TRANSCRIPT
Assessment of Deafblind Access to Manual Language Systems - An Evaluation Tool
4/28/25

>>Rachel: Hello, everybody. I am super excited to share this tool with you today because it is definitely one of my favorites that I have utilized throughout my career in the field. So let me just get this started. Okay. So today we're going to be talking about the Assessment of Deafblind Access to Manual Language Systems or, for short, ADAMLS. All right. Here we go. All right. So what we're going to do, you can scan the QR code if you like, or we will drop the link in the chat for you to look at it. And what we're going to be doing today is we're just going to be going through this document. So I'm going to give you guys a little bit of time to scan that or to pull it up on to your device. Okay. Hopefully everybody's got that. Okay. So the ADAMLS. The purpose of it was designed for educational teams that were developing accommodations, adaptations, and strategies for children who are Deafblind who are candidates for learning manual language systems. I underlined the words "who are candidates" because I'm hoping that the majority of you were able to attend Brenna Brillhart's session two weeks ago on access to language is a human right. And because this tool is for all children who are Deafblind that are using some form of manual communication, and this holds true for all children, whether they are deaf, hard of hearing, or Deafblind and deaf with complex access needs. And I wanted to quote her -- yes. The link will be on the handout as well as it can be dropped into the chat as well. But I wanted to quote her session from two weeks ago. And she said that all Deafblind children who are learning some form of manual language needs to have fully accessible language. That means that the language is provided consistently by fluent users. That is the foundation for which future language skills are built. And so I just want everybody to have that in mind as we go through this tool. Okay. So first we're going to go through the process, and there are eight different steps to this process. And then we're going to look at the tool itself. So the first thing that we need to do is to assemble the team. So who does that include? So this can include anybody, any individual on the student's educational team that understands how the child is communicating or what the child is communicating. And they can also understand what is being communicated to the child and what specific obstacles, like the specific visual obstacles that the student needs to overcome in order for that child to detect and interpret that manual language. So that could be the Deafblind TDHH, the TSVI, teacher visually impaired. It could be an intervener if the student has an intervener, just anybody on the team familiar with the student's communication attempts. And we know that sometimes with our students who are Deafblind, those communication attempts can be -- they have low readability. What that means is sometimes you have to look really closely to how they're producing some signs and things like that. But that is -- whoever the team is that is most familiar with the student and their communication, those are the people that want to be on this team to complete this assessment. Okay. The second step is to conduct the FVE/LMA. This is typically conducted by the TSVI, the teacher of students who are visually impaired. And we want this to be completed before we start looking at the ADAMLS because we need to know what the student's -- how the student is using their vision functionally. If there are any field losses, if there are any acuity issues and if it is being -- or if the student's vision is progressive as well. So we want to keep all of those things in mind. One of the things that we want to focus in on, you know, with the vision is how the visual impairment is going to affect signing, fingerspelling, and speechreading. Again, when we're looking at this, this needs to be conducted before looking at that because we want to have some things in mind when we look for vision, when we are looking at the ADAMLS. One thing that I do want to also bring up -- this is kind of a side note -- but I want you guys to be able to come back to it, and this is the impact of CVI or Cortical Visual Impairment on that access. So what part of the area, what area of the brain? Is it the dorsal? Which is typically the where area of the brain. Or the ventral stream, which is the what area of the brain. Which part of that is more affected? Now, we know they work together and there isn't one that isn't going to affect the other, but which part of the brain has the most impact to how the student is processing that visual information? And in sign language, that's going to have an impact on how the student is recognizing the signs, because there are five different elements in sign language: There's the handshape. Are they able to detect the difference between an S and an A. Depends on how you're standing or how the hand is oriented. Movement. Does the student notice signs when they're moving better or if they're stationary? How does that have an impact on recognition. Palm orientation. Is it up? Is it out? Is it to the side? Is it up, down? Does the student recognize those differences. The location. Where are the signs produced. If the student has a field loss, if signs are produced outside of their field, it's going to be -- we're going to have to utilize some different strategies in order for the student to be able to know that there is movement and where that sign is located. And then the last element in sign language is non-manual markers. So non-manual markers include facial expressions and things like that. So there is a woman named Margaret Tibaudo. She is out of Perkins School for the Blind and she did a Coffee Hour also on the