Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies

Here at PRCVI we love braille, and we love LEGO! We've blogged about accessible LEGO kits and using LEGO to support ECC instruction before. So we were excited about the opportunity to learn about the possibilities of LEGO Braille Bricks recently! On October 3, Monica from CNIB Frontier Accessibility and Marie and Marc from LEGO Braille Bricks came to PRCVI to deliver a worksho ...

Have you ever heard of "region" (or "landmark") when navigating a website with a screen reader? If so, what are they, what do they do, and why are they important? These were some of the questions asked and answered when PRCVI did a group outreach visit near the end of the 2021-22 school year. Several TSVIs and visually impaired students came together to tackle some web navigat ...

The third Thursday in May is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). In keeping with the spirit of GAAD in centering the perspectives of users and critically engaging users as co-designers of more accessible and equitable futures, our Outreach Team at PRCVI hosted a virtual panel of recent blind and low vision K-12 graduates. Participants are currently navigating post-second ...

Learning to stay organized is a crucial skill for visually impaired students to learn, and that doesn’t change just because students may be using more digital technology these days! Students need to be able to organize handouts, readings, research, and assignments, and be able to quickly find information during classes and group work. The topic of efficiently organizing and fin ...

Are you and your students baffled by what to do when a braille device asks for computer braille input? (Or maybe you've wondered what the gibberish displayed when a braille device is not connected to anything means!) The PRCVI outreach team has created a guide for teachers on how to enter braille ASCII, otherwise known as "computer braille", into a braille device. We hope you ...

A frequent request the outreach team receives here at PRCVI focuses on strategies for teaching students to use screen reading software such as JAWS, NVDA, or VoiceOver. We are always looking for games or activities to teach skills, rather than just memorizing a list of keyboard commands. At the recent closing ceremonies of the 2021 BC Regional Braille Challenge, which was held ...

Microsoft Word has several features that are useful for commenting on documents. These features include Track Changes, which allow groups to collaborate on editing documents, as well as comments, which allow individuals to make suggestions or provide feedback. These features are often used within post-secondary and workplace environments. The PRCVI outreach team has provided s ...

As a follow up to our original guide for supporting students with visual impairments using Microsoft Teams, we have created two guides that are focused on input devices for iOS with VoiceOver - a QWERTY keyboard or a braille display with six-key entry.  VoiceOver Navigation in Microsoft Teams with a Braille Display VoiceOver Navigation in Microsoft Teams with a QWERTY Keyboar ...

With the provincial response to the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to unfold, we know that regular services for students with visual impairments in K-12 will be disrupted as a result of the suspension of in-class instruction for all learners. At this point in time, students and educational teams are still on March break and the process of developing guidance for providing continu ...

The newest version of NVDA contains several new features that are helpful for teachers. These new features provide visual on-screen feedback of the keyboard focus and braille output. Focus Highlight The Focus Highlight feature can eb used to highlight where the current keyboard focus is on screen. Focus Highlight highlights the system focus (normal keyboard focus, such as i ...