The ECC: Webinar #4 This video is posted online with the following chapter markers: Chapter 1. Introduction - Introduction of Sharon Nichols, Assistive Technology Consultant with the TSBVI Outreach Program. Chapter 2. AT and the ECC - In the ECC, AT applies knowledge and use of technology for school, work, play, and rest. Chapter 3. Components of AT - Access to information; communication and personal productivity Chapter 4. AT Assessment - Collaborative process to identify & match student with technology Chapter 5. Role of TVI - Collaborate, decision making, monitoring and documentation Chapter 6. When to Introduce AT - Brief discussion of when it is appropriate to introduce AT Chapter 7. Teaching AT - Embed AT skills in other lessons Chapter 8. What AT is Available? - Sources and quality of information on AT Chapter 9. TVI Training Opportunities - Where to look for training for on AT for TVIs Chapter 10. Types of AT - Short list of some types of AT Chapter 11. AT Success Stories - Examples of Successful Implementation Chapter 12. Tutorials for AT - Short list of some online tutorials Chapter 13. Closing Comments - Closing Comments The ECC: Webinar #4 Transcript [ Music ] Chapter 1. Introduction [ Start slide: ] Ann: I want to welcome you all of you to our fourth ECC webinar. And yes, today is on Assistive Technology and we are so lucky to have our very own Sharon Nichols here with us. Before I completely turn it over to her, I want to just give you a head's up about future ECC webinars. Again, they're the first Thursday of the month. The next one will be January the eighth. And since that is the first week many people will be back from the Christmas holidays, I encourage you to go ahead and register now, right, Kate? Kate: Right. Ann: Register early. Register early. And you especially don't want to miss this one, Millie Smith will be presenting on Sensory Efficiency. And for those of you who are already familiar with AFB's new ECC Essentials book, she wrote the chapter on sensory efficiency in that book, as I've always said, I don't think I've ever had a phone conversation with Millie when I didn't learn something new. So I encourage you to join us on January eighth, register now, and today you get to hear Sharon Nichols and she'll tell you all about Assistive Technology. I'll help monitor the chat, but other than that I'm going to be quiet. If you have questions, put them in the chat and I'll pass them on to Sharon. Sharon? [ End slide: ] Chapter 2. AT and the ECC [ Start slide: ] Sharon: Hi. My name is Sharon Nichols, and I work here at Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in the Outreach Program, and I am an assistant Assistive Technology Consultant. And today we're going to have a very short overview of Assistive Technology and the Expanded Core Curriculum because it's just not a very long session. I would like to ask people that if any time if you have a question, please go ahead and put it in the chat because it's easier to address them as we go along than to try to remember at the end. Okay. So the slide you have up in front of you is titled Assistive Technology and the Expanded Core Curriculum. And the first thing I wanted to do was show you a quote from the ECC Essentials book, which I believe Ann showed you last time. I'll show you also. And it's the new one from AFB. And the quote is focuses on the knowledge and skills that are essential to learning, how to use technology to access all aspects of daily living, whether at school, at work, at play or at rest. So when you think about those and you think about daily living skills and school, you might think of something like organizers or having to access the computer labs. And when you think of at work, you might think of Orientation and Mobility and what you need tech-wise for that to be successful. And also the various types of touch screens and workstations that they have at different sites for our students. And then also a huge thing is reading because there's so many ways that we can access reading digitally, with Braille, large print or audio, and so it's not only reading for school, but hopefully some reading for pleasure. [ End slide: ] Chapter 3. Components of AT [ Start slide: ] Okay. So if we look ‑‑ this is also from the book ‑‑ at the components of Assistive Technology. The first one is access to information, including knowledge of basic general technology skills necessary to use multiple tools, operating systems, and applications. And basically what I had on that is that you're going to be looking at school‑related tasks, and you're going to be looking at inputting information into spreadsheets and all kinds of other software applications they use in the schools. And then communication, including basic skills students with or without visual impairments need, because we all know that there is so much tech being used that we have to be familiar with it and we have to make accommodations for our students. That's probably the biggest words in Assistive Technology is accommodations, trying to get a level playing field. Some school‑related tasks that you might think about would be electronic books that exist on the computer or on a portable note taker or on a tablet, written assignments, research information. And then the last bullet on the slide talks about personal productivity, including the use of basic applications that enhance personal efficiency, productivity and independence. And that's where basically you're able as a student to choose what technology you need to succeed with your independent skills, and also if you think about when we do presentations and when the students do presentations in schools, we hope that our students learn how to personalize those and not just use a blank template. So being able to personalize the use of any of their