Longueuil school finds creative ways to help students with visual impairments learn

Learning without being able to see is the challenge faced by students at École Jacques-Ouellette, who have visual impairments. However, they can count on an educational team that constantly draws on its imagination to help them surpass themselves day after day.

The hallways of this school in Longueuil came alive again last Monday with the arrival of the 55 students, ages four to 21, who will be attending this year.

École Jacques-Ouellette is not like other schools. Funded by the Ministry of Education, it is the only French-language school in Quebec specializing in students with visual impairments.

“Their vision must meet a certain standard to be admitted to our school,” explains Geneviève Blondin, the school’s principal, the day after the start of the school year.

Although it is part of the Marie-Victorin School Service Centre, the school also welcomes children from about 10 other school service centres to meet their specific needs.

This is because children with visual impairments may also have associated conditions that require more attention than what is provided in a regular school.

“The students follow the Quebec curriculum, but of course, they do so at their own pace,” said teacher Virginie Roy.

“The big challenge is really putting a structure in place so that it’s safe and functional for our students. And sometimes, we have to readjust,” she points out.

Adaptability is, in fact, the watchword for the educational team, which consists of about 50 full-time staff members and a dozen or so others who work closely with them.

“It’s always on a case-by-case basis. One student might read in Braille, another in print—but one needs 18-point type, while another needs 36-point type to read. Yet another can only see on a video display,” the principal explains.

So, while teachers may sometimes find a method that works for a few students, it may not be reusable the following year, since new students have different needs.

“Our students have extremely diverse profiles, and we try to cater perfectly to each one. That’s the main challenge for the team,” says Blondin.

Step by step

In addition to learning French, math, or music like any other student, these children also follow an enriched curriculum.

In particular, they learn social skills—even though it’s difficult for them to learn by imitation—and also develop compensatory strategies, such as Braille or the sense of touch.

“We’re not constantly thinking about the end-of-year exam. We want to help them make progress toward the goals we’ve set for them,” Blondin emphasizes.

And some teachers spare no effort to help a child, as the principal—who was particularly moved by Cassandra’s story—attests.

The student had no sensation in her fingertips, preventing her from using Braille, and could not distinguish between black and white, seeing only spots of color.

One of her teachers, who was also a special education teacher, decided to create a color-coded communication system just for her.

“Each color represented a letter, based on the same principle as Braille,” explains Blondin.

The teacher would then take time every evening to color in rectangles with colored pencils to teach her to read.

Realizing that this wouldn’t be feasible in the long run, the school contacted Microsoft to see if they would agree to create a font that would convert colored spots on her keyboard into black-and-white letters on a screen—and vice versa.

After an email was circulated within the company, an employee on the other side of Canada agreed to do it on a volunteer basis, making it easier for the student to communicate.

“Every small step, every small victory—it speaks to us, and it’s comforting for us, too. We can see that we’ve made a difference,” says Blondin.

“These children also bring us back to the present moment,” adds Roy, who explains that she has a real “soft spot” for these students.

An extraordinary library

As soon as they walk through the school’s front door, students can enjoy some reading time in the school library, which, at first glance, looks like any other library.

Yet it is unique, as it houses more than 10,000 titles adapted for children with visual impairments.

Whether it’s a novel, a picture book, a non-fiction book, textbooks, or even cookbooks, the school strives to make these works available in full Braille, large print, and E-text—a format developed by the Canadian Braille Authority that can be read using text-to-speech software or a Braille display.

“In that sense, it’s no different from any other library because children have the same needs—they want to read on their own,” says the school librarian, David Choquette.

“That’s the beauty of it. They have free, fairly quick access to culture,” he adds.

And the library doesn’t do this just for its own students. It has been mandated by the Ministry of Education—which funds this initiative—to provide free books to all French-speaking students with visual impairments in Quebec.

To do this, the school can count on three Braille technicians and a graphic design technician—who is on site to rework the illustrations to make them darker—who are all available on-site.

Thus, if a child with a visual impairment from another school wants a book, all a contact person needs to do is submit a request through a website.

École Jacques-Ouellette then strives to provide the book to the child within a maximum of 30 business days, which includes the time to order the book, receive it, have it converted to Braille by the technicians, and send it by mail free of charge.

While adapting a book can be expensive—the cost generally consists of the technician’s salary and the cost of paper—the principal emphasizes the importance of continuing to offer print books despite the development of other technological tools.

“We teach reading and writing, so it’s clear that paper Braille is essential to us. We don’t want it to disappear; we don’t want it to go away for all the students who are capable of using it,” she emphasizes.

“School is where you learn Braille. So that motor skill will be lost if it isn’t encouraged,” adds Choquette.

“It’s about providing accessible print books for free, just as we do for sighted people. That’s what keeps this language alive,” he explains.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews