A Magazine for Parents and Teachers of Blind Children published by
the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults in partnership
with the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children.
Volume 33 Number 2 Special Issue on Low Vision
Deborah Kent Stein, Editor
ISSN-0883-3419
Copyright © 2014 American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
For more information
about blindness and children contact:
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, MD 21230 • (410) 659-9314
www.nfb.org/nopbc • [email protected] • [email protected]
The 2014 convention of the National Federation of the Blind will take place in Orlando, Florida, July 1-6, at the Rosen Centre Hotel at 9840 International Drive, Orlando, Florida 32819. Make your room reservation as soon as possible with the Rosen Centre staff only. Call (800) 204-7234.
The 2014 room rates are singles, doubles, and twins, $82; and triples and quads, $88. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 13.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under seventeen in the room with parents, as long as no extra bed is requested. The hotel is accepting reservations now. A $95-per-room deposit is required to make a reservation. Fifty percent of the deposit will be refunded if notice is given to the hotel of a reservation cancellation before May 28, 2014. The other 50 percent is not refundable.
Rooms will be available on a first-come, first-served basis until our block is filled or until May 28, whichever comes first. After our block is filled and/or after May 28, the hotel has no obligation to accept any further reservations, but may do so if it has rooms available. In other words, you should get your reservation in soon.
Guest-room amenities include cable television; in-room safe; coffeemaker; hairdryer; and, for a fee, high-speed Internet access. Guests can also enjoy a swimming pool, fitness center, and on-site spa. The Rosen Centre Hotel offers fine dining at Executive Chef Michael Rumplik's award-winning Everglades Restaurant. In addition, there is an array of dining options from sushi to tapas to a 24-hour deli. The hotel has first-rate amenities and shuttle service to the Orlando airport.
The schedule for the 2014 convention is:
Tuesday, July 1 Seminar Day
Wednesday, July 2 Registration Day
Thursday, July 3 Board Meeting and Division Day
Friday, July 4 Opening Session
Saturday, July 5 Business Session
Sunday, July 6 Banquet Day and Adjournment
National Federation of the Blind
2014 National Convention Preregistration Form
Please register online at <www.nfb.org/registration> or use this mail-in form. Print legibly, provide all requested information, and mail form and payment to:
National Federation of the Blind
Attn: Convention Registration
200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
Please register only one person per registration form; however, one check or money order may cover multiple registrations. Check or money order (sorry, no credit cards) must be enclosed with registration(s).
Registrant Name ________________________________________________________
Address _______________________________________________________________
City ________________________________ State _____________ Zip ___________
Phone ______________________________ Email ______________________________
___ I will pick up my registration packet at convention.
or
___ The following person will pick up my registration packet:
Pickup Name _________________________________________________
Number of preregistrations x $25 = ____________
Number of pre-purchased banquet tickets x $55 = ____________
Total = ____________
PLEASE NOTE:
1. Preconvention registration and banquet sales are final (no refunds).
2. All preregistration mail-in forms must be postmarked by May 31.
Volume 33 Number 2 Special Issue on Low Vision
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT YOUR SUBSCRIPTION!
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Closing the Divide
by Deborah Kent Stein
FEATURE
Why Do You Want to Make That Child Blind?
by Carol Castellano
PARENTS' PERSPECTIVES
Blind Enough for a Cane?
by Carrie Gilmer
Finding Our Way with Grace
by Anna Wallis
Marley and Me Musical Chairs
by Terri Rupp
READING
Dual Media Learning: A Blessing or a Curse?
by Tammy Parson
Print or Braille? I Use Both!
by Charles Brown
IDENTITY
Learning the Hard Way
by Carla McQuillan
My Long Journey from Partially Sighted to Really Blind
by Michele Denise Michaels
TRAINING
The Hierarchy of Sight
by Eric Guillory
Expanding the Choices
by Brent Batron and Dan Burke
A New Kind of Trust
by Charlene Guggisberg
ADVOCACY
Blindness Advocacy: Power Tools in the Toolbox
by Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, Esq.; Natalie Shaheen; and Jayne S. Wesler, LCSW, Esq.
TECHNOLOGY
A Small Tablet War: Reading (and a Few Other Things) on the iPad Mini and Nexus 7
by Clara Van Gerven
NFB CONVENTION 2014
Taking the Next Step: The 2014 National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) Conference for Families and Teachers
by Carlton Anne Walker and Carol Castellano
NFB Camp Convention Adventures
by Carla McQuillan
NFB Camp Registration
ANNOUNCEMENTS
ODDS AND ENDS
Future Reflections is a magazine for parents and teachers of blind children. It is published quarterly by the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults in partnership with the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. Future Reflections is available free of charge to subscriber addresses in the U.S. in regular print and audio formats and via email, or it can be read online on the NFB website. Canadian subscriptions are $35.00 per year, and other foreign subscriptions are $75.00 U.S. per year. Checks should be made payable to the National Federation of the Blind and sent to the NFB, Attention Future Reflections, 200 E. Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, MD 21230.
For an email subscription to Future Reflections, visit <www.nfbcal.org/listserv-signup.html> and follow the instructions.
To subscribe to Future Reflections in print or audio format, send an email to [email protected]. Put "Subscribe to FR" in the subject line and include your preferred medium in the body. Please include your address, whether you are the parent of a blind child, a teacher, or other subscriber. If you are a parent, include your child's name and birth date.
URL: <https://nfb.org/future-reflections>
Are you the parent of a blind or visually impaired child? Don’t know where to turn?
Founded in 1983, the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) is a membership organization of parents, educators, and friends of blind children reaching out to give each other vital support, encouragement, and information. We have thousands of members in all fifty states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
The NOPBC offers hope, encouragement, information, and resources for parents of blind or visually impaired children. NOPBC provides emotional support and a network of other families dealing with the same challenges you are facing. We also provide information, training, and resources to empower you to take an active role in guiding your child’s development and education. We can provide information on your child’s rights and on the laws and legislative issues that will enable you and your child to become strong and effective advocates.
Have you ever wondered what your blind or visually impaired child will be capable of when he or she grows up? The answer to that question is that blindness/visual impairment does not have to stop your child from doing anything he or she wants to do. We can connect you with other families and blind adults who can serve as positive mentors and role models. They can teach you the attitudes and techniques that will enable your child to become independent and to succeed in life.
What is different about the NOPBC?
Our status as a division of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the largest and most influential organization of blind people in the world, provides many benefits. Our members are well informed about the societal, legislative, and technological issues that affect blind people. We also enjoy the resources, support, and expertise of fifty thousand blind people who can serve as mentors and role models for us and our children. Finally, as our children grow up, they have the Federation to belong to.
No other organization for parents of blind/visually impaired children offers more programs, activities, and training to families, children, and youth. One of our most exciting activities is our annual conference. Every year since it was established, the NOPBC has conducted an annual conference for parents and teachers of blind children as part of the national convention of the NFB. The program has grown to include five exciting days of workshops, training sessions, activities for all family members, including sighted siblings, and countless opportunities to meet blind adults and other families and children from around the country.
What is the mission of the NOPBC?
The purpose of the NOPBC is to:
• create a climate of opportunity for blind children in home and society.
• provide information and support to parents of blind children.
• facilitate the sharing of experience and concerns among parents of blind children.
• develop and expand resources available to parents and their children.
• help parents of blind children gain understanding and perspective through partnership and contact with blind adults.
• function as an integral part of the National Federation of the Blind in its ongoing effort to achieve equality and opportunity for all blind persons.
Most states have an NOPBC affiliate chapter. You can find your state chapter at <www.nopbc.org>. If your state does not have a chapter and you would like to start one, please contact us. We may be able to offer training and other assistance to start a state NOPBC chapter.
What are the programs, activities, publications, and resources of the NOPBC?
• National and State Parent Seminars and Conferences
• Future Reflections Magazine
• NOPBC Website
• Books and Videos
• Blindkid & Other Listservs
• Early Childhood Conferences
• Pop-Up IEP Website
• Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest
• Slate Pals Pen Pal Program
• AAF Free Braille Books Program
• Share Braille Book Exchange
• Writing Contests
• Junior Science Academy
• Youth Slam High School Science Academy
• National Center for Blind Youth in Science Web site
• NFB-NEWSLINE® Newspaper Service
• Where the Blind Work Website
• Free White Cane Program
• Blindness 411 Facebook Group for Teens
• NFB-LINK Mentoring Program
• Scholarship Program
• Straight Talk about Blindness Video Series
• Parent Leadership Program (PLP)
Contact Us:
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
[email protected]
<www.nopbc.org>
Dear Subscriber,
Perhaps you read each issue of Future Reflections from cover to cover the day it lands in your mailbox. You cut out articles that speak to you and take notes on useful resources. But maybe your children have grown up and live away from home; maybe these days you only look at Future Reflections when you carry your unread magazines to the recycling center.
At the NFB we need to update our records on our Future Reflections subscribers. If you wish to continue receiving Future Reflections after December 2014, you must contact the NFB. You can contact us by mail at 200 E. Wells St., Baltimore, MD 21230; by phone at (410) 659-9314, Ext. 2344; or by email at <[email protected]>. Please indicate whether you wish to continue receiving the print or audio (USB drive) version of the magazine.
We want you to receive Future Reflections for as long as it is of interest and value to you. Please take a few moments in your hectic schedule and let us know that you wish to remain on our mailing list. Understand that if we do not hear from you, you will stop receiving Future Reflections after the final issue of 2014. Please let us continue to serve you.
Cordially,
Deborah Kent Stein and the NFB Staff
by Deborah Kent Stein
I began my formal education in a resource room in Paterson, New Jersey. Our classroom was equipped with slates and styluses, Perkins Braillers, a tactile globe, and a wall of Braille books. The term resource room wasn't in use back then; our class was always referred to as "the Braille class." It served children who were totally blind or who had so little vision that they could not read print, no matter how large the letters might be.
The school in Paterson also had two "sight-saving classes" for children who were referred to as "partially sighted." The term sight-saving derived from the notion that partially sighted students could preserve their fragile vision by reading large-print books under the proper lighting conditions.
At school and at the summer camp I attended, operated by the New Jersey Commission for the Blind, children and adults freely categorized blind people as "partials" or "totals." I was always aware of a sharp distinction between the two groups. Because they had some sight, adults treated the partials as though they were more capable than we totals could ever hope to be. Based on their sight, the partials were granted enviable privileges. During lunch hour at school, the sight-savers were allowed to cross the street and buy treats at the corner candy store, while we totals waited at the curb. At camp the partials were permitted to go out in the rowboats without a counselor on board. As a totally blind camper, I was not allowed to cross the road unless one of the partials escorted me. The message was clear--vision ruled.
