Instructional Accommodations: Making the Learning Environment Accessible to Students with Visual Disabilities (Archived)

In a moment, I’m going to summarize for you a children’s story written by Leo Leonni. The story is called Fish is Fish. After listening, I’ll ask you to give reasons why you think it is or is not relevant to learning and, if it is, to give some samples of your own that will illustrate this. A tadpole and a fish live together in a pond. They are intensely curious about the world outside. Eventually, the tadpole grows into a frog and is able to leave the pond and travel onto the land. A short time later, he returns to the pond and tells the fish what he saw.

“There are marvelous creatures called birds,” said the frog. “They have beaks and two feet, but most amazingly, they have wings and can fly.”

“I’ve got it,” said the fish. “What wonderful information; I know exactly what you mean.”

“There are also things called cows,” said the frog. “They have four legs, and some of them have horns, and some have utters, and they chew grass.”

“Say no more,” said the fish. “I can see a cow as clearly as if it were right in front of me.”

“Well, that’s not all,” said the frog. “Let me tell you about these creatures called people. They walk on two legs, but they also have two arms and come in all kinds of sizes.”

“Perfect,” said the fish. “I can picture them now.”

There’s more to Leonni’s story, but this is the part that’s important to this Challenge. Do you think it’s relevant to human learning, and, if so, can you give some Fish is Fish examples of your own that will illustrate this?

Adapted from the book “Fish is Fish,” written by Leo Leonni (Dragonfly Books, 1974). Read by Tim Altman. Courtesy of John Bransford.

(This film is made up of a series of still frames.)

1. The film starts on a mottled blue frame that is otherwise empty (it represents water).
2. Then the title, “Fish is Fish,” appears in curvy, green, lowercase letters, followed by a little yellow fish with black fins, who appears on the right side of the frame.
3. The next frame is still underwater, but now there is a small piece of rock or sandy earth at the bottom of the screen (it is the bottom of a pond). Up from the earth, four long, slightly curvy pieces of green seaweed are growing. Behind the seaweed, the little yellow fish is floating and talking to a tadpole, which is to the left of the fish and looks like a greenish-brown dot with a thin, short tail.
4. The next frame zooms in on the fish and the tadpole as they began their conversation.
5. The following frame still shows the pond, but there is now a lighter gray-blue band across the top of the water, representing the air above the pond. The frame also reveals more of the bottom of the pond—more brown earth, the seaweed is now on the far left, and there is another tall green plant with light-green round leaves on the far right. The fish looks bigger next to the seaweed than it did before, and the tadpole is now a frog. The frog is green and has a large round body with bent legs tucked underneath; he also now has eyes and a smile.
6. The next frame shows the same spot in the water. The fish hasn’t moved, but the frog is now sitting on top of a wide, flat, green lily pad that is floating on top of the pond.
7. The frame changes again to show the frog back under water and sitting by the seaweed. The fish is very close to the frog, as if listening.
8. The frame now zooms in on the fish and the frog, and there are three short lines coming from the frog’s mouth to show that it is speaking.
9. Next, the yellow fish is shown by itself with three white exclamation points over its head.
10. The frame zooms back out to show the fish, the frog, the bottom of the pond, the seaweed, and the air above again. But this time, much of the frame is taken up by a big white circle with a point coming from the direction of the fish (this is to show what the fish is imagining). Inside the white circle is a bird that has the same body shape as the fish, but instead of having fins, it has wings spread back like it is flying upward. The bird is red with blue feathers, and it looks like it is about to catch a small winged insect in its beak.
11. The following frame goes back to just the fish and the frog; they are talking next to the plant with round leaves. The sky is not visible.
12. Next, we again see a close-up shot of the yellow fish with three white exclamation points over its head.
13. The frame after that one zooms back out to show the frog sitting at the bottom of the pond by some short green plants, and the fish is floating near the top of the lake on the right side of the frame. Most of the left side of the frame is taken up with another large white circle coming from the fish, (again this is what it is imagining). In the circle is an animal with the body of a fish—it even still has its blue fins—but now it is white with black spots like a cow. It also has four legs and utters under its belly for milking like a cow. The animal has pointy horns sticking up on its face, and it has several thin green blades of grass sticking out of its mouth. It is chewing like a cow would do.
14. This frame shows the frog and the fish at the bottom of the pond near the plant with round leaves. The frog has three short lines coming from its mouth, again to show it is talking, and the fish is close by listening. The sky is not visible above the pond.
15. The next frame zooms in once more to show the yellow fish with three white exclamation points above its head.
16. Then the frame zooms back out to show both the pond and the sky. The frog is at the bottom of the frame and it still has talking lines coming out of its mouth. The fish is on the right side of the frame, floating above the short green plants. The tall seaweed is on the far left of the frame. And in the upper-left part of the frame, there is another large white circle with a point coming from the fish. This time, it is imagining men in blue-grey business suits. The men appear sideways, and their bodies are shaped like that of the fish. There are blue fins sticking out of the backs of all the suits, and instead of having human faces, the men have fish heads that point straight up in the air. The men do have arms and legs, and their fish faces are a Caucasian skin color instead of yellow. The fish is imagining many people, so there are several big fish-people in suits, and then several smaller but identical fish-people fill up the rest of the space in the white circle.
17. The frame now changes to an empty mottled blue, like the opening shot. It is just the water in the pond.
18. The title, “Fish is Fish,” comes up again and then the yellow fish comes back onto the right side of the screen. The title then disappears and, after it, the fish does, too.
19. The final frame shows the fish in the upper-left, and to its right is the first white circle with the imagined fish-bird in it. Then, at the bottom of the frame, the circle with the fish-people in suits appears. Then a cropped image of the frog on the lily pad appears at the bottom-left of the frame. And then another cropped image of the young fish and the tadpole shows up in the middle-right of the frame. A shot of the frog talking to the fish appears above the last image, and the frame is finally full of this collage of images. The yellow fish has just enough room to appear at the bottom-right of the frame, not in a circle or cropped image, but just floating in the water among all the different images.