impact of CVI on sign language. And so if you want to go deeper into that, there is a link on your handout that will lead you to that Coffee Hour so that you can watch that recording. And I would highly recommend that, you know, to go deeper into that. The third step is to compile the information. Okay. So it's going to be really important to know what the etiology is of the student's visual impairment or how the student is Deafblind, the Deafblind diagnosis. This gives you some helpful strategies for particular etiologies. For example, for students who have Usher syndrome. It's progressive. How are we manipulating our signs to accommodate for that. Or for congenital rubella syndrome. They have a risk for glaucoma and for cataracts. And so that's going to affect the acuities and things like that. Also we want to evaluate what manual communication system the student uses. Is it American Sign Language. Is it signing exact English? Is it just fingerspelling, just some simple words. Is it SimCom? Is it speechreading or are there elements of cued speech? If you don't know what cued speech is, there's a handshape that denotes the different sounds and when you are speaking, it helps them know which sound is being produced. So that is the third step. The fourth step is observing the student. So this is where you're going to be implementing this tool. So you're going to observe that. So to accurately evaluate, you're going to observe to accurately evaluate the ability of the student who is Deafblind and how they use their signs. How do they fingerspell? How are they speechreading, how are they accessing that information? It's important to observe student in real situations. So in class or out in the community. When you are looking -- like just like when you're doing, you know, an audiogram or an eye exam, these are in really controlled environments. But we know that in the classroom that's not the case. Things are going fast. Multiple people are talking at the same time. And so it's really important to get that information on how the student is accessing all of those pieces of information. And it is really important to be aware that it is very possible to overestimate a child's visual ability to interpret manual language. I talk with my hands a lot so there are times when I could be like, come here. Or I am inadvertently making like a gesture to show that, you know, what I'm wanting, when the student -- maybe they didn't hear me or they didn't see me but they see a general gesture that lets them know, okay. This is what they're talking about. Or, for instance, you know, maybe somebody is signing across the room and saying it's time for art class or something like that. But the student didn't really get that but the teacher was holding up a yellow folder which denotes art. And so they can see those things, even though they didn't really catch the sign, the signs that went along with that. So just be aware of those things too. What are you doing that may inadvertently give a clue as to what you're saying when the student isn't actually understanding the signs that are being produced. Does anybody have any questions so far? No questions. Okay. The fifth step is to interview the team. So you're going to now -- you've compiled the team members that are going to be conducting the assessment and then now you're going to interview team members that have the most experience with the student and in their communicative interactions. This could be the family. This could be the educational interpreter. The intervener, the teacher, or the instructional aid. So anybody who communicates with the child on a regular basis. These are the people that you want to interview because you want to ask these different questions. Maybe not one person follows them throughout the day but they see them in different areas. And it could be different in this class, in one class as opposed to another class. Or in an out-class or during Assemblies or things like that. You want to interview a variety of people to get that information. The sixth step is to validate observations. So you've made some observations in different classes and in different areas and then you've talked to different team members. You kind of have this idea in your mind how the student is receiving this communication. How they're visually accessing the sign language. Then what you want to do is you want to kind of validate those observations that you have. Because more often than not you're going to have questions about I wonder if the student can access it in this situation. Or I wonder if the student can access it if I do this. You're going to set up these scenarios to test out those theories so you have an idea, maybe, of what's going to happen. But then you want to test them out to validate whether or not those observations and maybe hypotheses are accurate. Step seven is you're going to document those. You're going to take all that information and you're going to amend the FVE/LMA, if that's necessary. If there are things that you need to add to the functional vision piece, you know, then you're going to amend that piece. If there are things that you're going to amend from the Learning Media Assessment, then you want to go ahead and do that. Then the last step is to update the IEP. When you have looked at all of the different elements within this assessment, this is going to help you know how to set up accommodations for the student or set up the environment so that the student has maximum visual access to the sign language. And then so you may -- you're going to be putting all that information within the IEP. And I'm going to show you some examples of that later. So you're going to write down -- be very, very specific about what the modifications that you found that the student needs or what adaptations and accommodations need