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This issue was edited by Deb Lewis, Co-ordinator, Statewide Vision Resource Centre.
To see the annual program and to download programs for professional development activities, go to:
The ‘VisionTechnology’ website has recently been updated (again) – and there are all sorts of new technologies to compare – with information including a description, source, compatibility, features and price. Visit: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au
The ever-resourceful Lea Nagel has been up to her tricks again – she’s created a new cheat sheet to help those supporting BrailleNote users!
Leanne has written the ‘cheat sheet’ for you! There is a quick version that you can print and laminate – but also a more detailed version if you require further instruction or explanation.
Visit: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/CSBNVisDisScR.doc
For school-based staff who wish to prepare tactual diagrams for their brailling students for free, consider Quick Tac, a freeware program. It appears to be similar to the new version of PictureBraille (except there’s no support). Take a look here: http://www.tactileaudio.com/doc.htm or download from here: http://www.tactileaudio.com/QuickTac.htm.
Adapted from: ‘It’s Vision Time’, Term 3 2007 – article by Kym Gribble in New South Wales
Accessing the blackboard and the whiteboard has been an ongoing problem for students especially in the high school setting. Our students up here use a number of different techniques at the moment including:
We are looking into encouraging true independence in our students in the classroom. We have trialled the Mimio, the Flipper and a variety of other technologies including a Dinolite (about the size of a matchbox). We have had mixed success with all of these technologies with the most common problem being the time spent connecting the equipment and have it up and running, the weight of carrying it around, the cost, or it not being “socially accepted” in the class. In the primary school setting where the technology can be set up almost permanently most of the comments is not a problem.
With the popularity of the Smartboard in many classrooms, new issues are arising for students with vision impairments… If you have any ideas, suggestions or hints please let us know.
Developed by a group of young programmers, NVDA is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows Operating System. This software can enable blind or vision impaired people to access computers running Windows, for no more cost than a sighted person.
Go to http://www.nvda-project.org/download.html if you’d like to download NVDA or http://www.nvda-project.org/ if you’d like more information.
NVDA is still very much in development. It may contain bugs and not be as stable as other commercial screen readers. However, even though it may not work correctly in every situation, people are reporting that NVDA works well for basic computing tasks, and definitely has the potential to grow into something as usable as the commercial screen readers.
Ever wondered how to teach your blind students to type? You could try one of the self-voicing programs but as it is important to work 1:1 with most students, particularly the very young child ensuring that they are using the correct fingers for each key, you might as well use a print copy (eg the worksheets from TTAPS or similar) and just read aloud from this. So all you need to worry about is how the student receives feedback about which key they have pressed – and perhaps KeyVoice is the solution.
KeyVoice is free software that is downloadable. KeyVoice is not a screen reader. It speaks keystrokes. It will not read out menus etc like JAWS, WindowEyes or any of the more sophisticated programs – and in fact if you have these programs installed on your computer you should turn off your screen reader’s key announcement option. If you do not turn off this feature, the screen reader and KeyVoice will both speak out the keys.
KeyVoice is designed for Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. A minimum system includes a Pentium, CD-ROM drive, and sound card with speakers. The program requires about 6 MB of available hard disk space to install.
Other features include the ability to:
Download from: http://members.dodo.com.au/%7Epcrain/
SpotDot is a relatively new technology which:
Contact Ramona Mandy on 0404 834 924.
Source: Ramona Mandy, Humanware
The BrailleNote Transplant Scheme introduced in 2005 will shortly be discontinued. Customers wishing to take advantage of the BrailleNote Transplant offer, keeping their technology current, must do so before the 19th December 2007.
The BrailleNote mPower offers a second synthesizer (Eloquence), bluetooth,
two USB host ports, an SD card slot, FM radio, the latest KeySoft version (KS
7.5), and more. You send in your old BrailleNote, and Humanware take out the
braille display and transplant it into a brand spanking new BrailleNote mPower.
Until 19th December 2007, there is a flat price of $2,750 for all braille display
transplants to BN mPowers, irrespective of KeySoft version and braille display
length.
Call Sam or Anthony to place an order on (02) 9686-2600.
