Falling Into Blindness Awareness Month

White Ribbon with black
braille symbols spelling
brl (braille)

It seems as though every month is a month to recognize or celebrate SOMETHING. Well, October is our month--BLINDNESS AWARENESS MONTH. I'm posting this a week ahead of time in hopes it provides time for creative juices to start flowing and time to get it all together (between everything else that goes on at this time of year)!! Falling into October is a great time to spread awareness about vision impairments in creative and fun ways. Blindness Awareness Month is the perfect opportunity to get your children and students involved in spreading awareness while also learning about their own vision, building self-esteem, advocating, and developing interpersonal skills. Below I have listed only a few ideas to create Blindness Awareness and celebrate individuals who have visual impairments.


EMAIL
  • As the TVI/COMS (if not dual work with your team) send an email to staff introducing October as blindness awareness month. Then, throughout the month send resources:
    • Tips for interacting with someone who is blind
    • Human guide instructions
    • Activities for the entire classroom
GIVE AWAYS
  • Make cookies with Braille letters on them using M&Ms and give them out to teachers
    • Great activity to work on cooking skills with your students
  • Make White Cane Pens using standard office pens and red tape
  • Make White Cane earrings using beads

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
  • Set up a time with the classroom teacher to introduce braille to your student's peers.
    • "Code Breakers" Provide each student with braille alphabet card and a "Secret Code" to break.
      • Word of the week
      • Title of a popular song
      • Inspirational quote
      • Anything that is of interest to the age group
    • Take a couple of braille writers into the classroom and let the students braille their name on an index card. Depending on the age and maturity of your student, he/she can take one group and you can take the other.
    • Use Skittles, M&Ms, Cherios, or Fruit Loops to create braille letters/brl symbols on a full braille cell template.
      • Allow your student to take requests and then provide the dot combination
    • Connect with you media specialist and introduce them to Braille Bug http://braillebug.afb.org/
    • Touch & Feel
      • Place different objects in a box/bag. Provide 1 object to the students to hold and ask them to reach into the box/bag without looking and find the match.
    • O&M: teach peers how to provide human guide
    • Research a famous person who experienced a visual impairment
      • https://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/famous-blind.shtml
      • Read a book about or written by a person who experienced a visual impairment
    • Use sense to identify money (coins)
      • Tactile (weight, ridges, sound when dropped)
    • Explore different APPS
      • Tap Tap See
      • Be My Eyes
      • Color Identifiers
WHITE CANE DAY (October 15th)
  • Flash Mobs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QVn1yA2Uso
  • School Parades
  • Informational flyers/pamphlets
ART
  • Explore Artists who have visual impairments 
    • http://leisure.ezinemark.com/most-famous-blind-painters-ever-773679266583.html 
The list of possibilities and activities to create blindness awareness is ENDLESS! Don't be afraid to think outside the box. Connect with your team members (parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, therapists, students) to develop activities and spread the load....I mean AWARENESS! October--it's OUR month, BLINDNESS AWARENESS MONTH! Go forth and celebrate/educate! Please share in the comments section your ideas and/or activities you have done with your students/children!! We would love to hear from you!

Smiles,
Sarah B.

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