to be implemented so that the student can access that manual language. And so you may find during your assessment that additional staff may be needed. Because maybe the student needs to be within one to two feet and, you know, as a classroom teacher, classroom teachers can't stand one to two feet for a student to get access and also be able to teach the entire class. So you may find that additional staff is needed. But all of those things, all of that information will need to be documented within the IEP. So now for the assessment. We're going to go through each of these. So the first -- so the ADAMLS goes through 15 different areas that need to be considered when you're looking at the visual access piece to that manual language. So we're going to go through each of these and we're going to look at some questions and some guiding areas that you can look at. So the first is the placement and the distance. So what is the best placement and distance of manual language forms for the student who is Deafblind, related to his or her visual fields? As I mentioned earlier, the student may have some visual field loss. So they may have superior field loss, inferior field loss or periphery, or even central field loss. So where is the best place to put those signs and how far do you need to be for that student to be able to access that information. Do the signs need to be presented within the same quadrant or within the same distance or within just a very small sign space every single time? Or is it going to vary, depending on what you're talking about? When you're talking about something novel, do you need to reduce that sign space? And when it's something that's more familiar, you find you can stand a little bit further away because they're more familiar with that information. Are there times that you may need to substitute a smaller sign for something? You know, instead of for a dog hitting your leg and then snapping, maybe you're just snapping, so it maintains into one little area of the sign space. Does the student need to use low vision aids for distance viewing? If the teacher or someone is far away, do they need to utilize a monocular or some other low vision device to access that information that's at a distance? So something that you may need to think about is if there is both an acuity problem -- so things are kind of blurry -- and there's a field loss. So determining that best distance is going to be a little bit tricky. So this is where looking at different environments is going to come in handy because it may vary. And you may just want to say that in your evaluation. All right. The second one is distance and rate. So we kind of talked about distance as well already. But if a student has acuity problems, so this is in relation to acuity. So what's that best distance and the rate related to their acuity. In this picture you can see that the communication part, the adult is signing an S and the student is fairly close. But if that student has an acuity problem, you can see in the picture below, that it's quite blurry. So it makes it really difficult to tell if the communication partner is signing an S or a T or even they may even have difficulties recognizing if it's an A, because it's all around the same kind of fist handshape. So that's going to affect how you sign to a student if there are acuity problems as well. And if, you know, you need to vary that will rate. If there is acuity problems you may have to slow down that rate of fingerspelling because they're not able to catch it as quickly. And then, again, you may need to utilize low vision aids or you may need to move to more tactual signing where there's a touch component to that. And we'll talk about that a little bit more later. And, because the student is -- if there's acuity issues, the student may be really, really focusing on your hands and on paying attention to what it is you're signing, which leads to visual fatigue. So if there are some acuity issues, what you may need to do is implement more visual breaks for, you know, to offset that visual fatigue. All right. The third area is non-manual signals. So can the student visually discern non-manual signals that add meaning to signs or speech. So in sign language we use a lot of facial expressions. For instance, in these pictures you have the raised eyebrows if you're asking a yes/no question. Or a furrowed brow for WH questions. So can they recognize those facial features, you know, depending on how far you are. And your distance may need to change. Are they able to discern those facial features and are they able to denote whether or not you're asking a yes/no question or a WH question or if you're asking a question at all. So, you know, for many of my students I would have to ask a question and then I would have to give the sign for a question mark. Like I just asked you a question to prompt I've asked you a question and now I'm needing a response back. And so how does the student recognize or discern those non-manual signals and do you have to make more exaggerated facial expressions for them to be able to discern those signals? The fourth area is lighting. So does lighting affect the student's ability to visually access communication? Glare can be a really difficult thing and you may catch your signs within some kind of glare area. And so they may miss that. Or a lot of times, you know, students or teachers may stand backlit, standing up against the window, and they're signing to the class. And can that student, you know, with that bright background with the teacher backlit, would they be able to discern those signs in that position or does the teacher have to make amendments to where they stand and make sure that they're standing facing the light and not backlit. A lot of things that are happening now in classrooms, you know, for ambience is