software. And when we focus on technology, I think it's really important not to think just of the devices because that is what we're going to eventually recommend, but what you really want to focus on is the function of the technology, what are you trying to access. So more of the tasks. Our students need to be taught general skills in a deliberate and systematic way. It goes back to that same thing we talk about in nearly any aspect of teaching students with visual impairments, and that's the lack of incidental learning. A lot of students at home pick up email, pick up the Internet simply by watching their parents or their brothers or their friends. And for our students it's going to need to be taught. And to be taught systematically so that they can improve those skills and not have random skills. Their awareness of technology might be a little bit more limited. They might not know what's available that other kids do. So that's something you should talk to them about, but maybe not overwhelm them, like we get overwhelmed. So that's where AT comes in. AT is helping to access the regular technology that we all get to use on a happy, daily basis. Ann: Happy? [ Laughter ] Kate: Depends on the day of the week, Sharon. [ Laughter ] [ End slide: ] Chapter 4. AT Assessment [ Start slide: ] Sharon: That's what I meant. If we're going to talk about Assistive Technology, the first thing we're going to talk about is assessment. And I know that that's a difficult word because it is something that we do in every aspect of the ECC and in every aspect of the functional vision assessment and LMA. I can read this if you want. An Assistive Technology Assessment is a collaborative process through which an IEP team, or education team, one that may also include certified technology specialists and other related services professionals, identifies technologies that can improve a student's performance, access, participation and independence. It's an ongoing process, not a one‑time event, designed to match students with Assistive Technology, as well as implement and measure the most effective solutions for academic and career success. To me that's one of the most important things is the last part. We get real focused on academic success, and I'd really like us as teachers, especially Teachers of the Visually Impaired, where our students need accommodations, to succeed, to think of the future, to think of where they're going after they've been with us, where they're going after the mandated Braille textbooks go away, where they might be in post-secondary or in a job. Now, the TVI, you are not expected to be the expert. There should be other people on the team or at least within range of help that include hopefully somebody who is an Assistive Technology person with the district and also probably your PT's and your OT's and your Speech Path. Anytime you're talking about something like a communication device, the only way that we can use those is through a Speech Path. The only part of that we as Teachers of the Visually Impaired are responsible for or even legally able to do is the accommodations and the modification of the device itself. But we can in no way suggest a device or recommend one or purchase one for a student. That has to go through the Speech Path. Okay. You also need lots of input from the classroom teacher because you are an itinerant teacher. You're moving from campus to campus. Say you're working on the assessment and you have the luxury of having the one day to spend in all the different classes and see what they're doing. Well, that would be one day. That wouldn't be an overall look at everything that they're trying to access with technology. So I think that you must ask the classroom teacher everything they're using because it has become the wild west out there. You have teachers with iOS devices downloading apps like crazy and each classroom teacher is doing it themselves in their own classrooms. You have lots of computer‑based sharing systems, like Edmodo, and the teachers have no way of knowing whether that's successful, yet they require the students to get their assignments off of it and also to turn their papers in. So I know it's the wild west and you've got to get those classroom teachers to give you some information on what are the various tasks, what kind of technology tasks are they trying to complete, and it's important always, always to think of the solutions, not the technology. Think what will make this student succeed and then if it does require technology, that is when you would add it. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] Okay? I think I have a short ‑‑ Ann: I said I was going to be quiet and not interrupt, but just saying that Assistive Technology is not the answer for everything, Sharon? I thought all we had to do was buy something and then hook them up? Sharon: Absolutely not. And also the problem we have as itinerant teachers with the plethora of AT that's available for our population, sometimes tech just starts being thrown at the student and you have too many devices and it's overwhelming for the classroom teachers, for the TVI and for the student with visual impairment. So that's why I'm saying assessment is really important. And we're going to talk about a few different assessment tools that I hope you understand aren't that difficult. Kate: Sharon, before you go on to that let me ask you this: how important is in the collaborative process to spend some time talking with the student and the family about technology in the home? Because more and more, you know, home is often times is most technological place. You know, I think about myself in my home and our family life and all the technology that we're using there. Is there ‑‑ I know we think of technology often times as computers and Braille and