TVI Video Transcript

>>Narrator: Juna Gjata is an accomplished young woman who has a severe visual impairment and now attends Harvard University. Teachers of students with visual impairments, often referred to as TVIs, play a critical role in supporting students' participation and achievement in the general curriculum as well as supporting the classroom teachers. Terry Maggiore, who is a TVI, worked with Juna at Boston Latin School through the critical middle and high school years when the academic pace is accelerated and issues of independence often arise. As we tell Juna's story, you will hear about her use of accessible instructional materials, or AIM, and her use of the different specialized formats with different technologies to deliver the content.

>>Terry: My role with Juna is basically to provide access to the curriculum for her.

>>Narrator: Terry's role in supporting Juna has changed over time. Her goal is to help Juna access the curriculum independently and know what tools would be best for her to use in various circumstances.

>>Terry: In the beginning of her time here at Boston Latin School, she was primarily using braille. But what we found is, we needed to be much more flexible. And also, as we were progressing through the grades, we wanted to make sure that when she'd left Boston Latin School that she was able to access the curriculum independently and knew all of the different tools that she could use.

>>Narrator: Juna explains how the role of the TVI has changed over time.

>>Juna: So when I was younger, my vision teacher would actually spend time teaching me how to use the notetakers that I was about to use before I actually used them in class, which was, you know, very helpful at the time, especially since, you know, I was, like, under ten, so everybody kind of spoon-feeds you everything. And then as I got older, I think the role of your vision teacher becomes to introduce you to new technology and then have you figure out how to do it yourself instead of actually teaching you how to do it. That's what my most recent vision teacher has been doing. She'll tell me that, "This technology might be good for this. We should try it out." And if I like it, we use it. If I don't, we don't. And I am the one who 1 is in charge of trying to figure out how to use it. And, of course, she's there if I have to ask her questions. But I think it's still, like, an important step in your independence to be able to just be given something that you know will be helpful but figure out how to use it yourself.

>>Narrator: In a natural and parallel fashion, the support provided by the paraprofessional has evolved over time.

>>Juna: And then as far as a paraprofessional, I've had one—the same one—since I was six. And she used to be in all my classes, which I thought was really annoying, because she is, like, the nicest person on the planet ever I've ever met in my life, but it's still kind of like having parent number two, like, in class with you. So I would ask for her not to have to come to class with me. So now she doesn't come to any of my classes with me. And, again, I think that's, like, kind of establishing your sense of independence, because nobody else has, like, a person with them all the time.

>>Narrator: Terry offers advice about the role of a TVI. She says students need to be working with multiple formats and building their independence as early as elementary school.

>>Terry: It can't wait ‘till high school to start to teach a kid to be independent, to teach them how to do things on their own, because by the time they get to high school, they don't have any more time for you, the TVI, to sit down and teach. Most of the time, your role becomes support for access to the curriculum, access to instructional materials. It's no longer teaching any new skills. It might be reviewing a skill or teaching a slight change in a skill, but your role is more access to instructional materials, making sure that they have a level playing field for their curriculum and also that they know how to communicate with their teachers on their own.

>>Narrator: Juna's support team has confidence that she will be an independent, self-determined learner in college.

>>Terry: We've been pulling away those supports. Little by little by little, we've been doing it kind of invisibly to her. And we know she's ready. We know she can access the curriculum. We know she will be able to do well on her own.

>>Narrator: The role of the TVI is not only to support the student but to also support and collaborate with the classroom teachers. 2 >>Terry: You know, the teachers want to have this student be successful. They'll make accommodations along the way, because they want to make every kid learn. You know, they just don't know how sometimes. A brand-new teacher might come up to me and say, "I don't know what to do. What do I do?" And I say, "Don't worry about it. "My job is not just to support Juna. "My job is to support you. "My job is to help you make the curriculum accessible and whatever materials you need..."

