Thesis 1: Lesson Planning for Visually Impaired Students of English

By: Ivana Galetová

Abstract
The work is concerned with lesson planning for visually impaired students of English
as a foreign language. It offers basic information connected to teaching the visually
impaired, such as types of visual impairments, a list of learning tools and aids for the
visually impaired and some educational institutions for visually impaired in Brno. On
the background of a common lesson planning, there are suggestions how to approach
English lesson planning for the visually impaired. The aim of the practical part of the
work is to show differences between lesson planning for non-handicapped and for
visually handicapped students. The pronounced hypotheses will be proved or
disclaimed on grounds of information gained in a research among teachers.

The work consists of two parts. The first part is theoretical and provides information
from opthalmopedia, typhlopedia, English language teaching methodology and other
related fields of study. The work includes ideas on how to approach lesson planning
for the visually impaired and how to prepare suitable teaching materials. Most of the
ideas are not new - they are well-known among teachers who teach visually impaired
people. Nevertheless, the work is supposed to provide guidance to the teachers who
are beginners in teaching the visually impaired and therefore offers a list of some
basic ideas, which may be useful.
The second part is empiric and presents research results of a questionnaire, which
was distributed among English language teachers to find out about their habits in
lesson planning. There is a comparison of visually impaired students teachers of
English as a second language and teachers of non-handicapped students of the same
subject.

2. Types of visual impairment

The eye consists of three parts: receptor (external eye), the optic nerves and the
visual centre of the brain. Any of these three parts can be damaged and consequently
affect the vision. ‘Vision is the sense by which objects in the external environment
are perceived by means of the light they give off or reflect.’1 Vision loss can be
partial or complete. ‘Visually impaired people or people with a visual handicap are
people who suffer from various kinds and grades of lowered visual abilities. To be
more specific, the term applies to people whose everyday life activities are somehow
affected by the impairment and whose impairment cannot be corrected by common
optical aids.’2
Those people are further divided into two groups: the weak-eyed and the blind.
Authority, such as the government, the ministry of health and different organisations
usually have their own terminology and division of visual impairments.
2.1 Division of visual impairments according to National Dissemination Center for
Children with Disabilities:3
Partially sighted – the term refers to a person with some type of visual difficulty
which results in the need of special education.
Low vision – there is a severe visual impairment in a person. It does not necessarily
have to be a distance vision problem. The term applies to all individuals who are
unable to read a newspaper text common size at normal reading distance and this
disability cannot be corrected by glasses or lenses. These people usually use another
sense or possibly other senses to learn. Some of them may make use of additional
lighting and / or text size change.
Legally blind – a person has less than 20 / 200 sight in the better eye (the first
number indicates the length in meters needed by a visually impaired person to see an
1 http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/vision 23.2.2012
2 http://www.sons.cz/kdojezp.php 23.2.2012
3
http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/visualimpairment 23.2.2012

The teaching materials may be a problem. Depending on the handicap, Braille print
or electronic version may be demanded by the student. However, according to the
Copyright Act No. 121/2000 and amendments to the act, it is illegal to reproduce a
work in any way. Nevertheless, educational institutions such as primary and high
schools and universities that educate visually impaired students are commonly
holders of licences enabling them to reproduce teaching materials so that they can be
digitalized or printed out in Braille. I suggest asking the institution the teacher works
for about how extended their rights are in this particular area.

consists of 26, which is 46 characters. Each character, called a cell,

is made up of six dot positions – two columns of three dots. The dots are numbered
1-6. Some of the dots are raised, for letter or number 1 the dot number 1 is raised
(left column the top dot). There are characters for punctuation and other symbols,
too. A text can be printed out in Braille on a special printer. It can be typed on a
Braille writer, which is similar to a typewriter. Also, there is an electronic aid that is
called the Braille line. It can be connected to a computer. Its system is similar to the
speech synthesizer one, because the cursor is followed, but the text in Braille is
displayed in a line on the gadget. This way of text mediation might be more desirable
in terms of reading than speech synthesisers, however, not every blind student own a
Braille line since it is financially demanding to purchase one. Common cost of a
Braille line starts at CZK 100 000

4. 2. 4. 1.2 Speech synthesizers

There is screenreader software such as JAWS, WindowEyes, WinMonitor etc.,
which can mediate the text to the reader through audio outcome. The position of the
cursor is read out loud and the user can read either letter by letter, whole words or
whole lines. The speech speed can be adjusted and there is usually a choice between
4 http://www.conseilcoopipe.org/tips-selecting-braille-translation-services/15.5.2012
5 http://sales.seeitourway.org/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=12_22 15.5.2012
21
a male or a female voice. A state-of-the-art speech synthesizer Eliška provides a very
natural sound and a part of the program is an English voice Heather.
The opinions of teachers on speech synthesizers differ from teacher to teacher. Some
teachers do not mind their students using them in studying a language, the others are
strictly against. A lot of students prefer using Czech synthesizers, which do not
sound as English at all, because they can hear the spelling. Some teachers say it has a
bad impact on their learning. On the other hand, my experience is that even when the
students do not use an English synthesizer, their pronunciation is not affected at all.
It is an interesting phenomenon and would be worth a research.
Samples of speech synthesis can be found on the audio CD enclosed to this work.
The teacher has to know about the students´ preferences for the aids and has to take
the fact into account when planning the lesson. He has to prepare the teaching and
studying materials in such a way that the student is able to use them. It means either
converting the materials from printed version into an electronic one, often adjusting
the content slightly – it is often very hard if not impossible for visually handicapped
people to recognize what is in pictures, which are nowadays widely used in
textbooks. It is up to the teacher to decide what to do – whether to skip a picturebased exercise
completely or adapt it for the use with his student. There is always the
possibility to describe what is in the pictures, whether in writing or orally in the
lesson. However, not every exercise is suitable for adjusting. I am going to mention
this problem in the following section.
The teacher also should make the classroom as comfortable for the student as
possible. There has to be individual approach in the foreground more than anywhere
else in teaching students with visual handicaps, because severity and combinations of
them are numerous.
Totally blind people have a choice of olfactory, haptic or audio form of information
input. Optimally all the senses should be employed to supply for the visual
incompetence, however, it is often very difficult to put it into practice.

