British Journal of Visual Impairment current issue

Editorial

Mccall, S., McLinden, M., Douglas, G. — 2009-08-20

Auditory discriminations of typographic attributes of documents by students with blindness

Argyropoulos, V. S., Sideridis, G. D., Kouroupetroglou, G., Xydas, G. — 2009-08-20

The general purpose of the present study was to test the effectiveness of various psycho-acoustic manipulations for the understanding of specific information (typographic attributes such as bold and italic) which was included in texts by individuals with and without blindness. Thirty blind and thirty sighted students participated and were asked to distinguish a number of controlled conditions of auditory components, as well as to express their preferences and opinions on the prosody of the selected acoustic features (pitch, volume and speed of the synthetic speech). Findings indicated that there were significant interactions between groups and experimental conditions across variables. The outcomes of the present study provided a rough assessment of the auditory means that may be conducive to the understanding of the specific typographic attributes. Based on these findings Text-to-Speech systems can deliver such information with all the appropriate auditory prosody in order to facilitate blind students’ memorization and comprehension and enhance inclusion.

Activity-based intervention for multiple-disabled visually impaired people

Magne Tellevik, J., Elmerskog, B. — 2009-08-20

The article describes assessment, planning and training for people with multiple disabilities and visual impairment (MDVI). The ImPAct MDVI project, an EU Comenius programme, addressed concerns expressed by teachers of children and young people with MDVI as to how they are expected to integrate the diverse curriculum elements and particular skills they have been taught into a meaningful educational process. The aim of the project was to develop a holistic teaching approach, based on activities, participation and involvement in real life situations, aiming at involving people with MDVI in their social and physical context. This was achieved by applying a 5-step working model (Tellevik and Elmerskog, 2001), which sought to support the development of assessment and planning intervention strategies.

The Tactual Profile: Development of a procedure to assess the tactual functioning of children who are blind

Withagen, A., Vervloed, M. P.J., Janssen, N. M., Knoors, H., Verhoeven, L. — 2009-08-20

The Tactual Profile assesses tactual functioning of children with severe visual impairments between 0 and 16 years of age. The Tactual Profile consists of 430 items, measuring tactile skills required for performing everyday tasks at home and in school. Items are graded according to age level and divided into three domains: tactual sensory, tactual motor and tactual perceptual. The development of the instrument is described and the psychometric properties that were studied reported. Most items had an acceptable difficulty level, and test—retest reliability proved to be good. The analyses for the construct validity showed moderately high correlations between the Tactual Profile and intelligence tests. These correlations were higher for the haptic performance subtests than for the verbal tests. High correlations with other haptic tests were found. However, these associations disappeared after factoring out intelligence, possibly because current methods for examining tactual functioning are strongly affected by intelligence. A summary of work planned in further development of the procedure is provided.

Network 1000 Scotland: A report on the opinions and circumstances of blind and partially sighted people in Scotland

Cairns, C., Herriotts, P., Douglas, G., Corcoran, C., Pavey, S. — 2009-08-20

The report provides an insight into the views, experiences and needs of blind and partially sighted people in Scotland, helping to inform Scottish policy. Direct interviews with 165 blind and partially sighted people in Scotland were undertaken by telephone. The interviews took place as part of a UK-wide data collection exercise in 2006 (Douglas et al., 2006). A range of findings were produced: 52 per cent of the population lived alone; 10 per cent of the population did not know the name of their eye condition; only 25 per cent of the working-age population were in employment; 70 per cent of the population reported having long-term health problems in addition to their visual impairment; and 40 per cent of the population said they would like to leave home more often. The report highlights for the first time the situation facing registered blind and partially sighted people in Scotland at the beginning of the 21st century.

Exploring the musical interests and abilities of blind and partially sighted children and young people with Retinopathy of Prematurity

Matawa, C. — 2009-08-20

This study explores the musical interests and talents of children and young people who are blind or partially sighted as a result of retinopathy of prematurity (RoP). The results from questionnaires completed by 37 parents were analysed using methods drawn from Ockelford et al.’s (2006) study of the musical interests and abilities of children with septo-optic dysplasia (SOD). The findings suggest that music plays a significant part in the lives of children with RoP and these children may display above typical music ability.

Book Review: Educating Children with Complex Conditions: Understanding Overlapping and Co-existing Developmental Disorders, 1st edn: Winand H. Dittrich and Rona Tutt SAGE Publications, 2008, 114pp. ISBN 978-1-84787-317-0, {pound}62.00 (hbk); 978-1-84787-318-7, {pound}20.99 (pbk)

Jones, I. — 2009-08-20