to have low lighting. To have, you know, twinkle lights or to have lamp lighting and things like that where the rest of the classroom may be a little dim. So whoever is signing, are they standing in a space where the student isn't quite able to get the signs because they're in a darkened area? Does there need to be some spotlighting on whoever is signing to the student so the student is able to recognize the handshapes that are being produced. You know, when you go outside, does the student have a hard time because of the sun that's so bright, do they need to wear visors or hats or sunglasses to be able to block out some of that glare from the sun. Something that I did when I was in the field is I would try to -- I would stand backlit, just to see how my student would be able to discern the signs. And I would sign things that -- and I would do it at a typical distance in a teaching situation, in a lecture situation. Teachers tend to stand 5 to 7 feet away from the students. I would stand that far away from my student with my back to the window and I would fingerspell, you know, different words. Some familiar, some not. Some novel. And there was an absolute difference when I was signing something that was familiar and they could catch it. But still, even with something that was very, very familiar, there were times where they had to stop and ask me to sign it again because they couldn't quite catch it and you would have to slow it down. These are the scenarios you want to set up to see how does a student access that language, the manual signs. All right. The fifth area is background. Does the visual background affect the student's comprehension? So right now I'm kind of wearing kind of a -- it's not super busy but it's a little bit busy. Would they be able to understand my hands in front of my outfit or would I need to wear something that was more solid color so that way we are not distracting, we're not having such a visually-cluttered background to be able to understand the signs. That's definitely something to test when somebody is wearing, you know, a cluttered outfit and signing, as opposed to if somebody is wearing a smock or a solid-color shirt. And how the student is able to quickly access those signs. The sixth area is group conversations. This one is always really tricky and really interesting to observe. Can the student follow signed conversations in group settings? Okay. So we love to do group work. We love to do, you know, seated work where there are multiple students that are working together. Sometimes there's signed communication such as in the RDSPD, and some may be signers and some may be speaking, but the signs need to be interpreted. How does a student fare in that situation? Does the pace need to slow down? Does the student need to be told who is talking, because they're unable to follow the conversation. We know that in group conversations, people like to talk at the same time. And so how is the student accessing that? Do they know who is talking and do they know what is being said and are they able to follow that conversation without somebody being there to tell them who is talking or this person is saying this. This person is talking now. This is what this person is saying. This is a really important area to look at to see how the student is accessing it. Because we all learn a lot from our peers and what everybody else is saying and how we interact with them. And so I think that when we know who is speaking, that helps us know how we should respond as well. So this maybe something you need to looking at. Do we need to allow for that extra time to visually scan who is speaking and what they are saying? Do we need to let them know -- like I said before -- do we need to let them know who is speaking at which time? Do we need to stop and check with the student to verify and to check for comprehension that they are following the conversation. And not just do you understand what's going on? Because the answer is always going to be "yes." But to verify the student what's being talked about right now or what did so and so say? To check to make sure that they are accessing that information. And when multiple people are talking and someone points to something, are they able to know and have we given extra time or do they need that extra time to visually locate what is being referred to so that way they can also access that information. I'm guessing that there are no questions right now. Please, if I'm going too fast or if I'm saying something that doesn't make any sense, please don't hesitate to stop me and ask. Okay. So the seventh area is supplemental experiences. So would the student benefit from supplemental experiences to assist in understanding concepts behind the language? For our students who are Deafblind, sometimes getting access to that incidental information can be difficult. We may be getting an accurate or incomplete information so we're formulating incomplete concepts. So are we providing some hands-on experiential, supplemental experiences so that way we can ensure that we are building those concepts for the student. And so this may be a matter of, you know, doing more experiments or having more field trips or things like that. So a lot of times things that happen in classes, there may be a cooking activity. But everybody is assigned a specific task. If the student who is Deafblind only has access to their step that they are looking at, they may miss all the other things that the other students are doing. So how do they have access to what everybody else is doing too if they're not being shown through pictures or, you know, what everybody is doing. Or having a set of their own materials. So they can go through each of the steps themselves to see that there is a beginning, middle, and there are a series of steps that go into that. Do