She suggests using aromas, plastic or stuffed animals,

The basic hypothesis

H: Lesson planning for visually impaired students of English as a foreign language is
more demanding in terms of time and material than lesson planning for nonhandicapped students
of English as a foreign language.
Teiresiás – The Centre for Students with Special Educational Needs

ARMSTRONG, Felicity. Inclusive Education. School cultures, teaching and

learning. In Teaching and learning in diverse and inclusive classrooms. Oxon:
Routledge, 2011. 176 p. ISBN 978-0-415-56463-2

Very subjective: she just applied a quiestionnaire to her coworkers. Not much theoretical
background.

Thesis 2:

Beyond the “Handicapped” Label: Narrating Options

to Teach Foreign Languages to Blind and Visually
Impaired Students

Imperio Arenas González

This article describes the research project carried out with a blind student, who studied French at a
public university. The pedagogical experience over three years began in a classroom when a foreign
language teacher and educator felt herself “handicapped,” as she had not been prepared for working
with blind people. In order to put her student on the same level of other students in terms of study
possibilities, the teacher entered the blind and visually impaired students’ world through Braille. She
designed methodologies in order to encourage the autonomous learning of the foreign language as well
as tried to motivate other blind or visually impaired people to acquire the same knowledge.

“A
person classified as visually impaired is one who has some sight, but requires the care of an
eye specialist. A legally blind person is one whose peripherical vision is reduced to 20 percent
or less or who can see only the top ‘E’ on the optical examination chart” (De Witt, 1991).

How can blind or visually impaired students study a foreign language

without being isolated by the group with whom they study?

The following lines will discuss the legal framework in Colombia for the foreign language
education of the blind. Then, I will show the steps followed to accomplish the objective of a
blind student to learn a foreign language, and those of her teacher to help her to do it. So, I
will talk about methodologies which can be applied in university (English, French) and school
contexts where blind or visually impaired students learn foreign languages. I will mention
how to develop strategies that make blind and visually impaired students better able to study a
foreign language, using their individual characteristics. Moreover, I will talk about how I
adapted strategies used to teach foreign languages in order to make them functional for my
blind student. I will also reference how the autonomy of blind and visually impaired students
can be enhanced, thus they become more competitive and independent; not only in their
personal life, but also in their future profession or their job
According to the OMS, there are thousands of blind and visually impaired people in
Colombia and many of them have limited access to education. Specifically, foreign languages
are considered difficult and blind and visually impaired people have to learn them using
memory, spelling, and oral ability. The Colombian constitution says that “the eradication of
HOW 19, December 2012, ISSN 0120-5927. Bogotá, Colombia. Pages: 146-156 147
Beyond the “Handicapped” Label: Narrating Options to Teach Foreign Languages
to Blind and Visually Impaired Students
illiteracy and education of people with physical or mental disabilities or exceptional abilities
are special obligations of the state” (Colombia, 1991, article 68).

With the INCI (Instituto Nacional para Ciegos [National Institute for the Blind]), the
Colombian government seeks to promote integration in the classroom of students with visual
limitations under the context of equal opportunities for everyone. This proposal has
increased teachers’ work because they have to look for more creative resources to develop
their job; and among students, because they need to discover a sense of solidarity, class work,
and respect for others. These words sound nice but they do not correspond to reality. Most
teachers are not prepared for working with blind or visually impaired students. Their
academic development is not comparable to that of their classmates’. They are not taught or
evaluated the same way as other students are and oftentimes the goals they are expected to
reach are limited too.

The professor learned braile on her extra time with the students (on Saturdays) she assures that learning
that language accelerated her student’s learning process

Braille codes can change among languages (e.g French accent symbols can be words or combinations of
words in German)

Second Congress of Interedvisual, a site that promoted access to communication, education, and culture
of blind people.

Professor transcribed the material for the student. Although it exists, it is very expensive.

Some universities in Colombia have the

software JAWS (reads information using synthesized voice), or special printers, or material in
Braille for the blind and visually impaired students; it should be the same in all the universities
and schools in the country but it is not. So, it shows how limited access to education is for
blind and visually impaired people.

References:

Aiazzi, A. (2008). Teaching English to blind and visually impaired pupils. Retrieved from
http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jan08/stud02.rtf

Couper, H. (1996). Teaching modern languages to visually impaired children. The Language Learning
Journal, 13(1), 6-9
Santana, M. E. (2003). Adquisición de una segunda lengua en alumnos con discapacidad visual: la
integración como variable en el aprendizaje de inglés como lengua extranjera. Integración, 42,
7-18.

Extra references:

Barnes R., Kashdan S., Teaching English as a new Language to Visually Impaired and Blind ESL Students:
Problems and Possibilities, “American Foundation for the Blind” (www.afb.org).

It felt more like a memoir of her specific experience with the blind student. Very little theory.