ERIC Number: EJ808354
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0899-1510
EISSN: N/A
The Impact of Assistive Technology on Curriculum Accommodation for a Braille-Reading Student
Farnsworth, Charles R.; Luckner, John L.
RE:view: Rehabilitation Education for Blindness and Visual Impairment, v39 n4 p171-187 Win 2008
Over 5 months, the authors evaluated the efficacy of electronic assistive technology (the BrailleNote mPower BT-32 notetaker and Tiger Cub Jr. embosser) and associated software components in creating curriculum materials for a middle school Braille-reading student. The authors collected data at the beginning and end of the study from parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, and the participant through semistructured interviews. Four salient themes emerged from the interviews: efficiency, independence, technology assimilation, and technical limitations. The devices enabled teachers and paraprofessionals who had no experience with the literary Braille code to generate and emboss Braille documents with a minimum of training. Having teachers and paraprofessionals do this work allowed vision specialist teachers to concentrate on teaching their students rather than on translating literary Braille into print. (Contains 1 note.)
Descriptors: Braille, Educational Technology, Assistive Technology, Academic Accommodations (Disabilities), Blindness, Computer Software, Interviews, Teacher Attitudes, Paraprofessional School Personnel, Specialists, Special Education Teachers, Teaching Methods
Heldref Publications. 1319 Eighteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036-1802. Tel: 800-365-9753; Tel: 202-296-6267; Fax: 202-293-6130; e-mail: subscribe@heldref.org; Web site: http://www.heldref.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A