Interactive Classroom TV System for the Handicapped.

One of a series on the visual information transfer problems of the partially sighted, the report describes an interactive, multicamera, multimonitor closed circuit television (CCTV) system that permits continuous visual communication between teacher and students in an elementary school resource room. The system (in use since November 1973) is the first known classroom CCTV system for the handicapped, and it enables students with severely impaired vision to read ordinary print, to write with a regular pen or pencil, to carry out operations requiring precise eye-hand coordination, and to see a teacher's written examples while listening to her verbal explanations. The system is reported to be helpful to educable mentally retarded and hearing impaired students and may also prove beneficial to similarly handicapped adults. Provided are sections on system components and design features, engineering considerations, and proof-testing the classroom TV system. Appendixes include technical information on system components; a description of nine performance tests (of intelligence, achievement, perception, and school attitude) administered to measure the effectiveness of the CCTV system; and entries from the teacher's log showing how the system has been used and describing associated problems and successes. (LH)