stuff like that, but I think about technology for independent living. You know, things that just the technology within my own home that I've got to know how to operate to watch a television show or to be able to adjust the heat or all of this different stuff. Is that a part of what you would see as being infused in the assessment process? Sharon: I think so. One of the things you have to think about when you have the parent input is that they're seeing a different student at home. They're seeing their child, but they're still trying to support their child as far as completing homework and research projects. And as far as, like, let's think about the television. Apple TV, that little device that hooks into TVs that gives you Facebook, YouTube, and movies, is completely accessible. Like most of the Apple products, it has VoiceOver built into it and a student who is blind or even extremely low vision can walk through it with the speech and be able to choose their own shows. I doubt if they want to choose Facebook in front of their parents; that would be a more personal thing. [ Laughter ]. Sharon: But they could look at YouTube and watch all the crazy cat videos and everything that get passed along. But yeah, parents ‑‑ and one thing to think about nowadays also is parents are much more savvy about technology because they're not only technology users, but there is YouTube out there. And if you go in and you type technology for blind, my goodness, you're going to get a lot of results. And if they aren't part of that assessment, they may be asking for technology tools that are not really appropriate for what the student is trying to accomplish in the classroom. So absolutely, parents. So how do we do this poll? Kate: Okay, Sharon, I think the results have just about come in. Sharon: Okay. Do I go ahead and leave that up and discuss them so they can see it? Kate: If you want to talk about the results, sure. Sharon: Absolutely. That's very interesting. I'm not surprised at all about the district made assessments. And that's kind of powerful because then you're assuming you actually have a team that you're working with within the district. So I'm hoping that's the assessment you're talking about in the district. Yes, the SETT framework, I'm going to talk a lot about that. And the top three, the SETT framework, the WATI and the University of Kentucky, they're all based basically on the same thing and they're frameworks, they're not protocols. So that's kind of what I wanted to talk about is they're not protocols that you go down a list. They're much more fluid and you have to use documentation and you have to plan for the future, assign responsibilities and then did it work? Thumbs, thumbs down? Do you move on to something different? And I tell you what, assessment is a pet peeve with me because I see a lot of different technology out there and I see a lot of what I call tech abandonment because somebody's bought this student a $5,000 BrailleNote and the student tried it, hated it, won't use it. So I really would rather see an assessment and a test period. And please contact me if there's some tech I might be able to help you with through our technology loan program because I would much rather you try something with us that's expensive before you buy it, either with the school district or the regional service center. I'm going to put end poll. Kate: We'll get rid of that. I'm curious to know, I think there were four of you that said you used other things, if you might list some of those other things you use in the chat just so we have some of that information. Sharon: And it's okay if it's like teacher observation and some of the more informal things we do. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] Just curious about what you might be using. Okay. So these are the ones I listed. I can't list your districts because every district is different, but I bet if you talk to the Assistive Technology people, you would probably find that it's partially, if not all, coming from the SETT framework. So the SETT framework basically is looking at the student, the personality of the student, all of the information you have from the functional vision and LMA and their classroom grades and what they might like. And you're looking at different environments. And the environments, they can be different things; they don't mean just one class and home. And you're looking at the task. That's the most important part. What is the student trying to do? Are they trying to access the chalkboard at the front of the class? Although nowadays there's smart boards. Are they trying to access a textbook? You want to look at tasks like that. They can be very simple, but they can be also very complicated. I put the Texas Assistive Technology network up there because they are also based on the SETT framework, but they have a lot of information specific to technology such as, you know, addressing things that are going to be on the STAAR and addressing specific TEKS and things like that. And the WATI is a huge, huge document. And what it does is it is broken down into different chapters, but it also is a modification of the SETT framework. Now, the SETT framework was developed at region four by Joy Zavala, and she now is working with quality indicators of Assistive Technology. And she came up with this framework of student environment task and tools, and she said please, feel free to modify it. I would like some recognition, but modify it and use it for your school district and how it works. So if you were to look at many, many school districts, you would find that they're based on the SETT framework. Kate: Sharon, would you like to show them the framework? I have that web address up and you can share it if you would like to. [ End slide: ] [ Viewing Website: ] Sharon: