Overbrook Blog

Ms. Finnegan and Ms. Dalton’s classes are at it again!
The students in High School have been working on audio versions of spring and summer themed books for the Early Childhood and Elementary programs. The students work very hard to scan the books, edit them, create powerpoint presentations and record audio over the presentations so that the young students can read along! It is a wonderful way to encourage literacy and technology skills for everyone involved! The books are accessible to all classroom teachers and are a great way for kids to interact with books from the library! Switches can be used to turn the pages of the presentation, so all students have access!

At the end of the projects term the High School students head over the Early Childhood classes and read to them! Such a wonderful way to encourage the love of reading. Thanks to all the staff and students who make these projects come to life! Great job!

See pictures from this awesome project

The Penn-Del AER Spring Vision Conference is being held from April 21 - 23, 2010 in Grantville, PA. This conference has a long history as a nationally-respected venue for professionals in the vision field to share their knowledge and experience with colleagues and to learn from international leaders in our profession.

This year, Overbrook is exceptionally proud to announce that two High School students, Jeffrey Boudwin and Donal Buie will be presenting “Mobilize Your Life”, an overview of the Braille Plus Mobile Manager. The students are not only end users who have a full range of knowledge on the subject, they are also two students managing Senior Year, College Classes and extra curricular activities as well.

We are very proud of Jeff and Donal for all of the effort that they have put into preparing for their presentation, and for being brave enough to share that knowledge with professionals in the vision field.

Way to go guys! We hope everyone enjoys their session on Thursday, April 22nd! For more information, please visit the Penn-Del AER website.

Jennifer Lowe, Assistive Technology Specialist with PaTTAN and expertise in Augmentative Communication collaborated with the PA Deafblind Initiative to develop this document that is a summary of web-based resources, both in PA as well as the nation. We think its a wonderful resource for parents, educators and advocates. Please feel free to share this document with others.

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On May 19 and 20, 2009, the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services (BBVS), Overbrook School for the Blind (OSB) and the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) will be hosting the Twelfth Biennial Career Awareness Day to be held at the Overbrook School for the Blind, located at 64th and Malvern Avenues in Philadelphia.

Please note that this year’s program is a two day event. On May 19, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., Scott Truax, Project Manager of CareerConnect® from the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), will be providing training on CareerConnect® for Teachers of students with Visual Impairments. Please refer to linked registration form.

Career Awareness Day for students, their families and teachers, will be held on May 20, from 9:00 a.m. (registration begins at 8:00 a.m.) to 2:30 p.m. This year’s event will focus on helping students connect to possible careers. Our Keynote Speaker will be Scott Truax from AFB with introductory remarks from Gerald Kitzhoffer, Director of OSB and David DeNotaris, Director of BBVS.

The morning session, led by Scott Truax, will provide an opportunity for students to learn about and utilize the various features of CareerConnect®. Students, using their preferred method of access technology, will participate in hands-on activities that will enable them to connect with a mentor who is currently working in a career that matches the student’s career goal. The afternoon sessions will include representative panels of young adults who are blind and visually impaired, sharing their perspectives on their career experiences. Please refer to the linked registration form.

Lunch will be provided.

In order for us to have the adequate accommodations, we need to have the linked registrations returned by May 13. If you have any further questions, please contact Pat Mitchell at 215-877-0313, ext. 219 or patrick@obs.org.

We hope to see you at this exciting and educational event!

The High School students took part in a Victor Reader training this morning with Ms. Ilniski. The students have been independently researching and learning about how to integrate them into their academic school day, and Ms. Ilniski was available to help them learn more about them. Ms. Ilniski uses the stream herself and thinks they are a great device! The students also had the opportunity to do peer to peer teaching, and help each other with the technology!

