To facilitate this curriculum in a way that empowers blind students, you will either need to produce or purchase some specific materials, tools, and pieces of equipment. Throughout the lesson plans, we provide direct links to either (1) the source files required to produce the materials or (2) a retailer that sells the equipment.
Purchasing
The accessible lab equipment used in the curriculum, which is specifically designed for blind people, that is commercially available, can be acquired from the following retailers.
- Independence Science
- Sensational Books
- NFB Independence Market
- American Printing House for the Blind
- National Braille Press
Producing
Handouts
If your students access text-based and graphic-based materials on paper, you will need to produce numerous handouts. The curriculum includes the source files required to produce the handouts. Using the source files, you will need to emboss, print, or run documents through a tactile graphics fuser. Text-based materials are provided as both BRFs and accessible Word documents. Graphic-based materials are provided as PDFs and are intended for hard-copy, tactile graphic and large-print production only; these documents are not intended for digital use.
Each lesson plan includes links to the required handouts. Additionally, you will find a list of all of the handouts here.
Building Materials and Tools
In addition to handouts, this curriculum makes heavy use of original NFB EQ manipulatives and tools. These tools and manipulatives are not commercially available. Constructing the NFB EQ manipulatives and tools requires a range of skill sets from simple crafting skills to intermediate carpentry skills.
To support others in producing the original NFB EQ manipulatives and tools, the curriculum includes construction plans. The plans are available in both visual and nonvisual formats. Each plan includes a textual description and technical renderings.
Each lesson plan includes links to the construction plans for the required NFB EQ manipulatives and tools. Additionally, you will find a list of all of the construction plans here.