I was shocked one day at camp when I heard my partially sighted bunkmate read aloud, haltingly and without expression, from a large-print book. I knew she was a bright girl, and I didn't understand why she found reading so difficult. Later in the summer, she broke her glasses while roughhousing on the grass. In an instant this lively, outgoing girl became helpless and terrified. She clung to my arm as we headed back to our cabin and clutched the railing as we mounted the familiar steps. Although she was attending a camp for blind children and had many blind friends, she had none of the skills that would have helped her function when vision was not an option.
A great deal has changed since I attended the Braille class in Paterson. The term sight-saver has fallen out of use. New terms such as legally blind, severely visually impaired, and low vision have taken its place. But the tendency to divide those who are totally blind from those with some usable sight has changed very little. From Maine to Arizona, students with low vision still are taught to rely upon their sight as much as possible. Parents are told that their child won't need Braille because he "can get by" with magnification and recorded books. They are advised that their child "can manage" without a long white cane. Using a cane or reading Braille would make these children “look blind.” They're not blind, the reasoning goes--they just don't see very well.
With its deep-rooted conviction that it is respectable to be blind, the National Federation of the Blind works to dispel the shame and stigma that have long been attached to blindness. Furthermore, the NFB rejects the time-worn distinction between those with low vision and those who are totally blind. Instead of focusing on the amount of vision a person possesses, the NFB emphasizes the mastery of skills that build confidence and efficiency. It operates on the premise that nonvisual techniques for handling a given task are as effective as techniques that depend upon sight.
The articles in this special issue of Future Reflections examine low vision from a number of perspectives. Parents recount their efforts to ensure that children with low vision become fully literate. Adults with some sight look back upon their struggles to come to terms with their blindness. Instructors explain the use of sleepshades in teaching nonvisual skills to low vision children and teens, and attorneys review the special education laws that ensure the right of all blind children to be taught Braille.
The NFB has sometimes been accused of "trying to make everybody blind." In reality, the Federation tries to help those with limited vision discover techniques of literacy, travel, and daily living that will afford them greater independence. It seeks to empower all blind people--including those with some usable sight--to live their lives to the fullest.
by Carol Castellano
Reprinted, with updated material, from Future Reflections, Volume 29, Number 1, Winter 2010
From the Editor: Carol Castellano serves as director of programs for the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) and is president emerita of Parents of Blind Children-New Jersey (POBC-NJ). She is the author of four books on the education of blind and low vision children, including Making It Work and Getting Ready for College Begins in Third Grade. This article is an updated version of a presentation Carol delivered at the national convention of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) in 2009.
A four-year-old boy has entered preschool. He is highly sensitive to light and glare. His 20/400 vision makes it difficult for him to distinguish what is on the printed page in front of him. If he wears his sunglasses so that he can tolerate the indoor light, he can no longer see the page. At an IEP meeting the school principal demands to know exactly how many lightbulbs she must remove from the ceiling fixture in order to accommodate the boy's sensitivity to light. "If it gets too dark in the classroom," she warns the boy's mother, "we'll be out of compliance with state regulations for the rest of the children."
When this little boy walks from place to place within the school, an aide provides a constant flow of verbal information. "Be careful, there's a desk in the hallway ... slow down, the janitor's bucket is in our way ... watch out, here come the stairs." When he steps outside for recess, the boy is blinded by the daylight. The aide holds his hand so that he does not fall off a curb or trip over a tree root.
There is no Braille and no cane in this child's life because ... he is not blind.
A girl sits in a fourth grade classroom, an aide by her side. The aide retrieves the child's books, reads to her from books and from the computer screen, accompanies her in the hallways, and eats lunch with her in the school cafeteria. "Why does the aide walk with her and read to her?" I ask. The mom explains, "Well, those things are very visual."
There is no Braille and no cane in this child's life because ... she is not blind.
A fourteen-year-old high school freshman is having difficulty navigating the hallways and stairwells of his new school. Someone has suggested placing bright yellow tape at the top of each stairway. Another person recommends hiring a full-time aide to keep the boy safe and also to take notes for him, as he cannot see the board and cannot really read his own handwriting. The deliberations of the school team and parents are slow and cautious--especially in view of the nervous breakdown the boy had at the beginning of the school year and his subsequent hospitalization for anxiety and depression.
There is no Braille and no cane in this boy's life because ... well, you know, he is not blind.
A young man of twenty-four sits at home, angry and depressed. Unable to complete college and not working, he has no goals and doesn't believe he can accomplish anything in life. When I mention the possibility of training at an adjustment to blindness center, his mom immediately stops me. "Oh, no, he doesn't need that. He hasn't ever spent time with that kind of person. He doesn't think of himself as ... visually impaired."
These stories are not fictions--only identifying details were changed. When the parents of these children called, they each wanted me to understand that their child was not blind!
Frank is a second grader with albinism. He uses the vision he has very well, but his mother recognized that it might not work for him later, when the print becomes smaller and the paragraphs more dense. When his mother suggested at a school meeting that Frank learn Braille, the teacher of the blind responded, "Oh, I'd hate to do that to him." She went on to explain to the school staff that Braille is not a quick thing to learn, that poor Frank would have to learn all different grades of Braille and then would have to learn another code for math and even another system for music!
When it came time to discuss mobility, Frank's mother related how Frank tripped over small rises in the terrain, used his foot as a feeler in unfamiliar places, and had run headlong into a glass sliding door at his aunt's house. The mom thought Frank should learn to travel with a cane. The O&M instructor explained that Frank didn't qualify for cane use and, what's more, he needed to trip over things so that he would learn to pay more attention.
At the end of the meeting, the director of special services contributed what she seemed to feel was an expert opinion--though they'd never had a visually impaired student in their school district before. She'd done her research, she told us, contacting directors in other school districts. "Nobody," she proclaimed, "is giving Braille to kids who can see." "And," she continued, "I found out Frank would read the Braille with his eyes anyway. They'd have to blindfold him to get him to read it with his fingers. I just can't get that image out of my mind," she cried, "that poor little boy sitting at a table blindfolded." Then, turning coldly to the mother, she hissed, "I just don't understand why you would want to make that child blind."
Within that statement lies the crux of the resistance to providing training in nonvisual skills to children with partial sight--the deep and pervasive negative emotional reaction to the idea of blindness. Contrary to the sentiment expressed in a favorite slogan of ours in the NFB--that it's okay to be blind--to most of the general public, to be blind is very bad indeed. Current research continues to find that people fear going blind even more than they fear their own death.
So I guess it's natural--or at least predictable--that when parents hear from the professionals that their child is not blind, they feel relieved. "Thank goodness she's got that little bit of vision," the doctors say. "You're lucky," the teacher tells them. "She won't have to learn Braille." "He's got a lot of travel vision," the mobility instructor adds. "He won't need a cane." The child is encouraged to use her remaining vision and is rewarded by making Mom and Dad, the doctors and teachers happy when she is able to see.
In a handbook written for parents of children with visual impairments, one mother tells a story about taking her children to the zoo. She watches her sighted daughter enjoying the animals and is saddened by the fact that her visually impaired son has to be led from cage to cage and can only see the animals that are at the front of their enclosures. But her negative feelings subside and she begins to feel proud of her son, she relates, when he shows "his commitment to peering into every cage--even those where I know he saw nothing."
What is the message we give a child when he makes Mom happy and proud by pretending to see? In this view, the use of vision--even if it is just a pretend use--makes the child normal and acceptable, someone worthy of pride. It follows, then, that not being able to use vision is abnormal, unacceptable, and grounds for pity rather than pride. It is the act of seeing, not the act of gaining the information sought, that is valued. Pretending to see keeps the child out of that cheerless, piteous, and heartrending category of blindness. Anyone who would want to put a child into that category--like Frank's mom at the IEP meeting--is suspect, perhaps emotionally unsound.
No nonvisual skills are offered as an antidote to the inability to see. In fact, the use of nonvisual skills for these children--associated as they are with blindness--is absurd, appalling, not even to be considered. If the possibility is brought up, it is met with a chilling response. When one mom asked for Braille for her young partially sighted child, the teacher protested, "You're selling him short. You need to give him a chance." Another begged, "Please, don't give up on him yet." The very skills that can enable the child to function, that can set the child free, are conflated in the minds of many with giving up and submitting to failure.
Another component of the resistance to teaching nonvisual skills to partially sighted people is the school of thought that the needs of the visually impaired truly are different from those of the blind. One proponent of this thinking is Sam Genensky, the Harvard and Brown University-trained mathematician who invented the closed circuit TV (CCTV) in the late 1960s. Too frequently, says Dr. Genensky, the visually impaired are given the same services as the fully blind, preventing them from making good use of the sight they have remaining. Why offer the visually impaired only Braille, he says, when many of them could read a book with large enough type? It appears that we can safely conclude that intelligent people of good will fall on both sides of this debate.
A third factor in the resistance to providing training in nonvisual skills is the way in which our teachers of the blind are trained. The approach seems to have grown out of both the idea that visually impaired people really do have different needs and the negative emotional reaction to blindness. A current textbook, Foundations of Low Vision: Clinical and Functional Perspectives, by Anne L. Corn (American Foundation for the Blind, 1996, reprinted 2007), includes the Bill of Rights for Persons with Low Vision. Number Four in the Bill is the right "to develop an identity as ... a sighted person who has low vision." The authors state that "the person for whom the use of vision is not preferred, not desirable, or too stressful must be respected for this choice," and adds, "If a person ... feels more comfortable functioning as a person who is blind, that choice should be respected." Is there really such a sharp distinction between "functioning as a sighted person" and "functioning as a blind person?" Aren't we all simply functioning as human beings--human beings who might have varying levels of eyesight and use a variety of tools and skills for the tasks of life? The authors' view cannot accommodate this sort of continuum, and therefore does not permit the person with low vision to use nonvisual skills when needed.
The authors also argue against the use of the term legally blind. By using this term, they state, we are "blinding people by definition." Legally blind children, the authors tell us, can be "psychologically affected by being considered blind by teachers and relatives." Chillingly, they add, "To call a person with severe vision loss 'legally blind' is as preposterous as calling a person with a severe illness 'legally dead.'"
Research has been done to assess teachers' attitudes toward Braille. The conclusion was that we can rest easy--teachers love Braille. But the researcher failed to ask the salient question: what about Braille for partially sighted children? It turns out that teachers are strongly in favor of Braille, but only for those whom they categorize as "functionally blind." Categorizing children (and adults) in this circumscribed way leaves out the idea of proficiency in reading and does not allow for the possibility that a partially sighted person who uses eyesight effectively for many tasks may not be able to use it effectively for reading.
