[nobe-l] internet instructional ideas

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hi all,

Question for those of you teaching students jaws or good users yourselves with ideas.
I am volunteer tutoring someone in computer skills; she wants to know a little of everything, but is very interested in the internet. We use Jaws 17 on a windows 7 pc. She is an older totally blind person; maybe in her 50s. She does not appear to have any other disabilities. However, her tech skills are poor and she does not understand the internet and also lacks confidence using the pc in general. She has the basic jaws commands down.
I am tutoring at the talking book library.

So I need advice. I’ve had a few education classes btw, but I’m not a professional, but I did graduate with my BA in liberal arts and have considered being a  TVI; I’m vision impaired, vi, too.

Here are the questions.

How do you introduce the internet? I mean the concepts and termonology. How about website structure? People need to know what web elements are like buttons, combo boxes, and headings.
Is there a textbook  or website out there listing the definitions of internet terms such as the ones I mentioned? But also broader concepts such as what is a search engine and what is a webpage vs a website?
I am considering using my intro to computer concepts textbook, but problem with that is accessibility. The lady does not have learning ally.
I would be photocopying relevant sections and then scanning them for text to speech access , so I prefer something already online and accessible.

I could explain it, but I want good existing definitions if possible.


Next, what order of commands do you go in, if there is one? I’m considering introducing headings, combo boxes, buttons, and edit fields first. These are real common online, so I thought that would be good to start with.

Finally, what websites lend themselves to practice and demonstration of these concepts? I need websites with simple navigation structures and ones with more text. I’m assuming sites about blindness topics such as AFB’s will be great. However, I want a variety of topics. Blind people are people, so I do not want to always be reading about blindness products or figures. I already demonstrated a few sites about Louis Braille. They were perfect in their lay out because it was easy to find the article text.

If you all have practice ideas, let me know as well. My idea of practicing was to assign a website and have her find a certain article and answer some questions. This would require her to navigate to the article  and use the reading commands to find the information.

Thanks.

Ashle