Easily Readable Braille Pattern for Reading Beginners and Variable Size Braille Printing System

Braille as a means of communication for children and persons with visual impairment plays an important role in supporting their social independence. However, learning Braille is very difficult, and many persons with adventitious visual impairment who are not conversant with Braille are unable to read Braille. One likely reason behind this is that the common Braille pattern is not necessarily easy for Braille reading beginners such as persons with adventitious visual impairment. Consequently, it is necessary to quantitatively evaluate the readability of Braille patterns for Braille reading beginners and incorporate such findings in Braille design. Moreover, suitable Braille printers are also required to precisely reproduce easily readable Braille patterns. This chapter describes experiments to evaluate the effect of paper-based Braille on Braille pattern readability and introduces a variable size Braille printing system for printing Braille patterns from the experiments to be easily readable by Braille reading beginners unfamiliar with Braille reading.

Visual Gesture-Based Character Recognition Systems for Design of Assistive Technologies for People With Special Necessities

In the present scenario, around 15% of the world's population experience some form of disability. So, there has been an enormous increase in the demand for assistive techniques for overcoming the restraints faced by people with physical impairments. More recently, gesture-based character recognition (GBCR) has emerged as an assistive tool of immense importance, especially for facilitating the needs of persons with special necessities. Such GBCR systems serve as a powerful mediator for communication among people having hearing and speech impairments. They can also serve as a rehabilitative aid for people with motor disabilities who cannot write with pen on paper, or face difficulty in using common human-machine interactive (HMI) devices. This chapter provides a glimpse of disability prevalence around the globe and particularly in India, emphasizes the importance of learning-based GBCR systems in practical education of differently-abled children, and highlights the novel research contributions made in this field.

Practical Examples of Using Switch-Adapted and Battery-Powered Technology to Benefit Persons With Disabilities

Handmade switch-adapted toys and LED lights were created by a first grader student as part of a makerspace activity to aid a person with disabilities. Commercial toys and light strings were adapted for ease of use by interrupting the electrical current by use of a handmade battery interrupter and the addition of remote switches. In addition, an illuminated glove was created using conductive thread, LED lights, and an Arduino LilyTiny controller to enable the person with disabilities to signal turns on a disability scooter using hand signs. Basic information on the creation of these materials and their possible use are presented in this chapter.

Original Teaching Materials and School Activities for Students With an Intellectual Disability

Most of the present authors, the teachers at the School for the Mentally Challenged at Otsuka, University of Tsukuba, have been creating original teaching aids and materials using low-tech and high-tech methods. Original teaching aids created with woodworking and metalworking are usually used for students with an intellectual disability. The original teaching materials with Grid Onput dot code, which could link multimedia, such as audio, movies, web pages, html files, and PowerPoint files were created in collaboration with one of the present authors, Professor Shigeru Ikuta, who organized a large research project, and Gridmark Inc. that developed Grid Onput dot code. The present authors have recently developed a new software program, SmileNote, to help students create presentation slides in expressing their feelings, will, and desires to classmates, teachers, and parents. Basic information on these materials and their use in schools is presented in this chapter.

Production Method of Readable Tactile Map With Vocal Guidance Function for the Visually Impaired

Braille/tactile maps are one of the most traditional tools that guarantee information accessibility for children and people with visual impairment. Silk screen printing method, which is employed as one of the traditional production methods of producing Braille/tactile maps, are becoming more and more popular. However, the printing quality requires further improvements. On the other hand, when using a tactile map, it is not easy for visually impaired persons to acquire spatial information based on only tactile sense. Therefore, a convenient technology that allows the acquisition of tactile map information with voice in addition to tactile sense is desired. Thus, in this chapter, an original production method of tactile maps for public facilities that has high readability and voice technology to guarantee information accessibility is introduced. And a production method for tactile maps of public facilities with vocal guidance function to improve the readability of Braille/tactile map is mentioned based on a trial example.

Strategies for Teaching Math to Middle and High School Students With Special Needs

This chapter is designed to inform and educate 6th- through 12th-grade teachers on how to provide math activities for students with an identified learning disability as defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The chapter provides an introduction to the topic, background information on teaching math at the secondary level, research-based instructional strategies that can be used for teaching math to students with identified special needs, and specific manipulatives that can be created and utilized to teach the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics to this population. Additional resources and readings are included as well.

Hands-On Activities to Keep Students With Disabilities Engaged in K-12 Classrooms

The central aim of this chapter is to identify the best practices in hands-on activities to keep students with disabilities engaged in K-12 classrooms. With diversity being a key component in today's classroom, teachers struggle in devising strategies to keep students with disabilities stay engaged. Improving student's learning by keeping them engaged is vital for our nation's competitiveness. Studies have shown the role of hands-on activities in improving engagement of students with disabilities. This chapter will define student engagement and will highlight some of the causes of student disengagement in classroom, relationship between hands-on activities and student engagement, need of hands-on activities/project-based learning in 21st century classrooms, creative ways to implement hands-on activities, connecting hands-on activities with the real-world situations, creating hands-on activities for students with disabilities in self-contained and inclusion classrooms, and matching students' interest and learning styles when developing hands-on activities.

Development of Teaching Materials to Support Learning of Children With Cerebral Palsy in the Japanese Curriculum

In addition to bodily dysfunction, about 30 to 50 percent of children with cerebral palsy have various problems in terms of sight and cognitive aspects. For example, sentences that they speak or write are redundant and cannot be summarized. Finding a coherent word or sentence is sometimes difficult for them. It is also difficult to draw a solid on a plane; to recognize the ground from the figure; to capture things while maintaining objective and panoramic viewpoints; to think on the other side. Causes for these difficulties have not yet been elucidated. Teachers are working on effective teaching methods and materials and development for these children's phenomena every day. This study summarizes the practical examples of the teaching materials developed at the school site in Japan and their effects and usefulness.

Original Teaching Materials and School Activities With Multimedia-Enabled Dot Codes

Original teaching materials with dot codes, which can be linked to multimedia such as audio, movies, web pages, html files, and PowerPoint files, were created for use with students with disabilities. Hand-crafted original teaching materials can easily be created by the users themselves—for example, by schoolteachers—with newly developed and easy-to-handle software. A maximum of four multimedia files can be linked to each Post-It sticker icon and/or dot codes overlaid with a specially-designed software (GM Authoring Tool), and such multimedia files are replayed with a specially-designed sound pen (G-Speak) and scanner pen (G-Pen Blue) with Bluetooth functionality just by using the pen to touch the Post-It sticker icon and/or the dot codes on the printed document. Many activities using dot code materials have been successfully conducted, especially at special needs schools. Basic information on the creation of these materials—and on their use in schools—is presented in this chapter.

Diversity, Disability, and Addressing the Varied Needs of Learners

This chapter presents a thorough examination of international and U.S. legal and educational foundations which justify instructional variation and diversification for all students, particularly for those with disabilities. With the exploration of various instructional frameworks, objective setting, methods and strategies, materials, and outcomes assessment, the reader develops an understanding of instructional diversification and why it is important for students with and without disabilities. The diverse educational approaches of differentiated instruction, multi-sensory instruction, Bloom's taxonomy of learning, understanding by design, and universal design for learning are presented and explained.