>>Narrator: Terry worked with the teachers to develop flexible accommodations that would work for Juna. Terry: In the beginning, we watched over her. An example is, most teachers here at Boston Latin School ask for a notebook, a three-ring binder that has different sections in it. Well, that was really difficult for her because she's trying to keep a braille note three-ring binder and correlate the print that she couldn't see, and we had to help her with that. So her one-to-one para would, you know, periodically throughout the day check in with her and see if there was any materials that needed to go into this binder. Then the following year what we did was, we had her put the materials in the binder. Then the following year after that, we started creating digital binders. And the digital binders on a USB key would be given at the end of the term to the teacher. And so along the way, what we've done is kind of pulled away the supports so that now she's able to access curriculum on her own with very little support from us.

>>Narrator: Terry says she works closely with teachers to help them verbalize their lessons as they begin to work with students such as Juna.

>>Terry: Teachers are really receptive. They want to teach to every student. Every teacher wants their students to learn. And they are receptive to my feedback, and I give the feedback in a positive way, you know, "I really liked how you did this lesson. "It's hard for Juna to—"you know, to see what's happening there. "Would you mind describing "each of those lines on the board for her or reading each of those things on the board?" And it becomes a habit.

>>Narrator: Teachers say having Juna in their class has made them better teachers. Juna's physics teacher, Jessie Southwick, explains.

>>Jessie: She's taught me a lot about teaching and learning and about the—kind of the abilities of everybody regardless of 3 disabilities. So I think just being willing to have the open conversation and realize that, like, that's part of our job, is to figure out how to teach all students, and Juna is the proof that that's worthwhile and that every student can be successful.

>>Narrator: Based on the setting and the instructional content, Juna uses all four specialized formats: braille, large print, audio, and digital text. The TVI reports that they have difficulty obtaining hard copy large print, so as an alternative, they use enlarged text on the computer and assistive technology, such as CCTVs and handheld magnifiers, to assist Juna in reading print materials.

>>Terry: The braille that Juna uses can be in the form of a hard copy piece of paper, but she also uses electronic braille using a braille note taker. Her print is primarily using a CCTV or a RUBY handheld magnifier or ZoomText on the PC. She's emailed computer files. She's able to open those files and to use the ZoomText to be able to access what information is there.

>>Woman: It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

>>Narrator: Primarily, audio is used for literature and any long reading assignments. Terry talks about how Juna's use of formats and tools has evolved and how her independence has developed.

>>Terry: When Juna came to Boston Latin School, she was primarily a braille reader, and she was a good braille reader, but she was a slow braille reader. She needed to increase her speed, but in the meantime, she needed to keep up with the materials. So what we immediately did was started to use—access to the curriculum via audio, and we would get her audio books. At the time, it was tape, and then it became digital. The biggest thing for her was learning—when we first started working with her—was learning to be more independent as she went along and getting her own materials and securing information from her teachers. And as the world has become more digital, that has become easier to do. We have taught her the different tools along the way and given her the opportunity to choose which tool she wants to use for what purpose, and that makes her far more independent.

>>Narrator: Different sources of specialized formats have different eligibility requirements. Since Juna receives special education services under IDEA and meets copyright criteria as a student with a visual impairment, she is eligible to receive

4 materials obtained from a range of sources. Terry talks about where accessible materials were obtained for Juna.

>>Terry: The primary textbook provider for us if we want it in a hard copy braille is the Massachusetts Accessible Library. They will be able to provide us—if we send them a print copy of the book, they most often times will be able to transcribe that book and provide it in braille in forms of volumes sent to us during the year. Sometimes, though, that's not possible, and we'll get a braille file from them, and Juna will be able to use her Braille Sense to open that file. Bookshare has become an extremely important tool to be able to access books immediately, whether that becomes a braille file or an audio file or a DAISY file. The Perkins Library—Talking Book Library—is a great tool. They have a librarian there you can call, ask for a particular set of books, and they'll send those along to you as soon as possible in a hard copy braille format, because sometimes the kids are following along in class, and she needs to follow along as well.

