Blind and Visually Impaired

What is blindness? Blindness is the state of being sightless. Can be caused biologically and environmentally. A blind individual that is unable to see. Lack of vision. It can be loss of vision that can not be corrected with use of glasses or contacts. These individuals are considered: Visually impaired individuals are the people whom wear glasses or contacts, take medicine or have surgery to aid them in vision.

Severe, Physical, Health Impairment If a person is visually impaired it is known as a physical health impairment. However, if the visually impaired person is severe enough then the categorization of that individual would be considered blind and in that instance would be considered a severe physical impairment.

Blindness Affects The Eye

Causes Associated with Blindness and Vision Loss Chemicals Diabetes Muscular Degeneration Sport Injuries Premature Birth Underdevelopment Stroke

Types of Visual Impairments and Characteristics Myopia – nearsightedness Hyperopia – farsightedness Astigmatism - blurry vision Albinism – abnormal optic nerve development Amblyopia – one eye is weaker than the other Cataracts – cloudy lens Colomba – cleft in pupil Glaucoma – pressure from blockage of fluid to eye Nystagmus – involuntary movement of eye Optic Nerve Atrophy – damage to optic nerve Optic Nerve Hypoplasia – underdevelopment of optic nerve Retininoblastoma – cancerous tumor of retina Retinopathy of Prematurity – abnormal developmentof blood vessels in retina Strabismus – inability for both eyes to look at one object

Types of Blindness Color blindness-refers to the inability to distinguish colors. Night blindness- refers to the difficulty of driving at night due to the lack of light. Snow blindness-refers to the loss of vision after observing ultraviolet lights.

Is blindness hereditary? According to a study in Greenland, most visual impairments are due to brain disorders. This is indeed hereditary. There are many cases in which blindness and visual impairments are not hereditary. In order to find out for individual cases one must further research the specific symptoms or disease

Accommodations Teachers Have to Make in a Classroom •Flexible time on exams and assignments •Alternative testing such as oral tests Audio book Flexible seating (i.e. in front of the class or by the board) •Breaking lessons into smaller pieces •Braille lesson materials and Braille Labels around the room •One-on-one assistance (help from paraprofessional) •Note-taking support Assistive technology Let student come a few days before school to walk around and get a “feel” of the room environment Do Not move furniture around

Adaptive Technology 1. Braille-Braille is a method for visually impaired people to read using their sense of touch. It is not a language, but a code 2. Dancing Dots - produces assistive technology for visually impaired musicians which allows them to translate their music into Braille. 3. Modified Keyboards - keyboards with enlarged key lettering and on screen keyboards, which allow the keyboard to be displayed on the computer screen. 4. AI Squared, ZoomText – computer screen magnifier 5. Duxbury Systems, Duxbury Braille Translator - Translates word documents into braille 6. View Plus Tiger Embosser - Print pictures you can feel 7. Freedom Scientific, JAWS for Windows (JFW) - Screen reader for the blind 8. HumanWare, Braille Window - Displays contents of the screen in braille 9. Kurzweil Educational Systems, Kurzweil 1000 - Scan printed material to be read aloud

Video on Blindness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZmIXpL6hd0

Helpful Websites for Classroom http://www.lessonplanet.com/lesson-plans/visually-impaired http://www.ehow.com/way_5251194_music-plans-visually-impaired-children.html www.teach-nology.com

Works Cited http://www.nhbvi.com/Agenda/Goal1/Book1/commoncauses.html http://www.oocities.org/superkael/impairment.html#blindness http://www.optics.rochester.edu/workgroups/cml/opt307/spr05/anant/EyeAnatomyEyeMDLink.jpg http://www.rcpd.msu.edu/programs/blindnesstech

Kaly Anderson Brittany Strickland Audria Worley Erin Barker Created by: Kaly Anderson Brittany Strickland Audria Worley Erin Barker