Sure. Sure. What's there is, of course, you do there is with any assessment when you're gathering data. Now the nice thing about AT is that you have a lot of the data already gathered because you already have the Functional Vision and the LMA and I also have IEPs and goals developed for things other than Assistive Technology that are going to help you with making those decisions. This graph, if you look at the circles, it kind of cracks me up, I saw it yesterday, because you'll notice that student shows up twice instead of task. So let's say the yellow‑orange one actually says task. And so you're looking at the intersection of the task, the student who is trying to accomplish it, what environment they're in and then what tools. And tools can be anything from accommodations, modifications, instructional strategies, and then technology. So there's a lot to it. It's not just ‑‑ and the bottom part is where Joy is talking about actual things you're looking for within the different parts. And it's nice. And at the end of that website, if you were to look at all of it, it has some sample AT, but there are all the worksheets, there's articles about it and she has a sample AT assessment done. Now, like with most samples that you come across, at least I do when I'm looking at Assistive Technology Evaluations, you find mostly that they're an LD population or that there are very few that you can get your hands on that are actually for students who are visually impaired. So I'm sure you could find some with other teachers, as long as we black all those names out because other teachers are a wonderful resource. [End Viewing Website:] Sharon: Once again, I have to tell you that Assistive Technology, any time you're introducing a new task or a new technology, it's fluid. [ Start slide: ] I mean, think back about iPhones. They seem to be everywhere. And yet they're only seven years old. It's hard to imagine a time, eight years ago, when we didn't have an iPhone, and when we didn't have the Androids and the smartphones that we use pretty much for computers and email. So tech is extremely fluid and we have to remember that in the education system it's the same way. And does tech fail? Absolutely. It fails for me all the time. So more than likely it's going to fail for your student sometimes. And that's going to be a huge issue and we'll talk more about that in a minute because it can fail many different ways, be it batteries, be it, oh, it accidentally got dropped on the floor, and then there are some other ways it can fail. So let's talk about some of those in a minute. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] Chapter 5. Role of TVI The next slide I have is talking about the role of the TVI, what's your role in the assessment? And the largest role is to try to collaborate with the district's Assistive Technology team and other professionals because that's a challenge because district AT people, the Speech Paths, the physical therapists are probably itinerant, much like you. So trying to set up a meeting or trying to set up an actual time when you might be viewing the same student trying to do something in class is extremely hard, but the information you're going to get is also very important and powerful. I used to have like a handout I would send before I would come out to see a student and it had like five questions on it. And I would ask the Teacher of the Visually Impaired to get a copy of that to the parents, to the cafeteria worker, to the librarian, to any professionals that saw that student. Because they all see something different, and it provides really valuable information. So it would let me know things. Assistive Technology decisions. Okay. Those are the best you're going to be able to make, and remember, it's going to be fluid and it's going to change, and you've got to be open to that change because when you make these decisions, you have watched the student trying to do something in class or you have heard the classroom teacher say he or she can't do this, what do I do? Or you've heard the parents say, so and so, my student said that the other kids are doing this and they're just sitting over there waiting for something. And so those are all things we hope aren't happening and hopefully through the assessment and working with the other professionals you're going to hear and be able to make some of those decisions. I want to stop for a minute and I have one ‑‑ I have a handout here that is a column sheet that is pretty much standard for what you would find with the SETT Assessment. And it's an example of a form that has guiding questions. And so it is broken down into columns of student, environment, task and tools, be they strategies, accommodations or actually tools and technology. And basically it asks for the general things like diagnosis, etiologies, but it also asks what is the student currently able -- are they able to complete the task with strategies, and if they are, list those strategies. And sometimes they will be able to do that without special technology just because it's an accommodation. Okay. Under the environment what is the student's educational placement. That's the first thing to think about. What accommodations are being made in that placement for the student? What materials and equipment is the student using with those accommodations to complete their task? What is the physical arrangement of the classroom? I bet every one of us has some nightmare stories about that. So that should be documented. What is the instructional arrangement? Because sometimes they're different. Sometimes it's merely can they navigate the classroom without all of these obstacles in their way or the teacher turns the light off all the time and the student can't see as soon as the lights go off. For some reason in public schools, they're