Unique Challenges

1
Unique Challenges

• Living with an Invisible Print Disability

2
Learning Disabilities

• The Learning Process
• Senses
• Processing
• Memory
• Expression

3
Learning Disabilities

• Disruption of the Learning Process
• Senses ? Sensory Impairment
• ADD/ADHD
• Processing
• Memory ? Learning Disabilities
• Expression Acquired Brain Injury

4
Visual Processing Deficit

• Difficulty processing information received
  through the sense of sight
• Four main types.

5
Visual figure-ground deficit

• difficulty seeing a specific image within a
  competing background
• e.g. picking out specific lines on a page or
  words on a line

6
Visual sequencing deficit

• difficulty seeing things in the correct order
• e.g. letters or words can be flipped or seen
  completely in reverse

7
Visual discrimination deficit

• difficulty seeing the difference between two
  similar objects
• e.g. mistaken
• c and e
• v and u
• n and m
• b and d and p

8
Depth perception deficit

• difficulty perceiving how far away an object may
  be
• e.g.

9
(No Transcript)
10
I need a volunteer
11
The Farner the amb Mule

• A baradle told of farner ownep who olb mule. The
  nule
• mule stanb eoulp on the dotton. The farmer heard
  mulc
• braying-whatcver mvlcs bo when fall they into
  wells. Aftcr
• asscssing earefully situation, syndathized farmer
  with the
• mule, put becidep that meither nor mule the well
  was worth
• nule, dut deciped that the neither mule mor was
  wcll worth
• trovdle sauing. Insteap, calleb he his together
  meighpovrs anb..

12
The Farmer and the Mule

• A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old
  mule. The mule fell into the farmers well. The
  water wasn't very deep, so the mule could stand
  on the bottom. The farmer heard the mule praying
  - or whatever mules do when they fall into wells.
  After carefully assessing the situation, the
  farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided
  that neither the mule nor the well was worth the
  trouble of saving.

13
...

• .Instead, he called his neighbours together and
  told them what had happened . . . then he
  enlisted them to help carry dirt and bury the old
  mule in the well and put him out of his misery.
  Initially, the old mule was hysterical. But as
  the farmer and his neighbours continued
  shovelling and the dirt hit his back, a thought
  struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every
  time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back he
  could shake it off and step up.

14

• .This he did, blow after blow. "Shake it off
  and step up . . . Shake it off and step up . . .
  Shake it off and step up," the old mule repeated
  to encourage himself. No matter how painful the
  blows or how distressing the situation seemed,
  the old mule fought panic and just kept right on
  shaking it off and stepping up. It wasn't long
  before the old mule, battered and exhausted,
  stepped triumphantly over the wall of the well.

15
The moral of the story

• What seemed like it would bury him, actually
  helped him all because of the manner in which he
  handled his adversity.
•  
• Life is about how we handle adversity.

16
Accessing Print Material in Auditory Format
17
Organizations

• RFBD (Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic)
• Public Library
• CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind)

18
Individuals

• Paid readers
• Volunteer readers

19
Technology

• Programs designed for individuals with visual
  impairments
• e.g. zoomtext
• Programs designed for individuals without visual
  impairments
• e.g. Kurzweil