Hi Lacey! I too have used the Building on Patterns curriculum and followed their scope and sequence in introducing contractions. Along with this curriculum, I’ve had great success with the Mangold Basic Braille Program as a supplement to BOP. I need to look at the ABLS checklist as I have a student, who is doing some scrubbing, and I need to figure out which letters he is having difficulty reading. Perhaps this assessment is what I need!
- What steps could you take to collaborate with colleagues, administrators, and support staff to promote awareness and implementation of best practices for font legibility to support students with low vision in the classroom? Should local school districts adopt inclusive design principles for printed materials? Why or why not?
What I have done for my low vision students is go through the different fonts at their recommended font size, including below and above and I have them choose what they prefer. The article “The Legibility of Typefaces for Readers with Low Vision: A Research Review” Even says it is a matter of preferability of each individual. So requiring school districts to adopt inclusive design for all printed materials would not be appropriate. Also, depending on the student’s eye condition needs to be taken into consideration. A student with a peripheral loss would be at a disadvantage if the print is too large due to seeing fewer letters in a word if the size of the print is too large. A student with a central loss will need large print. It is also important that there is adequate spacing between the letters so the letters do not run together and the person can distinguish and identify each letter. But I believe that when the student’s teachers are recommended what size print and font is best for the student, worksheets are printed out in this size. I am continuously getting backlash from teachers telling me that the Visually Impaired student can see the same worksheets given to the rest of the class. That he or she can see the worksheets and is completing the work. The teacher does not understand that this may be causing the visually impaired student to have to strain, hold the materials closer, and cause eye fatigue. They do not understand that some fonts may cause letters to blend with each other. Or if a student has low vision aids such as magnifiers or a video magnifier to encourage the student to use them. Maybe there needs to be a meeting with administrators, support staff, parents, and teachers so there is an understanding of why adhering to the recommended size and font style is important.
The article talked a lot about when contractions were introduced and whether it affected vocabulary knowledge, decoding skills, and fluency. That contractions need to be learned on top of all the letters, grammatical rules, and spelling. There has been some discrepancy in how and when contractions should be introduced but there is a belief that it can allow them to take in more information faster and faster word recognition. A big question was did it make a difference in reading rates, comprehension, vocabulary, word recognition, and reading achievement levels. The Texas Primary Reading Inventory focussed on the development of phonemic awareness and decoding skills found when students reached 2nd grade they began to have difficulty applying skills to acquire higher-level skills. The Brigance found the students who were introduced to more contractions early tended to do better on vocabulary and spelling. Reading speed did not seem to correlate with those who read contracted or uncontracted Braille in the early grades but they still did not keep up with their sighted peers. The study showed that students in Grades 1 - 3 were reading below their grade level. It is mentioned that faster Braille readers is not associated with comprehension. I have a student who can read Braille and decode all the words but does not comprehend what he is reading. The text needs to be broken down and explained to him before he understands the content. In the study, the students acquired skills well from Kindergarten to 1st grade but started to have difficulty when they reached 2nd grade. The article talked about how many contractions were introduced, but shouldn’t the number of contractions being introduced need to be at the level of the grade level of reading? Some may be above a Kindergarten or 1st grade reading level. Some of the contractions need to be introduced when words at the reading level of the content first introduce new reading vocabulary in passages and stories students are reading. For a 1st grader to learn 198 contractions in a short time would be overwhelming. I also like the idea of doing a study of older students. Can a Braille reader catch up with his or her sighted peers after learning all their contractions or are there gaps in their reading skills that are keeping them behind? The discussion of dyslexia made me question whether Braille students’ difficulty is just due to difficulty reading or whether are there other skills lacking. Also, the child’s motivation to want to read can be a factor in their learning process.
That is true that schools are using more digital content now instead of books, worksheets, and hard copies. The students need to be able to go into the accessible features of their laptops and make the print on the screen accessible to them. However, students sometimes refuse to because they do not want to look different. Or a very legitimate reason is when they increase the font it means they have to scroll more and they see less on the screen. Then they have their nose on the screen. Therefore collaboration needs to be done with administrators and teachers educating them that it is necessary to get a laptop with a bigger screen so when they do enlarge the font size on the screen they can see more and do not have to scroll as much. Unfortunately some of the school programs are not easily accessibile for those who need to use screen readers.
