Manistee County schools use various forms of assistive technology to help students with blindness and low vision achieve academic success.
According to Sarah Stargardt, Manistee Intermediate School District teacher consultant for the visually impaired, assistive technology is any object, piece of equipment, software, website, app or web browser extension used to add support or enhancement. on the ability of the educational success of a person with a disability.
Stargardt gave a presentation during a March 21 Manistee ISD school board meeting on several pieces of assistive technology the district uses to help students overcome educational barriers.
Stargardt showed the school board a braille writer that gives students with low vision or who are blind access to the written word.
“It’s funny because I love walking into a school with it and people are like, ‘What is that?'” he said. “It works like an old typewriter — I’ve tried to explain that to some people and they’re like, ‘What’s a typewriter?'”
A braille writer is a great way to get students started learning braille, Stargardt said.
“Braille is a code, like shorthand. So there’s a series of dots that stand for a series of things, but it’s English – it’s not its own language,” he said. “… It’s just a representation of English — a code for English. So we start teaching our kids who are totally blind or have a degenerative condition or … they don’t have enough sight to be print efficiency — those are the kids we work with in the braille writer.”
When students are old enough they start using a portable braille display called a Chameleon.
“It’s like a laptop without a screen. Below is refreshable braille, so these little dots here are what they read,” said Stargardt. “… The keyboard mirrors the braille keyboard. They run their finger across that and then they hit the advance key and a new set of braille comes up and the dots refresh. It’s great.”
Stargardt said the Chameleon can connect to the internet and access books from a USB drive.
“They can … just put it down and be able to get the content of the book on the refreshable braille display,” he said. “They just hit the space and the next line is filled.”
Stargardt says the Chameleon is a “pivotal” step forward from the standard braille writer.
“I had to go and write every single thing down,” he said. “When the (students) first learn (to use the braille writer) I have to write for the teacher what it says on the braille, but here you can plug (the Chameleon) into one printer and it will be printed on the print. . So, they input in braille and print it so that they (I) don’t have to write on it.”
Assistive technology is built into many of the devices that students and teachers use every day, Startgardt said. Laptops and tablets include speech-to-text, text-to-speech and magnification settings and presentation software Google Slides offers real-time closed captioning
Stargardt said something as simple as a lightweight ball with fins to keep it from rolling is still classified as assistive technology.
“When I have … gross motor difficulties – you pick up a standard ball with two hands, but you can pick up this ball with one hand and you can also throw it and it doesn’t work ,” he said. “If you have severe motor issues and the ball is rolling and you’re moving slowly, or it’s hard for you to move at all, this ball stays put. That allows a person to participate in a class of (physical education).
Stargardt said the ball is just one example of something that’s considered assistive technology “even though it doesn’t have a button.” Other examples include pencil grips and reading guide strips.
“A line guide … is considered a very low-tech piece of assistive technology,” he said. “… (If a student’s eyes) don’t work well together he uses the line guide as he reads and it increases fluency and helps him stay in place while he reads.”