Assistive Technology Overview Presentation

On August 8, 2018 the Assistive Technology (AT) team from the California School for the Blind presented "An Overview of Assistive Technology for Students with Visual Impairments" to Santa Clara County staff. Attendees included Teachers of Visually Impaired (TVIS), Orientation Mobility Specialists (O&Ms), Adaptive Physical Education (APE) teachers, and other staff who serve and support students with visual impairments. Assistive and adaptive technology is one of the most important skills that teachers, parents, and staff can provide to students with visual impairments because it gives them immediate access to homework, classroom assignments, allows students to collaborate in group assignments and allows our students to be competitive with their sighted peers.

California School for the Blind's AT team gave a brief overview of screen readers, magnification, Windows based computer navigation, the importance of braille displays for screen reader users, CAASPP state testing, and Google Suite Apps such as Drive, Docs, Gmail, and Classroom. An overview of using Tiger Software Suite in Microsoft Word to easily make tactile graphics, and how to convert a PDF into an accessible Google Doc were demonstrated during this presentation. It was a packed presentation with a lot of information and we were only able to skim the surface of the various assistive technology that is out in the field. If TVIs would like to request topic specific training, please fill out the outreach request form .