Please Help. Blind Student In Class

[Unregistered]

Need all the help I can get with a special situation. I have a blind student in my class. The school where I teach is not ready for these situations, meaning there's no "blind-friendly" material. Today was my first "experience" and I thought I was doing OK until I got to the part in the book where students are supposed to recognize actions through pictures. From my knowledge, that would be a breeze if we had "high relief" type of pictures, I guess, but we don't. I should also add that this 14-year-old girl lost her sight a couple of years ago.
What do I do??? Please help!!!!
Thank you very much
Yusy

 

[Clare James]

I've worked with one non-sighted woman in a class of fully sighted other students and it does represent a huge challenge to the teacher, because you realise quite how much you rely on visual cues and facial expressions to convey meaning and to coordinate classroom interaction. The main thing I learnt from the experience was to really involve other students in the process of helping the lesson work well for the blind student. I was really impressed about how much the other students thought out ways to help.

 

[Ouisch]

You didn't mention your nationality or location; if you are a US citizen living in the US or working overseas, you are eligible for the Talking Books program free of charge.

The Foreign Language Librarian of the National Library Service for the Blind may be able to help you as well. Lots of info available on their web page.

Can your student read Braille? There are some free materials available here.

Lastly, an article written by an ESL teacher who teaches the visually impaired.