The purpose of this brief is to help families and educators understand the right of students with disabilities who need accessible educational materials to receive these materials in a timely manner. This right is based on provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as well as in the disability civil rights statutes…

Questions often arise about how accessible educational materials (AEM) might be included in Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The two purposes of this article are to (1) help families and educators understand the importance of including AEM in the IEPs of students who require them, and (2) to discuss locations in the IEP where it may be…

Audio-Supported Reading (ASR) is a technology-based approach for accessing and working with text presented in either braille or enlarged (magnified) print. This approach allows a user to listen to a spoken version of text while looking at screen-displayed print or while touching braille. In ASR, both the rate of information pick up and the portion…

Vision is one of the five senses. Being able to see gives tremendous access to learning about the world around--people's faces and the subtleties of expression, what different things look like and how big they are, and the physical environments, including approaching hazards. When a child has a visual impairment, it is cause for immediate…

It is essential that children who are deaf-blind have learning experiences that improve their quality of life. Unfortunately, even when educational teams work together to create individualized education programs, these students do not always have full and equal opportunities to learn. This issue of "Practice Perspectives" describes the basics of…

Every year, under the federal law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), millions of children with disabilities receive special services designed to meet their unique needs. Early intervention services are provided through the state to infants and toddlers with disabilities under three years of age and their families. For…

The manual, available in large print, in regular sized print, and in braille, is designed to help blind parents acquire parenting skills. The manual at hand, contains large print, and is based on interviews with 11 blind or severely visually impaired parents, 8 women and 3 men. The beginning section addresses the importance of attitude in child…

The letter is intended to help parents of young blind children understand the effects of their expectations on their child's development. The importance of believing in the essential normality and ability of the blind child is underlined, and parents are told basic information about developmental patterns, educational programs (including…

The author asserts that parents must reevaluate current social taboos against physical contact and generate naturalistic experiences to aid the visually impaired child in the identification of gender differences, anatomical functioning, and interpersonal skills associated with expressing one's sexuality. Specific, age-appropriate intervention…

Intended for parents of blind children, the booklet presents guidelines regarding potential difficulties in blind children's language development. The first section focuses on repetitions and offers suggestions on dealing with and responding to those repetitions. Section 2 considers reasons for blind children's questions, including attention,…

This guide for parents and caregivers of young children with visual impairments is intended to help them to teach competent feeding skills. After an introduction, a section on stages in learning to eat discusses eating behaviors of infants and young children with visual impairments at various ages. Examples of some specific problems and solutions…

This booklet presents suggestions for parents to promote their visually impaired infant's motor development. It is pointed out that babies with serious visual loss often prefer their world to be constant and familiar and may resist change (including change in position); therefore, it is important that a wide range of movement activities be…

This article suggests ways that families of children with visual impairments can promote the travel skills of their children. Topics covered include ways to share information during travel, involving children in travel, involving children with nondrivers, helping adolescents who will not drive gain increased independence, and supporting young…

This resource paper is intended for students who are blind or visually impaired, and who wish to pursue education or vocational training beyond high school. Family members, Disability Support Services (DSS) providers, administrators, faculty, and staff will also benefit from the discussion. The paper examines the characteristics of blindness and…

This brochure published in 1984 for parents of blind infants and young children offers suggestions for building the child's language and social skills through talking to the child and interacting in a variety of ways. The importance of talking to the young infant, even though he/she doesn't respond with eye contact, and of learning to recognize…