The 1997 "Braille amendment" to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensures the right to learn Braille to every blind and visually impaired student unless the child does not need Braille now and will not need it in the future. There is no acuity requirement in the law. There is no requirement for an evaluation in order for the child to be taught Braille. In fact, according to this law, an evaluation is needed only if Braille is to be ruled out.
One response to the NFB's success in getting the right to learn Braille into state and federal law was the development of what is called the learning media assessment, or LMA. The LMA is an evaluation process used to determine the appropriate reading medium for a given child. Though I'm sure it was never intended to be such, the LMA has become a barrier to full literacy for the partially sighted student. Many teachers believe that an LMA must be administered before a child can receive Braille training. Some states even require it, though such a requirement, by being more restrictive, runs counter to federal law.
Another problem with many LMAs is that they separate the student's future literacy needs from his present needs. The intent of the Braille amendment to IDEA was to ensure that students who will need Braille in the future get Braille instruction now, before they fail in school. However, many assessments instruct teachers to decide upon an "initial literacy medium" (most often print), even for students with progressive eye conditions, and then tell them to add in "supplemental literacy tools" later when needed. This notion runs contrary both to the spirit and the letter of the Braille amendment.
One widely used LMA describes itself as objective, evidence-based, and data driven. However, there is actually no research behind either its approach to evaluation or the conclusions it reaches. It also self-describes as best practice, but there are no results to study to determine if that is true. The assessment instructs teachers to observe the student doing ordinary activities and to note whether the child does them using what it calls "the visual channel," "the tactual channel," or "the auditory channel." The teacher then determines a "primary sensory channel" and a "secondary sensory channel" and decides which is the child's "preferred sensory channel." The "preferred sensory channel," the authors state, is also the "most efficient learning channel."
This approach is problematic in several ways. For example, what is the basis for the claim that the preferred sense is also the most efficient? What is the definition of efficiency in this context? The authors do not explain, and the child's "efficiency" is not measured in any way. Is it wise to make serious decisions on our children's behalf based on their preferences? Most children would prefer recess over long division, but we teach them long division anyway. Most children would rather eat M&Ms than spinach, but we don't give them M&Ms for dinner. What is preferred by the child is not necessarily what is best for the child.
Data collection in these assessments is also problematic. Data is indeed collected, but is it data on which to base a decision regarding reading medium? Here are some examples.
A child was observed wiping his fingers with a napkin. The teacher marked T for tactual.
A boy was noted to scratch his side. The teacher marked T for tactual.
Aside from the fact that it would be impossible to wipe fingers or scratch an itch visually or auditorially, these examples also exemplify a problem: actions such as wiping and scratching are not useful indicators of what a child's reading medium should be.
The data collection method also allows for inconsistencies and subjectivity. A boy was observed bouncing on a ball. This was marked V for "visual." Another child was noted to take off his glasses. This was marked tactual. Then he put on his glasses. This was marked visual. A girl was observed picking up a bowl--this was marked tactual. She then picked up a strainer, a bucket, and a plate. All were marked tactual. In a different assessment, a boy was observed picking up a piece of lettuce. This was marked visual. Then he picked up a piece of cheese and a pencil--both were marked visual. We know that the child did not pick up the cheese visually and that the observers must have been thinking about visually directed reach, but I'm afraid that the approach allows for too much inconsistency and for the observer to record subjectively that which he already believes to be true. With all the references made to objectivity and evidence in the assessment, the authors themselves admit that "professional judgment is still the most critical element in the interpretation of these data."
Bias toward print and the use of vision is evident throughout. Here is an example from a case study presented in the book.
Little Kevin is five years old and in kindergarten. He has been exposed to both Braille and print readiness materials. Though he is able to keep up visually now, teachers are concerned that he might have difficulty when the print size decreases in later grades. Kevin uses his vision, the authors tell us, to complete tasks that require gathering information. Kevin's vision is 20/800 in his good eye. His working distance for looking at objects and pictures is two inches. "His nose," the authors relate, "[is] generally on the paper." They tell us that Kevin chooses [emphasis mine] to rely on vision for gaining most information, and that he appears to have confidence in his visual abilities. Kevin, I remind you, is five years old.
When it comes time for recommendations, the authors state: "The decision to begin reading instruction in Braille or in print is difficult in this situation and, indeed, cannot be made at this time." We must wait, they tell us, until a clear pattern emerges that will indicate Kevin's most efficient reading medium. It is important to allow enough time for this to become evident, the authors inform us, even if Kevin is older when a determination is made. They go on to suggest that if a clear pattern has not emerged by the middle of first grade, Kevin should be taught to read ... in print. To be fair, I should mention that the authors do not rule out Braille for Kevin. They just relegate it to the position of an option, a possibility, a supplement, something that might be taught, sometime, at some later date.
Since the LMA process is often used to rule out Braille, there is sometimes a bias against Braille from the start. Often the students chosen to undergo evaluation are those for whom someone has already decided Braille would not be appropriate. In these cases, the assessment is given to provide the documentation, the "proof" that the child does not need Braille.
There is a section in the manual called "Benefits of Braille Reading and Writing." It is an appendix to the book and consists of five bulleted points, a total of eighty-two words, in a book of 220 pages. The section reiterates that Braille is for blind people. Again, I ask, must there be such a sharp delineation between using print and using Braille? Can't we instead shift the focus to the benefits of full literacy, or of being able to keep up with the class? Unfortunately, the assessment asserts that "it is likely that a student with a visual impairment will read at a slower overall reading rate," a statement that establishes lower expectations for the partially sighted student from the outset.
One year, when I was preparing NOPBC activities for the NFB national convention, I was looking for a middle school student to speak on a youth panel. I called one of our families in Illinois and asked the mom if her son might like to be on the panel. The speech would have to be written out, I told her, and her son should practice reading it. "He'd love to," the mom replied. "But could you just ask him questions instead of having him read? He just started learning Braille [after a two-year battle, I might add] and he can't see to read a speech in print." While the schools ask us, "Why do you want to make that child blind?" I'm asking why would anyone want to make a child illiterate and unable to read even a simple speech?
In response to all the problems with learning media assessments and the ways they can end up denying full literacy to partially sighted children, the National Federation of the Blind brought together a panel of experts in Braille and teaching to create a brand-new assessment, one that would not be biased toward print, but instead would put the power of Braille literacy in the hands of children who need it. Teachers and parents can access the National Reading Media Assessment, or NRMA, free of charge at <www.nfbnrma.org>. The NFB also provides free of charge the downloadable book, Integrating Print and Braille: A Recipe for Literacy, at <https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/books/integrating-print-braille/ integratingprintandbrailletoc.html>.
I receive call after call from parents who feel very sorry for their partially sighted children. They watch them struggle to keep up. They worry about their safety. And, you know, these children do struggle; they aren't safe. But why? Could it possibly be because they are not given the alternative skills and tools they need? Because they are being asked to do 100 percent of life's tasks visually with only a small percentage of usable vision? It just doesn't make sense!
Sometimes these kids do all right, but too often they're passed along from grade to grade. They read very slowly; they don't learn math; they're placed in a special education room, even though they don't have any learning disability. They're given accommodation after accommodation--someone to take notes for them, someone to walk them from classroom to classroom, someone to carry their tray for them and lead them to a table, sometimes even eat lunch with them.
What if, instead of accommodations, these students were given the opportunity to gain age-appropriate skills? What if, instead of assistance, they were given the tools that lead to empowerment and independence? What if, instead of seeing themselves as vulnerable and powerless, they learned to see themselves as in control, as competent, confident, equal participants in the world?
Imagine what could happen if every parent and teacher heard our message--that it's okay to be blind, that blindness does not have to be a tragedy, that blindness doesn't have to stop a person from achieving what he or she wants in life. Imagine if every parent heard what the research shows--that partially sighted people who receive Braille instruction in the early grades four to five times a week achieve literacy levels on a par with or above fully sighted peers; that of the blind and visually impaired people who are employed, over 80 percent are Braille readers; that partially sighted people who embrace nonvisual skills have higher self-esteem and broader, more active lives.
What if, instead of placing emphasis on preferred sensory channels, we could change the focus to skill development and getting the job done? What if parents heard that what is important is not which sense the child uses to read, but whether or not the child is able to read fast enough to keep up with the class? What if we could change the question from "How much can the child see?" to "Does the child have a skill or tool to accomplish the task effectively?"
The work and initiatives of the NFB are creating a new reality. Instead of hearing that providing Braille would be giving up on a child, parents will learn that nonvisual skills are a viable option. Instead of accepting a slower reading pace, parents and teachers will realize that expectations can be the very same for partially sighted children as for other children in the class. Instead of providing accommodation after accommodation, the adults in a child's life will understand that if the blind child is not able to keep up, what is needed is not an accommodation, but an empowering skill or tool! Every child deserves to have the tools that will enable him or her to keep up with peers, perform to maximum potential, and lead an independent, respectable, and empowered life.
by Carrie Gilmer
Reprinted from Future Reflections, Volume 27, Number 2, Special Issue on Cane Travel and Independence
From the Editor: Carrie Gilmer works for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Minneapolis. Her son, Jordan Richardson, graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2013 and currently serves with Reading Corps/AmeriCorps, working as a reading intervention tutor with two prekindergarten classes.
Until Jordan was eight years old, he walked bent over, not unlike my ninety-year-old grandmother whose spine was severely humped from osteoporosis. Jordan also walked with a slow, halting gait. All of his energy was focused on the ground in front of him. He was nervous and scared to cross the street by himself. He constantly reached for my hand when we were out in public. He was especially nervous in parking lots. I was becoming more and more concerned; this wasn't what my other children did when they were his age.
At his elementary school Jordan could find the office, follow the line to the lunchroom, and carry his own tray to the table. He could follow the line to the bus. He could also follow the line to the playground, but once there he often stayed in one spot and played alone. Everyone at school thought he was doing really well. His orientation and mobility (O&M) instructor said he was doing great. It took us some time to realize that they all thought he did really well--for a blind kid. Part of me wanted to rebel against these low expectations, but part of me wanted to be proud that he did so well--for a kid who was blind.
My husband and I didn't know any independent blind people. We had never seen anyone use a long white cane. No one had ever mentioned to us that Jordan should use one. I assumed that he wasn't given a cane because he wasn't blind enough. But here we were, faced with this fact: Jordan might be at the top of the heap of blind kids for independent mobility, but he was at the bottom of the heap of sighted kids. This meant that in his daily life he was always at the bottom, because he was the only blind kid around.
