Determining the Reading Medium for Students with Visual Impairments: A Diagnostic Teaching Approach

Abstract

This article presents a two-phase process to be used by multidisciplinary teams in making decisions on the reading medium for students with visual impairments. The first phase is used as a diagnostic teaching phase primarily to collect information on a student's use of sensory information during the reading readiness stage in order to guide the team decision on introduction of a specific reading medium. In the second phase, continued evaluation of the initial decision takes place over a number of years to evaluate and adjust, as appropriate, the reading medium as determined in the first phase and to assure that the student has access to the combination of media necessary to be successful in academic and vocational settings.