I had never heard of the Firebird program to create tactile graphics. I will have to look into that and begin incorporating it into a lesson plan for my 1st grader. Thank you so much for sharing this resource!
Laura,
I agree, it’s an It can be frustrating when teachers don’t give us the materials in enough time or understand. I make sure that it’s put in the student’s IEP and meet with the teacher’s so they know. I think it’s tough to get the classroom teachers to understand why we need the extra time that we ask too. I have had school personelle say “Well they can just listen” and I have to explain about access. I think getting the teacher involved in helping with the tactile graphic has helped, because they have to think how the student is able to understand the materials.
I agree that it is difficult to build on your skills when you feel like you are on an island as the sole TVI for the district, making it hard to collaborate with other TVIs. It is amazing how much assistive technology has improved in the last few years, allowing TVIs to create accessible Braille graphics promptly. I will have to look into Tiger Designer or Tactile View to use with my students.
Maddie,
This is a neat sounding project! I like how you kept trying once you didn’t feel it worked out or represented the braille writer correctly. It’s awesome you used metallic paper and embossed it to feel like a braille writer! Such a creative idea. I think that with creating tactile diagrams that sometimes what we run into. For a person with it, it might look good visually but in reality it isn’t tactually friendly. I’ve had many times had to go back and redo something that is too complex.
I think that the less complicated and more consistency with the label the better when creating a document like this. If the year/name/ and description can be close to each other it would be easier to locate for someone reading tactually.
That’s a great activity to incorporate into a professional development day for our teachers. During grad school, I worked on a similar project in which I had to build a 3D room layout to help with orientation and learning the layout for someone who is blind. It required me to think outside the box, focus on the primary landmarks, and reduce clutter. I’m hands-on and may do this activity myself to provide a personal experience of creating tactile designs in books already used with students. Thank you for sharing this resource and your experience.
It was interesting to me that though the article Tactile Materials in Practice: Understanding the Experiences of Teachers of the Visually Impaired made reference to many of the barriers that TVI’s identified in creating or utilizing tactile graphics, one of the ones I see as most significant was not addressed at all. As an itinerant teacher, simply accessing the technologies needed to produce the types of tactile graphics discussed (3D printed models, PIAF, embossing, etc.) can be difficult if not impossible. My previous employers both had “Resource Centers” for TVI’s that included a 3D printer, a PIAF, and several other valuable technology tools as well as real objects and items and a large graphics library. The issue was that the center was at their campus, 2 hours away from my home, and at least that much time away from my students’ schools. I would need to plan far in advance to be able to access them. Sometimes I could do that…most of the time, it was impossible. There seemed to be an implication that TVI’s were somehow reluctant to embrace the technology; from my own experience and that of my colleagues, I would argue that the technology itself is prohibitively large, expensive, or simply not available to the average itinerant TVI, especially those working in underserved, or rural areas, for smaller school districts, or independently contracted across multiple districts.
Caseloads for itinerant teachers are also likely to be quite large, and we often have minimal if any prep time. One of the study participants “spent a total of three hours to create that larger, more meaningful clock”, rather than using the less-meaningful but more easily available APH tactile clock. In an ideal world, we would love to have the amount of time it takes to appropriately and adequately prep materials for our students, but that is simply unrealistic for most itinerant staff. This seems borne out by the studies conclusion that indicated “prompt availability” was the largest decision-making factor for TVI’s. As one of the study participants indicated, she had “less than 30 minutes to ideate, gather materials, and create a tactile direction chart for her student”, and this experience definitely resonates with me and many of my colleagues. Rapidly needing to create an unanticipated graphic representation of a biology illustration or a map means we have to use whatever we have on hand.
Lastly, I think the issue of additional disabilities in our students was and is a key factor for many TVI’s in how they choose tactile representations. 100% of my current students have additional disabilities, ranging from behavioral needs that mean I am limited to “safe” items to significant motor, intellectual, and additional sensory needs that severely limit their ability to explore or understand representations. We need tactile graphics and items that meet the needs of the students we actually work with day to day.
Karla, I agree that so much of what we learn once we are in the field is from collaboration with other TVI’s. I’ve been lucky to be a part of robust programs with many TVI’s where we had regular trainings and professional development time, and access to shared libraries of materials. Now that I’m in a much smaller program without those resources, I’m realizing just how challenging it is to find the time and skills to create the needed tactile materials for my students.
As you mentioned, those gap areas can also be a challenge for us, especially when we have a new student on our caseload. We may need time to assess their understanding and current abilities before considering what types of graphics we’ll need to produce.
Allison, this is exactly the scenario I’m concerned about for a student I’ll have this fall! The student is in middle school and has had a significant change in vision, so is new to tactile skills overall. I’m also new to middle school curriculum, having spent the last 5 years or so primarily working in early childhood/early elementary settings or with students with significant additional disabilities. I do know that the team the student will be with is very supportive and collaborative, so I’m hoping to build on that and ensure that, to the extent possible, I’m able to access curriculum materials ahead of time. I know when my daughter was in middle and high school, and even with a TVI who was employed by the district and therefore available for full school days with her, the last-minute graphic needs were the bane of her existence. I think of her often these days, as she was an early adopter of some of the graphic technologies and really supported my daughter in gaining some essential graphicacy skills.