In the spring of Jordan's second grade year, my concern about him being at the bottom of the heap day in and day out compelled me to go to the local NFB chapter. Judy Sanders, a woman totally blind from birth, volunteered to meet us and visit Jordan's school. I picked her up at the nearest bus station. She traveled independently using a long white cane. She had never been to our neighborhood before, but it was no problem for her to find her way from the big city to the suburbs, from the bus to my car, and from my car through the parking lot into the school. I was very excited to see such normalcy in my first meeting with a real blind person. I thought she was definitely at the top of the blind heap, and I thought she mixed in normally with the sighted heap as well. I thought maybe she was allowed to have a cane because she was totally blind.
As we left the school, Judy told me about a national convention of blind people coming up that summer in Atlanta. She said there would be thousands of blind people there. She said it would take me years to learn what I could learn at this convention in one week. We decided to go, Jordan and I.
When we got there, one of the things we found out was that not only could Jordan have a cane, he should have one. Joe Cutter, a nationally known expert in children's travel, told him that the cane is like a third eye on the ground. Jordan got his first cane, and almost immediately his posture completely changed. He walked erect, chin up. He didn't grab for me on the stairs or at the curb as we walked around downtown Atlanta. I realized then that his spirit had been as bent over as his posture. I had a good cry.
After we got home from Atlanta, I made Jordan take the cane regularly whenever he went out. But I noticed that it was as though he now wore a big neon sign that said BLIND KID. He was a curiosity; he really stood out. I'm sure most of these people had never seen a blind kid with a cane before; I never had. I had the strange feeling of being glad for Jordan's blindness; glad, that is, that he couldn't see all the people staring at him.
At first I wasn't totally convinced that it was right to ask Jordan to take the cane everywhere. Without the cane he almost never tripped or fell, but on the other hand, he always walked cautiously and never ran. I couldn't comprehend how his O&M instructor and the teacher of blind students had never even mentioned the cane as a possibility for Jordan. I told the president of the NFB of Minnesota, herself a blind person who had grown up with partial sight, that every time I told Jordan to take his cane I had the weird feeling I was parking in the handicapped zone without the tag.
But everything I had seen and heard and felt at convention told my gut that these blind people were totally right. They knew what they were talking about. They lived what they were talking about. I decided to trust them and do exactly what they said, and I mean exactly! Today I thank God over and over that I did.
At first, Jordan would forget the cane; he wasn't used to thinking about it, but I would remind him. His posture continued to improve, and he seemed less anxious overall about everything, not just travel. But he got very little instruction in how to use the cane from our school. The teachers let him carry the cane, but they still wanted him to use his vision primarily for travel. His technique seemed similar to what I saw other blind people do, so I just let him use the cane and explore with it. He soon discovered he could use it to tell the depth of snow and puddles and the height of ceilings, among other things.
Before too long, though, it became clear that Jordan didn't grasp the cane's full potential. He needed some good training. Sometimes I caught him bending over, looking at the near ground while holding the cane up or out. So we sent him to the nearby Buddy Program, a camp for blind children run by BLIND Inc., an NFB training center that was located not far from us in Minneapolis. There he learned how to travel with a cane under blindfolds, or sleepshades. He didn't completely comprehend what the cane could do for him or fully trust it until he experienced sleepshade training. Once he understood what the cane could do and trusted it, he discovered that he could walk without fear and use his vision to look around at the buildings, trees, sky, or the person next to him. He learned to rely on the cane for information about what was just in front of him and to use his vision for gaining other information--usually just pleasurable--because now he could look up and out and around.
Since then, Jordan has gone all over town and all over the United States with cane in hand. He rarely walks beside me anymore, which is the norm for a teenager. He walks near me now only when it is normal to do so, like at the state fair, in a crowded museum, or at a holiday-packed mall. Usually, however, we have to yell at him to wait for the rest of us.
Through the years we have also become used to public reaction to the cane. We have learned through our NFB friends how to handle it. Here are some of the worst examples. Once a mother literally yanked her two young children out of Jordan's path and screamed at them to watch out, "That kid is blind!" (I was tempted to call child protection to report her treatment of her own children.) In a mall parking lot a man went on and on and on about this amazing blind person he had met once on a Scout trip. A couple of times store clerks have accused Jordan of pretending to be blind. Some people are overly solicitous and try to help without being asked. Some people dramatically, but silently, move away. Some act panicked and over-apologetic if they should bump into, or be touched on the foot by, the cane.
It's common for little kids to ask what the cane is. A few young children wonder where they too can get one of these cool white sticks. Kids are usually delightful.
These are not uncommon experiences for the independent cane traveler. Because we witnessed and experienced them with Jordan, we were able to discuss what had happened and use it as a learning opportunity for him to develop self-advocacy skills.
At times it seemed that it might be easier to let Jordan leave the cane at home. It might be easier for us, his parents, that is. But this wasn't about us. It wasn't Jordan who should be ashamed or embarrassed in these public encounters. The NFB helped us realize that it is respectable to be blind. It was ignorance that led to disrespect and fear on the part of the public. Instead of hiding the cane or leaving it at home, we taught Jordan and others that the cane is a respectable tool of independence. I was consistent and firm. It was like needing a coat when the weather was cold or rainy--his blindness called for a cane, and it was as simple as that. Leaving it at home would have denied him practice and self-discovery, including learning how to handle those incidents with the public.
Through constant practice, Jordan has come to be a confident and proficient cane traveler. Using the cane is as natural and normal and routine to him as brushing his teeth or wearing shoes. It has become so natural to him now that the only way he can articulate how it works for him is in these words, "It is an extension of my body." He can problem-solve in new environments. He can nonchalantly explain its use to the general public (all ages). He handles people's awkwardness with humor and quickly puts them at ease. He feels comfortable with the cane and uncomfortable without it. He is fully integrated into the heap. (I no longer think of it as the sighted kid or the blind kid heap; it's all one, now).
This year when Jordan brought his class pictures home, I noticed that he held his white cane proudly across his chest in the photo. He had never done this before. When we started down this road, the one thing we were determined about was that we never wanted Jordan to be embarrassed about who he is. We had succeeded. I cried again--this time they were tears of joy.
by Anna Wallis
From the Editor: Many parents and educators have written about raising and teaching a child who has low vision. Far less has been written about the needs and potential of low vision children who have additional disabilities. In this article, Anna Wallis recounts her journey to ensure that her daughter, Grace, who is legally blind and has Down syndrome, will become literate. You can follow Anna's blog at <http://fromtheheart-anna.blogspot.com>.
When I was invited to write an article for Future Reflections, my first response was, "Absolutely not!" I felt I had no expertise to offer the parent or teacher of a child with multiple disabilities, one of which is visual impairment. How could I be of help to anyone else when we are so new to this challenge ourselves? Upon further soul searching, I realized that the story of our daughter's diagnosis and our subsequent journey might speak to others and help them find their way.
Our daughter, Grace, was raised in an orphanage in Ecuador until she was four and a half years old. When she was three, the orphanage had X-rays taken in an attempt to figure out why she wasn't walking yet. Today when I read those reports, I know that her poor muscle tone wasn't only the result of her Down syndrome. I think that the biggest roadblock in her development was her caregivers' lack of knowledge about how best to help a child with visual impairment. When a child has multiple disabilities, it's like putting together a puzzle. As parents, we have to sort many variables and put them together to form the whole picture.
When we met our daughter, it was evident that she needed a form of communication right away. She had been raised in a Spanish-speaking environment, but she had no means to express herself in any language. We immediately started to teach her American Sign Language, using Signing Times videos set on the Spanish track. These videos were perfect because they used fun songs, bright clothing, and actual concrete objects. I believe that signing has been Grace's bridge to developing spoken language. She still struggles with speech, but with ASL she can help her family and friends know what she wants and needs. Her ability to sign eliminates frustration and anxiety for all of us (most of the time, anyway). In addition, ASL takes the pressure off Grace to develop speech in a hurry. The last thing our kids need is more stress and demand for performance!
Another great tool for our children with low vision and multiple disabilities is the tactile communication board. Items are placed on the board with Velcro so they can be seen and/or touched. If vision allows, a picture system, picture exchange communication system or visual support (PECS), or large photographs of people and tangible items can be used. We also have found a number of helpful apps for the iPad. We downloaded a free version of urTalker Pro that has a calendar. I take photos of people and places and use them to set up a schedule on the iPad. Grace can easily make it larger or smaller to see what is pictured while she listens to recordings of me saying, "Today we are going to see Mrs. Cynthia at school," or "We are going to play with our friend Julie." I also have seen some great products from the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). We utilize many approaches so Grace can be exposed to a variety of communication methods. Together we figure out what works best for us.
Once we arrived home with Grace, we started getting to know one another. In the adoption world we call this bonding. All children, adopted or not, need to bond with their parents or guardians. As we deal with the ups and downs that go along with multiple disabilities, I like to think of our bond as the superglue. I needed to understand what made this little one tick, since she couldn't communicate with words. When you strip away all of the diagnoses and labels, I still have a beautiful child, and I want to help her reach her fullest potential!
Over time I learned that Grace tires very easily. She will sleep twelve hours at night, then need a two- to three-hour nap in the afternoon. This schedule would make learning difficult for anyone. We also have found that it's important for us to be informed about how diet and medications affect her, especially since she can't explain to us how she feels. For instance, I have learned to make sure she is rehydrated first thing in the morning. Sometimes she displays behavior that indicates she is dizzy or hypersensitive to noises, and I feel that it has to do with her medication. I have learned that some medications can cause vision disturbances and actual eye damage, so I'm alert to that as well.
While we were bonding with Grace, I did research on teaching children with Down syndrome. I found a number of great books from Woodbine House Publishers. I think that many of the books I have read about Down syndrome also would be helpful to parents of children with other delays. They cover topics such as large and fine motor skills, communication, math, and reading.
Encouraged by my reading, I found countless ways to help Grace learn and have fun at the same time. While we spent time outside playing, I told her about her environment. We have blocks to build with, simple puzzles, Play-Doh, a play kitchen, and dolls for pretending. We take trips to the park so Grace can use her muscles and get fresh air. We also have a large calendar with pockets, the kind typically used in classrooms. The names of the months are written in bold, easy-to-read letters, and we place a number in the pocket each day to work on one-to-one correspondence and number recognition. I am adding Braille to the calendar now, and Grace's TVI recently gave us a Braille calendar from APH. Grace also has a tactile daily schedule made by her summer TVI, using Velcro and tangible items so she can see and feel what she might do that day.
