According to the World Health Organisation there are 285 million visually impaired or blind people in the world and 90% of those live in developing countries. So what can we as teachers do to cater for the particular needs of these learners?A recent article in the Guardian focuses on Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese civil rights campaigner who is visually impaired. According to 40-year-old Chen Guangcheng, learning English is of utmost importance to his future work and will help him to make himself understood as a Chinese activist abroad. The article contains interviews with one of his teachers as well as advice from others who have direct experience of teaching languages to visually impaired learners.
Because so many modern language teaching methods depend on visual support, without specific special needs training in this area it can be difficult for teachers to know how to apply and adapt existing teaching methods to the requirements of a visually impaired learner. The ideas and experiences described in the article provide useful tips to help teachers who have blind or visually impaired learners in their classes. The article underlines the importance of preparation, needs assessment and use of technology as key to success.
Click on the link to read the Guardian article: Blindness no barrier in English language classroom when needs are shared.
This TeachingEnglish article provides further advice from a teacher in Malaysia: Teaching English to blind students
This article gives an extensive account of an Italian teacher's experience in a school for the visually impaired: Teaching English to Blind and Visually Impaired Pupils
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According to the World Health Organisation there are 285 million visually impaired or blind people in the world and 90% of those live in developing countries. I'm A Educator n head teacher of a village poor pupil's school in Bangladesh. Als
o as a Social worker, I've some experience to work for visually impaired poor people. Last two years I worked for Free Eye Cataract Surgery Campaign as Patient Coordinator and Interpreter of Doctor Surgeons who came from Vienna for Eye Cataract Surgery, which organized by Faridpur Welfare Foundation and Vienna Eye Care Partners. Dr Alex and Dr Ingrid with also local eye surgeons has been operated more than 250 people's (40 to 75 years aged poor people) cataracts and implant lenses successfully. But, which reality I observe their, there are more attention needs for removing cataract and stop visual impaired in developing country. When we announced for free eye cataract surgery there are more than 3000 people registered for their eye treatment from only a district city, Faridpur! It was Impossible to give treatments for all in schedule time and arrangement.WoW! THIS VERY LESSON OF TEACHING ENGLISH ( EDUCATORS ONLINE COURSE ON LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH) IS SURELY SUGGESTED ALL THE TEACHERS WORLD WIDE TO ENGAGE EXTRA ORDINARY INSPIRED WORK, TEACHING ENGLISH TO VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS N LEARNERS.... THANKS.
Colleagues might want to consider exploiting the Can't See Will Cook programmes from Radio 4 for students at intermediate level and above - see the R4 blog at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2012/10/cant_see_will_cook.html
...and here's a very useful bibliography:
http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/LangSEN/pdf/biblio_langsen2.pdf