Agenda for Low Incidence Institute

Monday, August 3

Digging In: More Tools for Accessible Instructional Materials with a Focus on Students with Visual Impairments (to be continued Tuesday through Friday)
8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 8:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Friday, Act 48 and/or ACVREP: 30 hours; ASHA: 3.0 CEUs

This five-day, project-oriented training will provide participants with the opportunity to select, create, and use software and hardware for producing accessible instructional materials. Activities will focus on making good decisions for production of daily classroom materials, such as teacher-prepared documents, workbooks, tests, graphics, and information from the Web. Strategies will be provided for teaching students to more independently demonstrate active learning, thus enhancing student achievement.

Outcomes

  • Create a master document using Microsoft Word® 2007
  • Prepare DAISY files
  • Utilize DAISY files with hardware and software players
  • Produce braille using DBT (Duxbury Braille Translator)
  • Examine provision of alternate methods of braille delivery
  • Produce electronic enlarged print
  • Create appropriate tactile graphics using a variety of production techniques and equipment
  • Compare and contrast strategies for students to demonstrate active learning

Susan Christensen is an independent contractor with a background as a certified transcriber. She provides training on braille translation software and technical assistance to the braille translation software producers. Susan has designed and maintains Duxbury BANA templates for Word and DBT Win. She serves on national and international committees such as the Formats committee for the Braille Authority of North America.

Lucia Hasty is a former teacher of students with special needs, including students with blindness/visual impairment, and learning and cognitive disabilities. She is past director of the Colorado Instructional Materials Center for the Visually Handicapped. As chair of the Tactile Graphics Technical Committee for Braille Authority of North America (BANA), she is one of the authors of the upcoming BANA code for tactile graphics. As an independent contractor she provides training in design and production of tactile graphics, and teaching learners to read tactile graphics.

Brenda Loughrey is an access technology consultant, preparing for certification as a teacher of students with visual impairment. She has developed and conducted training programs on a variety of adaptive products for end users and Pennsylvania teachers of students with visual impairment for educational clients including PaTTAN. She is an instructor for the technology course through the Vision Studies program at the University of Pittsburgh, and has also developed an online and synchronous course, Preparing Accessible Instructional Materials for Students with Print Impairments for the AIM Consortium.

 

Modifying Schoolwork: Teaching and Learning Together in Inclusive Schools
8:45 a.m.–4:15 p.m., Act 48 and/or ACVREP: 6 hours; ASHA: 0.6 CEU, Psych: 6.5 CE hours

This session will address proven, practical methods and strategies for use by teams of general and special educators who share responsibility for educating students with and without disabilities in inclusive classrooms. The seminar is designed to broadly address elementary, middle, and high school students who need modified or alternate curriculum goals and extensive supports for school success.

Outcomes

  • Describe flexible, accommodating teaching practices that make the general education classroom suitable for students with a wide range of abilities and learning needs
  • Explain a process for problem solving and making decisions about modifying instructional activities for individual students
  • Give concrete examples of planning forms, teaching approaches, and classroom materials that have been developed by teachers in inclusive classrooms

Rachel E. Janney, Ph.D., has worked with and on behalf of children and adults with disabilities in a number of capacities, including special education teacher, educational and behavioral consultant, teacher educator, researcher, and author. With co-author Marti Snell, Rachel has written the Teachers' Guides to Inclusive Practices series, whose four volumes provide teachers with proven, practical strategies and approaches for educating students with disabilities alongside their peers without disabilities. She is an independent consultant who provides professional development training to schools in the topic areas addressed by the Teachers' Guides series, including modifying schoolwork, peer relationships, behavioral support, and collaborative teaming. She also works directly with individual students who have complex learning and behavioral needs.

 

The BrainSTARS Model of Consultation for Students Who Have Acquired Brain Injury
1:00–4:15 p.m., Act 48 and/or ACVREP: 3 hours; ASHA: 0.3 CEU, Psych: 3.25 CE hours

Perhaps the student you are concerned about had a brain injury many years ago, and you wonder if his or her learning problems may be connected with it. Maybe a student’s accident happened recently, and you are looking for guidance and practical suggestions as he or she recovers and adjusts. The BrainSTARS (Strategies for Teams And Re-education for Students) program, developed in Colorado, is a unique, EASY-to-use neurodevelopmental educational tool that is completely hands-on and appropriate for both school and home in cases of traumatic brain injury. The program helps facilitate school-based teams to aid in the formation of best practices for use with student functioning following brain injury. Brain STEPS (Brain Injury School Re-Entry) team members across Pennsylvania use the BrainSTARS manual when consulting with brain-injured students. Join us in exploring the potential this can have in the facilitation of teaming at your school.

Outcomes

  • Examine the values of the BrainSTARS Consultation program
  • Describe the procedures required to effectively implement the BrainSTARS Consultation program

Jeanne E. Dise-Lewis, Ph.D., is a child clinical psychologist and the director of the psychology programs in rehabilitation medicine at The Children's Hospital, Denver, and an associate professor of rehabilitation medicine and psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.