fragile, some are on home hospital, while others
attend charter schools with a homeschool component. As an itinerant teacher of the visually impaired and Orientation and Mobility Specialist for
the county office of education, I serve students in
three different school districts this year. I appreciate that each day is as different as each student
is unique, and I help to work through challenges
and share in successes when providing services
to such an array of students with very individualized needs.
For some students, attending school in itself
is a feat given their complicated medical conditions. Others are present each day, showing great
perseverance as they balance lessons in both
general education and the expanded core curriculum. I, too, must balance the variety of roles I play
on their IEP teams. My main focus is to level the
playing field and advocate for my students. Along
with that, I am eager to share my excitement of
how technology has served as a bridge for some
of my students, using braille input/print output in
their general education classrooms. Technology
has also given me the tools to spotlight students'
abilities and successes with their teachers and
families.
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Technology is helping to bridge print and
braille for my fourth grade student who is a dual
media learner at a charter school. While he is
able to read extra-large font, results of his learning media assessment determined that braille will
be his most efficient way of reading. He uses an
Acrobat video magnifier to access print at near
and distant in the core content areas. We work
together for an hour each day as he learns the
braille code using the APH Building on Patterns
braille curriculum and the mechanics of reading