very fond of dimming the lights, and I see it all the time and it's a huge problem. So document that when you have classrooms doing that. Not that you want to get that teacher in trouble. That's not what we're aiming for. What we're aiming for is to help that teacher understand the accommodations the student needs to be successful it doesn't always mean all the lights have to be on, but they do need to be aware of that. And what resources are available to the people who are trying to support that student. And if they're like most situations, we do tend to be pretty resource heavy, be it from teacher made to APH to checkouts from the regional service center. The question is are those organized, are they really being used? So you want to look at that. So that's the environment. The task you might be looking at are what does the student need to do? Do they need to go to this website to be able to download their homework assignment that's due tomorrow? What are they trying to do? Are they simply trying to have a way to answer the question of the day in writing? What are they trying to do? Also, what activities support the student's curricular goals? So what activities in the classroom go on that help and just document how that is working. And things to consider of course are the computer, our writing, our learning and study skills, which is very elusive. And of course their sensory capabilities, whether they're tactile or they're auditory or they're low vision. Thank you, sorry, almost didn't get that one out. Now, under tools there's actually two columns. One says using now and one says explore because those are two different things. So when you think of using now, no tech, low tech, high‑tech, what's working? What strategies are working? And when you talk about exploring those things that aren't working, would some Assistive Technology help that? Would some technique, some strategy help that? Okay. Documentation. Documentation is, okay, imagine it this way, this is the way I like to think of documentation is, I have just received a new student. It's the beginning of December, and they came from another district. And I have no idea what they were doing. And what technology they might have been using to succeed in their school. That's where documentation plays a huge part because it let's other teachers know what's being used and what's been tried or failed, and it also let's your team have a better view of the things that you've tried. Monitoring progress, absolutely. Progress, is it broken? Does the battery work anymore? Are they actually using it? Is it successful for them? Are they it able to connect with their school Internet? Are they able to print? All of those types of things. Monitor that progress. It will help you. And that's where I'd like to talk a little bit about IT problems. I'm seeing more and more these days when I go out that our students will have an appropriate technology ‑‑ let's just say the BrailleNote because there's many of them, and because the IT department isn't familiar with the BrailleNote, and you're not a technician for the BrailleNote, they have sometimes problems letting it access the Internet. They might not even want it to access the Internet; I've seen several of those. You'll have problems with printing. Nowadays it's not as bad since we have USB drives that we can share with the teacher's computer, but you're going to have a lot of that IT and you're going to have a lot of trouble with that because nowadays we're able to pair our devices. If I were using a BrailleNote as a Braille display to use with my Jaws on my computer, that requires something to be installed on the computer. And that requires the administrative privileges of an IT person. So you've got lots of hurdles out there. And persevere. Sometimes when I'm out on a site I spend a lot of time with IT because I know most of that vocabulary. I know how to talk to them and they realize I know what I'm talking about, and this isn't really as big a problem as they're making it. But there are districts that will fight it and won't allow it, so there have to be other strategies. Okay. Ann: That's a really good suggestion, Sharon. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] Because that whole thing of like-talks-to-like and, you know, it really does help if you can speak the same language. Fortunately you can speak that language. Many of us, speaking for a few of you that I know, many of us cannot. Sharon: Right. And it is frustrating because a lot of districts also ‑‑ say you're going home for Christmas. They wipe the computers or they have a new computer for the student. And you go through the same thing. It took us in one district ‑‑ I was going to help them with a technology and give them a jump start on teaching that technology, and instead we spent the entire day going back and forth between IT and the school and online with IT, on the phone with IT trying to make it work. So it's not only you that that's happening to. It happens when I go out and we think we're ready to do it and we aren't. So we have to work with them quite a bit. So knowledge of specialized technology. When we talk about that we're talking about the particular Assistive Technology devices selected for each students depend on several factors, including the specific needs of the individual child and the type of the access needed based on the extent of the visual impairment, and then the presence of additional disabilities. I'm going to fess up that within this short webinar today I'm really talking mostly about academic kids. But I have a wealth of information about students with additional disabilities and technology, so if you want to contact me or something about that, I definitely have that. That would to me be a separate webinar. And then the degree to which