After we brought Grace to the US, we tried to do away with what we thought were bad habits she had developed in the orphanage from not having the right glasses prescription or not wearing her glasses all the time. Instead of using her eyes to look for an object on the table, she would feel for it with her hands. I'm sad to say that in our ignorance we kept telling her to use her eyes. We thought that her glasses gave her 20/20 vision, and we wanted her to use her sight. We finally realized that her "bad habits" were her way of using her perfectly good sense of touch plus her other senses instead of her limited vision. Actually, we should have praised her for using her hands the way she did. Now she needs to be encouraged again to use and develop her sense of touch and not to depend on her eyes as we had tried to teach her.
You see, at that time we had no idea that Grace is legally blind. I only knew there was a huge gap between her chronological age and her developmental age. In hindsight, maybe it was a good thing I didn't know that the glasses failed to correct her vision. I exposed her to many things I might have thought she was incapable of doing because of my preconceived ideas of what a blind or visually impaired child can do.
In the summer of 2012 our daughter developed epilepsy. The medications used to prevent the seizures made her very ill and caused her to regress in many areas. Over the course of several months we were able to shift her to a new medication, and she started to regain the progress she had made earlier.
In September we took Grace to visit an ophthalmologist at Emory University in Atlanta. It was then that we learned our daughter is legally blind. Of course, the doctor didn't use the word "blind" with us. She just said that Grace's vision is 20/200. She felt that many of Grace's eye conditions--ambliopia, strabismus, and nystagmus--developed because her congenital cataracts weren't removed until she was a year old, and because her glasses weren't worn as needed while she was in the orphanage.
The news was devastating for me. I had begun to teach Grace to read, using flash cards with words printed two to three inches high, as directed in the book Teaching Reading to Children with Down Syndrome by Patricia L. Oelway (Woodbine House, 1995). I had thought she was being resistant when she couldn't read words she knew from the flash cards if she saw them in a book. In reality she couldn't read them because the font was too small.
I grieved for weeks, if not months, before I came to terms with this new diagnosis, which came only three months after Grace developed epilepsy. I realized that Down syndrome, epilepsy, and legal blindness do not define my daughter. They are the names of disabilities that aren't going to change who she is or the purpose set for her in this life!
Once I managed to get my bearings, I started going through the evaluation process to get drop-in services for Grace, since she is a private school student. We don't have a local lighthouse for the blind, and the only assistance we received from the state Division of Blind Services was an outdated pamphlet highlighting some special education laws. Once a child reaches school age, all services are funneled through the public school in our county.
The evaluation process for Grace stretched over nine months. We are still trying to find our way, slowly but surely. All I can say is that it's a very frustrating process.
Interestingly, I have learned that children raised in an orphanage and adopted when they are older often have sensory processing issues. The same is sometimes true for children who take anti-seizure medication and for children with visual impairments. I have been studying many websites about sensory processing disorders to learn as much as I can. Grace doesn't like to be spoken to loudly. She doesn't like being touched or helped, and she will fling her arm at anyone other than her father or me who doesn't keep set boundaries. She is also very tactually defensive. For this reason, her TVI isn't sure Braille is a good option. I tend to disagree. With 20/200 vision, our daughter has one-tenth the sight of someone with a visual acuity of 20/20. She has perfectly good fingers. Why should I force her to use a sense that only works at 10 percent rather than another that is 100 percent functional?
Braille is literacy. I often hear that Braille is difficult to learn, but how many sighted students struggle with reading? Learning to read is hard in any medium. It takes time and patience. First we have to learn that symbols equal letters. Then we learn that letters represent sounds. We learn that combinations of symbols make blends, and that there are exceptions to the rules. If we quit thinking of Braille as a code that is hard to learn and remember our younger years of learning to read print, we'll recognize that the learning process is much the same for both media.
I believe that students learning Braille are at one great disadvantage. Print is everywhere, but I only see Braille on restroom signs, ATM machines, and elevator panels. Furthermore, most emergent readers have parents, siblings, and friends who model reading. Emergent Braille readers seldom have this level of support.
I think when I explained to Grace's TVI that I don't care if my daughter doesn't fully master Braille until she graduates at twenty-two years of age, she started to realize that I am committed to Braille as the form of literacy my child needs. If we only teach her to use print, she could lose more vision and be rendered illiterate. I know I am fighting an uphill battle. Because she has multiple disabilities, her capacity to learn is perceived differently. Nothing will change my convictions. I am committed to literacy. For Grace, that means learning to read large print for when it is practical and primarily focusing on learning Braille.
I have found the greatest source of help in organizations such as the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC), and the Florida Parents of Blind Children (FLPOBC). It is wonderful to be in touch with parents who are walking the same journey. Most are willing to share their experiences and to offer a listening ear. I also belong to great groups of parents and teachers on Yahoo and Facebook. The group members have far more experience than I do, and they amaze me with their heartfelt concern over each family and each situation that arises. Being the parent of a child with disabilities can be lonely, but that loneliness isn't inevitable. Reach out to other families who are walking the same path, either just taking their first steps or well along their way. You won't regret it.
We are constantly teaching Grace, but at the same time she never stops teaching us. From our daughter Grace we have learned more about grace than we imagined possible. Every day she teaches us more about the grace of living and loving.
by Terri Rupp
From the Editor: Terri Rupp has served as president of the National Association of Blind Students (NABS) and won an NFB National Scholarship in 2007. She is a full-time mom in the suburbs of Las Vegas, Nevada. This article is based on an entry in her blog, which you can follow at <www.blindmomintheburbs.wordpress.com>.
I feel like I'm in a real-life game of musical chairs. First I was the blind child, then the blind student, then the blind parent, and now I'm sitting in the seat as the parent of a blind child.
This blog has been a draft in progress, and I'm finally ready to share it with you all. About two and a half years ago, we brought my daughter, Marley, in to see the pediatrician for a double ear infection. That was when it was first brought to our attention that she had nystagmus. After a few trips to the eye doctor, we were given the diagnosis of spasmus nutans. This is the combination of nystagmus, amblyopia (lazy eye), and a head tilt in response to the other two symptoms. We were told that this condition is common in the eye development of toddlers, and that it should correct itself by school age.
Over the next two years it looked as if Marley's eye condition was somewhat getting better, only showing when she was really tired or concentrating to see something at a distance. But as her fourth birthday came around, we noticed more and more signs that perhaps we were just looking for it to get better because the doctor said it would.
I noticed that Marley was having difficulty seeing the letters in her books while we worked on reading and writing. My husband noticed she had difficulty tracking things at a distance. Some of my close friends noticed that when she went to grab an object, it looked as if she wasn't reaching for it directly, but feeling for it instead.
I couldn't believe I let two years go by since her last eye checkup. When I called the ophthalmologist in January, the first available appointment wasn't until May. This wasn't acceptable, especially to a worried parent. After asking around, I found another ophthalmologist who came very highly recommended in my network of moms. I also decided to contact the school district to see if Marley would qualify to get into their preschool program. If she would be needing any services, I wanted to start the process sooner rather than later.
After a series of assessments with the school nurse and psychologist, plus a vision test and hearing test, we sat down to our first IEP (Individualized Education Program) meeting this past Tuesday. It was determined that my daughter qualifies to start preschool under the fact that she will be a blind/low vision student. (Keep in mind that we hadn't yet seen the new eye doctor.) There was much discussion about what accommodations and services she will be given. As I'd expected, there was much disagreement on the topic of Braille. The low vision specialist felt my daughter has too much vision to learn Braille, that it would slow her down and confuse her. I knew the IEP process, and I knew that I could amend our program if need be. I simply told them that if they didn't want to teach Marley Braille in preschool, that was fine with me. I am already teaching her Braille, and by the time the school district is ready to approve Braille instruction, she'll be reading uncontracted Braille and will be far ahead of her peers.
A few days later, on this past Friday, we visited Marley's new eye doctor. It turns out that she doesn't just have the three sypmtons that make up spasmus nutans. She's got optic nerve atrophy, just like her mama. It's very possible it was a dormant gene that appeared in me, and then I passed to her. It's also possible that, since we waited two years without treating the amblyopia, that condition caused the atrophy in the eye. It could be a fluke coincidence. All that matters is she's got the same eye condition I have. The doctor also told us that her vision loss is severe enough that Braille would be best for her. Forcing her to read print would only strain and stress her eyes, thus possibly making things worse.
I'll be honest. This weekend consisted of a whole lot of tears, a whole lot of guilt, a whole lot of grief, a whole lot of anger, but also a whole lot of inpouring of love and support. It also consisted of a whole lot of pride. On Sunday morning, I heard my daughter chatting away while she was eating her pancakes. My mommy ears perked up when I heard her say, "X is 1 3 4 6," referring to the dots that make up the Braille letter. I asked her to show it to me, which she did on the little wooden Braille block that we play with. She then told me that X is her favorite letter in Braille. I was overwhelmed by the comforting feeling that no matter what, everything will be fine. She is a happy, healthy, beautiful, bright, and strong little girl who will succeed in whatever her heart desires.
With my own personal experience, with the resources and support of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children and the National Federation of the Blind, with the love of family and friends who will treat Marley like every other little girl out there and not like a child who needs to be tended to or coddled, I plan to surround her with nothing but positivity. I will make sure that she grows up to be a confident young lady doing whatever she wants to in life.
by Tammy Parson
From the Editor: Parents and teachers of students with low vision often struggle to decide whether print or Braille will be the child's primary reading medium. In this article, Tammy Parson recounts how she and her husband fought to ensure that their daughter received adequate instruction in Braille.
There are days when I feel that having a child who is a dual media learner is a blessing and a curse at the same time. I am grateful for the vision my daughter has, but sometimes I scream in frustration over the challenges that low vision brings.
When I learned that our daughter, Victoria, has some sight, I was thrilled. She would be able to see some things, so I assumed that life would be easier for her than it is for people who are totally blind. I remember how excited we were the day she learned her colors. We were so happy that she could see them and tell the difference between them!
Before Victoria entered preschool, we started to teach her the print alphabet, using super large letters. We also began to teach her Braille. In our minds Braille was never a matter of choice. For us it was a given that Victoria would learn Braille so that she would be prepared when her vision declined. However, when she entered a prekindergarten program at the age of three, we found that the school district saw things differently. In their eyes, if you have vision you're to use it. Braille would only be taught as a just-in-case.
I stood my ground, and finally we were granted thirty minutes of Braille instruction twice a week. For the next two years Victoria received instruction in both print and Braille, although her Braille instruction was quite limited.
When Victoria entered kindergarten, her Braille instruction became an issue once again. Because she was doing well using large print, we were told that she no longer needed Braille services. She had to hold the paper against her nose to see it, and her head was bent over the table constantly in order to read and write, but that didn't seem to matter. We knew that the situation wasn't acceptable, but we had no real guidelines to back us up. In order to get Victoria the education she needed, we decided we had to find someone to teach her Braille.
