Questions from Issues Regarding the Assessment of Vision Loss

in Regard to Sign Language, Fingerspelling, Speechreading, and

Cued Speech for the Student with Deafblindness

The article from which these questions are derived may be found on the Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired website at Your team should review the article and then determine which team members will complete the questionnaire.

Child’s etiology:
Communication system or methodology being used or considered for use with the child

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Appendix F - Developed by ESC Region 12 Deafblind Stakeholder Committee

in collaboration with the Texas Deafblind Project ,2002.

American Sign Language (ASL)

Signing Exact English (S.E.E. signs)

Fingerspelling:

Total Communication (TC)

Speechreading

Cued Speech

Other approach: ______

______

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Appendix F - Developed by ESC Region 12 Deafblind Stakeholder Committee

in collaboration with the Texas Deafblind Project ,2002.

Places/situations where the child is being observed
Information gathered from team interview that is critical to assessment:
Concern or information / Validated by observation? / Possible strategy
to address need

ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS AND POSSIBLE ADAPTATIONS

1) What is the best space, placement, and distance of communication forms for the child related to his visual fields?
Notes:

Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Present signs consistently in the same quadrant, at the same distance and within a precise signing space.

Reduce signing space. (e.g., The sign "country" could be signed between the wrist and the elbow rather than at the elbow.) This may be helpful to students with field losses because it moves the sign into their visual field.

Fingerspell (rather than sign) some words if the movement of the sign takes it out of the child’s field of vision (e.g., "Russia" which is signed by placing the hands on the hips).

Substitute a sign that requires a smaller signing space as long as the meaning is not changed.

Alter the signing or speaking distance (based on the type of field loss) between you and the deafblind person.

Consider the use of low vision aids to increase the amount of information the child is receiving (e.g., expanded field telescopes).

Allow the child to turn his head to use eccentric viewing positions if needed.

Use tactual signing or (tactual) tracking in some situations.

Position oral interpreter or speaker so the student can easily see within his/her field of vision.

Other

2) What is the best rate and distance of communication forms for the child related to his acuity?
Notes:

Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Vary the rate of signing, fingerspelling, speech or cues according to the situation such as when the information is complex or novel (however, always keep your signing pace predictable).

Work individually with the child to improve his comprehension of signs, fingerspelling, speechreading, and cued speech through receptive drills.

Make specific determinations about the best receptive distance for him in a variety of situations.

Use tactual signing and/or fingerspelling when necessary (see tactual signing question).

Consider the use of low vision aids to increase the amount of information the child is receiving (e.g., a monocular distance aid).

Consider the use of additional staff if the distance and rate differs significantly from that required by the other students in the class.

Other

3) Can the student visually discern movements that give meaning to the signs?
Notes:

Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Providing this information in some other form. For example, instead of relying on your facial expression use additional manual signs or words to convey the emotion (e.g., sign or say "suspicious" as well as narrowing your eyes).

Teach that feelings are expressed through body language. The child with a vision impairment may be unaware of this information.

Try exaggerating non-manual signals slightly in order to convey them.

Other

4) Does lighting affect a student’s ability to visually access information?

Notes:

Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Have the child shift to tactual signing. For example, when the lights are dimmed for a video tape, a child with peripheral field loss may need this support.

Use area lighting. Lamps or overhead spotlighting on the person communicating can be very helpful. Position the light so that shadows don’t fall on the signer’s or speaker’s hands or face (cross-lighting is best).

Use visors, hats, and sunglasses to reduce glare. For students with Usher Syndrome or other visual conditions, glare is a big obstacle.

The person signing or speaking should not stand with their back toward a light source (e.g., standing in front of a window).

Information from overhead transparencies should be provided in another form.

Other

5) Does the visual background affect the child’s comprehension?

Notes:

Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Dressing in contrasting, solid colors to make signs easier for the child to discriminate. If the teacher’s wardrobe does not contain many solid colors, they might consider wearing a smock.

Selecting the best color to improve background contrast. (e.g., Some children may be able to see better with purple as the background color rather than black.)