they need that hands-on -- their own materials to be able to fully understand what is happening with the sequential-step activity. The eighth area is coactive signing. Would the student benefit from the technique of coactive signing when learning to produce new signs? Coactive signing is the act of forming the student's hands in the shape that is the traditional sign for whatever sign that you're trying to teach them. And so with that, the important part is to form the sign and then to show the movement of the sign. But then to let go. This isn't manually forcing the student to sign different things but just showing them the handshape to help them understand how to make the sign. Because they may not be able to have that visual access to be able to show that I'm making the R, the sign for the R. So I would take the student's hand gently, manipulate the student's hand into the shape, and say "R." And would match it with my own hand to show that we are making the same sign. That is coactive signing. And so students may not be able to access that visually. They may not be able to see exactly what you're doing without, you know, that fundamental manipulation. But very brief form the sign and let go. And if the student isn't able to make that sign without the assistance of forming the handshape, then they are going to be -- they're going to have a difficult time to produce that sign and tactile sign. Okay. Great question. What is the difference between coactive sign and tactile sign? So tactile sign is when the student is going to have difficulty visually accessing the language. So their hands are on top of the communicator's hands and signing is happening at the same time. They are following all of the signs. So they just had their hands on top of my hands or your hands or whoever's communicating, and you're signing, like whatever you want to say. Coactive signing is helping a student -- like if a student doesn't know how to say "help," you would form their hands into a handshape with the thumb up. Take their other hand and you would take this hand and put it on and show them "help." So you are showing them exactly how to sign a specific sign. Tactile signing is just they are following the conversation as you are communicating. Does that help? Awesome. Awesome. We're going to talk about tactile sign here in a second, so hopefully that will further answer your question as well. All right. Hand tracking. Does the student initiate or benefit from hand tracking? And hand tracking, I have found that this is a term that many people are unfamiliar with. Hand tracking is when a student doesn't put their hand on top of your hand to follow, but they put their hand on your wrist or your forearm to follow the movement of your signs. So this, for instance, is for students especially who have field losses. So as we were talking earlier, signs can sometimes come out of a sign space. Typically your sign space is within this area. So you're signing. But if a sign goes from high to low, you have now come out of a sign space. Okay? And when you don't have any field losses, that's not a problem because you're able to see your full fields. But if you have, say, just a tiny bit of piece -- if the student has a tiny piece of vision out of the corner of their left eye, your signs have to be very small, very concise, and within that visual field. If a sign goes outside of that visual field, with the student having their hand on top of your wrist or your forearm, then you make the movement outside of the sign space, it helps to direct their attention to wherever that movement went. This really does help the students who have those field losses, to help them know when things move out of their field, their visual field, and to alert them to know where to look. Tactual signing. This is what we were talking about before. So tactual signing. Does the student initiate or benefit from tactual signing, and this is following language as it is being produced. As you're talking to the student, as you're communicating with the student, their hands are on top of your hands and you're signing what it is you are wanting to communicate to the student. And so this is a receptive skill for those persons who already understand or is learning sign language but can't really visually read the signs or the fingerspelling. And so to be a skilled reader of tactual sign language, a person needs to do more than just learn how the signs feel. Like, for co-signing, how they are produced. They need to know more than that. And learning how to place the hands on to the communicator to get the most useful information without interfering with the speaker's ability to sign is very important. Because it gets really heavy. If a student isn't familiar with tactual signing and they just rest their hands on top of your hands. As the signer, as the communicator, it gets really heavy and it starts causing a lot of pain in your shoulders when students are weighing or resting their weight on to your weight. Maybe just a teaching experience where you say light hands, so that way it's not so heavy. That way they can learn how to follow along with tactual signing. And then so some of the things, like I was just talking about, you have to teach how to use tactual signing. How do you put your hands on top? How do you have listening hands? Or, you know, so that they're not so heavy. How do you have communicating hands? When a student signs they know that you are watching them and you are following what they are saying. You know, and sometimes when you are doing tactual signing and you are doing things in space, where you're doing a lot of denoting of areas or you're setting up people in space, because that's arbitrary, in a spatial environment, you may have to do a little bit more or be more concise who you're speaking to by mentioning