That summer we went to Atlanta, Georgia, and attended our first convention of the National Federation of the Blind. The presentations we heard and the people we met confirmed our belief that Victoria needed Braille services. We went home and called an attorney. At that time, in 2007, special education attorneys were not easy to find, especially attorneys willing to fight a school district. Our search for a lawyer quickly became a dead-end street. We discussed the possibility of sending Victoria to a residential school for the blind, but we knew we could never send her to live away from home. Instead, we decided to move closer to the state school for the blind. We sold the dream home we had just built, my husband sold his family business, and we relocated our family to St. Augustine, Florida. Victoria began second grade at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (FSDB), and we were excited that she finally had access to Braille materials.
Victoria attended FSDB for three years. Yet again, what we thought was a blessing soon became a curse. She excelled in Braille and in her classroom subjects, but academically she was falling behind her peers who attended regular programs. It became clear to us that the school for the blind had very low expectations for its students. After everything we had given up, we were not going to let Victoria fall behind! We removed her from FSDB, and she began her fifth grade year in our local public school.
Victoria's first year back in public school was very hard, to say the least. She had to demonstrate that she was capable of doing her work and keeping up. We soon learned that she wasn't reading Braille fast enough to be considered at grade level. The school started pushing her to do more of her work using large print, which caused her to become fatigued and irritable. Victoria stood her ground and used her Brailler in class as much as possible.
Then, around Christmas, Victoria was told that she couldn't use her Brailler during a spelling test. The teacher claimed it was too noisy, and complained that she couldn't grade the test because she didn't know Braille. Until then it hadn't been a problem for Victoria to use her Brailler. The TVI had graded her papers at a later date. We had to hire an attorney and file a due process case against the school in order for Victoria to be allowed to use her equipment and to receive more instruction so she could increase her Braille reading speed.
We worked on Braille all summer between Victoria's fifth and sixth grade years. She studied at home and through the extended school year (ESY) services she received. When school started in the fall, she still was not on grade level in terms of her words per minute (wpm), but she was improving fast.
It was at this time that we requested a technology evaluation for Victoria, hoping to say goodbye to the CCTV the school had her lugging around from room to room. Her eye condition had progressed during the past year, and she could no longer distinguish colors. We requested that Braille become her primary mode of reading and writing.
Our request for an emphasis on Braille led to our biggest struggle yet. The teachers and administrators in this school district thought much like those in the district where Victoria attended kindergarten--if you have any usable vision, you must use it.
The school conducted a Learning Media Assessment, which showed that Victoria could read 52 wpm in Braille and 75 wpm in print, using a CCTV. Based on these findings, the school concluded that she should be a print reader, using a laptop and a portable CCTV in class. The problem was that Victoria had reached a plateau at 75 wpm using a CCTV more than three years ago. Due to her declining vision, she needed a larger and larger font, and her reading speed was never likely to increase. Her wpm score in Braille, on the other hand, continued to improve on a monthly basis. Yet again, with our attorney at our side and no real guidelines through IDEA and the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), we were up against the wall.
School districts can use any Learning Media Assessment they choose when assessing a student. The assessment tool itself and the portions of it that are administered can have a great impact on how and in which medium a child is taught. In our case, the school district totally skipped the part that evaluated sustained reading. That part of the assessment would have shown how reading for an extended period would or would not affect Victoria's reading speed.
Just days before our IEP meeting was scheduled, the United States Department of Education released a critical memo. The memo stated that it is mandatory for schools to provide Braille instruction to low vision students unless the IEP team can show that the child will have no future need for Braille. After that memo, it was clear that Victoria would continue to receive Braille services. Furthermore, because we had filed a complaint with the FLDOE before the memo was issued, the school district received numerous reprimands. It was ordered to provide follow-up documentation of services Victoria would receive in the school year ahead.
By this time, although it seemed we had won the battle, we were emotionally and financially drained. Fortunately, Florida has a McKay Scholarship Program that helps students with IEPs attend private schools. We decided to remove Victoria from the public school once again and to send her to a private school, using a McKay Scholarship. She no longer receives Braille services from a TVI, but she has access to Braille materials.
Victoria continues to build her Braille speed. She has decreased her use of print materials, so she has less fatigue. She is rebuilding her confidence, and recently she placed second in her district's JV Braille Challenge. She was selected at her school to compete in an Academic Bowl, where she placed second as well.
The curse of dual media learning has turned into a blessing. It has made us stronger as a family and has allowed us to become better informed parents. It has even led me to become a special education advocate. I'm also a 2012 Partners in Policymaking graduate. Partners in Policymaking is a state-sponsored leadership and advocacy training program. It teaches individuals and families to be community leaders and to obtain the best available services for themselves and others. Through this program I became more involved with the legislative side of education. I continue to fight for our children. I hope that someday every blind and low vision child will receive a free and appropriate public education at the school of his/her choice.
by Charles Brown
Reprinted from Future Reflections, Volume 14, Number 1, Winter/Spring 1995
From the Editor: Charlie Brown recently retired after serving for more than thirty years as legal counsel for the National Science Foundation. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind and president of the NFB of Virginia. Although this article was written nearly twenty years ago, its message is still important for today's parents and teachers.
As a leader in the National Federation of the Blind, I am an enthusiastic participant in our Braille literacy campaign. I know how important Braille is to me, even though I have a good deal of usable vision. Kids with low vision are primary victims in today's crisis in Braille literacy. Yet, though Braille is important to me, I also use print. I use it a lot.
Even totally blind folks need to know print. Print is all around us--there are raised letters and numbers on everything from kids' blocks to restroom doors. Our language assumes a knowledge of the print alphabet. Like sighted folks, blind folks need to know what a T intersection is, or an S curve, or a U turn. Blind folks need to know why O is used synonymously with the number 0 (in Braille zero corresponds with the letter j). How does Zorro make the "mark of the Z" on the chest of his victims?
My totally blind friends routinely sign their names, make out checks, and type letters to their friends. I strongly believe that the schools must teach blind kids to read, write, and touch-type (keyboard) print. Print is part of living in the world, even if you never see a word of it visually.
Many blind people, like me, can see print. Does knowing Braille mean I should ignore what I can see? Nonsense! My office is full of print, and I use it every day.
I've always been able to read ordinary sized print when there is decent lighting, provided I hold the page right up to my face. If I were in school today, there is a good chance that I would not be taught Braille. My print skills would probably be judged as "good enough." Fortunately, when I started school in the Fifties, my parents and the others responsible for my education realized that I could not comfortably read print fast enough or long enough to compete as a true equal with sighted students my age. So I also learned Braille, and I competed pretty well in school. I did well enough to get through Harvard College and the Northwestern University Law School--using mostly Braille, tape recordings, human readers, and my typing skills.
Just after I graduated from law school, the closed circuit television (CCTV) was invented. I got one of the first models, and I have used CCTVs in my career as a lawyer ever since. With a CCTV, I can read print faster, longer, and more comfortably than I could before this device came along.
I use the CCTV in my office to read all the papers and files that come across my desk, to read the cases and articles in books and periodicals in my bookcases, or the items I check out from the law library. I also use the CCTV when I fill out forms and prepare handwritten notes.
As so many other working Americans do these days, I constantly use a computer. Some blind folks use speech output devices to gain computer access, but I use screen enlargement software. I use my computer to write legal opinions and memoranda. I use it to handle my electronic mail and for much more. When it became time for me to become computer literate, I had a real leg up on most of my sighted colleagues. I was already an excellent touch typist.
A number of screen enlargement software packages are on the market, and most of them are pretty inexpensive. Many members of the NFB use screen enlargement programs. One of the great fringe benefits of being a Federationist is the ability to check out each other's packages and exchange demos. We talk about color contrasts, letter shapes, cursors, Windows compatibility, etc. I need to know what's out there in order to know what will work for me. It's almost as if no two "partials" see alike. What works fine for me may be frustrating or even useless for someone else.
When I leave my office, Braille looms larger in my briefcase and in my life. I use a Braille slate to take notes at meetings. It is one of the fastest, least disruptive, and most efficient note-taking devices I know--at least for me. I like to get periodicals in Braille because, unlike print, I can read Braille rapidly and comfortably anywhere--on the bus, for instance.
I use recorded materials, too. For example, I get the American Bar Association Journal on tape (produced by the National Association of Blind Lawyers, a division of the NFB).
Like most lawyers, I often give prepared oral presentations. For one thing, each year I teach about thirty seminars on government ethics rules to employees of my agency. I design the lesson plans, write the case studies and other handouts, and conduct the classes. The participants get the materials in print, but I Braille all of my materials, outlines, quotes, slides, etc. This way I can have these items literally at my fingertips. I cannot credibly do the essential teaching part of my current job using print. I'd hate to think of trying to teach while hiding behind a CCTV or holding papers up in front of my face. Eye contact and rapport count so much in effective and convincing teaching! That's why I use Braille.
I use Braille outlines for my speeches (including any quotations I'll be using). Braille is also my primary medium for agendas when I chair meetings. I cannot afford to let a struggle with print get in my way and distract from my message.
Sometimes I need to make a very formal address, and I write it out completely in Braille. This way I can concentrate on my delivery without worrying about phrasing. I can focus on voice modulation, gestures, and eye movements. Remember, lawyers are supposed to be convincing.
As a lawyer, church leader, and civic activist, I use Braille when it is the best medium, and I use print when it works best. It all seems so obvious and second nature to me that I am shocked when so-called experts talk loosely about the "choice" between print and Braille. Did learning Braille impair my ability to learn and use print? Not at all! Some people even say that learning both print and Braille is comparable to learning two languages. No way! It's all English. I can fully attest, as I recall my struggles with four years of high school French, that learning both Braille and print is nothing at all like learning two languages.
Parents often come to me looking for advice about the education of their children. The advice I give is pretty simple. Their children need, I tell them, to find alternative techniques for reading, mobility, and the like. On the whole, these techniques need to be as effective as those used by sighted peers if parents want their kids to be prepared to compete on terms of equality. Braille and print are just two parts of the total mix.
Print or Braille? It's a silly question not worth asking, as far as I am concerned. Most blind kids need to learn both.
by Carla McQuillan
From the Editor: Carla McQuillan is executive director of Main Street Montessori in Springfield, Oregon. She is president of the NFB of Oregon and has served on the board of directors of the National Federation of the Blind.
When I was eight years old, my older brother began to complain that he had trouble seeing. The doctors were unable to find the cause, so they determined that it must be psychological. My brother wore a pair of clear glasses for a while, spent a year on a psychiatrist's couch, and was no end of frustration and concern to my parents. He continued to insist that he could not see the chalkboard, read his textbooks, or do his schoolwork. The psychiatrist and the physicians continued to collect their fees.
