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"When thinking of ways to support those who are legally blind, two supports often come to mind. Guide dogs and Braille. It's no wonder. Guide dogs provide their owners with a sense of freedom, an increased level of confidence, and a feeling of safety. Blind people who know Braille and use it find success, independence, productivity, and are more likely to find employment. Surprisingly though, of the 1.3 million people in the United States who are legally blind, only about 2% have guide dogs according to Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Also surprising is that fewer than 10 percent are Braille readers according to a report from the National Federation of the Blind. Unfortunately, these supports are currently generally reserved for the elite in our society because of cost and access. These are unfortunate statistics. Fortunately, there are low-to-no-cost technologies that provide support to the visually impaired and blind population. Five technologies to support the visually impaired and legally blind. "

"For teachers who are genuinely interested in helping their visually impaired students excel, here are some tools that you may want to consider making use of (if you aren't already doing so)."

"In this regard, The Best of Mobile Technology has gathered and reviewed some of the apps that you can use with your students. These apps are for students with hearing and visual impairement. I have included these apps into different presentations to make it easy for you to share and access them anytime you want."

"Tablets have become very popular in schools over the past few years mostly due to their multi-functionality, such as the ability to have a camera and the internet on the same device, among many other things. Apps have also played a big part in their popularity and there have been a lot of apps that help lessons be more engaging. As well as using iPads to make the classroom more interactive, they have also been used to help SEN students. One area that I have been focussing on in particular is how tablet technology can help students who are visually-impaired."

"The iPhone and iPad come equipped with some great accessibility features that open the door to all kinds of functionality for those with hearing and visual impairments. One especially useful feature for those with auditory impairments is the ability to pair their iPhone or iPad with many supported hearing aids. There are even some hearing aids that carry the made for iPhone moniker so you know your experience will be seamless. To get started, you've just got to pair them together! "

"Up late marking? Up early preparing for the day ahead? Did you know that after an average of four hours of sleep a night for four or five days, you will develop the same level of cognitive impairment as if you had been awake for 24 hours. This is the same level of impairment as having a blood alcohol level high enough to be considered legally drunk. Not only does this greatly lengthen reaction time, impede judgment, and interfere with problem solving, I think you will all agree, that it is no state to be teaching or learning in. So how important is sleep? Well, in his fascinating TED talk circadian neuroscientist Russell Foster discusses exactly why we need to sleep and talks about some of the concerning effects sleep deprivation can have."

"I've been writing about apps for a long time, but they are not of equal importance. Microsoft's free Seeing AI app may be a game changer for people with visual impairments.  The research project is designed to turn "turn the visual world into an audio experience," narrating the world for those who cannot see it, in real time using artificial intelligence."

"An inclusive physical programming language for children with vision impairments"

"The concept of literacy is notoriously elusive and hard to define. Aside from the shallow and intellectually-impaired  definition that sums up  literacy in  reading and writing printed text, any serious and profound investigation of literacy does, by implication, entail an analysis of the new ways of learning and meaning-making afforded by digitality. New digital media have provided learners with novel and revolutionary ways of producing, discussing, sharing and interacting with text. These ways, to say the least about them, are multimodally complex and call for an integrated set of skills that go beyond the mere ability to code and decode meaning. In this sense, to be literate in such a multimodal environment requires understanding and using a wide range of interconnected literacies. We are no longer talking about a single literacy as was the case since the invention of writing some 6000 year ago, we are, instead,  in front of multiple new emerging  and interdependent literacies. Today's students are asked to have a working knowledge of these literacies in order to be able to thrive in a globalized knowledge economy. Katchy Schrock has this wonderful resource where she features some awesome mini-posters defining the key literacies making up today's Literacy (with capital letter) landscape.  These visuals are ideal for classroom inclusion. I invite you to check them out and share with your colleagues."

"If you have a visual impairment that makes it difficult for you to read text or see icons on your iPhone or iPad, the zoom feature is a great accessibility option that allows you to magnify text and even your Home screen, but only when you need to. While larger and bolder text helps, enabling zoom adds even more flexibility on the fly. All you've got to do is enable it first!"

Cellphones in the classroom help break down barriers between the hearing and hearing impaired"

"Here's an interesting concept for a case meant to make the iPad usable for blind and visually impaired customers. The Omnifer almost covers the iPad completely, save for a small portion of the screen, and adds raised Braille buttons. What's really cool is that the Omnifer is more than Braille buttons slapped onto a case. Instead, gas stored inside the case raises and lowers the Braille characters, making different ones available, depending on what's on the iPad's screen. The gas pockets are filled with a chemical that expands when exposed to light. The portion of the screen beneath the buttons will light up as needed to raise the proper characters. In this way, a user could "stream" text for reading via Braille."

"Google Apps and Chromebooks, and the Chrome Web Browser, offer a tremendous amount of accessibility features to help vision and/or hearing impaired students. "

"After reading this post, look around your makerspace. What physical changes can you make to increase inclusivity? What purchases can you make to affect an increased participation among youth with impairments or disabilities? Also, reflect on your maker programming. Where can you make changes to increase participation by all your youth? Get started today, because we need diverse makerspaces!"

"Smartphones and tablets, with their flat glass touch screens and nary a texture anywhere, may not seem like the best technological innovation for people who cannot see. But advocates for the blind say the devices could be the biggest assistive aid to come along since Braille was invented in the 1820s."