Online Opportunities

American Foundation for the Blind

Offers a family of websites which include webcasts and a variety of tools for educators, families and students.

  • AFB Website
  • FamilyConnect® offers a virtual lifeline to parents of children with visual impairments. We provide information and resources, and host an online community where families find support, comfort and help.
  • CareerConnect® helps students exploring careers, job seekers investigating work options, employers planning to diversify their workforce, professionals working with visually impaired people, and friends or family members assisting someone who is blind or has low vision.
  • Braille Bug® introduces children to the magic of braille through games, secret messages, and other fun activities.

American Printing House for the Blind

  • APH Website
  • Braille Literacy Webcast Series 2012
    • Overview: Learning About Braille Literacy
    • Emergent Braille Literacy
  • Webcast Training Series
    • Tactile Graphics Webcast: Braille Transcriber and Teacher Training 2011
    • Sense of Science Series
    • The Digital Light Box Artwork
  • Product Training
    • APH PC Maps tutorials
    • Mathbuilders
    • Address: Earth
    • Refreshabraille 18
    • Turbo Phonics
    • Book Port Plus
    • Azer's Periodic Table
    • Tactile Graphics
    • APH Slates
    • NIMAC

BRL: Braille Through Remote Learning

BRL is an online instructional program that provides three online courses in Braille and braille transcribing. Currently, the materials and exercises are available free, but there is no instructor to provide feedback, grade assignments or answer questions.

CADRE

CADRE is the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education. CADRE, the National Center on Dispute Resolution, encourages the use of mediation and other collaborative strategies to resolve disagreements about special education and early intervention programs. "Working Together" is a collection of CADRE resources designed to support effective collaboration between parents, schools, and early childhood programs.

Callier-Azusa

Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning

This site offers parent training modules which provide information for families on promoting children’s social and emotional skills, understanding their problem behaviors, and using positive approaches to help them learn appropriate behaviors.

Communication Matrix

Communication Assessment for Parents & Professionals An easy to use online assessment instrument designed for individuals of all ages who function at the earliest stages of communication and who use any form of communication. (free)

Cornell University

There are seven courses on person-centered planning, each of which provides an introduction, an activity, readings and resources and a quiz. Modules include:

  • Introduction to Person-Centered Planning
  • Community Membership: Opportunities for Meaningful Interaction
  • Self-Determination
  • Common threads between different person-centered tools
  • Series: Popular Person-Centered Tools (This includes PPCT, MAPS, Person Futures Planning,
  • PATH, and Circles of Support)
  • Organizational Change
  • Transition Planning

CVI Training Materials

This site includes a video of training on Overview and Characteristics of CVI and interviews with a neonatologist and a pediatric ophthalmologist. Watch a parent interview, read an article with tips for interviewing parents and access interview forms. View an assessment of a child and see the completed CVI Range. Also includes videos of training with slide presentations. Watch interviews of students with CVI, family members, and teacher of the visually impaired.

Eastern Carolina University

  • ECU Website

    The Fred's Head blog contains tips, techniques, tutorials, in-depth articles, and resources for and by blind or visually impaired people. Fred's Head is offered by the American Printing House for the Blind.

    Idaho Training Clearinghouse

    Topics include:

    • Early Communication for Children with Severe Disabilities
    • Getting Creative: Developing Hands-on Literacy Materials for Students with Severe Disabilities
    • Teaching Literacy Skills to Students with Severe Cognitive and Multiple Disabilities: Making It Accessible
    • Brain Development and Its Implications for Working with Children with Sensory Loss and Multiple Disabilities
    • Calendar Systems: Why Do We Use Them? How Do We Use Them?
    • How to Use Sensory Strategies to Improve Learning for Students with Severe Disabilities

    Indiana Deaf-Blind Services Project

    Training modules for teachers, parents and paraprofessionals working with students who are deafblind. Topics include:

    • Collaboration Achieves Success
    • Introduction to Learners with Deafblindness
    • Learners who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
    • Learners with Low Vision and/or Blindness
    • Person Centered Planning Module 1: Understanding the Process
    • Person Centered Planning Module 2: Using the Process to Achieve Better Student Outcomes

