At some point in their career, many teachers are approached by a blind student who wishes to learn an ancient language. In the past, many of these students have been turned away because accessible teaching materials were unavailable or not widely known.
It is, however, quite possible to teach blind students alongside their sighted peers, and this guide will show you how to do so with little extra effort or friction.
As a bonus, adopting the practices outlined here will create collateral benefits for all students in your classroom, blind or not.
Basics
How will a blind student access materials?
Blind students will generally access materials through some combination of audio,, braille, and other tactile modalities.
It is not ideal for students to try to learn ancient languages using audio alone, because they will need braille to learn orthography and morphology.
What technology will a blind student use?
Braille and audio can be produced and accessed on a variety of devices, and students in different contexts may have access to some combination of the below:
- Computer
- Mobile device
- Refreshable braille display
- Braille embosser
- Braille slate and stylus
A computer or mobile device will be necessary to access digital texts, resources, and assignments. With software called a screen reader, these devices can translate text input into nonvisual forms, in particular synthesized speech and braille.
A refreshable braille display connects to a computer or mobile device and translates text on screen to braille. Displays usually contain a single line of cells with pins that move up and down dynamically to create changeable text.
A braille embosser is the braille equivalent of a computer printer. It can produce hard-copy (paper) braille in large quantities. Most students will not have their own embosser, but they can be found in many university disability offices. Be sure to request materials in advance, as disability offices often experience high demand for embossed materials.
The slate and stylus are tools for writing braille without a computer or mobile device. Students can use them for notetaking or personal review,.
What do I need to keep in mind as the instructor?
As the instructor, you should strive to make all of your textbooks, handouts, and assignments easily translatable into braille. This is not as onerous as it sounds.
It does mean that you should not rely on photocopies or scanned PDFs made from old handouts. While the text on scanned PDFs can be recognized with OCR, the results are not reliably accurate. It is better to type them manually into a word processor or copy and paste from an accurate digital source.
For tests and quizzes, you can choose to send your student a file that they can read and complete using their computer and braille display, or you can emboss a hard copy and hand it out to them in class.
Some things are not your responsibility:
Braile transcription and formatting: if your student is going to use a hard-copy braille textbook, etc., it will need to be formatted for embossing by a professional transcriber. As long as you provide an accessible digital file, this should be handled by your university’s disability services office.
Tactile graphics: Some materials are inherently visual or spatial (i.e., script charts, maps, manuscripts) and should be represented using tactile graphics. These can be produced by a disability services office or professional provider.
With these tools, it should bee easy to fully include blind and visually impaired students in the ancient language classroom. Please feel free to get in touch with further questions or ideas!