the child relies on visual, tactile or auditory input for learning. And I know sometimes that auditory is a dirty word, but ‑‑ oh, I didn't do it. I would like to at some point share an article with you that AFB did with the National Education Association, I believe, and it's an extremely good article on pairing auditory reading with tactile or visual reading. And, gosh, it offers lots of good reasons why that is good. There are websites all over the Internet that talk about audio and visual or tactile reading because it's a wonderful thing to pair because it's like a jump start. Yes, you want them to be able to read in a typical fashion, but nowadays auditory has become a typical fashion. So it would be nice if we were working on strategies for that. Also for those of you with those high school kids, hopefully they are learning those auditory skills because they're getting ready to go into a situation where they might not have that Braille access or that large print access. [ End slide: ] Chapter 6. When to Introduce AT [ Start slide: ] When do you introduce AT? Well, the book ECC Essentials has lots of ideas on that and they have a wonderful chart. I think it's about three pages. And I encourage you to look at that, but from my experience ‑‑ this is total my biased information -- is there's no tried and true answer. We know we have to address the TEKS. We know we have to get them ready to be able to take any STAAR testing that requires technology, but when do you introduce that technology? Well, you look at when do all the students use the technology. And you want them ‑‑ even if it's in a scaffolded way, even if the other kids are beginning to play around in kindergarten with the keyboards, you want that to happen. You don't need a screen reader for that. You can get the APH learn keys or whatever and let them poke around and hear what the different letters and keys on the computers do or say. And here's a huge one for me, build on concepts. We typically work a lot, as Teachers of the Visually Impaired, with Braille materials. How important are Braille materials? How important are large print materials that our students can read with ease? However, if you think about someone who is beginning to learn to read, you have to have that gestalt of what the page is, what a book is; it has a front, it has a back. Where do you start reading? Top page left, then you go to right all the way down to the bottom. These are things that students learn and that teachers actually are teaching without even realizing you're doing it. When you're doing some of that beginning reading and some of that beginning Braille reading. So then you've got the kid and you've got them using a Perkins Braille Writer or an electronic Braille writer, there's many out there, like the Mountbatten. And it's wonderful because they have a full Braille keyboard. They have a full sheet of paper where they can put their name on the top left and complete it and start developing paragraphs and maybe put page numbers on it and maybe do a letter where they have to have a special format to address that to. Then think of quickly handing that student a BrailleNote or a Braille Sense, a portable note taker that has at the best one line of Braille that contains 40 cells. That is not even a full line on a computer. It's not a full line when they write on their Braille writer. You lose that concept of a document. You lose that concept of the top of the page, the bottom of the page. The student suddenly discovers that there are symbols in that Braille, dollar signs, symbols that tell them, oh okay, there's a new line, there's a new paragraph, this is a new page. But once again, you're having to transfer those skills that exist in the hard copy on to a Braille display or even if you have a student with low vision and they're using a screen enlargement, you lose part of the screen. It's a cognitive jump and we need to honor that and we need to make sure that our students are still writing fluidly. Sometimes when I work with a student and they start using a portable note taker, the sentences suddenly become shorter because they don't have that page. They have those lines of Braille, and it's different. Okay. Students with visual impairments need instruction before expectations of generalized usage. How many times have you been a panicked TVI or you didn't realize that they were going to start PowerPoint, and your student isn't far enough along in either their Assistive Technology, such as their screen reader, JAWS, Window Eyes and NVDA, whatever they use, or their screen enlargement, like Magic or ZoomText. It's very important for a Teacher of the Visually Impaired to be ahead of the game. You have to be ahead because you have to teach the student how to open programs, how to move within the programs, how to get to menus before you can stick them in a class and say okay, we're going to learn how to make a PowerPoint. That is not going to work and our students are going to be behind immediately. I know it's a lot, but we have to look at that and we have to try to keep them a little bit ahead of when the other students are being introduced to it. And that's not always a possibility, but if it is, let's try it. What does a student need for future success? Post-secondary, employment. This is when you're thinking about, they're in college, the professor gives everything to his students through PowerPoint. I don't mean just showing them up on the screen. I mean all of the paperwork the student can access on the teacher's website is in PowerPoint. And it may or may not be accessible because they might have made it pretty and made text boxes all over it instead of just using the templates that are built in. So how are we going to get them ready for that. We have to start working with them on strategies, letting them know that it might not be as Braille rich a society out there. It might not have that large print that they're so used to. This is when it really, really matters that they have strategies of their high‑tech, low tech, and they're able to adapt. [ End slide: ] Chapter 7. Teaching AT [ Start slide: ] Sharon: Teaching Assistive Technology. I think we all know that you don't sit there and teach keyboard skills alone. You don't sit there and teach keystrokes of how to jump around because we need to teach specific skills like spelling lessons, letter writing, internet searches. You can start with very simple ones, and you have to address STEM classes. And I can tell right now that would be a separate topic also, but there's some exciting things out there, just to let you know. So maybe we should talke about that. