Assistive technologies are frequently used to help disabled students to access core and expanded core curricula and to improve their functional, communication and literacy skills. Non-optical low vision devices and optical and tactile graphics technologies are some of the assistive technologies used by visually impaired students in today's…

The Indiana Department of Education's (IDOE's) Accessibility and Accommodations Information for Statewide Assessments is intended for school-level personnel and decision-making teams as they prepare for and implement Indiana statewide assessments. Information is provided for school personnel as a reference to inform guidance on universal features,…

Rapid advances in technology are facilitating the electronic distribution of information, especially via auditory formats. These methods of acquiring information are prevalent in educational settings, such as the use of audiobooks. While auditory formats may be more convenient and economical, they may not be the most beneficial for comprehension…

Stargardt Disease was identified by German ophthalmologist Karl Stargardt in 1901. It is the most commonly inherited macular dystrophy condition (Light et al., 2017), with an estimated worldwide prevalence of 1 in 8,000 to 1 in 10,000 (Cai et al., 2018). Stargardt Disease is the juvenile version of macular degeneration (Daly, 2014), with its early…

This is a case-study of a blind college student, Sonia, at the College of Languages and Translation (COLT). She has an iPhone, iPad and laptop as well as a Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype accounts. She uses MS Office and the university's Academic Portal. The iPhone VoiceOver App and the Braille Sense Notetaker enable her to surf the…

This report provides a snapshot of how accommodated tests for students with disabilities, accessibility, alternate assessments, and other related issues were addressed in states' test security policies for 2020-21. Strong test security policies and procedures are needed to help ensure the integrity and validity of state assessments, yet some test…

Specialized assessments, including the learning media assessment (LMA), are essential in appropriately planning and implementing instruction for students with visual impairments (Holbrook et al., 2017; Lusk et al., 2013). The LMA, first introduced by Koenig and Holbrook in the early 1990s, was designed to be an "objective process of…

Android platform-based educational software for visually impaired students (VIS) are widely available, but very few of them are in Bangla. Due to the lack of low-cost Bangla Braille-based technologies, VIS depends on the traditional slate and stylus to learn Braille. This study proposes a Braille-based educational software, Bangla Braille Learning…

Methods commonly used to enhance the language-learning experiences of students who are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision), are not sufficient for foreign language learning. There are several challenges involved in the study of foreign languages by students who are visually impaired. One of the most pressing of…

Developing braille literacy skills represents one of the major goals of the education process for students with vision impairment. Fluency and accuracy in reading and writing facilitate access to information, development of knowledge, active participation, functionality, and independence in social contexts. One of the essential factors that can…

Academic libraries should be accessible to all students and relevant stakeholders. Students with print disabilities are found in many universities worldwide. This article examines the services and tools that are available at the North-West University (NWU) in South Africa. Literature was used to identify how services, signage, and tools that…

In higher education systems, equal importance must be given to differently abled students. However, not all educational institutions have infrastructure and facilities to admit these students even though accessibility and support for these students is growing. There are many schemes, facilities, services, and financial assistance available to…

Brigham Young posits that 'If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but you educate a woman, you educate a nation.' Even now, educating a woman is challenging in cultural practices dominated by values and beliefs in the social system. Women in developing countries face significant barriers in accessing education, whereas gender inequality…

One of the foundational principles of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) system is accessibility for students -- multi-tiered resources and strategies that ensure equitable and valid access for students to instructional and assessment content. This Guide includes 54 accessibility strategies that can be used by teachers,…

In this article, the authors contend that the effectiveness in studying foreign languages by students who are blind can be greatly increased with the use of a properly configured screen reader, Job Access With Speech (JAWS), and a braille display. They assert foreign language instruction should not be limited to auditory input from an instructor…