The article considers advantages and limitations of tactile, auditory, and visual means of microcomputer access for blind students. Discussed are electronic braille, paper braille, the Optacon, synthesized speech, and enlarged print. Improved multimedia access technology is predicted for the future. (Author/DB)

The purpose of these Guidelines is to provide libraries for the blind and those who work in them with a broad overview of matters to be considered in planning and implementing an integrated digital library system. The Guidelines are not intended to provide technical solutions. Given the pace of technological change, solutions can only be developed…

Reported was a study comparing the effectiveness of a brief period of instruction in various strategies in the scanning of a tactual pseudomap by 108 blind braille readers at the intermediate, junior high, and senior high levels. (DB)

The study was designed to identify various problems encountered by 194 children who read braille and use conventional basal reading programs transcribed into that medium. The results showed educationally significant variability in chronological age, years in school, and grade level for blind children using basal reader materials designed for…

A framework for studying individual variation in tactile map reading is offered and a set of research guidelines suggested. It is argued that the reading process may be viewed as a many-leveled set of skills viewed from an information processing rather than a psychometric perspective. Individual variations are studied and classified. (Author/PB)

This study evaluated the effects of three instructional methods (direct experience, cartographic representation (tactile map), and verbal description) on the spatial knowledge of 30 adults with blindness. Results indicated that participants' practical spatial knowledge was better when they learned with a tactile map than in either of the other…

This document updates "Accommodations: Assisting Students with Disabilities. A Guide for Educators," published by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) in 2003. This document is written to assist school district personnel and parents when making decisions about the use of accommodations by students with disabilities in instructional…

Three short articles about music braille are presented for braille transcribers and teachers of the visually handicapped. The first article discusses new rules and signs added to the braille music code with the publication of the 1980 American Addendum. Examples illustrate key signatures, time signatures, accumulating arpeggio, doubling, and chant…

A technique is described for teaching the blind to read and write Chinese characters through use of raised acrylic writing and the production of a concave impression with pencil or stylus. Other methods for teaching blind students to read are mentioned. (RM)

Designed for braille transcribers and teachers of the visually handicapped, this document consists of two short articles about textbook format braille. The first article describes some recurring print format problems and suggested solutions for dealing with them. Topics include special page numbering systems, the use of tab indexes, the preferred…

Low vision students can be helped to gain an understanding of map reading and geography by means of products developed by the American Printing House for the Blind. Among those products are a series of eight land form models with accompanying audiotapes, a series of continental color coded relief maps, and 18 audiotapes for the six continents. The…

Described are instructional techniques and inexpensive manipulative materials that can be used to teach basic multiplication to blind and partially sighted children. (LH)

Reprint from "The Professional Geographer of the Association of American Geographers, v18 n3, 1966.