Assistive Technology

The Assistive Technology (AT) Center at the California School for the Blind provides assessment and instruction to students with visual impairments on campus and throughout the state of California. Trainings and workshops are provided to educators, students, and their families on technology and educational topics through requests and conferences. The highly skilled assistive technology specialists continually develop curriculum to reflect the changing technology and the demands of current educational needs. In addition to expertise in assistive technology, our teachers have backgrounds in higher education with an emphasis in visual impairment including TVI, Rehabilitation, and Orientation & Mobility.

Assessment

Assessments are conducted on newly enrolled students at CSB as well as during triennial evaluations. In addition, teachers of the visually impaired or other school personnel from LEAs across the state can request a technology assessment for a visually impaired student. Requests can be made online using the Outreach Application or by contacting any of the members of the Assistive Technology Team at CSB.

Instruction

The Assistive Technology Team provides instruction in the following areas:

Screen reading software
Magnification software
BrailleNote takers
Smart phones & tablets
Optical character recognition software
Internet navigation
Accessing mainstream technology and software
Electronic braille displays
etc.

Training

The Assistive Technology Team provides trainings and support for teachers, students, and families on campus and throughout the state on a wide variety of topics. Assistive technology guides are continually being created and updated and are available on the Curricula & How-To Guides web page or contact any of the members of the Assistive Technology Team.

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.

During Shelter in Place, the AT Team hosted Tuesday Tea every Tuesday in May at 3pm. Visit our CSB YouTube channel under "Virtual Learning" where you can see a catalogue of discussion such as using Google Suite with assistive technology (YouTube; 1:01:10), using JAWS Tandem and other remote support platforms (YouTube; 1:00:57), supporting braille readers during distance learning, and a roundtable discussion on technology support in distance learning.