We are in our 4th day of the workshop today and below are reactions of some of the schools:

From Tianjin School for the Visually Impaired:

First, we are able to have a clear picture of how a tactile graphics should be. We know there should be 3 very fundamental elements to form a graphics for the blind to touch, which are dots, lines and areas. Before this training most of our attention are paid to how to turn a 3-d object or a picture into a tactile graphics with the shape, size, even color unchanged. Now we understand a good tactile graphic should be based on the feeling of touch, but not seeing. We learned to use dots, lines, areas to form graphics that convey the most important information to the blind while eliminating useless information to them, such as color, the real shape.

Second, proofreading hardly came to our mind and now there is improvement of our awareness of analyzing a finished graphics.

Third, when a tactile graphic is needed, we usually make a simple transformation from a picture for the sighted to a graphics for the blind. A variety of material with different texture ranged from metal to plastic, from paper to cloth as far as you can think of and as long as they’re helpful for the blind to touch are really choices. We can consider to make alteration and adoption. So, an embosser’s transformation is truly inadequate and we should do manual job to make a master tactile graphics, analyze it and proofread it. Then an embosser can be used to copy that master with material of different textures.

Fourth, good job asks for a good kit. A kit of tools to make tactile graphics is very helpful and necessary.

From Nanjing school for the Blind:

We’ve learned the following so far:
A. Changed our ideas
1. To make tactile pictures with the special consideration
2. To use suitable tools to make tactile graphics
3. Ideas which come from the original drawing will play important role for making tactile pictures to meet the tactile needs.
4. Don’t make tactile pictures by machines directly. A good tactile graphics must be designed to meet the reader’s needs.

B. Focus on details
1. We should think over that the labels should be put at the best place
2. The keys should be placed before the tactile graphics
3. In a tactile picture, the different layers、texture and roughness can provide different information for readers.
4. We must remove unnecessary visual information and retain key tactile info. When necessary add labels.

C. Questions to think about
1. How to use different tools and materials.
2. Pay more attention on designing ideas of original drawing, we will focus on using tactile picture to express the same visual information.
3. It is necessary to train students to read tactile pictures.
4. We should share what we have learned with our colleagues.

Shanghai School for the Blind:

We learned a lot from this week’s training.

First, we have a clear picture about the tactile graphics, it is not one person’s task, it’s whole team’s work. We have the concept of the tactile graphics and how to make the decision of the tactile graphics. We know how to choose the best way to make and analyze the tactile graphics that will be used in teaching. Starting with the little guys, the Braille readers must be taught to read tactile graphics.

Additionally, we realize the importance of the assessment of the blind and visual impaired students. We master how to observe, gather, record, and interpret information.

Finally, we realize how to assess the students in different grades, different levels. We will put in use in our work later.

Thanks to Miss Wenru, Mrs. Judy, Mr. Zhang Yan and Guangzhou School for the Blind.

The Overbrook International Program got feedback from participants involved in their Spring Training. Here’s what they had to say:

From Shenyang School for the Blind:

The big difference between ‘how to make a good tactile graphics’ and the one in our mind!

Before we attended the training, we thought that the tactile graphics were just the supplement of visual aids and the knowledge in textbooks. We often drew it with hands or with computers and then typed it with ‘tiger’, and that was ok. We didn’t often think about the students’ needs. But after the first day, we changed our concepts. Because we mixed more visual concepts and feelings in the process of making tactile graphics, and this was pointed by Mr. Zhang. Finally, we accepted and agreed with the correct concepts naturally after the small tests which Mr. Zhang gave us.

For the two days, we widened our horizons with these methods of making a good tactile graphics and learned all the things clearly with Mr. Zhang’s explaining in detail. We learned about more materials and methods of making the tactile graphics. Through making one on an aluminum foil by ourselves, we knew it was really a tough task, which needed more experience. One of the most important things after we made ours, by ourselves, we must use our hands to feel the graphics instead of eyes. That will meet the needs for our students.

