VIDBE-Q Volume 69 Issue 4
among 51 students with blindness or low vision, but the majority of the students
had low vision, followed by 22% who were legally blind and 10% who were
totally blind, and more than two-thirds of the students had additional disabilities
(Tuttle & Carter, 2022). That study documented the use of different AT and a
smaller number of AT than found in our study, likely due to the large differences
in sample characteristics (Tuttle & Carter, 2022). In contrast to our study, the
students in the Tuttle and Carter study who used screen readers and refreshable
braille appear to have all been provided instruction in those areas.
An OCR app was the second most commonly used workplace AT in our
study, but no participants reported receiving training from a TSVI on using this
AT. Very few participants reported receiving training from a TSVI on any of the
mobile apps they used in the workplace. For older participants, smartphones and
mobile apps would not have been available while in school or would not have been
as commonly used as they are today, which could explain the lack of training.
However, it is important for TSVIs to be aware of the common use of mobile apps
at work today and introduce students to the wide array of apps that could be
beneficial to them. Offering training to students on the most commonly used
workplace apps would also be helpful, assuming they are also useful for their
schoolwork.
