Lisa’s California scholarship trip

Second day at #GITWL2025 conference in Huntsville, AL. Another full day consisting of the following sessions: Session 1: Keynote speaker talking about access and how providing access gives a sense of belonging, when barriers are lifted and things are accessible. Session 2: Poster sessions: Changing the dynamics of instruction training the parents and paraprofessionals; one byte at a time; Supporting Educators who Teach and Empower Children with Vision Loss  Session 3: Building typing skills with Typio, Typio Pro and Braillio Session 4: Connecting the dots between Notetakers and braille displays.

First day of #GITWL2025 was great after the opening general session at 8.30am, we had a full day of workshops, mine comprised of the following: 10.00-11.00 round table discussion with four tables, table 1: supporting dual language development in students with VI: A systematic review; table 2: Harnessing AI to enhance braille instruction for students with VI; table 3: Breaking barriers music literacy for every learner; table 4: Promoting braille literacy in the classroom simple strategies and adaptations 11.15-12.15 Enabling people who are blind and vision impaired to independently access auditory and tactile graphics demonstration of Tactonom Reader Flex.   1.45-2.45 From Assessment to Action: Integrating functional vision, learning media, technology and ECC 3.15-4.15 Creating interactive and engaging literacy lessons for students with multiple disabilities and complex needs 4.30-5.30 Getting in touch with accessible coding: Finch 2.0, LEGO spike, and Blocks4all in K-12 computer sc...

Arrived and registered for conference  #GITWL2025 and managed to see the end of Blessing Offer’s keynote speech and performance with students from Alabama school for the blind. I also managed to briefly meet with my contact Ting Sui from the CATT Program at Washington School for the Blind. Full day tomorrow booked, excited to meet colleagues in the US and attend the presentations. Stay tuned for updates tomorrow with any new and exciting technology or other updates.

These past two days I have been working online for meetings and observations before heading off to the Getting in Touch with Literacy Conference in Huntsville, Alabama.

 today I visited Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco. I had a tour of the building they have great facilities for reprographics, teaching O&M skills and cooking skills for adults (18 and over). I also got the opportunity to speak to the Low Vision Clinic residencies and doctors and also to Fernando the Assistive Tech Manager where we tried out different ways of producing graphics and documents using AI. Also fascinated to learn voiceover changes voice accents and languages depending on the text (the example was English with Spanish words). Lots of apps recommended for me to try out. Thanks to Crystal for facilitating my visit. View of city hall from one of the meeting rooms An area dedicated to Sirlin who donated $125 million to Light House Tactile BART map Tactile evacuation plan The MAD lab Main entrance to Light House on Market St

Outside the entrance to CSB High contrast signage for Low Vision students CSB tactile map My schedule for the day Tactile globe Some or the art equipment especially shape cutter More art cutters Tactile art created by students One of the CCTV’s which has a camera at the back (so it’s discrete) Magnifier with light Handy ‘fold away’ monocular Variety of tactile maps Well what a day I had a CSB. Sarah Blair the Principal organised a full day for me which gave me an opportunity to observe and participate in lessons. I observed a braille literacy lesson, then a careers session (where I was asked questions by the post 16 students) followed by a music and art lesson, assistive technology lab, low vision clinic then a tour of the building - a jam packed day! I was made to feel extremely welcome by staff and students and again noted how the US and UK use similar approaches in their VI instruction, we’re using the same technology and pedagogy is at the heart of what we do. I thoroughly enjoyed ...