Other

6) Can a student follow signed conversations in group settings?
Notes:
Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Consider the use of additional staff to assist in informational access when the child is included in group activities.

Point to the person who will sign or speak next, and allow the child time to visually locate them.

Other

7) Would the student benefit from supplemental experience work to assist in understanding the concepts behind the signs or spoken word?

Notes:

Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Provide supplemental experience work to build his overall conceptual base.

Allow the child to go through the demonstration individually before he participates in the demonstration with the group.

8) Is the child's vision such that he would benefit from the technique of coactive signing when learning new signs or speech cues?

Notes:

9) Does the child initiate or benefit from (hand) tracking?

Notes:

10) Does the child initiate or benefit from tactual signing?

Notes:

11) Does the student need additional environmental information provided to him?

Notes:

12) If a student will benefit from braille, are there English acquisition issues associated with students who are deaf or hard of hearing that should be addressed?

Notes:

Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Modify the language level to match the child’s ability to read and understand English.

Generate stories and text based on the child’s actual experiences or interests will help them understand the English represented by the braille.

The ability to fingerspell has been useful in supporting the learning of the braille alphabet.

Other

13) Are there instructional strategies, materials, and tools typically used with students who are deaf or hard of hearing that may present problems for the students with deafblindness?

Notes:

Problem areas:

Pointing, facial expressions, gestures, demonstrations, and modeling. These methods require shifting gaze from signs to some other reference.

Pictures of signs/fingerspelling used to teach signs or of faces to teach cues and speechreading. If these are used it is important to determine the best presentation: color or black line drawings, high contrast, figure-ground clarification, perspective, etc.

When working on the floor, teachers frequently place pictures or objects on the floor and then sign at chest level or speak. Visual demands are being presented in two places and at two distances requiring gaze shifting and refocusing.

Holding two pictures or objects side by side and bobbing them up and down in a modification of the sign for "which". The child with a vision loss is faced with the problem of trying to interpret moving pictures.

Captioning. Subtitles are displayed on a screen so that a person who is deaf or hard of hearing can follow the sound track of a program. The size of print (the subtitles are about one half inch high on a nineteen inch screen) and rate of presentation may be problems for a student with a vision problem. There are versions of decoders that produce the information in braille.

Computer aided real time (CART). Students with vision problems may have difficulties with the size of print and rate of presentation.

TDD (telecommunications device for the deaf). May need adaptations to the keyboard such as larger and/or higher contrast labeling of the keys. Specially modified TDDs that come with an external large visual display are available. A Braille output telecommunications device may be appropriate if the student is a braille user.

Alerting devices utilizing light or visual displays may need to be replaced with devices that are vibrotactile.

Other

14) Are there modifications to standard interpreting arrangements or signed classroom instruction that need to be addressed?

Notes:

Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Platform interpreting. The interpreter is positioned near the speaker. Make sure they are not too close or too far away from the student with deafblindness.

Small group interpreting. The interpreter sits within two or three feet of a small group of students. This is an adaptation provided for those whose vision prohibits them from seeing a platform interpreter.

Close vision (1 on 1) interpreting. This is an adaptation provided for those whose vision prohibits them from using small group interpreter or platform interpreter.

Visual descriptions. When interpreting for a person who is deafblind (or conversing with him), the interpreter includes descriptions of what he can’t see or hear.

Tactual Interpreting (see question #11 )

Feedback Interpreting. Used in situations where a deafblind presenter needs to know what is happening in the audience e.g. laughter, questions, remarks.

Oral Interpreting. Used by speechreaders, the interpreter mouths the words that are being said by the speaker at a distance where the deaf/hearing impaired person can read his/her lips.

Other

15) Does the student have skills to advocate for the modifications he needs?

Notes:

Suggested adaptations, accommodations, and modifications:

Work individually with the child to teach him to tell you what adjustments he needs.

Other

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Appendix F - Developed by ESC Region 12 Deafblind Stakeholder Committee

in collaboration with the Texas Deafblind Project ,2002.