Adapted from: CNET News 13 November 2007: Microsoft Word Files to Serve as
Talking Books Microsoft and open-source site SourceForge will offer a free plug-in
early next year that will convert Office 2007 files to the DAISY format that
translates text to speech.
The free tool will add a “Save as DAISY” option within Word 2007,
2003 and XP software. DAISY XML files can be read aloud by speech synthesizers,
paired with audio narration and used to create electronic braille. Users can
navigate open-standard DAISY documents quickly by jumping between page elements,
such as headers and indexes.
Visit: http://www.sourceforge.net
Adapted from: Future Reflections, Fall 2007
This is a terrific article written by mother Carrie Gilmer who examines the importance of expectations even in the ordinary events of life that, at the time they occur, may seem inconsequential. She writes:
‘Four little words, “You don’t have to…” How
much harm can be done by such a seemingly innocent pardon? After all it is born
out of the kindest and most sympathetic of intentions, right? This thing is
unfair for you to do, so you don’t have to do whatever this is. That levels
everything; all is right with the world.
Recently my son Jordan was excused from an assignment at school with the words,
“You don’t have to do it.”’
Gilmer goes on to describe why she feels that her son missed out on important learning experiences by being excused from the activity.
‘While the teacher’s purpose for the assignment had merely been
a tool to motivate the class to pay better attention to the film, the actual
assignment presented quite a learning opportunity. Doing it forced the students
to not only focus on the film, but to analyze it and then go further to articulate
what they had analyzed as they formulated and wrote the answers. There are a
number of rather valuable skills involved. Everyone had a chance to work on
those skills, whether they realized it or not, simply by doing the assignment,
but not Jordan. He simply passively watched and enjoyed the film. He had no
catalyst to prompt him to analyze anything more deeply, and no opportunity to
practice articulating his thoughts. He was relieved by a false idea of fairness,
but in reality robbed of a learning opportunity.
Beyond that, how did his classmates view Jordan from the perspective of “he
doesn’t have to?” This question got to Jordan and he began to appreciate
that it was a big deal after all. How can peers view you as an equal if you
“don’t have to?” What does it mean when everyone accepts that
you “don’t have to” because whatever it is that you don’t
have to do is (or appears to be) harder for you? … Do you want to raise
a blind child who can compete with his or her peers? Then strike the words “you
don’t have to” from your vocabulary.’
For the complete article, visit: http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr26/Issue3/fr260302.htm
Source: http://www.learningthroughlistening.org/ (where you’ll find other interesting activities and lesson plans)
Here are some quick listening activities to use while waiting for the bus, standing in line or transitioning to a different activity.
Many students learn best when learning is accompanied by an action or activity.
Use these activities to reinforce the listening lessons you teach.
Following Directions: Have fun with your students while demonstrating
how important listening and language are when attempting to follow oral directions
with no visual input given.
Got a Minute? Listen up!: Learn how to maximize the down-time
throughout your day by building your students’ listening skills.
Journal Jots: Journals are a powerful tool that can help increase
listening skills in the classroom. Learn how implementing journals into your
lessons can help.
Prosody: Do this interactive activity with your students to
help them understand how important tone, beat and emphasis are when they speak.
Complete the Prosody activity.
Scavenger Hunt: Use this engaging activity to help students
learn how to navigate through an audiobook or to sharpen up their navigation
skills.
The IDEAS’ website provides a high quality accessible web portal for people with disability and people with age related disability, their families, carers and other supporters to access and search for information that promotes their independence. Online versions of resources (databases on services, equipment suppliers and travel options, Infobyte fact sheets and newsletters) maintained by IDEAS can be found on the website as well as their blog, events diary and links to other high quality disability resources.
Visit http://www.ideas.org.au
Source: DEECD Communication S415-2007 Accessible Communications: Workplace Guide
Accessibility is a component of good communications planning. The Victorian
Equal Opportunity Act 1994 and the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act
1992 make disability discrimination unlawful and aims to promote equal opportunity,
inclusion and access for people with a disability. It is important to consider
the communication needs of your whole audience. The Accessible Communications:
Workplace Guide has been developed to assist staff make workplace information
and communication more accessible for people with a disability. For further
information, see:
https://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/Schools/Circulars/2007/s415-2007_accessiblecomms-clr.doc
Source: Audio Description Online, November 2007
Kath’s fluorescent pink g-string leotard will no longer be a mystery
for blind and vision impaired fans of Kath & Kim, as season four of the
television series was released on DVD with audio description. For a Christmas
gift that is nice, different, and un-u-su-al you can’t go past Kath &
Kim Series Four on DVD.
