Many students who attend Short-Term Programs at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired rely on the use of Perkins braillers and braille notetakers in elementary school and often begin learning to access computers in 5th grade and beyond. We have observed that this results in the loss of valuable instructional time due to the fact that students need to complete increasing amounts of work on computers in middle and high school to keep up with peers, but they lack the skills to do so. Attached is a presentation from the March 2016 TAER conference. In this presentation, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of using braille notetakers and suggested an alternative timetable in which students begin using a computer with screen reading software and a braille display as their primary means of access to the curriculum in elementary school.
https://www.perkins.org/wp-content/uploads/elearning-media/Let%27s%20Go%20Digital_1.pptx https://www.perkins.org/wp-content/uploads/elearning-media/SampleUnit-BrailleDisplaywithJAWS_1.docx
By TSBVI Short-Term Programs