>>Narrator: Terry says Learning Ally was used as one source for audio books. Materials were downloaded and used with the Learning Ally app on her iPad, and the audio books on CDs were also used.

>>Terry: She also uses Audible. Audible is a commercial site where we can download an audio book with a human reader, much more like listening to a play. She uses human readers also, and she knows how to use a human reader. She's been taught to direct the reader in what it is—the information she'd like to get. And then the other thing we use is self-produced materials—using a scanner, using software to produce a hard copy or a braille file or even a Word document for her that she can access. We really can't rely on any one service, because then we're only relying on one media, and you need multiple medias to be able to access the curriculum.

>>Narrator: Juna shares her insightful thoughts about the use of multiple formats and tools.

>>Juna: Yeah, I think that learning with different kinds of accessible materials is definitely the best way, because there is no, like, one device that's good for everything. I mean, I think it's the same for sighted people too. There is no one thing you use for every subject. You know, you have different things that you use for different types of activities that you have to do. So I think I am a multimodal learner, and I think 5 everybody really is. It's just finding what works for you in that context.

>>Narrator: Ongoing instruction is critical for learning to read print or braille. It's also equally important for learning to read using the audio format.

>>Terry: It's really important to look at low-vision students to support their learning of braille from a very young age. It's important—or if you're not going to teach braille, then how to use audio material, how to get information out of it, how to take two-column notes while you're listening. They have to really be able to teach kids to use more than one media and not to forget braille, even if they are a low-vision student, because you never know what's going to happen in the future in terms of losing their vision. The most important thing is, we want them to keep up with everybody else at the same speed, at the same place, in the same time frame. So giving them multiple tools and multiple ways to access instructional materials is really the key to doing that.

>>Narrator: When a student is using audio books, there are functional skills related to navigation that need to be learned.

>>Terry: You would first teach the functions of the player, how to get it to work, but then after that, you need to teach how to access the book. The books are broken down, usually, by a chapter, headings, sections.

>>Narrator: Terry often pairs the print book and the audio book and teaches a note-taking strategy.

>>Terry: And what I often will do is take the print book—with a magnification device if I need it—and the audio book side by side, and we'll start a notebook, which we divide into two columns. So I'm starting to teach Cornell Notes. I start teaching that now in the third grade. I try to teach them how to take a note, how to find the section we need in the book, how to access it on audio, how to listen to it on audio, go back to the print if you need some information, and make your notes.

>>Narrator: Similarly, Terry speaks about a strategy of blending the mediums of braille and audio combined with note-taking.

>>Terry: We would have the audio with the braille book and then learning to skim a braille book so that you can find the word you're looking for. What line are you looking for? And then 6 taking notes, maybe using—with a braille note taker. The student may have a braille paper copy, an audio copy, and some kind of note-taking device.

>>Narrator: There is growing evidence that reading rates are increased when new technologies are used to provide synchronized audio and text or synchronized audio and refreshable braille. To do this, Juna can use the text-to-speech function in ZoomText on the computer or speech with her braille note taker. Just as students need instruction to learn to read by listening, they need instruction to learn to gain information by listening.

>>Terry: Especially for our students who are visually impaired, they have to access much of the curriculum from the teachers by listening. You know, they're not seeing what's happening on the board, so they need to be able to get as much as they can out of listening, and you have to learn to listen.

>>Narrator: Throughout her life, technology, accessible materials, and supportive people at school and home have enabled Juna to be fully participative in all aspects of her education and life.

>>Juna: I think that definitely the tools I have, have enabled me to move on to, like, bigger and better things, I guess, because, like, I just remember, you know, being younger and having to hold the books up close to my face, and my eyes would always be straining, so they'd always be really bad. And I could read a lot slower than the other kids because I had to physically move the book from side to side, like, pan along, because my field of vision was so small. I think that having those technologies, like, puts you on an equal playing field with everybody else and that you actually have a way of accessing everything else that everybody else has.