VisionTech: A Framework for Innovative Programming
The VisionTech summer programs provide opportunities, for students who are blind or visually impaired, to access the curriculum through the use of assistive technologies.
The project has five components:
Each year, students in British Columbia have the opportunity to participate in VisionTech. To be eligible for VisionTech, the student must be:
There are two training strands to VisionTech. For young children who are blind, there is an emphasis on braille literacy, and the technologies that support, and promote braille in the curriculum. For intermediate and high school students who are blind or visually impaired, the goals are on word processing and Internet research skills.
A unique element of this project is a summer training module, developed in 1998 by SET-BC and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) BC-Yukon Division. The decision to move the training to summer was made because of the intensive teaching component required to master this technology, and because many students who are blind have significant academic requirements during the school year. Each year, the CNIB lends the use of their Bowen Island Lodge facility for eighteen days in the summer.
Participation in the summer program and any costs incurred by the students is the responsibility of their families, although charitable foundations, technology vendors, and individual school districts have all contributed to ensure that children who are blind can benefit regardless of economic status.
The feedback received on the implementation of the VisionTech Program has been very positive. Students, parents, and teachers have commented that the opportunity to participate in a competency based program without the pressures of academic performance allowed all participants to maximize the achievement of intended outcomes.
