It's Back to School season and we're here to help parents' and carers' who are supporting children with vision impairment. Whether it's their first day at school, a big exam year, or they're somewhere in between, our range of education products has been chosen to help them achieve their best.
If you're worried about the new term or want to build on things that went well this year, check out some helpful words of advice from Tom Norton, RNIB Education and Children Information and Resources Officer.
Read on for nine assistive tools you should consider for your back to school prep…
1. Keep track of homework
Our brand new Big Print Academic Desk Diary has plenty of room for noting homework deadlines, extra-curricular activities, and topic confidence; as well as timetable grids, reading lists, monthly goals and priorities, and term dates.
Bold, clear text on high quality white paper, with a minimum 16-point font size makes this ideal for children with vision impairment.
And a date for parents' and carers' diaries: our 2027 Big Print and braille diaries and calendars launch in mid-August. They're consistently among our most popular products every autumn, with the Big Print Desk Diary and Wall Calendar selling out year after year, so it's worth ordering early so you've got somewhere to note term dates, school concerts, and parents' evenings.
2. Braille your work quickly
The Perkins Classic Brailler is the best-known braille typewriter and is not only a quicker way to produce braille than a frame and style but also reinforces braille learning.
Unlike a standard typewriter, these machines have six keys (and a space bar) to produce the various braille characters needed. Each key represents one of the six dots in a braille cell, so to braille 'c', for example, you press keys one and four (⠉), for 't', press keys two, three, four and five (⠞).
These durable machines are a great educational tool for children learning braille and can be used for complex maths problems as well as note-taking, literacy activities, and essay-writing.
Because they are truly built to last – a properly maintained Perkins Classic Brailler can still be in mint condition after 50 years! – these machines can be used long after school days are a distant memory.
3. Pick the right braille paper
The good news is that there's a wide range of choice for what you can produce your braille on. It can, however, be a little daunting to know what to choose.
If you're using a Perkins Brailler you should be looking at sheets that measure 28 × 29cm.
If you have a Marburg frame, you can use A4 sheets, and if you're using a Janus interline braille frame, this 135gsm cartridge paper, measuring 7.5 × 12.7cm is a perfect fit.
Once you've chosen your preferred size, you can decide what you want to braille on. Lightweight paper (140gsm or lower) is suitable for everyday braille that doesn't need to be kept – shopping lists, for example.
Heavier weight paper (170gsm or higher) is for braille that needs to be kept for a long time – personal letters or favourite recipes, for example.
Brailon is a plastic-like paper used in thermoform machines, that can also be used in a Perkins Brailler to create long-lasting braille documents. It's also useful for people who struggle to feel the embossed dots on standard cartridge paper. (You can also use Brailon with a rubber mat and embossing tool to create tactile images.)
Some of our papers and embossing products come pre-punched to make them easier to store in a ring-binder
And, finally, if you have access to an embosser, check out our selection of 135gsm paper in various sizes.
Browse braille paper and embossing consumables
4. Support braille learning
Help young learners master braille with our courses for children. Hands On is a first-stage braille course for children aged four to six and introduces the alphabet and alphabetic word signs, strong contractions, a few short forms, numbers 1 to 10, basic punctuation, and capitals.
Learners who have completed Hands On can get extra reading practice from the Abi books – humorous stories featuring the adventures of a six-year-old blind girl.
We have special editions of the Read Write Inc books, which teach literacy skills using a structured, synthetic phonics-based programme, that have uncontracted (grade 1) braille added to them. These allow children with vision impairment to read alongside sighted peers.
For braille learners who have completed the Hands On course, there is Take Off, a second-stage scheme teaching phonics, braille contractions, and word signs, as well as encouraging enjoyment of reading and writing of contracted (grade 2) braille.
Browse children's braille courses
5. Take notes in class
If writing or brailling notes in class is difficult or distracts from learning and engaging with the lesson, a voice recorder can be a helpful way to take notes instead.
The Micro-Speak Plus, 1GB is an easy-to-use digital voice recorder that features tactile buttons and spoken prompts and beeps. You can record high quality MP3 notes instantly with the press of a button, and playback via the built-in speaker or plugged-in headphones.
The 1GB micro-SD card supplied will hold 15 hours of audio – more than a day's worth of classes and other reminders.
6. Calculate tricky problems
Older learners navigating trigonometry and statistics may find our accessible scientific calculators easier to use than standard devices.
A high-resolution seven-inch colour display shows up to four lines of working and you can choose from four colour settings – black on white, white on black, black on yellow or yellow on black.
Big buttons with clear, high contrast markings also make it easier to use the calculators.
Our Scientific Graphing Calculator also speaks all operations and outputs – you will need to use wired headphones or speakers plugged into the 3.5mm input jack, as the calculator does not have its own speaker.
7. Measure lines and angles
We can't protect you from the most dangerous animal in maths class – the hypotenuse – but our easy-to-see, tactile maths tools can make measuring lines and angles much more accessible, freeing up focus for remembering how to use SOH CAH TOA on your trigonometry homework.
Designed specifically for children with vision impairment, these yellow maths tools have tactile, black markings to make measuring easier. Pick individual tools (tactile ruler, protractor, or set square) or the Helix Oxford vision maths set (an accessible version of the one you probably had at school).
Browse accessible measuring tools
8. Mark end-of-year milestones
Our inclusive greetings cards are a great way to show students you're rooting for them, congratulate them on reaching their goals, and to say "thank you" to teachers for going the extra mile.
With colourful, tactile designs and large print and braille messages, nobody needs to be left out of the end-of-year celebrations.
Browse inclusive greetings cards
9. Plot graphs and charts
Our tactile graph paper is available with either 20 × 20 1cm squares or 10 × 10 2cm squares embossed on it and is perfect for plotting data points in graphs or bar charts.
Each sheet is embossed off-centre to allow room for labelling the X and Y axis. Supplied in packs of 50 sheets so there's no excuse for homework going in late!
