Teaching English to visually impaired students online

elsa o’brien lópez

Teaching online can be challenging even for the most experienced teachers. Knowing what your students’ needs are can take longer than in a face-to-face class. Estimates say that around 2.2 million people in the world have a visual impairment. Although it might seem like a high number, many teachers will not have come across a visually impaired student in their classes.

Some students will be more open to talk about their individual needs than others and learning about the needs of a visually impaired student can be a steep learning curve for a teacher who wants to fully include them in their lessons. These are some key things that one needs to bear in mind while teaching visually impaired students online:

A visual impairment can mean a lot of different things

While some students will have a total visual impairment, others might have reduced accuracy or range. The impairment can be in one or both eyes. Some students’ impairment might be related to colour blindness or monochromacy. In some cases, a visual impairment can overlap with another kind of impairment such as auditory. 

Depending on the origin of the visual impairment, some students’ working memory or attention span could also be affected. In turn, this will mean different ways of accessing the online class and the materials. 

Talk to your students – they are the best source of information

As being visually impaired can mean many different things, the support students can benefit from is varied. Compared to people with non-visible disabilities, visually impaired students might be more used to talking openly about their needs. 

It’s important to know how our students will be accessing the online class. Some will use text-to-voice screen readers, a zooming software, a Braille keyboard. When it comes to reading, they might use these ways of accessing a text, Braille print or even ink print if the font is large enough. 

The teacher should know this in order to provide the materials in the right format for the students to be able to access them. It can also help the teacher to know this when it comes to setting up activities and working out how much time to allocate to each stage. 

Avoid visual resources 

Visual resources can be very handy for students learning a second language. They can also be very helpful for students with special educational needs such as dyslexia and the Autistic spectrum. 

When using resources that have been created for sighted students, the teacher will need to think about the adaptations needed: 

• Some mute videos will need to be replaced for one with running commentary or dialogue but other ones can be used as they are. 
• Matching activities with images can be turned into a translating activity. 
• Sighted students in the class can take on the role of describing an image 

Be a narrator

The teacher will need to provide a running commentary of what is going on in the class even when it is something obvious for sighted students. It will be useful for visually impaired students to know that the teacher needs some time to open a file, that they are busy creating breakout rooms or that someone new has joined the class. 

Students might also like to know who they’re being paired up with and sighted students should be made conscious of the need to greet the group when they come into a breakout room. In terms of class management, the teacher will have to let students know that someone has raised their hand and is waiting for their turn to speak. 

You might have to adjust your time expectations 

Although it will depend on the students’ age and on how tech-savvy they are, the teacher should adjust the time allocated to a task. Students who use screen-reading software to navigate will probably need extra time to transition between tasks as they will be listening instead of responding to visual shortcuts.

The teacher should be conscious that if a student uses a screen reading software, they shouldn’t be giving out instructions while the student is navigating or reading as they won’t be able to listen to the teacher at the same time.

During a listening activity, visually impaired students won’t be able to check the questions as they listen, so it’s important to break down the task to reduce the amount of information they need to remember at one time.

Using online game websites 

It is common to try and make online classes more exciting by using online games. However, it’s important to check the accessibility of these games before asking visually impaired students to try and use them. Teacher-led games such as Bamboozle are usually ok as the teacher will read the questions and answers out loud. Sharing the sound and updating the score is important to add to the excitement of the competition.  The Zoom chat is a good resource for games and it’s easy to manage using keyboard shortcuts.

Finding out about your students’ interests and choosing together the types of activities they’d like to work on can be a great way of keeping them motivated and making sure they are accessible.