    IRIS Center for Training Enhancements

    • Accommodations to the Physical Environment: Setting up a Classroom for Students with Visual Disabilities. The resources in this module offer helpful tips on setting up the physical aspects of your classroom and will introduce types of equipment used by students with visual disabilities.
    • Bookshare: Providing Accessible Materials for Students with Print Disabilities. This module presents an overview of Bookshare, a project supported by the U.S. Department of Education and OSEP, which provide books in digitized formats to individuals who have print disabilities. On hand is information about how such students can access textbooks, other instructional materials, and text-reader software at no cost, as well as how teachers can use this information in their daily instructional planning.
    • Instructional Accommodations: Making the Learning Environment Accessible to Students with Visual Disabilities. This module highlights tips for modifying lessons and ways to make lessons accessible for students with disabilities.
    • Serving Students with Visual Impairments: The Importance of Collaboration. This module underscores the importance of the general education teacher's collaborating with professionals and other individuals knowledgeable about the needs of students with visual disabilities.

    Mini Module Series on Deafblindness

    Music For The Blind

    Courses for piano, guitar, bass and drums, sax, violin, flute, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, harmonica and more.

    National Braille Association

    “Ask An Expert” offers an opportunity for individuals to post questions to skilled experts in the field of braille transcription.

    National Consortium on Deafblindness

    DB 101 is designed to introduce you to children who are deafblind and consists of a series of brief tutorials which provide information about the nature of deafblindness, the impact of combined vision and hearing loss on communication and social interactions and the importance of individualized educational strategies and supports.

    National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH)

    Stares, Smirks & Shout-Outs: How to Deal with Negative Experiences in Public and Maintain Self-Esteem and Dignity in Difficult Situations (video)

    Paths to Literacy for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

    Perkins School for the Blind

    • PSB Website
      • Accessible Science
      • Adaptive Physical Education
      • Adapting Environments for Individuals with Vision Loss
      • Addressing Issues of Sexuality with Students Who Are Visually Impaired
      • CHARGE Syndrome:
      • Child-Guided Assessment
      • Communication Portfolios
      • Conversations (with students who are deafblind)
      • Cortical Visual Impairment
      • Creating Vocational Portfolios for Students with Significant Disabilities
      • Early Literacy for Students with Multiple Disabilities or Deafblindness
      • Families as Partners in the Educational Team
      • Good Sleep Strategies
      • Including Students with Albinism
      • Impact of Deafblindness on the Family
      • Independent Living Skills/Daily Living Skills
      • Love: Challenges of Raising a Child with Disabilities
      • Mealtime Skills
      • Non-Driving Strategies for Youth Who Are Visually Impaired
      • Parents As Ambassadors
      • Reflections on Deafblindness: Hands and Touch
      • School to Work: Developing Transition Portfolios for Students with Significant Disabilities
      • Smart Boards
      • Social Skills for Children and Youth with Visual Impairments
      • Tangible Symbols
      • Teaching Braille Reading and Writing
      • Teaching Tactile Graphics
      • Understanding Print and Magnification Size
      • Visual Impairment and Blindness
      • Wheelchair O&M
      • Writing: The Forgotten Focus for Literacy and Communication Instruction

    Perkins Scout

    An extensive searchable database of online resources covering all topics related to blindness and visual impairment – general information on blindness, help for families with relatives who are visually impaired, resources for educators and professionals, and much more.

    Tar Heel Reader

    A collection of free, easy-to-read and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Books can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces (switches, alternative keyboards, touch screens and AAC devices). Books may be downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress or Flash format. You may also write your own books using pictures from the huge collection at Flickr or pictures you upload.

    Tech Vision

    Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

    Introduction to Cortical/Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) is a web exercise (video and handouts) using Dr. Christine Roman-Lantzy's approach to CVI assessment as a guide. Use this web exercise as a stepping stone to get familiar with CVI assessment and intervention and hone observation skills.

    Video Clips of Blindness Tips

    • Experience Books
    • Hand Under Hand
    • Likes and Dislikes
    • Social Interactions with Peers
    • Resonance Board
    • Routine Based Learning
    • Space for Active Learning
    • Usher Syndrome

    WonderBaby

    Online parent community for activities, resources, free newsletter