Literacy Leaps as Blind Students Embrace Technology
By Hartz, Deborah; English Journal, Vol. 90, No. 2Publication Date: November 2000
Article by a teacher of high school students at the Arizona School for the Blind on how the use of assistive technology (AT) increased her students' access to books and materials. The author describes how her students used braille notetakers such as the Braille Lite 40 and Braille 'N Speak 2000 for both reading and writing. She says that the use of braille notetakers helped the less proficient braille readers among her students to increase their braille reading speed and encouraged them to read more braille books, and she discusses the implications of this for the braille versus technology debate. The author also discusses use of the Franklin Language Master. Other technology used in her classroom included voice output screen reader programs (JAWS for Windows and JAWS for DOS), braille translation software, a scanner, a CCTV, speech synthesizers (DecTalk Express and Accent SA), screen magnification programs (ZoomText Xtra), braille writers (a Perkins Brailler), slates and styluses, and black felt tip markers for students with low vision. Reprinted in Future Reflections, Vol. 20, No. 4, Winter 2001.
Assistive Products Discussed: ELECTRIC PERKINS BRAILLER (MODEL 22-0103-6)
LARGE CELL PERKINS BRAILLER (MODELS 22-0114-3 & 22-0116-8)
ZOOMTEXT XTRA LEVEL 1 & ZOOMTEXT XTRA LEVEL 2
BRAILLE 'N SPEAK
BRAILLE LITE 40
SPEAKING LANGUAGE MASTER (MODEL LM-6000)
SPEAKING LANGUAGE MASTER (MODELS LM-4200/4000)
DECTALK EXPRESS
STANDARD PERKINS BRAILLER (MODEL 22-0001-2)
JAWS FOR WINDOWS
UNIMANUAL PERKINS BRAILLER (MODEL 22-0101-0)
ZOOMTEXT MAGNIFIER
ZOOMTEXT MAGNIFIER / SCREEN READER
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English (Website:http://www.ncte.org)
Link to text: http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr6/frw0103.htm
