Intended to assist Illinois educational personnel to provide vocational education services for students with physical disabilities, the handbook's eight sections focus on program and facility modification to accommodate physically disabled students in regular vocational education programs. Section I introduces the topic, provides an historical…

This brief paper summarizes requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 related to employment of people who are blind or visually impaired. Topics addressed include what is meant by blindness or visual impairment; examples of types of jobs that people who are blind can do; possible accommodations for the person who is blind…

Discusses the assessment component of individualized education programs for students with visual impairments. Important issues reviewed are the appropriate selection of a battery of tests; the knowledge base about a particular vision condition; the importance of supplementing testing information with meaningful observations and interviews; and…

Braille code is difficult to learn and discriminate tactually. A new symbol set, C5, is based on the Moon system of embossed reading and Bliss symbols. Experiments with the C5 alphabet code, printed by a braille printer, showed that subjects found braille code more difficult to learn than C5 code. (Author/JDD)

Students with monocular vision may be in need of special assistance and should be evaluated by a multidisciplinary team to determine whether the visual loss is affecting educational performance. This article discusses the student's eligibility for special services, difficulty in performing depth perception tasks, difficulties in specific classroom…

The AccesSports Model allows professionals with basic knowledge of visual impairments and mainstream sports to analyze any sports activity and design adaptations needed for targets or goals, boundaries, and rules to enable individuals with visual impairments to participate. Suggestions for modifying baseball, table tennis, swim racing, wrestling,…

This article outlines the need for employment counseling for college graduates with visual impairments and suggests counseling techniques. Techniques involve assessing the student's career development needs, formulating a collaborative plan of skills development, acquiring training to overcome noted deficits in social or professional skills, and…

This article reviews normal visual development and the role of visual gaze behaviors in attention and social interaction, discusses how the information applies to many multiply handicapped visually impaired children, and describes ways of incorporating this information into assessment and programing. (DB)

A placement counselor offers his personal guidelines for a vocational placement process to serve blind individuals. Guidelines address the counselor's value system; the functional limitations of visual impairment and adaptive options; and the role of the employing agency in enhancing counselors' motivation for placement. A model placement policy…

Discusses meeting ADA guidelines when purchasing permanent signs for schools. Provides ADA guidelines and discusses the use of raised characters and braille. Notes that ADA guidelines are not the same thing as building codes; noncompliance is enforced through the Justice Department. (GR)

This study examined the validity and reliability of four assessments, with three instruments per domain, with 103 students at residential secondary schools for the hearing or visually impaired. Domains included generalizable mathematics, communication, interpersonal relations, and reasoning skills. Data suggest the instruments are highly…

Discusses using the Timing Method for Assessing the Detection of Vehicles (TMAD) to help individuals with visual impairments develop the ability to judge their safety for crossing streets with no traffic control. Functional criteria for assessing risks are discussed. (CR)

First discusses the philosophy, structure, and content of instruction for students with severe disabilities and then presents procedures to define and incorporate strategies to meet the unique needs of students with visual and multiple impairments. A five-step analysis process is suggested for modifying a core curriculum to individualize…

This paper offers a method for evaluating individuals with visual impairments to determine the use of appropriate assistive technologies. The method is based on the HAAT model, which concentrates on the interaction of three factors: Human, Activity, and Assistive Technology. The evaluation process involves six steps: referral and intake, initial…

This paper discusses the benefits of the team approach to teaching mathematics to elementary children with visual impairments in inclusive settings and offers strategies for classroom teachers and team teaching. Strategies for classroom teachers include: (1) avoiding the use of words such as "this", "that", and "there", that will be meaningless to…