TSB 360

Tennessee School for the Blind Sees 360-Degree App Helping Visually
Impaired Students Orient Themselves to the Campus and Classrooms

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Visually impaired students and faculty at the Tennessee School for the Blind (TSB) are finding it easier to get around the campus and classrooms on their own with the help of their new, custom app running on an iPad tablet.

The TSB 360 app features nearly 50 360º panoramic images of the classrooms, residential cottages and other campus spaces that enables the visually impaired to ‘teleport in’ to experience a space as if he or she was in the middle: looking up or down ­– left or right. The immersive experience is possible because of how the app leverages the motion-sensing technology in the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices.

“The TSB 360 app – powered by TourWrist – gives our visually impaired students freedom, independence and confidence to travel the campus,” said TSB Outreach Technology Consultant (and legally blind) Dr. Douglas Walker. “The students love it! It’s a kinesthetic learning experience for the students. The hands-on virtual tour of the campus helps enable our students to be independent in a sighted-world.”

“The TSB 360 app will also be used to help potential students (and their families) tour the TSB campus prior to visiting in person,” said Walker. “Plus, since the app is available free in the Apple iTunes App Store, it’s another way for us to share with more than 50 schools for the blind nationally and internationally how the Tennessee School for the Blind is leveraging cutting-edge technology to help make the world accessible to the visually impaired. We recently acquired 50 iPad 2 tablets for the School. Our fun and easy-to-use TSB 360 app is another way that our students will use these iPads.”

Nashville based 360PanoramaTours.com Chief Photographer Chuck Thompson first proposed the use of the 360º images to help new TSB visually impaired students navigate the campus. Thompson shoots all the 360º panoramic images for the TSB 360 app pro bono. “It’s so exciting to see the students’ reaction to the 360º campus images.” “It’s nice to be able to share my passion for 360º photography with the students to help them connect to the world around them,” says Thompson. “I anticipate adding 360º ‘field trip’ images to the TSB app so students and staff can orient themselves to spaces prior to their visit: for example, the Tennessee Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.”

San Francisco based TourWrist, a mobile and web-based virtual tour company, created the custom TSB 360 app. The company offers identical, localized versions of the TSB 360 app to Schools for the Blind worldwide at a special, non-commercial custom app rate.

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About the Tennessee School for the Blind (TSB)

Tennessee School for the Blind (TSB) is a Tennessee Department of Education state school located in Middle Tennessee. TSB, founded in 1844, serves more than 165 K-12 blind and visually impaired students across Tennessee. Students live on campus five nights per week. TSB offers a strong, inclusive Outreach Program that includes a variety of services to children with visual impairments in school districts across Tennessee.

The faculty are empowered to reach out to help all blind and visually impaired students; maximize their full potential; and to empower them to live successfully and independently in a sighted world.TSB provides cutting-edge technology to its students and staff with vision challenges to have accessibility to email, word processing and the internet. Four computer labs with specialized equipment are available to students, teachers, parents and employees. TSB recently acquired 50 iPad 2 tablets.

For more information about the Tennessee School for the Blind, please visit: http://www.tsb.k12tn.net