The online classes now under way for State school students on Victers channel do not completely meet the needs of children with special needs.
Since these children do not comprehend the session on Victers channel fully well, subject teachers at Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for the Deaf and Government School for Blind at Jagathy here and other institutions have started sending notes and recorded audio and videos on WhatsApp to parents or neighbours or relatives.
Doubts too are cleared over WhatsApp. Parents too watch the videos and help their children with assignments. Apart from special schools, many children with special needs also study in ordinary schools.
To make the online class-content more friendly for such children, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has given directions to teachers to keep their needs in mind during the presentation.
One is the use of subtitles in each video before sending it for telecast.
In the case of hearing impaired students, teachers have been urged to include more pictures, graphs, presentations, animations, and videos. Main concepts should be scrolled for easy comprehension.
For visually-challenged students, videos, presentations, and animations used in the recordings should be accompanied by audio support.
Slides used in presentation should be displayed in a manner that students get time to read each. Fonts should be large enough so that students who have partial vision can benefit from these, as also those with learning disabilities.
Worksheets should be sent for intellectually-disabled students and those with learning disabilities. In the case of home-based students who are unwell, resource teachers should adapt the content in association with subject teachers.
For children without access to technology, learning activities or therapies have to be provided by teachers or therapists in the stipulated format by making home visits.
The SCERT has made available links of digital resources provided by the Composite Regional Centre.
