Visual Impairments and Reading Braille By: Caitlin Henry

Personal/Professional Interest I choose to focus my PowerPoint on visual impairments and reading braille. I choose this topic because I am currently in the process of learning braille and love working with people who suffer from visual disabilities. It is so cool to work with them, they inspire me with their courage. One day I hope to become a Teacher for the Visually Impaired (TVI)!

Legal Definition of Blindness According to U.S. Law: if a person’s best eye has an acuity of 20/200 or worse and/or if their peripheral vision is less than 20 degrees, then that person is legally blind.

What is a Visual Disability? This may include a number of different things, you do not have to be blind to have a visual impairment. Some examples of other visual impairments include: Diplopia – double vision Photophobia – inability to look at light Visual distortion or distortion of images Visual perception difficulties or difficulties of perception

What are some causes of Visual Impairments? Eye Damage Failure of the brain to receive and read visual cues Underlying Diseases Diabetic Retinopathy Formation of Cataracts Raised Pressure within the eye

How many people are Visually Impaired? Throughout the world it is reported that over 285 million people suffer from blindness or other visual impairments!

What is Braille? Believe it or not, Braille is actually not a language! It is a code used by multiple different languages! It is really cool because whether you speak English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc. we can all communicate through Braille code and understand one another!

What does Braille look like? It is a series of symbols composed of raised dots. There are 6 possible dots that could be colored in. The dots are raised so that the person reading it does not have to be able to see but instead use their sense of touch to read materials. Each sequence of colored in or raised dots represents a specific letter or number.

Schools for the Deaf and Blind Currently there are 46 schools for the Deaf and Blind throughout the United States. This means that not every state has one available for people to attend! Hopefully the number of schools will continue to increase over time. It is hard to open a lot of schools for the Deaf and Blind though because not many people understand and can teach code or sign language.

Quiz Questions!

1. What is one way in which someone can become visually impaired or blind?

Braille is a language that you learn. 2. True or False: Braille is a language that you learn.

3. How many people throughout the world suffer from blindness or visual impairments?