For more information visit: http://www.mediaaccess.org.au/audiodescription/
Media Access Australia recently launched a brand new radio segment titled ‘A
Way of Life’ on Vision Australia Radio. Broadcast every Sunday morning
at 9.00 am, the lifestyle segment features weekly discussion topics on audio
description.
For more information visit http://www.mediaaccess.org.au/audiodescription/c.aspx?id=111
We are taking the opportunity to give the production staff some more space to work in – they have been practically sitting on each others laps – so come and take a walk around the ‘new look’ production area and the even newer look Resource Room – with Resource Teacher Lyn now in residence!
Need a ‘sea change’ – there is a vacancy for a position working in vision and special education in Alice Springs. Go top: http://notes.nt.gov.au/dcis/RMS.nsf/(LookupWebVacancy)/7BB0481ACFE76EED69257391000F9CF6?Opendocument
Lyn Robinson has submitted a surprising entry – surprising in its role and function. It’s a Digital Ultrasonic Dog Pet Voice Recorder Trainer – and it has braille markers on the keys!And this is what it does:
The EZ digital dog trainer is used to train pets when repeated voice commands are needed. Using digital recording technology, anyone using any language can easily record voice commands for the device's eight training options. The trainer also features ultrasonic tones that allow you to train your pet in silence.
For this and other entries into the “Braille in the Community Competition” visit: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/braillecommunity.htm
We had so many beautiful designs entered that we ended up with four winners – all of which win prizes. The prizes consist of 10 beautifully printed copies of their card and a small gift (which will be delivered via VT in the next couple of weeks).
Here are the winning designs as Christmas cards – by Nikita (10 years), Ingrid (6 years) and Rohan (7 years).
You can place orders for bundles of these delightful cards –
6 cards with envelopes for $3.50
This surprising globe has a groovy pen pointer and voice output as well as 30 interactive activities such as:
It’s a veritable encyclopaedia of geographic knowledge that can be updated
on the internet.
Where: Australian Geographic stores
Cost: $199
This picture comes from Lea’s student Abby and was the design on her entry to the Christmas card picture competition that we recently held.
[optional: braille ‘Merry Christmas’ in contracted braille then
go down 2 lines]
1. Space (x 7) FOR
2. Space (x 6) FOR (x 3)
3. Space (x 5) FOR (x 5)
4. Space (x 4) FOR (x 7)
5. Space (x 3) FOR (x 9)
6. Space (x 2) FOR (x 11)
7. Space FOR (x 13)
8. Space (x 6) FOR (x 3)
9. Space (x 6) FOR (x 3)
Abby brailled her Christmas tree on green card and glued this to a slightly larger piece of folded red card. Abby’s design was sent to braille readers inviting them to our Christmas morning tea on Wednesday 5th December.
Dear VTs
Your borrowing lists are included with this edition of The Bulletin –
can you please do your best to return resources by the end of the year to the
SVRC. Especially braillers and other items on short term loan. Remember that
students’ funding (and even other sources) can be used to provide the
technology (including the dear old, though extremely functional Perkins Brailler
- $1,325 from Equipment Solutions:
201 High St Prahran 3181 tel (03) 9520 5555.)
Thanks from the staff of the SVRC!
We are very keen to hear how our students have gone with their end of year results – the VCE students, of course, but also our younger students and post-schoolies as well. So if you have student results you’d like to share with us and the readership, please email or call!
Thanks to Trevor Boyd, Chris Dinning, Michael Kelly, Jackie McKenzie, Lea Nagel, Denise Probert and Mike Steer for contributing to this edition of The Bulletin. Thanks also to my fabulous proof-readers, stuffers and mailers.
Deb Lewis (who can be emailed at deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au).