Friday, June 24, 2016

Flashlight fun


Lights for your CVI Instructional Toolbox

Happy summer friends!
I found these fun flashlights at Walmart the other day and instantly knew that it would be the perfect addition to my sensory room. These flashlights come in a variety of different colors, red, blue and green and come in a variety of sizes (thin and fat ones). I like them because of their color illumination (they are so bright) and the variety of light options. They illuminate to a solid color (see pictures), blink and have true white light (so many fun options!!).  I bought the thin ones for about $3 a piece and the other ones for about $7. I loved how bright then thin glow sticks illuminated!

Flashlight for CVI kids
Place the flashlights on a black contrast board from APH to provide visual efficiency
 I also liked these lights because they are super portable! You can throw them into a bag and take them anywhere. I like to use them with the felt board from APH (available on quota funds). If you are using them in the classroom, you can also hang them or place them on the floor/desk. I bought some to use for my sensory rooms and my own CVI kit.

And just when you thought these lights were only for our CVI kids, let me tell you the initial reason that I purchased them: I bought them for nighttime for my current STEM Camp. I divided each group into a color. I gave the group leaders and students one color. Many of the students have good color vision and since the colors red, green and blue are distinctive, it was easy for students to see. We used them at night to walk back to the dorms. Students were able to follow the lights. Much easier than a whole bunch of white light flashlights that were shining everywhere. Note: these lights were used for identification, not for lighting the path. Group leaders had one main light to help with traveling safely. 

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Sunday, June 5, 2016

Disney Movies Anywhere Includes Descriptive Audio Accessibility

Hello accessibility for our kiddos with the Disney Movies Anywhere App! 
This app has a built in feature that allows for audio descriptive service on many of Disney's movies and Pixar, too! 
How cool is that?! I love that major companies such as Disney are thinking about accessibility for our  community. This isn't the first time that Disney has had audio descriptive services. I blogged about this awhile back when I discovered it while watching a Disney movie with my kids. 
I found a few really good articles about this. Check this one out from The Audio Descriptive Project:

In case you are not super tech savvy, I found this great little video posted by Wonderbaby.org on YouTube. It shows how easy the app is to use. 


I want to encourage families, teachers and students to continue to blog, Pin, share, etc. about when companies do these things for our community. Blindness and vision impairment is a small but AWESOME community and people can easily not understand the unique needs of our people. The audio description on these movies is playful and cute---perfect for young ears listening to the movies.  Different people may make these things happen so I definitely support everyone who makes accessibility happen for our community. Let's continue to support and recognize the advancement of accessibility for people with vision impairments!