The Texas Commission for the Blind's (TCB's) braille literacy initiative is an agency-based program designed to enhance the braille skills of teaching staff. In addition, TCB has established braille-production stations in 30 of its district offices and offers technical assistance to regional rehabilitation personnel. (Author)

A study used the Delphi research method to gain a consensus among 40 professionals on the appropriate levels of instructional service to address the need of students with visual impairments in 12 areas of Braille literacy skills. Recommendations are provided for designing Braille programs, including the need to individualize programs. (Contains…

Daily communication journals are a powerful tool to promote communication development in children with severe disabilities. Each page of the daily journal features three parts: a print or braille label, a recording device, and a tangible symbol. Children should participate in both the preparation of the daily journal and its review, thus gaining…

Kim Charlson believes everyone should live life to the fullest no matter what their handicaps. Blind since early childhood, she chose librarianship because, as a braille reader and avid user of talking books, she wanted to be "in a decision-making capacity in the library field and influence the direction of library services for people with…

This survey explored the numbers and proportion of partially sighted, blind braille reading and blind non-braille reading students in Higher Education (HE) in 2003-4. As part of a HEFCE/DELNI funded project, all 134 disability offices in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in England and Northern Ireland were contacted by telephone and email, to…

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…

As distance education becomes a more common practice in teacher preparation, it is critical that students completing these programs be held to the same standards as students completing traditional university-based programs. The author examined the achievements of students in a preparation program for teachers of children with visual impairments in…

This is the second part of a two-part report of a study about the instruction of children who are learning or using both braille and print simultaneously (dual media). It explores the instructional methods and curricular decisions of teaching dual media to students with low vision and reports the students' current literacy levels and reading rates…

This bibliography offers a "magical adventure into the dark and dreamy world of the night." It contains annotations for 146 books, available for free to the blind and disabled, that cover various things associated with the night: dreams, monsters and ghosts, overcoming fear of the dark, nights in other countries that are six months long,…

This catalog lists periodicals available in special media to blind and physically handicapped persons throughout the United States. Part 1 lists and describes all magazines produced by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) of the Library of Congress for its free reading program. These magazines are available…

This document describes some of the many programs sponsored by the National Science Foundation in its efforts to continue to promote systemic science and mathematics education reform. Brief descriptions of the following programs are included: (1) Interactive Math Program Restructures 9-12 Math Education; (2) Algebra I Project Sparks Citywide…

This reference circular lists organizations that provide a variety of direct services to blind and visually impaired persons, including advocacy and employment programs, assistive devices, and publications offered in special format. Many of the organizations also offer guidance to families of blind and visually impaired persons and training for…

Two meetings of the International Federation of Library Associations Section of Libraries for the Blind (BLISTA) are summarized. The first was an expert meeting which was held in Marburg/Lahn, Federal Republic of Germany, in August 1983. Participants included 51 librarians and technical experts serving blind and physically disabled individuals in…

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…

Two groups of 27 adult braille readers and one group of 10 large print readers (mean age 13 years) were given 2-week workshops to allow them to develop rapid reading skills. (Author)