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] Chapter 8. What AT is Available? How do you know as a TVI yourself what Assistive Technology is available? Do you get the information from vendors? Which isn't always bad, but it could be like receiving an eye report from a doctor who is making educational recommendations. It might not be appropriate for the student because the vendor doesn't know the environment and the educational system and what your student is capable of. Do you learn from other teachers. Hopefully. We're all scrambling around trying to do it together. Do you search the Internet? That I must say is how I learn nearly everything. Are you able to make it to conventions like CSUN in California, which is huge, or ATIA in Florida and Chicago. And then trainings, is that the way that you learn what devices are out there? And there are so many, I do feel sorry for you that way. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] Because that's when you really need to be contacting resources. You are not the one who knows all the technologies that are available to help your student. Chapter 9. TVI Training Opportunities Okay. Your training opportunities. I imagine a lot of them are through the regional service center. Hopefully through local district workshops when you have outside presenters. I love doing that. Online courses. Those are a little harder to find. Video tutorials. Those are really easy to find. I'm getting ready to show you how. Podcasts. Are you able to listen to audio without suddenly falling asleep? [ Laughter ]. Sharon: And it's a skill. Manuals. And when I say manuals, I don't mean picking up a 600 page manual, I mean, is it on your iPhone, your iPad or your computer and you can do a find and look for exactly what you're trying to at that moment? Because people call me and they think I know all of that and I've got the manual open on my laptop feverishly trying to find the answer to what they're asking. [ End slide: ] Chapter 10. Types of AT [ Start slide: ] Okay. I'm probably not going to spend too much time on this slide because I ‑‑ these are very, very few and there's pages of it in the ECC book. And you can find pages of this anywhere as far as what is available out there. And when I say specialized STEM, what I mean is there are things, like a company called Vernier, and they provide like probes and heat measurements for labs, science labs, and they have the ability to make those accessible. And you use a laptop and a special device to do that. There's also a teacher at Austin Community College who wrote a software program for a student who is visually impaired and she was able to create and print shapes and graphs for physics and for math and if you are interested in that give me an email and I'll shoot it your way. He gives everything away for free. [ End slide: ] Chapter 11. AT Success Stories [ Start slide: ] Sharon: Okay. Some of the success stories. The communication and cooperation, the built‑in accessibility features of nearly any tablet. I do believe that Apple has a head start on that and they also have the laptops, but there's some problems there in that they do not work with Microsoft Office. There's Dropbox. Those of you who don't know that Google Drive and Documents have become accessible, they definitely are. The students are able to share with the other teachers and classmates. And then there is the teachers that make their own websites and they have their handouts and their assignments and their syllabus on there. [ End slide: ] Chapter 12. Tutorials for AT [ Start slide: ] Here's some places that are tutorials for AT. And I gave you some very general ones. The second one is a teacher who is an adult woman who's blind and she has wonderful lesson plans. So I suggest you check that out. And the other ones, please, go to the websites, you'll find out more information from them. And that is just a beginning, beginning. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] Okay. Now, YouTube. Remember I told you how parents get it? Go to YouTube. Type in Humanware. You'll see all their devices and how to use them in a video. They all have their own channels. HIMS, Incorporated is the Braille Sense, the Ebot. A lot of new things that I'm using that are very exciting: Freedom Scientific, AI Squared is ZoomText, and then iPad with VoiceOver. Check some of those things out. I think you might be pleasantly surprised. And I apologize. I really cut it close. So please if you have any questions, quickly. [ End slide: ] Chapter 13. Closing Comments [ Start slide: ] You guys, I really appreciate being able to do this webinar. I know I'm tech savvy, but this is my first webinar. So pretty funny. And probably why the timing ran out. But I appreciate you coming and most of you know how to contact me. I believe she put my email in the chat, and that is the best way to contact me for questions. And I look forward to doing more of these. Thank you. [ Music ] [ End slide: ]