- What steps could you take to collaborate with colleagues, administrators, and support staff to promote awareness and implementation of best practices for font legibility to support students with low vision in the classroom? Should local school districts adopt inclusive design principles for printed materials? Why or why not?
It is necessary to collaborate with colleagues, administrators, and support staff to promote awareness of best practices for font legibility in the classroom to help support students with low vision. In doing this it most likely will not only support our students with low vision, but other students in the classroom. A presentation would be the best way to promote this awareness. Having literature to explain it, but having simulation glasses to allow each to experience reading with a visual impairment and reading different fonts and sizes. Allowing them to experience on a small level what our students may be experiencing is the best way for them to understand. This would be a great professional development for the beginning of the year.
On a more individual approach I would sit down and discuss with each teacher the findings of the FVE and what is best for their student.
I do believe school districts should adopt inclusive design principles. These are principles to allow inclusion for more. This would benefit many with visual impairments, but wouldn’t take anything away from others. There may need to be exceptions to this in some classes possibly, such as Art and Graphic design.
I do agree that teachers don’t always understand the strain it is causing on our students and the visual fatigue out students are experiencing. We are always having to defend and fight for what our students need. The visual fatigue is hard to make others understand also and often my students are labeled as just not trying when in reality they need a different font or more time.
Using the simulation glasses is the best way sometimes to allow others to experience what the student is possibly seeing.
Thank you for sharing the documents!
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Question #1: Examine the implications of the study’s findings for educational practices concerning literacy instruction for students who are blind. How might educators integrate these findings into their approaches to braille instruction? What do you think might happen if local or federal policies mandated specific literacy practices for braille reading students?
Some great points were noted with the ABC Braille Study (Robert Wall Emerson and M. Cay Holbrook) which focused on differences between alphabetic braille and contracted braille instruction and its correlation to the acquisition of literacy skills in young children who are blind. This study examined the reading and writing skills of young braille reading students.
What they discovered?
- Students who happened to be introduced to more braille contractions earlier in their reading instruction, had performed better on reading assessments in areas such as decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension.
- All of these students being introduced to braille in their earlier years were good spellers.
- These authors concluded that we should focus primarily on basic reading skills in our literacy instruction.
- It was discovered that adult readers, either print or braille, demonstrate similar skills in detecting errors and decoding text (Daneman, 1988). While analyzing adult readers, they found that reading in print is quite similar to reading in braille. (Simon and Huertas, 1988)
- Differences between readers who are blind and readers who are sighted happen to be “decoding” skills (Gompel, van Bon, Schreuder, & Adriaansen, 2002, Pring 1982, 1984).
- The authors summarized through their findings, that the earlier braille characters were introduced into a child’s education, the greater their reading proficiency later in their educational career.
How might educators integrate these findings into their approaches to braille instruction?
I think that it would be great if we approached literacy instruction to include a standard for introduction to braille instruction for early readers, with either alphabetic braille or contracted braille, and that it be incorporated under specific IEP accommodations.
What do you think might happen if local or federal policies mandated specific literacy practices for braille reading students?
I think it might be challenging to coordinate these initiatives due to such differences in literacy instruction today. It would require the support of the entire IEP Team, at the national level, for braille readers to benefit most. As we have seen, every state seems to approach braille instruction differently. This “nationwide” team approach would allow students to have sufficient access to braille instruction across settings in school, home, and community, and could continue similar requirements when transferring out-of-state. This should be part of the ELA Standards to provide braille instruction, to provide equal opportunity for children with vision loss to effectively learn alongside their sighted peers to achieve higher literacy standards. Frequency and consistent exposure would provide the necessary practice for students to read braille more efficiently. Most importantly, more research should be done to provide evidence-based theory to further support and prove these initiatives are necessary.
Question 4. What steps could you take to collaborate with colleagues, administrators, and support staff to promote awareness and implementation of best practices for font legibility to support students with low vision in the classroom? Should local school districts adopt inclusive design principles for printed materials? Why or why not?
What steps could you take to collaborate with colleagues, administrators, and support staff to promote awareness and implementation of best practices for font legibility to support students with low vision in the classroom?
This week’s reading on Legibility of Typefaces has brought to mind how much my school is working on upgrading our practices, as we consider our own best practice when providing documents to our students/staff, so these can be accessed digitally. I recently did a Google search and came across a document listing some basics regarding digital literacy accessibility. Please check out these key points mentioned in this document: [Typography Considerations]
- Keeping in touch with library specialists within our department, as well as colleagues in the BTBL (Braille and Talking Book Library) to review current standards for print material.