From Beijing School for the Blind:

We’ve learned the following so far:
1. Tactile graphics concepts
2. Decision and planning
3. Production methods
4. Analyze finished tactile graphics

For concepts: the most important thing we think is Visual vs. Tactual Perception, for example the three praxes of conceptual differences, if ask our teachers which is the exactly pictures, most of our teachers will choose 2nd and 3rd but what Mr. Zhang wanted to tell is the general shape only. In fact, this is the first thing we should know. Also labels, especially the right position and method, in the components of tactile graphics is important too.

So when we go back to school, we will do some work let our teachers know correct methods of how to make tactile graphics labels. Second, how to make a good decisions about which part is not necessary, and what is the purpose of the graphics, also the standard of the choice. If we don’t have a chance to learn, we won’t make decisions correctly. Therefore we thank Overbrook School give us this chance to learn. And we will study hard for the rest of the workshop.

Randy Weisser, Director, Resources for the Blind, Inc., Manila, Philippines

I just talked with Lorrie about their course, and also looked thru some of the material. You should know that this is exactly the kind of training that we have been wanting to have for many years now. A lot of the theory behind effective tactile graphics was covered, which is what we really were lacking. Being able to decide what to render, and how to effectively render the information in tactile form will definitely be of great help to us.

Lorrie is very eager to echo this to all of our Braille production staff here in Manila, Cebu and Davao. Plus, we are planning to invite someone from Naas’s group, and also from the Philippine Printing House for the Blind, which is under the Dept of Education, and running the course. Thanks again for the very big help that has been to our Braille production team.

The International Program at Overbrook continues its work and travels to China!

Having finished tactile graphics workshop in Bangkok for our South East Asia Project (ON-NET) last week, Overbrook International Program is busy doing a couple of activities in China this week. First, Ms. Judy van Naerssen, our Therapy and O&M Services Department Coordinator, is in Beijing doing a mini workshop on how to properly use the low vision training materials we’ve provided to our project partners in the past. Ten teachers from six different schools are participating in this workshop for 1 ½ days and it is held at Beijing School for the Blind who provided accommodation and meal for this activities. While Judy is busy in Beijing, teachers from eight different Schools for the Blind came to Guangzhou to participate in the 6th of OCI’s (Overbrook China Initiative) workshop. Guangzhou School for the Blind is the hosting school and a total of 26 participants including teachers from the hosting school are attending this workshop. This is a week-long workshop with the focus on the following two areas:

How to design and produce tactile graphics that will enhance students’ learning. This was identified as being an area of great need.

How to carry out proper assessment; collect and analyze data; properly use the result. This is a follow-up activity to our 4th workshop done in May 2008.

Mr. Yan Zhang who was our instructor for the ON-NET workshop also serves as instructor for the tactile graphics portion and Ms. van Naerssen is the instructor for the assessment portion. We have an advantage this time since Mr. Zhang is a native speaker of Chinese and participants can communicate with instructor directly.

On-Net’s workshop continued with the reinforcement of the first day’s contents through analyzing graphs plus additional information on tactile graphics production methods and hands-on activities. Every one was attentive and engaged in the activities.

Below are voices from our participants:

Ms. Lorrie Barboza, supervisor of Braille production of Resources for the Blind (RBI) in the Philippines:“The tactile graphics workshop is very informative. By learning the techniques and analyzing all the necessary information, we can produce good tactile materials which will help the blind to understand the images. Simplicity is the key. As a transcriber, we should be reminded that the material is for the blind not for the sighted. One more important thing is the Braille readers to be literate in reading the graphics. Thank you very much for selecting us to be one of the participants.”

Ms. Jittiporn Surahit, technician from Christian Foundation for the Blind: “This workshop has taught us the basic of producing tactile graphic and learned in a more complicated level. At present, CFBT produces Braille textbooks and more on giving explanations in texts rather than producing tactile graphics and we produce tactile graphics for Math and Science subjects. The instructor taught us about producing a standard tactile graphic on an international level which made us able to adapt with what we are currently working which made us able to produce suitable tactile graphic to certain academic level of the students. We learned how to make plans, selecting to suitable material, suitable formatting before production which made us able to have a quality and suitable tactile for our visually impaired students.”