But more importantly you will have to explicitly welcome students in, even if they’re late, provide information of who else is in class, who has their hand up and whether they need to wait for their turn, and who they’ll be paired with in breakout rooms. You will need to let your students know of things that you’re doing that they can’t see, such as looking for a file to share, or creating breakout rooms. You’ll have to find the right balance between not overwhelming your students with teacher talking and making sure your voice is there to guide them. Will you have to use translation instead of description? Can you replace a speechless video with a more eloquent one? Be a narrator When using resources that have been created for sighted students, think about the adaptations you’ll need to make. Avoid visual resourcesĪlthough it might seem like the most obvious tip, nowadays our resources are highly visual to facilitate language acquisition, and we’re so used to working in a certain way that it’s difficult to change our mindset. Knowing whether your students use text-to-voice screen readers, a zooming software, Braille or can read ‘touchable ink’, can really help when it comes to setting up activities and working out how much time you should allocate to each stage. They are probably very aware of what these are and very able to explain how you can help them.Īs being visually impaired can mean many different things, the support students can benefit from is varied. Unlike other specific learning needs, visually impaired students can be quite used to talking about their needs. Talk to your students - they are the best source of information Having this kind of information is vital to be able to help students reach their full potential. Some students might have an impairment in one eye, some might have reduced vision in both, other students have monochromacy and you might even come across students whose visual impairment might overlap with another kind of impairment such as auditory.ĭepending on the origin of the visual impairment, some students’ working memory or attention span could also be affected. The rest had a vast array of visual impairments with their own specificities. I was quite surprised to find out that only one of my students was actually blind. These are the key things I’ve learned to bear in mind when teaching visually impaired students online: Visually impairment can mean a lot of different things Teaching visually impaired students online is probably as convenient as it can be challenging, both for the teacher and the learner. In every lesson, I learned things about my students’ lives, their difficulties and strengths and about their goals and how I could help them get there. The learning curve was a steep and exciting one. Thankfully, ‘when one teaches, two learn’ (Robert A. And, for this reason, instead of having lots of questions about it, I seemed to be unable to picture what a class would be like. I had very broad and scant information about what visually impairment meant. ![]() ![]() I have always seen myself as a very creative teacher and now, for the first time, I was afraid of improvising and not following the materials to the letter.Īs Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would put it, I was trapped by The danger of a single story. Despite this, I must admit my initial excitement was mixed with a little apprehension. I was lucky to have the best handover I could wish for from the previous teachers, who were always supportive. It seemed like the perfect fit for me, because, as well as being a teacher, I am one of the Special Educational Needs Coordinators at the British Council. Some months ago, I was offered a new online English class of visually impaired students. We asked British Council teacher, Elsa O'Brien, to share what she has learned while teaching a new class. Teaching visually impaired students online can be challenging for even the most experienced teachers.
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