Guide
Digital math: Introducing skill level checklists
Does your student have age-appropriate digital math skills to be successful in math? Take a look at these checklists!
Resources for the International AER Conference, July 24, 2024 and the Deep Dive Into the Math Checklists webinar, April 29, 2025.
Webpage content menu
- Building strong digital math skills
- Resources
- Digital Math Best Practices Guidelines document (*Important resource!)
- Digital Math: Introducing Skill Level Checklists PowerPoint Presentation from the International AER Conference, 2024 (*Important resource!)
- Tactile Graphicacy in Mathematics webinar series:
- Webinar 1: Strategies for Teaching Tactile Readiness Skills
- Webinar 2: Teaching Students to Read and Interpret Tactile Graphics Used in Math
- Webinar 3: Teaching Students to Create Math-Related Tactile Graphics
- Deep Dive Into the Math Checklists PowerPoint Presentation (April 29, 2025)
- Resources
- Skills checklists and resources
- Feedback
Building strong digital math skills
Students with visual impairments must have strong skills to access and produce increasing complex digital math content. The current lack of digital math best practices is driving a need for guidelines to help TSVIs build a strong digital math program for their students and to build consistency across the United States. As a field we need to understand what digital math skills to teach our students, when these skills should be taught and how to teach these skills.
We, the national TEAM Initiative, are developing digital math checklists organized by grade levels that TSVIs can use to ensure that students have the knowledge and skills needed in today’s digital classroom. These checklists include links to resources, manipulatives, tutorials, lessons, accessible apps and more.
We recognize that there are challenges with digital math, including:
- Students have different tech skills
- Students have different math skills
- Different types of available technology
- TSVIs have different skill sets
- TSVIs have not been trained in digital math skills
- Lack of digital math resources and lessons
- Lack of accessible math applications
Students with visual impairments will need multiple tools in their toolbox and should be introduced to and become proficient with a variety of devices and tools in order to access and complete various types of math assignments. This includes but is not limited to using a Perkins brailler, manipulatives, tactile graphics, tablet paired with a braille display, braille notetaker and laptop paired with a braille display. Research dictates that it takes 3 years to fully master a tech skill. It is our belief that students should enter kindergarten with tech skills equivalent to their sighted peers, including access to age-appropriate educational math games. This is often through touch screen devices (tablets and/or smart phones) with a screen reader and ideally paired with a braille display, prior to entering kindergarten. Students should be introduced to a notetaker or should be using a refreshable braille display efficiently in early elementary and should be introduced to a laptop by late elementary school in preparation for using a laptop (paired with a braille display/braille notetaker) for most activities in middle school.
Resources
Download these important digital math resources!
- Digital Math Best Practices Guidelines document
- Deep Dive Into the Math Checklists Webinar PowerPoint Presentation (April 29, 2025)
- Digital Math: Introducing Skill Level Checklists PowerPoint Presentation for the International AER Conference, July 2024
- Note: The checklists and documents linked in the presentation have been updated and will continue to be updated as new resources and information become available. Find the most recent documents linked here in this post.
Skills checklists and resources
Below are the available Digital Math Skills Checklists and accompanying resources for you to download and use. Stay tuned as more resources are added and as these resources are updated!
Manipulatives
Manipulatives are critical tools used to introduce and build solid foundational math concepts and should be used prior to applying the math concept to a digital format.
- Digital Math Manipulatives Skills Checklist (Coming soon!)
- Digital Math Manipulatives Student Progress Checklist (Coming soon!)
Tablet
- Digital Math Tablet Skills Checklist
- Digital Math Tablet Skills Student Progress Checklist
- VoiceOver Gestures Student Progress
- Braille Display Commands Student Progress
- Bluetooth Keyboard Commands Student Progress
- Apps Mentioned in the Digital Math Tablet Skills Checklist
- Math Melodies Skills with Common Core Math Standards
- AI-Learners Math Games List
- Animal Watch Vi Skills with Common Core Math Standards
Notetaker
- Digital Math Notetaker Skills Checklist
- Digital Math Notetaker Skills Student Progress Checklist
- Calculator Commands on the BrailleSense
- Accessing the Nemeth Symbol Library on the BrailleSense
Computer
Calculator
Orion TI-30XS Talking Scientific Calculator
Orion TI-84+ Talking Graphing Calculator
- A Quick Introduction to the Orion TI-84+
- Orion TI-84+ Graphing Simple Functions and Gathering Information
- Orion TI-84+ Plotting Points and the Line of Best Fit
- Orion TI-84+ Working with Matrices
Desmos Calculators
Feedback
The digital math checklists are fluid and will continue to evolve as educators provide feedback, as technology improves and as new resources become available. Your input is needed to shape and maintain the integrity of these checklists. Fill out the 5-question feedback form as you use a checklist with a student or anytime you have suggestions or comments. Use the same form for each checklist; you can fill out the form with new comments at any time. Help guide the national transition to create equality across the nation for BLV students to have strong digital math skills!
Feedback Form link or use the QR code below:
Resource
By Diane Brauner, Sara Larkin, Susan Osterhaus and Dr. Tina Herzberg
This resource was created as part of the TEAM Initiative (Tech Equity and Access in Math) to assist Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments to students for success in math classes using digital resources by providing skills checklists and teaching resources. If you would like more information about the TEAM Initiative, contact Leslie Thatcher at [email protected].
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