HumanWare Literacy Activities

Get your kids to participate in this!

Share your experience of the BrailleNote at school and you could win
This year the United States Mint offers 2009 Louis Braille Commemorative Coins. These coins honor the inventor of the Braille System of reading and writing used by the blind and visually impaired. They have been released in 2009 to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth.

HumanWare will draw 8 of these exceptional commemorative coins each month to students ages 8 to 18 years old. To participate, simply write a short essay on how the BrailleNote empowers your life at school - for your homework, math, Internet, book reading, and more!

8 coins to win each month!

Send us your essay along with the form below to participate
Draw ends December 31 2009

Braille Coin

Here's what it looks like:

Cheap Finds to Use with Children with V.I.

LASER TOP: This toy was at Walgreen's drug store in the sale bin It requires batteries. I thought of it as visual stimulation for low vision multi-disabled kids as it can be spun for them on their wheel chair trays. It lights up, spins and makes a sound. It has a hazardous choke warning so for children who can grab and handle it themselves I'd be certain they have an MA of 5 years and over, as it says on the package, so they will not be tempted to put any parts of it in their little mouths.



VIBRATING BALL: I've had this one for a few years, also with multi disabled children in mind. I had a child with cortical visual impairment and deafness. Pull the string and this one vibrates. Use much supervision as the string may detach. For the kids I used it with, I would pull the string for them. Some were able to let me know they wanted the action repeated by either grabbing my hand or in the case of a nonverbal child with modified signs, she would sign "again." It doesn't make a sound, though. This one is hand sized. There is a larger version of this one that runs by batteries and makes a sound as it vibrates.



TEACHING COINS: I saw these in another teacher's class and thought, Wow! I have needed something like that for my low vision kids when I was teaching money!

She was going to let me borrow hers to make copies. But in my travels I saw these at Dollar Tree in the school supplies section. I have found coin worksheets on line AND placed real coins under the CCTV for students with low vision. When you don't have access to a CCTV or can't carry several in your back pocket, these are a cool alternative. They are printed on front and back. The adult size scissors didn't show up too clearly, but I placed them in the picture to give a size reference.

I've had these laminated and I will have them brailled for low vision students who read braille

Big Money!

I found these giant plastic coins at a dollar store--Dollar Tree, to be exact. As soon as I saw them I scooped them up because I thought of them as a good tool for kids with low vision and regular cognitive abilities for learning coins. I have put coins under the CCTV before, but suppose you're traveling from school to school and you don't have one in your back pocket? besides that these are accessible by touch and just plain fun. I may take close up photos of these--front and back-- to use in an Intellitools activity. The program comes with some photos of coins but they can be enlarged only so much without losing clarity.