Organizational Resources

Links

Industry Organizations

• American Printing House for the Blind
  This site has classroom aids and appliances, textbooks, and books on techniques for making tests and assessments more accurate and fair for blind and visually impaired persons.
• American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) Learning Circuits, Accessibility: What You Should Know
• Blue Web'n
  Blue Web'n is a searchable database of about 1000 outstanding Internet learning sites categorized by subject area, audience, and type (lessons, activities, projects, resources, references and tools). Blue Web'n focuses on evaluating only the most useful sites with online activities targeted at learners.
• Bookshare
  This site offers electronic texts of over 7,500 books to readers with a visual or reading disability by using an exemption in copyright law that allows people with impairments to share electronic copies of texts without purchasing them or obtaining permission. Users of the site must send in a disability form approved by a medical professional, pay a $25 sign-up fee, and a $50 annual subscription fee. The electronic texts are particularly useful to blind users who can feed the texts into text-to-speech software.
• LD Online
  This site has information on teaching organizational skills, study skills, note taking, and more for different age groups of students with disabilities.
• National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM)
  This site is dedicated to making media accessible to all.
• Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
  You can look up whether textbooks, professional books and some pleasure books used in schools are available on tape or CD. For a minimal fee schools can become members and order books for blind, visually impaired, print handicapped (including those who cannot physically turn pages), and most persons with Learning Disabilities. The books are borrowed and free.
• WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind)
  A partnership between industry and higher education to research and develop accessible web authoring tools as well as provide training, technical assistance, and dissemination of information about web accessibility for people with disabilities.
• WGBH
  This site includes design guidelines for making educational software accessible, including math and science solutions.
• Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative
  This site is supported by the Wisconsin State Department of Education. Many free resources on assistive technology consideration and assessment are available.
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative
  W3C is commited to leading the Web to its full potential for promoting a high degree of usability for people with disabilities, with more extensive technical standards than Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
• Joy Zabala’s AT website
  This site has information on the SETT AT Framework for matching technology to individualized student needs.

Associations

• American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
  • http://www.afb.org/education.asp
    This page contains links to information about accessible textbooks and curriculum needs for students who are blind or visually impaired.
  • http://www.afb.org/literacy.asp
    This page contains information for parents and teachers on learning and teaching Braille, as well as E-book information, including its significance for the blind and visually impaired.
  • http://www.afb.org/braillebug
    This is a site where teachers can obtain units to teach children who are not disabled about Braille. Students can log on and type in their names and see what it would look like in Braille. Also, there are games and book reading clubs where blind and sighted children can read and discuss the books together.
  • http://www.afb.org/store/default.asp
    This site provides resources you can purchase, such as books about having a blind child in a classroom, a blind child with multiple disabilities, and more. Experienced professionals offer ways to teach and/or alter curriculum or teaching styles to include blind children. There is also a tactical series on art entitled Beyond Art, which gives blind and sighted a good review on styles and features of art.
  • http://www.afb.org/careerconnect.asp
    This page has transition information, such as a skills assessment. Also, a mentoring program is described that connects blind students with professional adults working in the chosen fields.
  • http://www.afb.org/journals.asp
    This site contains two journals: Access World - an online technology magazine with articles and reviews of technology; and Journal for Visually Impaired and Blind - a peer-reviewed journal with cutting-edge technology, best practices, and innovative techniques for teaching blind and visually impaired persons.
  • http://www.afb.org/services.asp
    This is a directory of services by state or category listing organizations that provide services to blind and visually impaired individuals in the United States and Canada.
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
• Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
• National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) Research Institute for Assistive and Training Technologies
• National Education Association (NEA)