Resources for Practitioners

STEM Education: An issue in the TEACHING Exceptional Children (TEC) published in 2013 with a focus on STEM education. The TEC provides useful information on research-based practices and materials for practitioners. You can find more STEM-related articles by using keywords, such as STEM, math, and science, to search the journal.

Inclusive Science Instruction and The Ontogeny of Inclusive Science (both edited by Gregory Stefanich) are two books that provide many strategies to teach science to students with disabilities. Both books are downloadable on Stefanich's web page.

Increasing awareness of inclusive STEM education through a college-level student research group (Kahn et al., 2021): An article that reports a project through which a group of college students' awareness of inclusive STEM education was increased.

SciAccess: An organization through which you can connect to people who know how to teach a variety of STEM-related subjects to students with different disabilities and where relevant resources can be found.

Science Education for Students with Disabilities (SESD): A small NSTA (National Science Teaching Association) associated group through which you can connect to education researchers and practitioners whose research and/or teaching focuses on STEM education for disabled students.

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities (JSESD): An open-access journal that focuses on STEM education for disabled students. The journal publishes both research and practitioner articles. A good place to find useful information on teaching STEM to disabled students.

STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education (STEMI2E2) Center: An organization that aims to ensure young children with disabilities can engage fully and benefit from high-quality STEM teaching and learning.

Disabilities Resources: This resource page is developed by the National Science Teaching Association. On this web page, You can find useful strategies for teaching science to students with different disabilities.

DO-IT provides a variety of programs and resources to help people with disabilities succeed in STEM and computing fields, including AccessSTEM, AccessISL, AccessCSForAll, AccessComputing, AccessEngineering, etc.

Foundation for Science and Disability (FSD): A nonprofit organization that promotes the integration of scientists with disabilities into all activities of the scientific community and of society as a whole as well as promotes the removal of barriers that hinder success of students with disabilities in pursuit of scientific careers.

The Science chapter (written by Tiffany Wild and Karen Koehler) in Foundations of Education: Volume II: Instructional Strategies for Teaching Children and Youths with Visual Impairments is a must-read for educators to learn all the basics about teaching science to BLV students, including strategies.

Hands-on science camp for K-12 students in Taiwan who are blind or visually impaired (Chiu, 2020): This article introduces a hands-on science camp in Taiwan held for BLV students by the Yuan T. Lee Foundation Science Education for All. The article shares some curriculum ideas on physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics.

Traveling with science (Fast & Wild, 2018): A practitioner article in the Science and Children published by the National Science Teaching Association that shows how to incorporate science and O&M (orientation and mobility) to teach "Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions."

Making Science Accessible: A Guide for Teaching Introductory Physics to Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired (written by Michele Engelbrecht and Kate Fraser): A guide developed to teach physics to BLV students published by the Perkins School for the Blind. This book is not purchasable anymore, but you might be able to find it in the library. Otherwise, refer to another book named Science Literacy: A Curriculum for All Students with Sensory Impairments by Kate Fraser and Mary Zatta.

Physics for All: Introduction to Physics Without Barriers (written by M. Şahin Bülbül): Bülbül shares how he creates hands-on materials to teach a variety of physics concepts to BLV students. An informative book that includes many good ideas to teach physics to BLV students!

Pearson's Nemeth curriculum materials for grades PreK-2 and grades 3-8 to learn the Nemeth Braille Code.

Project INSPIRE (Increasing the STEM Potential of Individuals Who Read Braille): A project that supports students in grades 6-12 and young adults in building their skills in the two braille codes used in the United States for STEM classes.

Learning and Teaching the Nemeth Code within UEB Contexts: A Step-by-Step Guide (written by Tina Herzberg, Susan Osterhaus, Sara Larkin, and Penny Rosenblum): A free-to-download book available in both print and braille.

Nemeth in a Box for Middle School Students: 7 lessons that teachers of BLV students and others can use to review and introduce Nemeth Code.1

Go to Google Groups to search and ask to join the "POSB_STEM" group, which connects educators and researchers whose work focuses on STEM for BLV.

Join the Math and CVI Study Group by the Perkins School for the Blind to learn and discuss practices for CVI and math.

Science Adaptations on the Teaching Students with Visual Impairments website (by Carmen Willings): This web page gives a brief and informative introduction on how to make science adaptations for BLV students. It also introduces some science educational products designed for BLV students.

Check out the Science and Health and Mathematics products offered by the American Printing House for the Blind (APH), which merchandises a variety of STEM-related products for BLV students!

Independence Science is a company founded by Cary Supalo, a blind chemist. The company has invented a variety of technologies to facilitate independent science learning of the BLV, particularly in the chemistry laboratory.

The Special Needs Education School for the Visually Impaired at the University of Tsukuba in Japan is devoted to science education for the BLV. If interested, check out several examples of their science and mathematics instructional ideas and tools via these two links: Science and Mathematics

Conferences on science education and/or STEM education for the BLV:

Please refer to the Apps & Technologies page to learn more about applications and technologies that can be used to teach STEM to the BLV.

Science Literacy: A Curriculum for All Students with Sensory Impairments (written by Kate Fraser and edited by Mary Zatta): A curriculum developed to teach science to K-12 students who have limited vision and hearing published by the Perkins School for the Blind.

Accessible Science by the Perkins School for the Blind: This website houses a variety of ideas and rich resources related to teaching science to BLV students, including those who are deafblind or who have multiple disabilities.

Science Activities for the Visually Impaired/Science Enrichment for Learners with Physical Handicaps (SAVI/SELPH): A book that includes a variety of science activities developed for students with disabilities in grades 3-8 by the Lawrence Hall of Science that have been proven effective.

Making science accessible for students with physical disabilities (Kahn et al., 2014): A practitioner article in the Science and Children published by the National Science Teaching Association that uses examples to introduce ways to make science more accessible for students with sensory or physical disabilities.

International Association for Geoscience Diversity (IAGD) aims at including people with disabilities in the geosciences, particularly wheelchair users. This website includes a digital resource collection of tactile graphics for geoscience education: Geological Tactile Image Repository.