The Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., has released a resource to help teachers trying to adapt science lessons for students who are blind or visually impaired.
At www.perkins.org/accessiblescience, the school has gathered video Webcasts, illustrated classroom activities, product suggestions, and links to online and hard-copy resource materials that “all aim to help teachers bring science to life for students with impaired vision,” the school said in a press release.
I’ve watched the Webcast called “Making Life Sciences Accessible to Students with Visual Impairments,” with secondary school science teacher Kate Fraser, and it demonstrates some useful practical changes to a science curriculum. For example, using a three-dimension model of a cell that allows students to feel various cellular structures can be useful for an entire class, not just students who are visually impaired.
More Webcasts are to come to the site, Perkins says.