Advantages and disadvantages are presented for various voice indexing systems for accessing recorded material for visually impaired people. The Van Schyndel Voice Indexing System, which allows a spoken index to be recorded at regular recording speed, is described, focusing on operation procedures and components of the original and…

Teachers and habilitative specialists (n=120) of multiply handicapped blind and deaf-blind children in Massachusetts responded to a survey on the use of assistive technology. Respondents reported problems in knowledge of electronic mobility aids and communication devices; the availability, maintenance, and funding of devices; and adequate…

Twelve legally blind men tested two night-vision devices: one wide-angle light and one with a high-intensity beam. The study concluded that no one night light is best for all individuals and in some cases a smaller angle, high-intensity light may be more useful than a wider angle one. (Author/JDD)

An Amiga 500 microcomputer with a talking word processor was used by an Australian visually impaired elementary school pupil, to provide an alternative to braille in using text and writing. This article reviews the relevant literature, explores the challenges and limitations posed by the technology, and offers a case study of the student and her…

An interactive, computerized sound machine was designed, incorporating bar-code technology in the user interface. The system was used in a classroom of nine blind elementary level children to teach sound awareness, logic, metalinguistics, and technological literacy and was found to have pedagogical relevance. (Author/JDD)

To assess changes in visual-motor function with age, 20 visually impaired infants and toddlers were followed, longitudinally, with the Bayley Mental Scale of Infant Development (BMSID). The BMSID was seen to be an appropriate tool for evaluating such children and especially effective as part of a longitudinal process. (Author/DB)

The article describes a tactile book program sponsored by the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind in which every primary and secondary school in Victoria (Australia) state produced books with tactual elements. (DB)

A meaningful classification for living, work, and education was achieved by grouping 159 persons who were blind or visually impaired into 5 groups ranging from low to high functioning, according to 7 independent living skills: family responsibility; health and hygiene; legal awareness; community awareness; money management; social/interpersonal…

The Connecticut Precane is a device made from plastic plumbing tubing and is used in orientation and mobility instruction with young blind children. It can be customized to the appropriate length, and runners made from curved tubing glide over surfaces without tending to change direction. A parts list for precane construction is included. (JDD)

A cognitive, nonintrusive method of controlling head-rocking behavior in an 11-year-old blind subject involved having the boy place his hand on his cheek or chin when prompted that he was rocking his head. The subject demonstrated significant decreases in head rocking during intervention and generalization during followup. (Author/JDD)

This article describes a successful four-year student recruitment effort initiated by Florida State University's teacher preparation program in visual disabilities. The article discusses a survey to determine the target population, use of current students to attract new ones, harnessing of campus resources, and obtaining funds for recruitment…

Israeli programs that have been used to teach children to read Hebrew braille are described, and a reading scheme called "Secrets and Surprises" is presented. The method uses an eclectic approach, emphasizes comprehension and the communicative element of reading, and offers a variety of presentation modes to meet individual students'…

This article reports the findings of a survey of 37 orientation and mobility specialists who serve preschool-age visually impaired children. It presents demographics of the children and the specialists involved in long cane instruction and identifies the factors related to the decision to begin this instruction. (Author/DB)

This article reports on a study of the spatial mapping skills of two totally blind, two visually impaired, and eight normally sighted children. Children were asked to point to familiar locations in and around their homes. Results suggest that blindness interferes with the development of spatial knowledge in which Euclidean directions between…

The review examines six personal computer-based optical character recognition (OCR) systems designed for use by blind and visually impaired people. Considered are OCR components and terms, documentation, scanning and reading, command structure, conversion, unique features, accuracy of recognition, scanning time, speed, and cost. (DB)