article.

Source: http://www.discover.com/june_02/gthere.html?article=featsight.html

Enlarged Print on Apple Computers

MacOSX, the new Unix-based operating system, does not support old utilities like CloseView. A shareware substitute, PiselScope is now available:

PixelScope is a Macintosh shareware application that puts up a single window which shows an area around the cursor position. This can be magnified up to 17 times or shrunk to a 'magnification' of 0.25 (one quarter). PixelScope runs native on both OS 9 and OS X and has been tested all the way down to an original 233 MHz iMac with acceptable performance.

Some obvious and not so obvious features of PixelScope:
- to align objects precisely or get a closer look at what you are doing
- works fine in the background, particularly in OS X and will still track the mouse and display the same area around the mouse in its window
- works with multiple monitors and will support any combination of monitors, in any arrangement
- copies all of the pixels in an invisible rectangle around the cursor into its window, magnifying them or reducing them according to the size you set its window to and the magnification you choose
- can also be used to take magnified or shrunk screen shots

PixelScope is shareware and costs $7, after a 30 day free trial period. This means that if you like PixelScope and use it beyond the 30 day trial, you owe Sigma 4 payment of $7.00. Online payments can be made via credit card or PayPal account.

Go to: http://www.sigma4.com/pixelscope.html

RVIB Further Education Bursary

RVIB awards up to $4,500 for the purchase of adaptive equipment as follows:

Who is eligible: students who are legally blind, commencing or continuing first year tertiary studies and who for financial reasons would not otherwise be able to participate in further education.

Applications close: Friday 25 October 2002

Contact: Joanne Webber, RVIB Education Consultant
Tel: 9520 5555 or 1800 33 5588
Email: webbejo@rvib.org.au

Article Summary: "Connecting Research on Retinitis Pigmentosa to the Practice of Orientation and Mobility"

Geruschat, D.R., & Turano, K.A.
Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, Volume 96, Number 2, 2002, pp. 69-85.

"Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of degenerative diseases of the retina that are characterized by progressive loss of the peripheral visual fields. The primary characteristics of RP include night blindness, mid-peripheral ring scotoma that progresses both in and out, posterior subcapsular cataracts (which are often removed to improve vision), and good visual acuity until late in the course of the disease" (p.60).

Research indicates that difficult mobility situations for people with RP include:
- walking at night
- moving about in crowded situations
- avoiding bumping into low-lying objects
- adjusting to lighting changes during the day (outdoors to indoors)
- walking in dimly lit indoor areas
- reading street signs at night
- seeing faces from across the street
- walking down steps during daylight and in dim light

Easy mobility situations for people with PR include:
- moving about in the home
- walking in familiar areas
- walking up steps
- moving about at work
- walking through doorways

There are a number of options for reducing the effects that result from RP, and therefore assist in maintaining independent mobility:

1) Visual Field Restriction
Significantly reduced fields can cause difficulties with street crossings, crowds etc
(a) changes in walking speed and visual scanning to correspond to the conditions in the environment - if travellers become aware that the visual information is coming too quickly, they can slow down or stop eg when walking in a crowd, entering a café (step to one side). This increases the amount of time for scanning, absorbing and reacting.
(b) introduction of long cane or guide dog - allows recognition of changes in depth and low-lying obstacles and as a means of identification; allows travellers to use their vision for other tasks
(c) optical manipulation of an image through minification (reverse telescopes) or image displacement (Fresnel prisms) - may not assist with bumping into objects and people, seeing changes in depth etc; requires extensive training; weight and appearance may be an issue

2) Night Blindness
Most travellers with RP have poor or no ability to adapt to darkened travel conditions
(a) hand-held light source - eg over-the-counter torch; Wide Angle Mobility Light (WAML) which may not be available in Australia and has issues with weight, size, battery life and cost
(b) night vision technology - eg night scope systems which offers 40 degrees of view and when used as a spotting device, may offer enough visual information to travel safely in low light or night time eg detecting curbs etc

3) Light Adaptation
Some travellers with RP have difficulty with even the smallest change in illumination
(a) route planning with consideration of sun-shade pattern
(b) use of sunglasses, hats and visors for bright sunlight
(c) photochromatic glasses - though these are slow to adapt to changes in light conditions
(d) liquid crystal used to dark and light adapt eyeglasses quickly (30 milliseconds)

4) Balance and Stability
Postural stability can be affected by RP and may be seen in changes of posture and gait including widened stance, repositioning of arms, shortened length of stride
(a) sensory information regarding stability can be augmented by using a stable point of contact eg table or wall.

5) Reduced Contrast Sensitivity
Reduced contrast sensitivity can be associated with increased postural sway and reduced functional mobility performance including mobility errors and walking speed
(a) environmental modifications eg using high contrasting paint on stairs, curbs etc

6) Perceptual Difficulties Associated with RP
(a) development of visual perceptual skills in a mobility context including estimating speed and distance of moving objects etc

The authors note that mobility needs, skills and preferences are very individual and that "a client's perceptions of his or her problems and abilities should be a key element in the development of an instructional (O&M) program" (p.80).

More Tax News

It appears that if, as workers, we are involved with outdoor activities, including camps, outdoor sporting activities and the like, we are able to claim for sun protection. If this applies to you, the following can be claimed on your tax:
- sunscreen
- hat
- sun glasses

For this financial year only, these items can be claimed, for the past three years, without a receipt to the value of $300. Please check with your tax consultant!

Powerful Picture Books

Jeni Blake brought in two recently published picture books, which she has used to encourage literacy in some of her young and not so young readers:
- The Wrong Stone by Russell Deal
- The Red Tree by Shaun Tan

The books have minimal text and pictures that are worthy of exploration using a magnifier! There is a great deal of detail in the pictures and also a lot to think about. The Red Tree begins with the line: "Sometimes the day begins with nothing to look forward to…"

The books are available through St Luke's Innovative Resources.

