Key Details
- Categories
- Workshop
- Course Code
- CPE25MBLV
- Start Date
- 6 May 2025
- Time
- 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Course Information
Together we will workshop strategies that cater to the challenges facing primary and secondary Maths students with Blindness & Low Vision. We will investigate options for the inclusion of students who use large print, screen readers, braille and tactile diagrams. A session for primary aged support will be in the morning session and secondary aged in the afternoon.
The program below is a proposal. To personalise the workshop, please feel free to send a question that you would like addressed: Charlie.roberts@NextSense.org.au
Proposed morning program for educators of primary aged students (9:00-12:00)
- Challenges facing students with VI in maths
- Support available
- Sharing reasonable adjustments
- equipment, apps & 3D printing
- Arithmetic with the Cranmer abacus
- Tactile graphics & the importance of drawing
- Braille Maths
- Question time
Proposed afternoon program for educators of secondary aged students (1:00-4:00)
- Challenges facing students with VI in secondary maths
- Strategies for student inclusion
- Yr.7 maths tool kit & apps
- Algebra tiles
- Producing accessible digital worksheets
- Accessible senior scientific calculators
- MathKicker AI software for digital access
- BrailleBlaster free translation software
- Question time
If possible, please bring a laptop, and/or iPad to the sessions, to experience the software and apps being demonstrated.
Presenter
-
Charlie Roberts
I live with my young family in Ocean grove; 20km from Geelong, Vic’s 2nd largest city. My grandfather Charlie was blind, so I always had an interest in the BLV field. Previously a secondary Maths & Phys-Ed teacher; I started my BLV career by volunteering at the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind school, Melbourne, in 2005. When the Phys-Ed teacher went on leave, I stepped into his position. Learning braille, I was soon teaching maths at the Support Skills Program (SSP). I worked as a Visiting Teacher (VT) from 2007 for the Vision Australia School until it was closed in 2009. I then followed the SSP to the Statewide Vision Resource Centre until 2022 and worked as a VT for the D.Ed Vic until 2023.
Since 2022, I have enjoyed working part time for D.Ed Qld’s Statewide Vision Impairment Services as a Maths and PE specialist. In 2024 I joined NextSense School Support Services, undertaking a blended online and face to face service for regional schools in VIC & NSW.
