strategies for teaching visually impaired students

Strategies for Learning and Teaching

(Teachers should note that the Visiting  children  with a visual impairment supports parents, teachers and other professionals involved with the child.

• Encourage the student to use visual aids that have been prescribed (like glasses, magnifiers, big-print books, etc).
• Seat the student rightly in the classroom (e.g. in the middle towards the front).
• Make sure lighting is appropriate.
• Make efforts to minimize the risk of glare from the desk and whiteboard.
• If possible ensure lights are coming from behind or to the side of the student.
• Give clear instructions because the student may misinterpret gestures and facial expressions.
• Make sure of using enlarged print/magnified worksheets.
• The less configurations on a worksheet the better (worksheets can be cut in strips and stapled together to present less work at a time).
• Print materials should be clear and dark.
• Have dark lined paper for assignments (the darker the lines the better).
• Nearpoint work should be minimized to fifteen minutes or less. The student is better to be encouraged to look away from his/her work, sharpen a pencil or participate in another activity as this will allow him to refocus his/her eyes so that the student is less likely to become fatigued.
• Have students measure from their elbow to their fingers and tell them they don't need to get closer to their work than that distance.
• Slanted desks may be good for individual students.
• Provide contrast on any visual materials used: black and white is the best.
• Avoid italic or ornate script. Remember that small letters are easier to read than capital letters because they have a greater number of ascenders and descenders, making them more visually distinctive.
• Nurish visual material with clear verbal explanation.
• Don't require more copying from the board or elsewhere.
• Increase oral activities.
• Use concrete material and hands-on experience if possible.
• Allow more time to complete tasks and provide breaks to minimize fatigue.
• Do not lower your expectations because the student has a visual impairment.
• Provide mobility and orientation training cause students with visual impairment have great difficulty in acquiring skills in direction, mobility and travel. This is more important at post-primary level where the student may have to move for individual subjects.
• Orientation and Mobility, or O&M, is a profession which focuses on instructing individuals who are blind or visually impaired with safe and effective travel through their environment. Individual O&M specialists can work for schools, government agencies or work as private contractors
  
• Arrange for other students to act as buddies and use peer tutoring. Peer-groups should be encouraged to include and support the student.
• A peer tutor is anyone who is of a similar status as the person being tutored. In an undergraduate institution this would usually be other undergraduates, as distinct from the graduate students who may be teaching the writing classes; in a K-12 school this is usually a student from the same grade or higher.
  
• Use the student’s name when seeking his/her attention.