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Access in the classroom
Transcript
1 December 2013
Roberta: After years of working to improve access to media in the classroom for deaf and hearing impaired children, Media Access Australia is branching into education for children who are blind or vision impaired, and here to tell us more is Education Manager, Anne McGrath. Welcome Anne.
Anne: Thank you Roberta, and hello everyone.
Roberta: Now, what did the Vision Education Scoping Report set out to achieve, Anne?
Anne: Well Roberta, there’s quite a lot we wanted to achieve. We wanted to gain a basic understanding of the structure and the magnitude of education services for students who are blind or have low vision across the country. And this included looking at how many students there might be, how the education services operate, and considering issues of geography and funding. Also, the media and information that needs to be accessed by students, and the commonly used technologies and solutions used by schools in the education services. I think importantly we wanted to discover any barriers of access to media and technology for these students, and to find a way to see how those identified issues could be resolved.
Roberta: So how did Media Access Australia go about this study?
Anne: Well, we were looking for information on general approaches and technologies in schools, and so we undertook meetings and many phone calls across the country with Sensor Impairment Coordinators, Itinerant Teachers of Vision, and others with expertise across the public, Catholic and independent sectors. But we looked more closely at Western Australia and New South Wales due to the size and geographic spread of these states, and their blind and low vision student population. And we found that this in-depth approach really helped us to focus some of the factors that might impact on solutions that are raised across the nation.
Roberta: So what were the overall findings?
Anne: Well, the overall findings Roberta, [laughs] and we weren’t surprised by this, that vision education services nationally work really hard to provide for the needs of their students, and there are differing levels of knowledge, funding issues, scale of operations and pockets of knowledge, depending on staff expertise around specific issues and geographical issues. And I think the specialist nature of the vision education sector and the need for sharing information for all itinerant teachers vision nationally, especially those working outside of major capital cities, it’s really apparent. And we’d really like to thank all the people that we spoke to in the report; we’re very grateful for their contribution. And they also welcomed the opportunity to share their opinions around issues of access to media and technology.
Roberta: Anne, is there a problem with national or state-wide, or is it all the same? Are you going to have trouble there?
Anne: Oh, it’s just that education systems are set up differently across the states, so it just depends on how they decide to organise their system, whether the public, Catholic or independent sectors are joined, or whether they’re separate. And so it’s just a matter of liaison, and we’ve developed some really strong and positive relationships by organising this report and talking to really helpful people.
Roberta: What are the next steps for Media Access Australia and vision education issues?
Anne: Well, from all the interviews and the analysis and the collation of the findings of the study, we identified a number of potential projects to work with the education sector. And so these recommendations from Media Access Australia focus on some of the identified issues, and they range from simple solutions to more complex projects that explore new ways of approaching an issue. And each recommendation is practical in nature and has detail of what would be required, and they covered these issues, textbook, video, in-class resources, web access, homework and excursions, and information and knowledge sharing, and for listeners who are interested in downloading a copy of the Vision Education Scoping Report, they can do so by going to Media Access Australia website, www.mediaaccess.org.au/education. And once in the Education and Class section, just look for Access in the Classroom on the menu tab, and then Access for Blind and Vision Impaired Students, and you’ll find the report.
Roberta: I think that you have a lot of work ahead of you, and I congratulate you on all of that.
Anne: Oh, thanks Roberta. We’re really looking forward to all of this, and we’re very excited so far. And thanks for the opportunity to share this with everyone, Roberta.
Roberta: It’s our pleasure. I’ve been speaking with Anne McGrath from Media Access Australia, and Anne is the Education Manager there. Media Access Australia is a supporter of this programme.