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Activity and strategy

Desk Calendars for Braille Users

Setting up a desk calendar in braille promotes braille literacy for children who are blind or deafblind or visually impaired.

My son Liam is a second grade braille reader.  He has had a variety of desk schedules in his school career thus far, starting with object schedules, then braille paired with pieces of the object to, most recently, braille only.  I took the idea of his current desk calendar at school that we created for him and made a similar one to fit his Sunday School routine at our church.  

Boy reading braille on desk schedule
Liam reads the braille on his desk calendar.

Desk Calendars are great with routines and help make the tasks and routines more predictable for the child.  Any routine at home (chores, afterschool routine, etc.), school, church, afterschool activities, and many other settings can be broken down into “chunks” and made into a schedule that is accessible.   

Materials

  • Velcro strip:  to place the schedule pieces (I glued mine with super glue onto a cardboard strip. I then taped it onto a table)
  • Wooden shapes with velcro attached: to place the name of the activities (you can use braille, print, objects or all of the above!)
  • Finished box
Work space showing a desk calendar.
Work space with a desk calendar

Procedure

  1. Allow the child to set up his schedule before the routine begins.  See video below.
  2. As you complete each activity, take off the wooden shape that represents the completed activity and place it in the finished box.

Turn on the closed caption option to view the captions.

Collage of creating a desk schedule for braille readers
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