- Speaking with colleagues on your team: Assistive Technology specialists, Braille instructors, and TVI’s, to discuss strategies on what works best with our current students with low vision.
- I recently sent a message to our librarian to inquire if our school has adopted new standards for accessibility with digital literacy. I think it is important to do all I can to keep up with any updates to produce print materials in accessible formatting, because so often when new staff join they do not always know the standards. It would be great to have guidelines for all employees schoolwide.
- During introductory discussions for new students, case reviews, and team meetings, I delve into specifics on what works best for each of our students with low vision, to determine their updated accommodations to determine which format works best for them. I also see how they are functioning within their classes looking over current progress.
- I look at their most recent assessment, such as their Learning Media Assessment.
- BEST PRACTICE: We typically utilize Arial, Sans serif, Verdana, or Times Roman. We print announcements and posters in simple, first-person language.
Should local school districts adopt inclusive design principles for printed materials? Why or why not?
I think all local school districts should adopt inclusive design practices for printed materials, to accommodate all students with low vision throughout all schools/districts. Every school should be utilizing universal design principles for printed matter, so we can provide consistent expectations, awareness, and implementation practices.
Hello Jeff,
I liked what you discussed regarding research findings and how you found that some things do actually work with your own students when accessing print matter on digital devices. 'While a valid & reliable study should contain a sample size greater than 20 subjects, I have also observed that my own students have performed better with sans serif fonts when accessing print on a digital device. Campbell et al. (2005) also found that sans serif fonts were more readable, using a pool of participants that numbered 398.’ This is why I value having the ability to collaborate with my colleagues within my department and across campus. We learn so much from one another when we compare which fonts work best for each student.
I admired your response on braille use, especially how you felt when you first started teaching, brailling all of your materials. This was admirable and time-consuming, but yet so essential for your students to engage with their peers. The comment you made about the team effort for one of your students, where the district is providing a Braillist their entire day, to coordinate braille for all print materials your student’s sighted peers are accessing. BRILLIANT TEAM WORK!
I was also thinking about your comment on “one-size-fits-all”. I looked at this from a different angle. I feel it is important to have a common standard so that everyone is on the same page, so having the government design principles for all materials might accommodate this nationwide. I do think it would be important to have the ability though, to make modifications if the standard did not work for a student. I think about our Deafblind students using “modified signs” when they communicate their needs. Of course there are standards we follow by using ASL signs to communicate with them and model the correct signs so they receive the information (receptively) in the proper form. It is important in these circumstances that the “team” knows these modifications, so they understand the child’s communication and can effectively communicate with them. These “sign language modifications” are documented and passed along as the child moves on to their next classroom and teacher.
Finally, I appreciate what you mentioned about your own daughter and how frustrating it has been when she brought home materials that weren’t clear, printed in a color she couldn’t access, or had crowded fonts. All of these things can result in visual fatigue, confusion, and frustration. Yes, we should be providing what our students with low vision need, just like we are doing for their sighted peers, no matter the school they are attending.
Thanks so much for sharing your responses.
-Marion Myhre
Hi Julie! I too have found that using simulations to show classroom teachers, even though not totally accurate as you state, gives teachers a better picture of what the low vision student is experiencing. I use simulation goggles to do this. In regard to the universal design for print types, I agree with you again, that we need more research for adopting a policy like this.
I like the idea of creating an easily accessible reference guide for teachers. Putting a poster up the copy room is always a great option at my school. It would help keep ideas fresh in the minds of the team.
- Generalize how evidence from research be applied to students with central and peripheral vision loss as it relates to accessing digital literacy.
From what I gathered from the study, it sounds like some evidence found that CROWDING can cause students with central and peripheral vision loss to have less fluency. Some suggestions from the study to increase fluency were to use fonts that had adequate spacing and sans serif typefaces, though the studies were inconclusive. One study did show improvement for students when computer software was used to make more distinguished letters.
Since, there is no hard evidence indicating what best practices be used, I believe that a TVI should help each student as best they can to find the right fit for the student using materials accessible to them through an FVA and playing around with features of the device they are using. So many factors play into the sight of an individual it is hard to make a one size fits all protocol.
More evidence needs to be collected to be able to pinpoint solutions for the masses that will create a beginning to hone in on adjustments that can be made for individual needs.
As a TVI for young students, I found this article interesting as well. I myself wonder if it would be better to introduce contractions early. When I learned braille it was simple to read and write without contractions, but once they began it got a whole lot harder to write for me. All the rules and exceptions are difficult to learn. However, it did not get harder for me to read, (but I do have prior reading knowledge.)
This article did not clear up the matter for me as most of the evidence was inconclusive or weak.
I agree that more evidence would need to be gathered before making policies and that being too specific can create obsticles for students and the team.
Acquisition of Literacy Skills by Young Children who are Blind: Results from the ABC Braille Study (JVIB, 2009, p. 610-624)
- Examine the implications of the study’s findings for educational practices concerning literacy instruction for students who are blind. How might educators integrate these findings into their approaches to braille instruction? What do you think might happen if local or federal policies mandated specific literacy practices for braille reading students?
This article was definitely timely! I have a braille student entering kindergarten and I have wrestled with when and how to introduce contractions with concerns of how contractions would impact her spelling. I will definitely be embedded contracted braille for this student early. I am very thankful for the time researchers put into this study. Mandated practices do make me nervous, however. There may be instances where different learners will need different approaches and I think we should allow the freedom to accommodate those needs. For example, some students perform much better when taught with an approach like the I-M-ABLE curriculum. I have a high school student that had received Braille instruction her entire educational career with previous TVIs and it didn’t “click” for her until I switched her to Wormsley’s functional approach in middle school. I personally think it is important to allow instruction to be individualized based on the student’s needs.
I wholeheartedly agree with your post. Simulation is a very powerful tool for building understanding and empathy. I also agree that it would be nearly impossible to adopt inclusive design principles for printed materials. Each student’s materials are adapted based on the finding of their needs as determined by their TVI in the FVE/LMA. I am afraid adopting an inclusive design principle would limit what our students would have available to them.
Although weak, I felt as though the article supported the inclusion of contractions early on. I have a kindergarten Braille student this year and I have wrestled with which route to go with concerning contracted or not. After reading this article, I plan to embed contractions early on in her reading instruction to hopefully best prepare her for later grades.
APH WK 4 DQ
The Legibility of Typefaces for Readers with Low Vision: A Research Review (JVIB, 2007, p. 402-415)
3. Generalize how evidence from research can be applied to students with central and peripheral vision loss as it relates to accessing digital literacy.
According to the journal article, high levels of magnification can reduce the size of the usable field for many individuals with low vision and in the Functional Vision video from the module, I can see how this would present even more problems for students with peripheral field loss and central field loss. Based on the research, I believe one way to allow students more access to digital literacy is to have them select the best font for readability. Functional Vision Assessments are critical to determining the best mode of learning media for our students, or persons newly diagnosed with a vision impairment. “One aspect to be considered may be simply which font design is the most appealing or comfortable to the reader, often described as “readability” (Arditi, 2005; Kitchel, 2002).”
Print size should also be considered because it too affects reading rate just as much as magnification, and as we learned in the previous module, visually impaired students read at a slower rate than their sighted peers. Therefore, legibility of typefaces should be a priority when assessing students. If they can’t ‘see’ the print, they will more than likely perform poorly on the assessment. When it comes to choice of typeface and font size, the researchers “found a small, but significant, advantage of Courier over Times Roman in reading acuity, critical print size, and reading speed. Gains in reading speed were modest, and it is possible that for print sizes that are close to the acuity limit, the choice of typeface could make a significant difference in the reading performance of persons with low vision.”
I was not aware that APH had a font, as mentioned in the article: “The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) recommends the use of its APHont font when creating large-print materials for individuals with low vision because of its usability characteristics: even spacing between letters, no serifs, wider letters, rounder letters, and larger punctuation marks.” I plan to see if it’s still available so that I can include it in my FVA. However, “based on experimental research and subjective preferences, suggests that typefaces such as Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, and Adsans are more readable than is Times New Roman.” I could not locate the Adsans font in my version of Microsoft Word.
This particular study was not very conclusive on the best typeface. I agree that a one size fits all approach is not the best way to go. I believe one way to allow students more access to digital literacy is to have them select the best font for readability. It is a case-by-case scenario. However, they suggested these typefaces and I plan to experiment with them: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, and Adsans. I could not find the Adsans font in my version of Microsoft Word.