Statement of the Problem: You are working with a colleague in your high school who has a student with visual impairment. She has asked you to help her make accommodations for this student, including assistive technology. According to your colleague, the student is able to perform well in the class but need help in completing assignments and taking notes.
The Child George is a typical 14-year-old in many areas. He is very outgoing and social. George is very interested in girls and will frequently get into trouble because he is talking to girls when he should be listening in class. He is interested in cars (his father is rebuilding classic cars) and loves to look at auto mechanics magazines. He is very articulate and knowledgeable about this topic.

Academically, George is performing slightly below grade levels. The results of his most recent standardized tests are as follows:

George does not demonstrate any discrepancy between his receptive or expressive language (Age Equivalent - Expressive 16.5; Receptive 17.3).
His intelligence, as measured by the Stanford Binet test, is slightly above average.
Verbal IQ 115
Performance IQ 102
Full Scale IQ 109

George's teachers report, however, that he has difficulty in tasks that involve reading and written language, in moving about the school, and in completing assignments and homework.

Interviews Mrs. Blackford (English)
I: "Mrs. Blackford, can you tell me about the problems George has in your class?"
B: "Why yes. First, let me say that George is such a nice young man. I really enjoy having him in my class and I wouldn't be here if this were not so important to deal with right away. That being said, I am concerned about George's written work. I have included a copy of one of his papers for you to look over. George will not complete all the assignments I give out. He only does a limited amount of work. When he does attempt to complete an assignment, I rarely receive the work. He puts it in his book and later, much later, I will see the paper. I have to prompt him to turn in whatever he has done."

"George's written work is very disorganized. He does not stay within the lines and often leaves out words or letters in words. I have noticed that he will work diligently for 15 to 20 minutes, then he slows down or stops. While the other students are working away, he is talking to girls or simply staring into space."

"I must admit that he attends fully when I am lecturing. George is right with me during these times. He will ask incisive questions and always seems to have the answer to any question that I ask. Naturally, I have been leaning towards more lecture, but I am concerned because, for other students, this is their weakest mode of learning."

Mr. Hader (Vision Specialist)
I: "Mr. Hader, can you tell me about George."
H: "George, George, George. He is an interesting young man. I think that he has the abilities to do much more than he is demonstrating. George has learned to use his vision impairment to avoid some work. He also has such as significant visual impairment that, to complete a task, he must expend much more effort than you or I. Let me give you an example, to read this book (hands interviewer a textbook) George must hold his face right up to the book and scan line-by-line through the text. That means that he must move his head, which we do not do while reading. Also, to find a specific part of the chapter, we will simply flip pages to find the major headings. George, on the other hand, will need to scan each page for the headings. He does not have good peripheral vision. Therefore, he is not able to see the whole page at once.
"George's vision also fluctuates day-to-day. Under the best of circumstances, he is able to read by placing his face against the page. With glasses - and he is supposed to wear his glasses - he is able to read by placing the book about 9-12" from his face. His glasses are 4x magnification. This translates to 48 point type -

On a bad day, George is not able to use his vision to read print materials. I have not been able to get a good handle on the frequency of good versus bad days, but my feeling is they are about a 3:1 ratio."

"You should also be aware that he experiences a great deal of visual fatigue. His eyes will water and he becomes very tired. It is very much like when you are reading right before going to bed. When he becomes tired, he becomes very distractible and anxious. George has told me that he has frequent headaches when he has to do long assignments."

Ms. Appleby (Science)
I: "Mrs. Appleby, you indicated a concern with George's performance in your class this year. Could you share that with me?"
A: "Yes. I must admit that it is quite a conundrum to me that George performs so well on the standardized tests and yet he does so poorly in my class. One problem is that he never turns in assignments! I have not received one paper, quiz, or set of experimental questions from him all year. This is adversely effecting his grades in this class, and from what others have told me, all his other classes.

"I think the second area of concern is George's problems with figure-ground perception. He has real depth perception problems. I am afraid of what might happen when he is working on experiments with dissection activities. Instant amputation!

"Lastly, I am concerned with the fact that George rarely takes notes in class. I present lots of information and he never writes a thing in his lab book. George depends on his auditory memory to recall facts, figures, and diagrams. Even when I modify his tests to be oral, he cannot remember much of the information I presented in class or that was included in his text. In contrast, the other students seem to be doing quite well. Oh, I forgot to tell you, the tests are all open note, open book.

The Setting:
George attends Wainright High School (WHS), a large inner city high school with an enrollment of 3,500 students. As with many schools in metropolitan Lower New Big Cityville, there are a significant number of children with problem behaviors. The school is located in a very depressed area of the city and the facilities are in need of repair and upgrade. Most of the faculty of WHS live in other parts of the city and commute to the campus.

Students at the WHS attend 4 classes each day. Each class is 1 hour 45 minutes long. Most of George's classes have between 35 and 45 students in each room. His schedule this semester is: Biology, Physical Education, Algebra, and English. Students in these classes are typical learners. In the Biology and Algebra class there are three students with disabilities (including George). By and large, the students are motivated and complete their assigned work, attend regularly, and achieve the necessary competencies to graduate from the 9th grade (i.e., move to the 10th).

The faculty of WHS, and George's teachers in particular, are not very technology literate. There is one large computer lab that serves the entire school. Computers are not available in any of the classrooms. Only his Algebra teacher owns a personal computer. Several faculty members have stated that they will retire rather than learn to use these new "toys".

Task:

Discuss George's Vision Impairment, what general types of modifications would be appropriate and why, and what AT devices you would recommend.

1. What are George's specific technology needs?

George needs:

-a BrailleNote so that he can take notes, complete homework, and read books along with their sighted classmates. BrailleNote also has a calendar (Gerge can use it to write down the due dates for homeworks), a clock, and a calculator.

-a laptop with speech output so that he can access information from the computer screen through auditory means, do research,take tests.

-Optical character recognition so that he can scan printed text and then the device can speak it back or save it to a computer/laptop.

-a tape recorder to tape the lectures.

2. Which of the following general types of modifications for students with visual impairment or blindness would be appropriate for George?


o Optical character recognition: George would definitely benefit from this device.

o Speech output: appropriate because he can access information from the computer screen through auditory means.

o Braille for notetaking. Also, braille embossing devices can be attached to computers and a special computer program can convert the print text to Braille. This would give George to the same information his friends get from computers.

3. And for the modifications you indicated, what AT devices (1-2) do you think might address George's needs in this area and why. Provide the URL for the product so classmates can review.

BrailleNote:

http://www.afb.org/aw/AW030105.asp

Optical Character Recognition Systems:

http://www.afb.org/info_document_view.asp?documentid=1283