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Tips for teachers working with students who are visually impaired

Children and adults with low vision are not considered legally blind, they simply have reduced vision at or lower than 20/70. Students who are blind have vision that is at or lower than 20/200. Nonetheless, only 15% of students with visual impairments are considered to be completely blind, with no light or form perception ability

Children with visual impairments often start off learning to read and write with the assistance of low-tech solutions, such as high-intensity lamps and book-stands. Sometimes screen magnification and computer typing and reading programs are used. In other cases, low vision students will learn to read using the Braille system over text, or a combination of the two. However, as students progress through early grade levels and reading and writing activities become more demanding, periodic literacy skills assessment is required to ensure additional resources and adaptive strategy instruction are provided to meet their needs.

For those students with visual impairments who do not master Braille, making use of technology to facilitate reading is fundamental. In fact, most talented Braille readers prefer to use computers or tablets when reading for fun anyway. And students who learn to use a computer not only find homework easier to complete, but often become faster readers. It is simply more efficient for low vision students to use a computer and word-processor over reading paper books and handwriting. This is particularly relevant at a high-school level, when reading and writing assignments become lengthier and more challenging.

Can you tell me about a successful behaviour management strategy you have used in the past that helped engage a pupil or group of pupils?

expect to hear things like: to improve skills and independent learning; to encourage team work; to gain a qualification; for enjoyment (very important, rarely mentioned); to enhance other subjects; to develop literacy, numeracy and ICT skills; to improve career prospects; self discipline; memory development; to encourage life-long learning in that subject.

Why do we teach x in schools?

Why do you want to work in special education?

If you overheard some colleagues talking about you, what would they say?

Why do you want to work in this school?

We want to see clear indications that candidates have done background work about our school and can talk about why the way we work appeals to them. We'd always want candidates to have visited the school so they should be able to flesh this out with specific examples of what they thought based on their visit.

A question that is specific to the candidate's letter of application

What are the key qualities and skills that students look for in teachers?

"Liking young people. Fairness. Consistency. Sense of humour. Passion for their subject. Good at explaining new concepts/ideas. Able to make the topic or subject relevant. Able to make everyone feel comfortable and confident about contributing."

Evaluate your lesson

If we decided not to appoint you, what would we be missing out on?