Contact details: (03) 5442 0500 or www.stlukes.org.au

Experience Stories for Functionally Blind Pre-Readers

by Millie Smith

Experience stories are a powerful tool for functionally blind children because they combine literacy skills, language skills, and concept development related to real events.

The experience story sequence for a student with emerging braille literacy skills differs only slightly from the traditional approach for sighted children. It might look something like this.

1. The event occurs. (The class might go outside to pick up fall leaves.) REMEMBER: THERE MUST BE DISTINCTIVE TACTUAL, AUDITORY, AND MOTOR COMPONENTS TO THE EVENT FOR THE BLIND STUDENT!

2. IMMEDIATELY after the event, the class writes a story about the event. The teacher writes the language generated by the students on a chart.
The braille user participates by contributing language and listening to the language contributed by peers.
Sometimes braille users "write" in braille as the teacher writes in print on the chart. Usually the teacher and the student write only a few words of the text together in order to keep up with the other students. The whole sentence should be voiced even if only a word or two is written. If the general education teacher or a teaching assistant is doing this activity with the student, they may use uncontracted braille. The VI teacher brailles the complete material correctly as soon as possible and substitutes grade two braille for the grade one braille, if the student is learning grade two braille, so that when the student re-reads the material, the braille is appropriate. The advantage to having the braille user "write" as the language is produced is that a connection between language and writing is established in the same way that it is being established for the sighted peers watching the teacher put words on the chart.

3. The braille user puts tactual pictures on the title page and throughout his story where ever appropriate. (Tactual pictures might include leaves and anything else the student noticed during the experience. BE OPPORTUNISTIC! PICK UP LOTS OF THINGS DURING THE EVENT THAT CAN BE WORKED INTO THE STORY.

4. The braille user reads his story to his teacher, his peers, and family members using correct braille fluency movements paired with the language he remembers from step two. He is not actually recognizing words and letters at this point and should not be encouraged to slow down, use up and down finger movements to examine individual words and letters, or go back over words and letters. The emerging skill at this stage would be for the student to start matching words vocally and tactually by moving fingers to a new tactual unit when a new word is voiced. This is more of a one-to-one correspondence skill than it is a braille character recognition skill.

5. The braille user collects stories and keeps them in library centers at school and at home so that he can re-read them frequently. Some braille word recognition may emerge as key words on title pages and in the story are remembered and used to identify favorite stories.

Source: http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/vmi/stories.htm

Mimio - Available Through State Supply

Many people will already be familiar with the Mimio, a method of capturing every mark made on a whiteboard to a computer, which has been used successfully by several students.

The early version of the Mimio is now available through State Supply for the very reasonable price of $994.50. Additional Mimio Styluses in black, red, green and blue are available for $122.40 and erasers for $168.30. Also available for $185.00 is software which converts handwriting to text.

We are hoping to have Mimio displayed on 13th December 2002 at the Technology Seminar day - so if you haven't seen it yet, please come along.

For more information about Mimio, see the entry on the SVRC Vision Technology website: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/enlargementaccess.htm

For an image of Mimio: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/mimio.htm

A Little More Info on SCORE Camp in Canada

The Gretzky Story:

One day at the airport, Wayne Gretzky struck up a conversation with some teenagers who were blind and visually impaired. Gretzky was surprised that they knew who he was by his voice. He was even more amazed to discover that they listened to hockey on television. Wayne, together with his father, Walter, decided to fund a project that would improve access to modern technology for teenagers who are blind and visually impaired. The CNIB-Gretzky SCORE Teen Camp started in 1984 with a handshake between Dr. Euclid Herie, President of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), and Walter Gretzky.

The first SCORE Camp was held in the summer of 1985 in Brantford, Ontario. Initially a national program, SCORE was designed to introduce blind and visually impaired teens to computer technology. It has quickly become an international program and boasts graduated from Japan, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, England, Russia, the United States and in 1999, China.

SCORE's goals are two fold, first, it aims to give participants a strong, positive sense of themselves and their place in the world, and second, to bring them together with other teens who are blind and visually impaired so they can develop a sense of community.

The only camp of its kind in the world, SCORE receives about 45-50 applications each year. Unfortunately financial restraints allow SCORE to accept only 20 of these students. Located at the CNIB's National Office since 1995, SCORE has had over 300 graduates. Participants develop strong relationships during the two weeks, and several long-lasting friendships have been formed, including two marriages.

Through a specially-designed information technology program, SCORE provides a unique opportunity for disabled teens. At SCORE, teens can explore career information, learn what type of work their personality is suited to, and participate in team and individual experiences on special projects.

Student News

Lynne Murdoch is finding quite a bit of support from the local community in Colac towards the purchase of a BrailleNote for year 10 student, Chad. Local service organisations, businesses and even Lynne's cleaning lady have made contributions towards this piece of technology, worth $10,595. The school recently had 'Chad Day' where students made a donation for wearing sunglasses and a hat to school. Five hundred dollars was raised. Go Chad and Lynne!

7th Annual SPEVI Networking Day

When: Monday 7th October 2002 - the first day of term 4
Where: St Paul's School, 3-13 Fernhurst Grove, Kew
Who: Visiting Teachers AND PARENTS
Topics/Speakers:
- Lindsay Smith (Paediatric Neurologist)
- Sexuality
- Vision Fatigue
- Diabetes Insipidus
Cost: $20 which includes lunch
For further details or call Deb Lewis on 9841 0242.

If you have something you would like included in The Bulletin, contact:

Deb Lewis (who can be emailed at deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au).

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