About:
An Auditory-Tactile Approach to Teaching American English Sounds to the Visually Impaired
Welcome to our website!
The main purpose of this website is to support a research project called “Teaching American English Sounds to the Visually Impaired using assistive Technology”. This project was developed by Debra M. Hardison and Maritza Medina Gonzalez, along with the talented people at the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities at Michigan State University.
The goal is to improve the inclusive nature of courses on language learning and teaching by providing better access to the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and other relevant information on speech sounds for visually impaired/blind learners and teachers of English as a second/foreign language. This website is a support resource that provides relevant information about the IPA chart for American English sounds. It can accompany the use of 3D printed IPA symbols, making the symbols accessible to both sighted and nonsighted users.
In this website, users can find the names of the phonetic symbols that represent the sounds of American English, their typographical description, their articulatory description (how the sounds are produced), audio recordings of sample words in which the sound occurs, the IPA Unicode to type the symbols using a traditional keyboard, and the technical specifications to make them accessible to the screen reader Jaws for Windows.
We hope this accessible resource will make a meaningful contribution to all EFL – ESL classrooms with a diverse population through the use of materials that will allow the inclusion of every student in a cooperative learning environment.
INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET(IPA)
“Just American sounds”
This website has been created as a companion resource for 45 tactual cards that allow blind learners to recognize the shape of the IPA symbols that represent American English sounds. The link at the bottom of the page takes you to a photo of one of the cards. From there, you can follow a link to a document outlining how the cards were made. On each card, the following information appears: the IPA symbol, its corresponding representation in Braille, the typographical description in English orthography and Braille, and a sequence number that lists the symbols in the same order as they appear on this website.
To access an audio recording related to each sound, follow the links below for Consonants and Vowels. Each sound file includes the following information on the screen: Typographical description, sequence number (corresponds to the number on the symbol card), the phonetic symbol, sample words (in standard orthography) in which the sound occurs, and the IPA articulatory description of the sound. In addition, the files for most of the vowels also include a more pedagogically oriented description of their production.
Each recording begins with the name of the symbol. Each consonant is produced in two short sequences with vowels followed by several words in which the consonant occurs. Each vowel is produced by itself and is followed by several words in which it occurs.
Moreover, to know the corresponding symbol in Braille for each sound, follow the link “IPA in Braille” to find the information.
Los siguientes enlaces contienen toda la información necesaria acerca de los símbolos del Alfabeto Fonético Internacional (IPA) por sus siglas en Inglés.
Recuerde que este sitio web fue creado como un recurso tecnológico que acompaña al diseño de un material didáctico que consiste en 45 tarjetas táctiles que permiten a los aprendices ciegos a reconocer las formas de los símbolos IPA pertenecientes al Inglés Americano. Cada tarjeta táctil contiene la grafía de cada símbolo y su correspondencia en Braille, la descripción tipográfica en letra impresa y en Braille, y un número de serie que enumera las tarjetas del mismo modo en que aparece la información en este sitio web.
Más información acerca del diseño de las tarjetas táctiles puede ser encontrada en el enlace “tactual cards design”
Para buscar la información de algún símbolo en específico, lea la descripción tipográfica y abra el enlace.
Para mayor información sobre los símbolos IPA en Braille, visite el link que corresponde a este nombre.
IPA braille print-edThe use of some content on this website requires special technological accommodation for screen reader users. To have access to these resources, please open the link below and follow the steps to enable the screen reader “Jaws for Windows” to type and read the IPA symbols. The guidelines are in English and Spanish; select the most convenient version for you and follow the instructions.
El uso de ciertos contenidos en esta página web requieren de algunas acomodaciones técnicas por parte de los usuarios con lectores de pantalla. Para tener acceso a estos recursos técnicos, por favor vaya al enlace que encuentra a continuación y siga paso a paso las instrucciones de los manuales para habilitar al lector de pantalla “Jaws for Windows” en la lectura y digitación de todos los símbolos del Alfabeto Fonético Internacional (IPA) por sus siglas en Inglés.
Los manuales se encuentran en Español e Inglés, seleccione de acuerdo a su conveniencia y siga las instrucciones.
