MATH CLASSES FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED

This project addresses two critical issues facing the field of blind and visually impaired (BVI) education. Firstly, a shortage of qualified mathematics teachers serving the population of BVI K-12 students exists today. Secondly, many BVI students struggle in mainstream mathematics classes, which lack the accessibility tools and delivery they need to succeed. At the Washington State School for the Blind we are meeting these challenges by providing a distance learning platform built on Microsoft technology that connects skilled teachers and students in different physical locations, and addresses the unique accessibility needs of our student population.

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Closed Caption:

>>Robin: Across the country there are shortages
of math teachers who are trained in the Nemeth
Code, which is the math code for the Braille
system; and do not understand how to
teach math to the visually impaired and
blind students.
>>Dr. Stenehjem: Our mission at the school
is providing quality services to blind and
visually impaired children. If we are going
to reach out to kids throughout the state
and really throughout the country we need
to
tap into a digital environment. With one tenth
of one percent of the student population being
blind or visually impaired that means one
student
is in this location and one in another - it
is
very very difficult to get to these kids.
>>Robin: Having kids being able to come into
my class via distance learning these kids
get an education at the pace that they need,
with the tools they need, with a teacher who
understands what their needs are. We've
used
more than one system for distance learning
for these math classes. We did a straight
video conferencing using a television and
a
camera and the camera stopped working. Someone
I know, who works at Microsoft, suggested
we use
Microsoft Lync and said there is a lot more
features that you can use above and beyond
just video conferencing. So, we decided to
try
it out and see how it would go. We really
needed to find something right away because
the camera wasn't working and class was
still
happening so, it was an instant switch.
>>Robin: Microsoft Lync has many different
components to it. And, the ones that we use
are: The video conferencing, so I can connect
down to the school to see these students.
Instant Messaging, so students can send me
messages and I can send them messages.
We use the desktop sharing, so I can look
at
the student's desktops to see what they're
doing
on their computers. We also use, the file
sharing,
so they can send me their work just via Lync.
By being through the computer the students
have
access and they can log in themselves, which
is a good advocacy. They can manipulate the
program themselves, because Microsoft Lync
has
all keyboard commands which allow them to
go
through the keyboard commands to manipulate
and go into different parts of the program.
It is accessible and usable with JAWS, a
screen reading program.
>>Robin: What makes this better, it's not
just teleconferencing. It's a whole entire
system.
>>Dominique: Back in my old schools, they
had the huge white boards. It's like...
you expect me to read what you write on
there? With the small single white board
on the screen now I can actually see, take
my notes, and still follow along without
getting lost.
>>Robin: And that's for a low vision
student using print and if a Braille
student wants to show me what they're
doing and I want to see what their looking
at. I can desktop share with them.
>>Chris: That is helpful because she is
able to take a look, tell me if or when
I make a mistake.
>>Robin: What they're entering in I can
see right on my screen. So I can say
"ohh, you have a little bit of an error-
you forgot a minus sign."
>>Chris: With this she can look right
there, it is with this part-this place,
you need to take a look here, that's
where your numbers are wrong.
>>Robin: It's almost like being able
to walk around the classroom and see
their work.
>>Sunny: If I have a question, or if
anyone in the class has a question,
they don't have to disrupt the class
they can send an instant message.
>>Robin: It's basically like raising
their hand. They can send me messages that
the rest of the class doesn't need to hear.
Plus, they can talk to me just like I am
in the classroom. We have a lot of fun!
I always like to say my class is the
nosiest class on campus. And since I am
not there we talk a lot. We have a lot of
discussion. We go over the problems together
out loud. There is a lot of interpersonal
communications that happens by using
Microsoft Lync.
>>Dr. Stenehjem: The nice thing about it
is it's off the shelf software so it's
not
something specifically designed for the
blind. So, if you can take off the shelf
software it means you can tie that into
any person's laptop, computer, or note
taker devise without a lot of
sophisticated equipment. Your regular
classroom equipment, which most school
districts are going to have, gives a
flexibility with all of this, where others
systems did not do that.
>>Robin: By having this distance in
outreach we can give these kids the free
and appropriate education they deserve.
>>Dr. Stenehjem: It helps make the world
smaller place and lets us connect with a
lot more people.