Finally, my parents took my brother to a low vision specialist who diagnosed a rare recessive genetic disorder called Stargardt's disease. Much like macular degeneration, which primarily affects senior citizens, Stargardt's results in the loss of central vision. It leads to the inability to read print and detect detail, though it does not significantly affect mobility.
My brother was assigned a teacher of blind students who came out to our house to meet with him and with our parents. I will never forget the day that teacher came to visit. He said that he, too, was visually impaired. He did not have a cane, nor did he read Braille, and he was obviously in need of both. I remember feeling sorry for my brother. This teacher was the only blind person we had ever met. I thought he was pitiful, and I believed my brother would end up just like him.
There was no discussion of Braille or cane travel--and why would there be? The teacher didn't use those tools, so why would he offer them to my brother?
Instead of Braille, my brother got heavy large print books that were twice the size of the regular texts. The kids at school teased him and called him stupid because he had those huge books.
Shortly thereafter, I had a sudden loss of vision myself. It didn't take long for my parents to determine that I, too, had Stargardt's disease. But I would have no part of that pitiful image of blindness that the teacher modeled and which my brother soon adopted. I spent a tremendous amount of energy and concentration trying to "look sighted." I thought I was being so clever!
Fortunately, I was sharp enough to do well in school. I relied heavily on my good memory. It was really the only way I could retrieve information.
My brother, on the other hand, constantly reminded people of his blindness. He used his disability as an excuse to get out of work or to get someone to do things for him. Not me! My blindness was a subject we did not discuss in my house. I didn't want to think about it, and I believe my parents were just as happy to ignore it. I wish we had come into contact with the National Federation of the Blind back then. Our story could have been very different if someone had told me and my family that it is respectable to be blind!
The more determined I was to be "normal," the worse my attitudes about blindness became. My brother didn't improve things, as he seemed to enjoy being dependent and helpless. He jumped at every opportunity to receive special treatment. He came to expect that people would wait on him and cater to his every need.
As I got older, it grew more difficult for me to pretend that I could see like everyone else. In my neighborhood, every sixteen-year-old got a driver's license, and most had their own cars. I remember telling my classmates that I didn't get my license because I had been in a car accident and was afraid to drive. Looking back, my invention seems absurd and a little embarrassing. I just didn't want anyone to know I was blind.
The saddest thing about all of this was all the opportunities I missed. I dearly wanted to perform in school plays, but the drama teacher had cold reading auditions. I'm sure she would have given me the script in advance if I had told her why I needed it, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. I was in choir, but I never got a solo part because I couldn't see the music or read the lyrics.
I chose to go away to college. Maybe, I thought, I could start over with a new peer group. I ended up dropping out because the reading load was too great. I lacked the skills to keep up and the knowledge of alternative methods of accessing my textbooks.
Eventually it became clear that I would never have a decent career without a college degree. I went back to school at the University of Illinois in Urbana. By that time I was twenty-six years old, married, and had a small child. One thing I needed to pursue an education was the money to pay for it. If I admitted I was blind, I could have gotten funding from my state's vocational rehabilitation agency.
The reading load was no lighter this time around, and I became frustrated. Finally I sought help from my school's Disabled Students Services office, asking to learn to read Braille. The answer was no. Braille was too difficult, I was told, and I would never use it. I was introduced to the CCTV and informed that reading one or two letters at a time on the eighteen-inch screen was better than reading Braille. I went away in tears.
The people in Disabled Students Services did help me, though, more than they could have imagined. They gave me an application for a scholarship from the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois. "Take the money," they advised me, "but for the love of Pete, don't become a part of that organization!"
In 1987 I won an NFB of Illinois scholarship, and I attended the Illinois state convention. That convention changed my life. For the first time since I found out I was blind, I gained a positive outlook on my future. The mentors and friends I have known in the Federation have provided me with a whole new perspective. I only hope I can help others who are struggling, as so many people have helped me.
If you are the parent of a child with low vision, there is no better organization than the NFB, no matter what anyone may tell you. Don't believe it when people say that Braille is not necessary or tell you that technology will solve all your child's problems. Don't buy into the idea that "He really isn't that blind." Take it from someone who missed a lot of opportunities, opportunities that would have been mine if only I had been in touch with the right people. Your child should be encouraged to dream big and to work hard to make those dreams come true. The Federation can help you make that happen.
by Michele Denise Michaels
Reprinted from Braille Monitor, Volume 46, Number 6, June 2003
From the Editor: After completing her training at BLIND Inc., with her newly earned long white cane in hand, Michele Denise Michaels pursued dual degrees in performance and music business. As she worked on her singing career, she began traveling to tell the story of her journey with blindness. When invited to speak, she sings as well. As she explains, "I speak about the gift of blindness and sing about the love of God." You can visit Michele's website at <micheledenisemichaels.com>. This article originally appeared under the byline of Michele Gittens.
I am grateful to be able to share with you my journey from the NFB national convention to Blindness: Learning in New Dimensions (BLIND Inc.)--which is essentially my version of "partially sighted, really blind."
Let me first give you a brief overview of my relationship to blindness in the past few years. The cause of my blindness is unknown. I just remember that one morning, when I was in the third grade, I could see the board clearly, but when I came back from recess later that day, I couldn't see it anymore. My parents took me from our home in New York to many doctors in various countries; we traveled all over the place.
Finally somebody referred us to the local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. I remember my parents putting me on a train and schlepping me all the way down to Manhattan. We went into a room and sat around a rectangular table, and I was very upset because I was with all these old people (I was about twelve, and they must have been in their twenties, but to me that was very old). I didn't say a word; I just sat there very still.
Afterward I made it clear to my parents that I didn't want to have anything to do with these people. My father, being the wise man he is (I didn't think so at the time), said, "How do you expect to live as a blind person if you don't know any other blind people?"
I said, "Dad, these people are blind. I am legally blind. We are in two different worlds; they do not understand where I come from."
From then on, the only relationship I had with the NFB was that every year I would get two flyers--one about the New York state convention and the other about the national convention. The little NFB logo was in dark print, so I could always see it, and as soon as I saw it, I would just tear up the flyer and throw it in the trash before my parents saw it. I didn't want to hear anything about the NFB.
As a teenager I no longer saw myself as legally blind; I became "visually limited." (I loved being visually limited because I never did understand the legal thing.) High school was great; it was like going to school with your mom. I had readers, notetakers, and advocates. I didn't have to deal with any of the blindness issues that came up; they just magically disappeared.
Then I went to college, where I got a dose of reality. Suddenly, on the first day, I was expected to manage my own readers, schedule my exams, and talk to my professors. Sometimes I went to professors who said, "Michele, how can we help you?"
I would get frustrated and angry, thinking, Shouldn't you be telling me what to do? Haven't you had visually impaired students before? (In college I was visually impaired.) I was so frustrated and stressed out that in my junior year, I left college and never returned. It really disappointed my parents, but nobody could tell me anything; I wasn't going back.
I did have the sense to know I needed some training, so I enrolled at a service-delivery agency in New York. I was there for about four years, and I went through all the programs they offered (I'm a very thorough person). There I learned that I was visually disabled. In one program in which I took part, twenty people were enrolled, and only one used a white cane. We were taught to "maximize our residual vision." We had computer class, and we used ZoomText, a screen-enlargement program--never any speech-access program such as JAWS. I also had travel class and was given a white cane. I wasn't encouraged to use it outside of class, and the class was certainly not a requirement. I remember being on the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street and saying to my instructor, "How do I know if this is the right corner?"
He said, "Use your common sense!" (That's how people talk in New York.) "Look up at the pole, and you see there's a street sign. Broadway is a longer word, so it is a long white strip, whereas 42nd is two numbers, so it's a short strip. So that's how you know."
I thought to myself, But where's the sign?
I graduated from that program with honors and decided to move on. It was time to work, so I auditioned and got a job in London as a background singer. When I moved there, my mother made me take my white cane (that was my parents being wise again).
As soon as I arrived in London, I made a discovery: I really might be blind. I had grown up in New York, so I didn't realize how little I was actually seeing and how much I was relying on my mental picture of everything familiar to help me get around. When I got to England, everything was totally different. For the first month I would not leave my apartment unless somebody came to get me, and, without exaggeration, I cried every single day.
My parents and family and friends called and pleaded with me to use my cane, but I refused. Somebody from the agency whose program I had attended called and said, "Michele, somebody from New York died because she crossed a street without using a white cane and got hit by a car." Even that wasn't enough for me.
I said, "Well, that's nice; I'll take my chances."
In England traffic moves on the left side of the street instead of the right. One of my cousins called me and said, "A lot of people from America go to England and get killed. If you don't use your cane, you might get hit by a car, and we're not kidding."
I'm embarrassed to repeat this, but I said to him, "I'd rather die than use that stick." As soon as those words came out of my mouth, I realized I had hit rock bottom.
I decided I had to do something, so I called the Royal National Institute for the Blind and made an appointment to meet with a counselor. I wanted to hire a travel instructor, but she said that would not be possible because I was a partial. I said, "Partial what?"
She said, "You're partially sighted, like me."
I asked, "What do you do about it?"
She said, "You just get used to it."
Every day I had to go someplace different to work, and I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to die, but I still wasn't going to use that stick. I started coming up with my own alternative techniques--my blind-person-pretending-to-be-sighted tricks. It worked somewhat, but I decided to interview other blind people to find out what they did. That led to reading books and doing a lot of research; suddenly I had to go to every seminar on blindness I heard about.
One day my mom called and said that there was a letter for me from the NFB (of course I hadn't had a chance to tear it up). She said that they were having a convention in Philadelphia. I decided to go because I hadn't yet figured out a good way to walk down a flight of steps. I was once doing a show in which, to get off the stage, I had to come down stairs from the stage into the audience. I fell down the stairs, got up, and fell down the stairs again. I was mortified, and I had a thing about stairs from then on. I used to tell people that I would have no problem if there were no stairs in the world--the problem was not my eyes; it was the stairs. So I flew to this convention to learn about going down stairs.
I got to the hotel with a friend, and we noticed all these people with white poles. I thought to myself, Is this a tryout for the summer Olympics? Then we went to registration, and I saw that everybody had them. I realized that of course they were canes, but I had never seen them used like this before. I got excited because I saw people walking by themselves without guides.
I was beside myself. I talked to everybody (well, almost everybody, since there were three thousand people). I called my mom and said, "Mom, do you know blind people have jobs?" Almost every blind person I had met until then was on SSI (Supplemental Security Income). I said, "Mom, do you know they have houses and families?" I had assumed that I would never have a family.
