Low vision student

[nafmeadmin]

I have a talented trumpeter who is a low vision student. He has tunnel vision (no peripheral vision). He needs to sit on the end of a row, so is looking at me from the side. What recommendations do you have on how best to help him “follow” the stick? Are there brightly colored batons available? Anything else?

[nafmeadmin]

I know that you can get batons made out of different materials, i.e. wood, fiberglass… if you talk to a baton maker they may have some suggestions. I have also seen people color their batons. I don’t know how you have your band set up, but would it be possible to have him sit in the middle of the band so he sees you head on. Especially if you wore solid colors he may be able to distinguish the baton better that way as well.

[nafmeadmin]

I was also going to say wear something that contrasts the color of your baton (perhaps solid, darker colors). You could also attach a small battery powered LED light to the tip of the baton (something like the link below) or paint the baton with a florescent color (green/yellow or orange). If your student has trouble reading music or any other text in your classroom, consider printing white text with a black background, rather than black text with white background. This color scheme is better for individuals with low vision or even cognitive disabilities like dyslexia. In the same manner, a white baton against a black or dark background (whatever you’re wearing) would be ideal.

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1920&bih=976&tbm=isch&tbnid=AiknFiKbLYMrJM:&imgrefurl=http://www.wildrc.com/htmlpages/ifolights.html&docid=djNr7-WMEEfpFM&imgurl=http://www.wildrc.com/images/products/lgtlg2.jpg&w=250&h=237&ei=uAl2UN2zMNK90QGHyYCgBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=483&sig=116531968960223167755&page=1&tbnh=97&tbnw=92&start=0&ndsp=58&ved=1t:429,r:23,s:0,i:149&tx=53&ty=55

[nafmeadmin]

All of these suggestions are excellent to help with some of these disabilities and I would recommend trying all of them to try and find a good fit. I would also suggest to have him try sitting in the middle of the ensemble to help see you head on and make it clearer to him. You may have to rearrange your ensemble to do so. Something else you might consider trying is to maybe where a bright colored glove on your hands. Since the standard concert dress is black, the bright color would stand out to him and help at least see your hand moving around against the dark background. Some of these things may be distracting to the rest of the group, but you need to help all of your students how ever you can and sometimes you need to do things that others don\’t like. Since there are many options to try, you may as well try all of them, just to see what happens. Also, don’t be afraid to ask what will help him, he may be able to give you some insight.

Chris
Kent State University, OH

[Author]

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