1. Analyze the tension between time constraints and instructional quality in tactile material creation. How do these competing demands shape instructional decisions?
An ongoing issue is time constraints. In addition to inadequate turnaround time from when the classroom teacher gives the assignment to be created in tactile format to the time when it is needed by the student, there is also the issue of adequate time for the student to receive specialized instruction from the TVI because of all the other needed instruction. In an effort to mitigate the issues related to turnaround time, the TVI meets with the student’s classroom teachers at least once a month to talk about what content is upcoming. This gives time for the tactile materials to be created and the TVI to provide instruction for skills that may be needed in advance. For the quality of tactile materials to be appropriate, it is important to make sure the materials and equipment are available. Sometimes the turnaround time is tight. If the materials and equipment are not readily available, the quality of the tactile materials that are created can be lower than it should be. When adequate time is available and the tactile materials are also available, the student may tactually explore and become familiar with the tactile materials in advance of the content lesson.
I relate to your example of the last minute need to create a tactile graphic of the water cycle! Even though the TVI and classroom teachers meet on a regular basis to discuss upcoming assignments, there is inevitably a graphic the classroom teacher forgot to include or a last minute change of plans. You mentioned that in addition to time, specialized training is needed for the creation of tactile graphics. That specialized training and having the necessary materials and equipment make a huge difference in being able to provide quality tactile graphics for our students.
I love that the braillist asks the classroom teacher about the purpose of the image. That is a very good point. Images that are part of the assignment are often visually complex. It is not just a matter of making the exact image into a raised-line format. It is important to know the purpose of the visual and for that to guide what components of the visual will be included in the tactile graphic. Excellent point!
I agree with you that what we received in instruction was not comprehensive enough regarding all options available for creating tactile graphics. You are correct that we should all learn the systems and technologies available. My question is when?
I agree with you that the teacher and TVI should meet to discuss any tactile graphic/braille version of upcoming activities. I met with a teacher once a week. The issue came up in math because it was a brand-new curriculum and the teacher was not far enough ahead in planning to give enough turn around time. That is an issue anytime there is a new curriculum the teacher has to learn right along with their students. In that case making good tactile graphics can be a challenge. It’s a seat of the pants situation.
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Time constraints are definitely a huge issue. Especially in an itinerant setting where we might only see the student an hour a day on top of the 7 or 8 other students we see in a week. Creating meaningful graphics, especially by hand without special tools or programs, is almost impossible given the time with the student as well as turn around time from when the teacher supplies the original graphic. One thing that would help is having the graphic digitally. I know learning new tech can be time consuming, but if the graphic is in a format that makes it easier to input into a program and create using software it might make the time of creation a little less. However, most curriculums the teachers use do not have the graphics separate from the page used for instruction. The teacher cannot send the graphic to the TVI digitally and it has to be photocopied from the teacher edition of the book. Another issue I came across is when it is a new curriculum and the teacher is learning it barely ahead of teaching it. Then it becomes a “just wing it” situation.
I am not in the classroom anymore, but when I was there is many times that time and availability were just not happening together. Many times it was due to my load and just being available. Many times I just needed to do the bare minimum in order to get the kids by. This is not the ideal method. Many times also, it was a late notice for the teacher to share with me the information that is being covered. And it could be that the material being covered takes a turn when the students missed a gap in their learning and the change in material was unplanned. Not a good excuse or reason, but truly is a competing and real dilemma.
I love the idea of meeting once a week to do some planning with the regular teacher. Does your school schedule allow for this? Sometimes it was hard to find a time when the whole team could meet up to talk about goals for the IEP.
Brenda, I love that you considered all the children with additional disabilities and what they adds to looking at tactile representation. It definitely adds another component to using graphic tactual.
Do you like paras could help create these or be trained to help create these representations? I know when I trained some of the paras, they really didn’t understand the component of vision and didn’t always understand what they could do to better help the students.
Bianca
I have used it to make coloring pages for littles and plan to use it to help my middle school student learning tactile graphics. In the past, I had a teacher make a Valentine for his wife with it!! You can also incorporate you making braille art and having the student make some for braille writing practice. https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/just-fun-braille-designs/
It also gets expensive to have quality supplies on hand at each school for those last minute graphics. Too many times, I’ve gone back to a school and the supplies I left the teacher/para are nowhere to be found.
Yes, having the graphic digitally, is much easier to insert into programs to edit. I feel that we fail our students when there is a new curriculum and the teacher is just learning it, and it becomes more pronounced when it is a newly graduated teacher who is also learning all the classroom / district particulars.
Brenda and Allison McDonald
It sounds like we are in similar situations, middle/high school new braille & tactile skills learners. Even with supportive teams, information graphics gets forgotten or the expectation of using the CCTV to enlarge “because they have always done it that way in the past”. Not taking into account the visual strain, pixelation or only able to read part of it when the picture or words get too big.
Access to curriculum in advance is so important, not just for graphics but for preteaching vocabulary that may not be know to a student who is BVI.