names or mentioning pronouns. Or where, you know, if you're pointing to something, then you're fingerspelling, where it is you're pointing to. To make it more clear what the message is portraying. There is a lot that comes with tactual signing. A lot of teaching that comes with that as well. Okay. The last area is environmental information. So does the -- not last. I'm so sorry. Does the student need additional environmental information provided? So there are lots of things that we as sighted and hearing people see around our environment. Does the student need that additional information? Like how many people are standing in a room? Or when you walk into a space, how is the room organized? Or when you are in a group situation, who's laughing? Who's not paying attention? All of these things that we need in an instant, do they need that information, because they're not able to visually access that information. The twelfth area is Braille. If the student is going to benefit from Braille, are there any English language acquisition issues that may be typical for deaf or hard of hearing students that should be addressed? So do we need to modify the language levels so we can match the student's ability to read and understand English. Do we need to modify that? Do we need to create experience stories to connect, make that connection between English, sign, and Braille. So those are -- do we need to consider uncontracted Braille as opposed to contracted Braille, because we are fingerspelling, there isn't a contraction for fingerspelling. Do we need to match and utilize uncontracted Braille for the student? Would that be beneficial for them? Or are they able to pick up the contracted Braille? Those are just things to consider. Another thing to keep in mind is that slow reading rates, you know, for our students who are Deafblind, maybe more related to acquiring English language than they are connected to the vision issue. So just something to keep in mind. All right. The thirteenth area is looking at strategies, tools, and materials. So are there any strategies, materials, tools that are typically used with Deaf and Hard of Hearing students who may present visual problems for the student who are Deafblind. Many times when we are working with our students who are Deaf or hard of hearing, we use a lot of visuals to teach what we're trying to convey, the concepts we're trying to convey. But if the student is not able to access those pictures, then we need to look at what other kinds of tools we need to use. Do things need to be more tactile? Do we need to have more objects and physical materials to utilize? Do we need to look at how -- like for students who are deaf and hard of hearing, we may offer choices like taking two different materials and saying which one do you want to do? Is that something that a student who is Deafblind, will they have access to that? Do we need to change it up? Do we need to help the student, you know, make a choice in a different manner that's not quite so visual. Will they benefit from using CART or do they need learning devices that are not only visual but tactile and vibrotactile as well. We need to look at that. The fourteenth area is interpreting. Are there modifications to standard interpreting arrangements or signed classroom instruction that need to be addressed? There are different types of interpreting. There's platform interpreting. The interpreter will stand on a platform or in front on a stage and you can do distance interpreting. Or does the interpreting need to be small group? So interpreting needs to be with just a few people. Does the interpreting need to be close? You need to be within three feet of the student that you're signing with. Do they need tactual interpreting? Like using tactile signs so their hands are on top of your hands. Utilizing or receiving that interpretation. And now with our different symposiums and different meanings and things, we have been seeing more ProTactile interpreting teams where they have interpreters who are providing environmentally feedback tactilely on the back and signing tactilely in front of the person, where everything, all of the information is being represented on the body. So there are lots of different types of interpreting and so what kind is the student going to need and what kind of accommodations need to be made for that student for interpreters. Okay. Now is the last area. So advocacy. Does the student have the skills to advocate for the modifications he or she needs? So how well the student can assess their ability to see or to access things visually in any given situation needs to be communicated with others. That's a skill that's going to need to be developed, taught and developed, and fostered to be able to share with people that need to know this information. And so how can the educational team teach the student how to advocate? What are they seeing and what are the accommodations that need to be made, like visually, so they can access the materials? And how does that relate to accessing sign language as well? So those are things that the team will need to collaborate with one another to be able to teach the student how to do that. Now, so part of the assessment is there's a guide with summary results. This is where you collect all of your data. This is where you write all of your observations down that you have collected along the way. And so now you have collected all this data, you have set up all these testing scenarios, you have observed the student in many different areas, now what do you do with all of this information that you just collected? Now I'm going to show you some examples. For TSVIs, for the FVE/LMA, you can put this information into your FVE/LMA. Let me just make sure that I am sharing that piece. Did I just stop sharing? Are you guys seeing it or no? 

