1. Abstarct

2. The term partially sighted was used to classify and place students in special classes whose distance visual acuity was between 20 / 70 and 20 / 200 in the better eye after correction (Hatfield, 1975). In 1977 the classifications of levels of vision adopted by the World Health Organization omitted the use of partially sighted in its system (Colenbrander, 1977). As a result, this term has virtually disappeared from the literature.

3. Keywords blind, vision, visual impairment.

4. The principle of partial participation entails the position that all students with severe disabilities (including the profoundly mentally retarded and the severely physically disabled) can acquire a number of skills that will enable them to function at least partially in a variety of least restrictive school and nonschool environments or activities (Baumgart et al., 1980). Because of the severity of their sensory or motor impairments as well as deficits in attentional and learning processes, some severely disabled students have difficulty in learning skills needed to function independently in current and subsequent least restrictive environments. Rather than denying access to these environments, proponents of the principle of partial participation believe adaptations can be implemented that will allow students to participate in a wide range of activities (Demchack, 1994) as well as experience inclusive programming. The latter, however, may not always be the least restrictive environment for students with severe disabilities. Adaptations via modes of partial participation can take on a variety of dimensions in the activities of severely disabled learners (Baumgart et al., 1982; Wehman, Schleien, & Kiernan, 1980).

5. Materials and devices can be used or created in an effort to adapt tasks (e.g., using an enlarged adaptive switch to operate kitchen appliances, using picture communication cards to communicate needs in a restaurant, using a bus pass instead of coins when a student is unable to count coins for bus fare, using frozen waffles rather than a waffle iron and batter when preparing breakfast). The sequence of steps in skills being taught can be modified (e.g., dress in a bathing suit before going to community pool if extra time is needed to manipulate clothing; sit on the toilet first, then pull pants down if unsteady on feet in the bathroom). Personal assistance can be provided for part or all of a task (e.g., peers push wheelchair to help deliver attendance records to office, teacher takes bread out of bag and places it in toaster prior to having student press lever on toaster). Rules can be changed or adapted to meet the needs of individual students (e.g., allow student to eat lunch in two lunch periods in cafeteria if he or she is a slow eater owing to physical disabilities). Societal or attitudinal as well as physical environments can be adapted (e.g., installing wheelchair ramps in public places, installing electronic doors in public buildings to make them more accessible for wheelchair users).

6. The classroom teacher will need to follow a number of steps to implement partial participation strategies successfully. These include: (1) taking a nondisabled person’s inventory of steps / skills used in a particular task; (2) taking a severely disabled student’s inventory of steps used or skills exhibited for the same task; (3) determining the skills that the student with disabilities probably can acquire; (4) determining the skills the disabled student probably cannot acquire; (5) generating an adaptation hypothesis; (6) conducting an inventory of adaptations currently available for use; (7) determining individualized adaptations to be used; and (8) determining skills that can probably be acquired using individualized adaptations (Baumgart et al., 1982).

7. Several considerations are recommended when using individualized adaptations for severely disabled students. These include: (1) empirically verifying the appropriateness and effectiveness of adaptations in the criterion or natural environment; (2) avoiding allowing students to become overly dependent on adaptations; and (3) carefully selecting adaptations to meet needs of individual students in critically functional environments (Baumgart et al., 1980). Appropriate applications of the principle of partial participation will enhance the access of severely disabled individuals to integrated environments available to the nondisabled population at large (Brown et al., 1979; Ferguson & Baumgart, 1991).

8. References

9. Baumgart, D., Brown, L., Pumpian, I., Nisbet, J., Ford, A., Sweet, M., Messina, R., & Schroeder, J. (1982). Principle of partial participation and individualized adaptations in education programs for severely handicapped students // Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 7(2), 17–27.

10. Baumgart, D., Brown, L., Pumpian, I., Nisbet, J., Ford, A., Sweet, M., Ranieri, L., Hansen, L., & Schroeder, J. (1980). The principle of partial participation and individualized adaptations in education programs for severely handicapped students // Brown, M. Falvey, I. Pumpian, D. Baumgart, J. Nisbet, A. Ford, J. Schroeder, & R. Loomis (Eds.). Curricular strategies for teaching severely handicapped students functional skills in school and nonschool environments (Vol. 10). Madison: Madison Public Schools and the University of Wisconsin.

11. Brown, L., Branston- McClean, M. B., Baumgart, D., Vincent, L., Falvey, M., & Schroeder, J. (1979). Using the characteristics of current and subsequent least restrictive environments in the development of curricular content for severely handicapped students // Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 4, 407–424.

12. Demchak, M.A. (1994). Helping individuals with severe disabilities fi nd leisure activities // Teaching Exceptional Children, 27(1), 48–52.

13. Ferguson, D.L., & Baumgart, D. (1991). Partial participation revisited // Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 16(4), 218–227.

Wehman, P., Schleien, S., & Kiernan, J. (1980). Age appropriate recreation programs for severely handicapped youth and adults // Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps,5, 395–407.

1. Read the article.

2. Make some general remarks concerning the content of the paper using words and expressions from Useful Vocabulary Section.

3. Discuss the structure of the paper.

4. Give some positive comments.

5. Express your criticism or objections.

6. Analyze the data, results and their presentations.

7. Make a conclusion.

ПРИЛОЖЕНИЯ

Appendix 1. Useful Vocabulary

Below you will find a wide range of expressions, word combinations, phrases, and speech patterns, actively used in English to structure a scientific paper: to state a problem, introduce material and methods of investigation, when reviewing, citing or commenting on the pertinent literature, describing and explaining experimental data, drawing conclusions and outlining perspectives, etc.

1. Introduction

1.1. General remarks

The subject (matter) of the paper/ study / analysis / research /discussion is…

The present paper /investigation focuses on /deals with…

is devoted to the question /problem /issue of…

undertakes to survey /identify the structure of…

considers what factors/ processes influence…

In this article the author aims to determine /attempts to explain the mechanisms of..

is intended to give/ show/ develop/ provide/ record…

examines the nature/ characteristics/ features/ functions of...

concentrates on/ argue that/ review…

turns to examples of…