Reading -Braille, Audio, or Large Print?

Students with vision loss actually have several options for accessing print material in the classroom.  What they use depends on their skills, vision, and preferences.

Large Print

• Large print should be limited to 28 point or smaller font.  If a learner needs print larger than 28 point he or she will struggle to read more than a sentence or two on each page and would be better off using another means of accessing text.
• Use plain fonts without serifs, such as Arial or Tahoma.  
• Do not use bold face.



 CCTV

• You may want to experiment with light colored paper or colored filters to reduce eye strain.
• Large print should not be made with a photocopier, which will create large but blurry letters that will be hard to see.
• Large print should be created by typing or scanning text into a word processing program and then increasing the font size.
• If you're hoping to purchase large print materials, keep in mind that standard sizes are 16-20 point font (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-print).

More on creating large print.

Magnification

• Magnifiers come in many shapes, sizes, materials, and price ranges.   Here's a small sampling from IndependentLiving.com.
• Many schools or school districts have access to CCTVs.  These are large magnifiers that project the text onto a screen and allow students to zoom in and out. A CCTV reduces teacher time spent creating special materials but if a learner does not have one at home, he or she may not be able to study outside of class.

Braille

Embosser

• Almost anything that can be typed into a word processing program can be converted to Braille with the help of a special software program and a larger printer-like machine, called an embosser.
• Some programs create their own braille documents on site, while others rely on third party services like document services at State Services for the Blind in Minnesota.  Students who are clients of State Services can request books and other documents be translated into Braille for free.  The wait time, however, can be several months, so plan ahead!

Audio
Audio is increasingly the preferred method for accessing text.  Blind high school and college students can listen to their textbooks with an mp3 player or listen to readings using a screen reading program on their computer.  Some people also rely on classmates, family members, and paid readers to read some texts aloud.

• Listening to Braille -a recent and controversial article in the New York Times Magazine about the decline of braille and the rise of audio "literacy."
• Download a demo of JAWS Screen Reader -This demo version does everything that the regular version does but shuts off after 40 minutes of use.  If you restart your machine, it will work for another 40 minutes.