>>Kaycee: Yes, we see it. 

>>Rachel: Okay. Thank you. Do I need to make it bigger? 

>>Kaycee: That would be great. 

>>Rachel: Okay. Not a problem. So I just pulled this -- oh, my gosh. What did I just do? I just pulled this out of a Functional Vision Evaluation/Learning Media Assessment. The TSVI went through the ADAMLS and looked at each of these different areas and for this specific student, here are the different things that they denoted. You need to sign consistently. Okay. So this one I can't because this is specific to this particular student. But if you need help with looking at your specific student, please contact me and I will share my contact information at the end and I can help you go through what that would look like. So for this particular student you have the signs in the central field at eye level or lower. Student has superior field loss, 10 to 12 inches from the space. Okay? So you have to be pretty close in order for that student to be able to understand and have access to those signs. We had to reduce the sign space. We don't want to get out of the visual field. And we want to re position the body. We have to sign slowly. Often checking for understanding and then adjusting as needed to ensure that understanding. The student is going to need lots of visual breaks. So when a student looks away, give them that time and not say come back, look at me. That student needs some time to look away to process the information or to take a break and come back. And then you can resume that sign -- the signing. And then just looking as a team like when there are replacements for fingerspelled words, how you can do that. And so this person just went through the entire ADAMLS and then looked at what accommodations needed, that were specific for the student and how the student can access that language or the manual language. I am going to go back to it. Okay. I'm going to go back to it. Was there a question, Kaycee? 

>>Kaycee: Yes. There was a question from Alex who uses the ETTDB for all of her evals. Since they use that a lot, she's wondering if this information would be okay to be put into the communication assessment piece of the Deafblind evaluation? And I was just typing to her that it's actually -- 

>>Rachel: Yes. Absolutely. 

>>Kaycee: This part is actually infused in there looking at these different components. And in the FVE as well there's additional pieces on incorporating the ADAMLS in your vision evaluation. It's in there. 

>>Rachel: It is. And I am about to show you with a communication assessment. So this is an example from a TDHH in the field with their communication assessment. And so utilizing different assessment tools for the ADAMLS. This teacher, this DHH went through and kind of explained what the ADAMLS does and why it's important to use it. You guys can put this in your communication assessments if you want, or not. But in this particular communication assessment, every single question was answered within a small little paragraph. So they're naming the team, like which team members were a part of this. They mentioned what signs, what manual communication system the student is using. And then looking at each question as it is asked in the ADAMLS gives the information for that student. So, for example, for the first question. In regards to the best placement and distance of manual language and visual fields, signs should be consistently presented in the same quadrant at the same distance within a precise signing space. The student has a reduce visual field in the upper quadrants and prefers to view items from their right eye. And so using a reduced signing pace with the student will help keep signs within the visual field. And when there's challenges with visual complexity, presenting a single sign at a time is recommended over fingerspelling a word. And then you want to substitute some of the signs to ensure accessibility. Instead of saying "wonderful," that went up and down. You would be missing that. That would go outside of the sign space. You would sign "good" to reduce the sign space for that student. So this goes through each of the questions. The student is not able to visually discern non-manual signals. So what do they do in order for that student to be able to have access to that information? And so for this student, they have to show the non-manual signs with the sign instead. Okay. Yes or no. Yes or no, do you want pizza? Or something like that. So you know that you're asking a yes or no question. Or who. You're asking very specific questions for that. All right. Okay. We are out of time. So this is for -- this is how you can utilize all of that information within your report. And then for the accommodations list, make sure that all of the things that you wrote as the needs for that student within each area all goes into that accommodations list so that way every single accommodation is listed there in which environments they need to be addressed in. Here are the resources. You guys have this on the handout, all the resources here. And if you guys would like me to look and go through the ADAMLS with you for a student that you're thinking about, this is my contact information. My e-mail address is Collinsr@tsbvi.edu and I would be more than happy to help you look at it and go through this information, you know, for your student.