LINGUIST List 3.98

Fri 31 Jan 1992

Disc: Assistance for Blind, Sapir

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Directory

1. Herb Stahlke, Assistance for blind students in linguistics courses
2. AVERY D ANDREWS, Critique of Sapir on Phonemes

I passed the request for Braille IPA information, which I must have
inadvertently deleted, on to Leah Boyle one of our visually impaired
students who has done a lot of work with faculty to help them deal
more sensitively and productively with disabled students. Her
response follows.

Herb Stahlke
Ball State University

>
>If this instructor is using an overhead projector, then I would
>suggest she make duplicate copies of her material and "overbake"
>them for her VI student. If the transparencies are "cooked" a
>little too long, the markings will rise up and leave a tactile
>representation. The same applies for charts and graphs or she
>could use heavy waxed paper and a tracing wheel. I have used
>both techniques and found them to be successful.
>
>Depending on whether the student is congentially or adventiously
>blind, other methods of instructions can be recommended. The
>adventiously blind, like myself, are able to relate to visual
>terminology and spatial references completely differently than
>the congentially blind.
>
>Questions exactly like this one are asked everyday in educational
>evironments, including our own BSU. This is why I addressed the
>faculty/student problem solving in the job description...so a
>knowledgable person would be able to set down in and out of the
>classroom and troubleshoot problems and recommend solutions.
>
>At least this instructor was willing to admit there might be
>as discrepancy in her teaching methods as applied to the visually
>impaired and is searching for solutions! I admire that! :-)
>
>Leah
>
>"I don't care if you look at my limitations, as long as you spend
>equal time looking at my capabilities!"

Twadell's `On Defining the Phoneme' (originally in Language, 1935, I think;
reprinted in the Joos 1957 reader) contains a (good) critique of
Sapir's `Psychological Reality of Phonemes' (and much else besides).

 Avery.Andrewsanu.edu.au