When I was working with a student preparing to transition to middle school, I worked with the student’s support team to come up with a list of ideas and strategies for setting up their future middle school classrooms with low vision accessibility in mind. Since this student was still developing their self-advocacy skills and had never stepped foot in a middle school before, we wanted to ensure that their teachers would have the tools they need to help this student thrive in the classroom. Here is a list of tips and ideas for setting up a middle school classroom for a student with visual impairment, with a focus on low vision and access to print/visual information, shared from the perspective of a former middle school student with low vision.
Add a tactile dot to their desk
Many middle school classrooms have assigned seating or a seating chart, but don’t have student names on the desks or other visual landmarks that help students find their seats. To help students with locating their desk, one option is to add a tactile dot or bump dot on the edge of the desk that the student can feel as they walk by— these dots come in multiple colors, including a transparent option. This strategy was especially helpful for another student I worked with who would have difficulty identifying which desk was theirs if there was more than one empty desk in the room.
Related links
Create copies of posters that the student can access
My middle school teachers would often hang educational posters around the classroom that students could refer to during quizzes, which were difficult or impossible for me to see from my desk. For one student I worked with, the support team created a folder that had copies of posters and anchor charts in the classroom that the teacher would reference during class, or that students could look at when working on assignments or quizzes. I have a post on creating accessible classroom posters linked below that covers multiple options and formats.
Related links
- How To Create Accessible Classroom Posters For Students With Visual Impairments
- Adapting Accessible Trifold Posters For Low Vision
- How I Receive Accessible Quizzes and Tests in the Classroom
- How To Create An Accessible Formula Sheet
- Math Test Accommodations For Low Vision
Place PVC pipe on the desk to store a white cane
Since middle school students often switch classes and walk through crowded hallways to different classrooms throughout the day, many students begin to use a white cane (blindness cane) to help with navigating independently. Unlike high school students that carry a backpack between classes, middle school students don’t usually have a place to store their canes in a place where they can easily access them if needed during class.
To give students a place to put their canes, add a piece of PVC pipe to the base of their desk by lifting the desk leg and placing it inside of the PVC. To find the appropriate PVC width, measure the diameter of the cane tip and the desk legs to ensure that the student can slide the cane in and out independently without the cane getting stuck. To find the appropriate height, I recommend measuring the cane and ensuring the pipe covers the bottom 1/3 of the table leg. Most students I have worked with needed a straight PVC pipe around 3 to 4 inches in diameter to accommodate their canes.
Related links
- High School Hallways and Low Vision
- Decoding The Tips of Blindness Canes
- Twelve Blindness Cane Storage Solutions
Consider adding fluorescent light covers
Fluorescent lights can be distracting or disorienting for low vision students that have light sensitivity or are sensitive to flickering lights. This would have made a tremendous difference for me as a middle school student with low vision because I often found that the overhead lights in the classroom were painfully bright and created glare against the dry-erase board that made it harder to take notes.
Other ideas for improving classroom lighting include:
- Use surface lighting such as lamps
- If a student needs more light at their desk, consider task lighting like a book light that can provide targeted illumination
- Instead of having the classroom pitch black when the lights are out, keep a surface light on or partially dim the lights if a student is sensitive to strobe or flashing lights
- Use natural lighting from classroom windows
In middle school, I also started wearing prescription non-polarized tinted glasses because I had no control over what lights my teachers turned on/off in the classroom. Before I learned tinted glasses were a thing, I would wear sunglasses over my prescription glasses and take frequent vision breaks to minimize exposure to bright lights.
Related links
- Lighting And Low Vision
- Reduce Glare In The Classroom For Low Vision Students
- Environmental Accommodations For Low Vision Students
- How Tinted Glasses Help My Light Sensitivity
- Activity Ideas For Vision Breaks
Use high contrast markers and clean the dry-erase board regularly
Faded markers and light colored markers can be challenging for students with visual impairments to see, and may be difficult for distance magnifiers or OCR tools to detect as well. Using high contrast markers in dark, saturated colors (or other student preferred colors) against the dry-erase board can make it easier for students to read information written on the board or copy down notes.
Another way to ensure that dry-erase boards are easy for students to read is to ensure that the board is cleaned regularly, as having dark smudges or “ghost” text can impact the readability of text as well. For example, writing with a black marker on a faded gray section of the board may be challenging for students with low vision to see.
Another strategy for using dry erase boards with low vision students is to provide an option for students to use a dry-erase board at their desk in lieu of scratch paper. I use this strategy a lot for working out math problems or taking quick notes as I find it easier to read from/write on a dry-erase board compared to paper.
Related links
- How To Make Things On The Board Easier To See
- High Contrast and Low Vision
- How I Show Work For Math With Low Vision and Dysgraphia
- Strategies For Using Lined Paper With Low Vision
Have information in a consistent location
One helpful way to help visually impaired students stay organized is to have information in a consistent location so that they know where to look for it. In a middle school classroom, this can include:
- Writing homework reminders or assignments in a consistent location on the board, e.g. on the right side.
- Place high contrast boxes on a table for turning in work or having students get up to grab paper from a desk, instead of having identical page stacks
- Ensure small items like markers can be stored in a place where they won’t fall onto the floor or otherwise disappear
Related links
- Elementary School Classrooms and Low Vision Accessibility
- Classroom Technology That Benefits Low Vision Students
Talk to the student about preferred seating
Many students with visual impairments have preferential seating accommodations, which give them the flexibility they need to choose a seat in class that lets them see the board or other visual details. There is no universal “best seat for visually impaired students” that will work for everyone, but some things to keep in mind include:
- Consider having the student sit at a desk where they don’t have to turn their head to see the board/their desk directly faces the board
- If possible/known, allow the student to sit next to a friend or familiar student, as they may not feel comfortable explaining their visual impairment to a student they have never met when they’re already overwhelmed about starting in a new class or school
- Check if there are outlets or places where students can charge devices nearby
- Assess noise levels— a student sitting directly under a vent for example may become distracted by the noise and have more trouble focusing their eyes
- Ensure that overhead lighting does not create glare at the desk, or consider adding a mat or other matte surface to absorb glare.
Related links
Verify that the projector is in working order
Overhead projectors with dim lights or flickering/flashing lights will be difficult for students with visual impairments to see, so teachers should verify that projectors are in working order. While some students will self-advocate and let the teacher know if they are having trouble seeing the projector, others might not bring it up because they know it’s not something the teacher can instantly fix and may not feel comfortable mentioning it.
Related links
- Five Common Technology Behaviors That Hurt My Brain
- Flashing Lights and Photosensitivity in the Classroom
- How I Talk To Professors About Photosensitivity
More tips for middle school classrooms and low vision accessibility
- Visual impairment is a spectrum, and students are the expert on their own conditions or usable vision. The student’s support team members (parents, teacher of the visually impaired, case manager, etc.) can also provide context on the student’s vision loss, but ultimately the student perspective should be centered
- As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I am a former middle school student with low vision, and I wrote a post about things I wish my middle school teachers knew in Dear Middle School Teacher
- I spent more time in middle school classrooms than some of my fellow students because I would often go to a classroom instead of the cafeteria— learn more in School Cafeterias and Low Vision
- Looking for tips on how to practice self-advocacy? Read Learning to Self-Advocate
Published August 12, 2020. Updated January 2025