My father got on the phone and said, "I told you. How do you expect to live as a blind person if you don't know any?"
At the convention there was a presentation about cane travel. I talked to Joe Cutter, an orientation and mobility instructor from New Jersey, and told him my sob story about stairs. I didn't have a cane with me, so when I finished my tale, he said, "I have a present for you." He offered me a cane; it was beautiful. I was now happy because I had a pole like everyone else.
Joe Cutter introduced me to Ron Burzese. Ron listened to my story, and he was both gracious and patient. We went to a staircase, and he told me to close my eyes. I'm from New York, so I was suspicious and made sure my friend was watching, but I did it. He showed me how to use the cane going down the stairs, and it was the safest feeling! When I got to the bottom of the stairs, Ron said in his deep, Barry White voice, "You have a decision to make. You can either live the rest of your life as a clumsy sighted person, or you can become a respectable blind person."
Those words hit me. Many people had pleaded with me, but when he said that, it was as if he knew me. Now I thank him every day, about twice a day.
After the convention I went back to London to finish up my jobs. Then I came back home. Three days later was 9/11, September 11, 2001. I thought to myself, I am never getting on a plane again! So much for my dreams of going anywhere. A few weeks later there was a big deal in the news about how Mike Hingson, a blind man, got out of the World Trade Center, and I said to my parents, "How much you wanna bet he's from the NFB? Anyone who went to the training center I did would never have gotten out!" A while later I received the Braille Monitor with the article about Mike, and I went crazy. I thought, This is another sign.
I know many people in those towers did not have the opportunity to get out, but even if I had been there and had had the chance, I probably wouldn't have taken it. My fear of coming down a flight of stairs was so deep I would have sat there and perished. I realized then that getting good training wasn't just about becoming respectable; it could be a life and death matter.
All my life I have said that there were two places I wanted to live: London and Minneapolis. I grew up watching Mary Tyler Moore, and I wanted an M like the one she had in her apartment. I did check out the other NFB training centers, but I already knew I was going to Minneapolis to attend BLIND Incorporated. It was very challenging to get New York to pay for me to go there, but that story is for another time. I kept knocking on the agency's door. I knew that eventually they would give me what I wanted just to shut me up, and they did. My thanks go to Shawn Mayo and a lot of other people.
I have been at BLIND Inc. only a few months, and I have already seen a huge change within myself. I knew I needed confidence, but I could never figure out why I couldn't get it. I realize now that the key is the training. I'm walking around and not banging into things. As a singer I travel a lot. I used to get someplace, cry for a week, and then get going. I have not cried yet in Minneapolis, and I am thrilled.
In closing, I'd like to thank the Federation on behalf of myself and my fellow BLIND Incorporated students. Thank you, not only for challenging us to embrace our blindness (or aspects of our blindness), but for providing us the opportunity, the wisdom, the mentoring, and the tools that enable someone like me to stand now as a respectable, independent, sky's-the-limit blind person.
by Eric Guillory
From the Editor: The National Federation of the Blind operates three adjustment-to-blindness training centers: the Colorado Center for the Blind in Littleton, Colorado; the Louisiana Center for the Blind in Ruston, Louisiana; and BLIND Inc. (Blindness: Living in New Dimensions) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each of these centers hosts summer programs for blind children and teens as well as year-round training for adults. Unlike most other blindness training programs, the NFB centers require students with low vision to learn nonvisual skills while wearing lightweight blindfolds called sleepshades. Although this practice is regarded as controversial by many professionals in the blindness field, staff and students at the centers feel it is highly effective.
The director of youth programs at each of the NFB centers has contributed an article to this issue of Future Reflections. Taken together, the following three pieces show why sleepshade training is used and how it helps students build skills and confidence. The first article is by Eric Guillory, who serves as director of youth services at the Louisiana Center for the Blind.
I have been blind since birth due to optic nerve hypoplasia. While I have some vision, it goes without saying that said vision is extremely limited. I didn't have to be taught to make use of the little sight that I have. Humans are equipped with a stunning capacity to cope and adapt. Long before I can remember doing so consciously, my brain was directing me to view people and objects better by tilting my head or making other adjustments in an attempt to compensate for not possessing 20/20 vision.
I am grateful that my parents and teachers realized the critical role Braille would have in my life. There is no doubt that Braille proficiency has played an indispensable part in my success. However, the importance of using nonvisual techniques to travel independently and to accomplish myriad other tasks was not heavily emphasized until I attended the Summer Training and Employment Project (STEP) at the Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB) at age fifteen. This eight-week program, like programs at LCB's sister centers, the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB) and BLIND Inc. (Blindness: Learning In New Dimensions), instructs students in utilizing the alternative techniques of blindness. The programs teach students that, by using the proper skills, they can compete on terms of equality with their sighted counterparts.
In addition to the long white cane (which is regrettably scoffed at by some in our field as being too long), the NFB centers prescribe the use of sleepshades (blindfolds) by students in training. Sleepshades are used if a student has any residual vision, including light perception.
As I said earlier, I did not have to learn to use the vision I have. However, I intentionally had to unlearn some of the bad habits I had acquired over time, such as trying to use my very small amount of vision far too much. The use of sleepshades was paramount in that unlearning process. In moments of apprehension or fear, it is easy to lose one's nerve and try to rely on the sense that is most unreliable to the blind--vision. Sleepshades take that option off the table and compel a student to trust his or her instructors, cane, and skill sets. The student learns to navigate his or her environment and to get things done much more efficiently, building a significantly higher degree of confidence. There is nothing quite like facing fears and using newly acquired skills to achieve things once thought out of reach.
"Misery loves company!" Sometimes I hear this remark from opponents of sleepshade use; they claim that this is why the NFB likes to "subject" students with vision to sleepshades. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that society's horror of blindness and low expectations about the capabilities of blind people can easily infiltrate a student's educational and other life experiences. The attitudes he absorbs can make him hold fast to visual techniques that do not serve him well. Reliance on sight may lead to inefficiency and, in some instances, may even put his safety at risk.
The three NFB training centers also believe strongly in the power of positive blind role models--both those who are totally blind and those with low vision who model the use of sleepshades. With help from these role models, students come to understand that the "hierarchy of sight" is a destructive social construct--one that promotes stereotypes and diminished expectations. When I was introduced to the NFB as a teenager this was a critical lesson for me. For the first time I realized that I truly could expect to succeed in life as a blind person. I could succeed thanks to the independence that would be mine through the nonvisual skill sets I acquired through sleepshade training.
by Brent Batron and Dan Burke
From the Editor: Dan Burke is a public relations specialist at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Brent Batron is the center's director of youth services.
Why do we require sleepshades for students in training at the Colorado Center for the Blind? The answer is paradoxical--to give our students more choices.
The terms "residual" vision and "usable" vision can cover a wide range of acuity and periphery, of numerical values and variability in function. It is almost impossible for any of us, blind or sighted, parent or child, to avoid the constant effort of trying to maximize what can be seen, based on the assumption that any vision is better than no vision at all. It's not necessarily bad to think this way, but it can be unnecessarily limiting.
Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, past president of the National Federation of the Blind, was well aware of this all-too-human tendency when he assumed the directorship of the Iowa Training Center for the Blind in 1958. He set out to revolutionize blindness training by teaching nonvisual techniques to his students, including those who had some usable vision. He recognized that a student may feel confident that he or she can see the "Walk" and "Don't Walk" lights at an intersection when it is cloudy, but not on bright days. Meanwhile, a student with no vision may be able to cross day or night, rain or shine, using nonvisual travel techniques. A low vision student might feel very frustrated trying to take notes when the lights are dimmed for a PowerPoint presentation, while another student takes Braille notes uninhibited, using a slate and stylus. Dr. Jernigan delighted in stories of nonvisual techniques that proved superior to the visual techniques used by his sighted peers.
Following the example of Dr. Jernigan, NFB training centers teach nonvisual techniques, strategies, and skills. We don't teach the use of low vision or strategies for maximizing vision--there are plenty of opportunities for those approaches elsewhere. However, for students with some vision, there aren't many places besides an NFB training center that offer the opportunity to get solid training in nonvisual skills.
All of us, blind and sighted, are subject to misconceptions about blindness. Of course, the most damaging opinion about blindness is that blind people are less capable than people with sight. In the NFB, we know that this is not true. Many of the limitations we experience as blind people come from low expectations and the subsequent lack of opportunities. Our training centers in Colorado, Louisiana, and Minnesota are enhancing opportunities for blind and visually impaired teenagers. We set the expectations high by exposing these young people to positive blind role models, a positive philosophy, and the alternative techniques of blindness. We give them opportunities to experience the truth about blindness through age-appropriate activities. We do this by utilizing tools that can empower them. These tools include the cane, computer with speech output, and Braille--and they are taught under sleepshades to students with residual vision.
One of the common misconceptions about sleepshades is that we use them to level the playing field so that everyone is totally blind. This is not the case. We use sleepshades with people who have residual vision so they can begin to understand that their remaining vision is just a tool. Sometimes it can be helpful, and sometimes it is not. It is of the utmost importance for them to realize this and to understand that they have nonvisual options for traveling, reading, and completing daily tasks. Students who attend an NFB training center as teenagers can begin to understand this reality at an early age. They gain a better understanding of their own abilities with or without vision. We give them new tools that help them become safer, more effective, and even faster.
It is typical for school systems to encourage the use of large print rather than Braille, even if the student is a slow print reader or gets headaches when he reads. As a result, the student typically develops an aversion to reading. Perhaps, if the student had been presented with Braille as an option, he would find reading more enjoyable. He might even become an avid reader. This is not always the case, of course, but if young people have options, they can decide for themselves what reading method works best, as opposed to disliking the only option that they have been given.
The same holds true with technology. If a student struggles to see the screen, chances are that she will not enjoy the laborious task of using a computer. However, if she is presented with the option of using a screen reader with speech so she can quickly navigate websites, emails, and social media, she is more likely to become fluent with the computer. She will probably have greater success in school and the workplace.
Cane travel becomes easier and safer when the user knows how to use all of his senses effectively and does not rely exclusively upon vision. It is easier and quicker to develop the other senses by using sleepshades. The student comes to understand textural differences; processes auditory information, including traffic patterns; and even learns to discern the position of the sun to retain line of direction. If a student has residual vision, he can better understand how, when, or if his vision is helpful. This knowledge provides him with the widest possible range of options. He learns to be safer, faster, and more effective as a traveler.
Christina was a student in our middle school program last summer. When she began the program, she was somewhat shy. She had a fair amount of residual vision and was a very perceptive young lady. Due to her vision she had not been exposed to very much Braille, but she knew that she struggled to read print, even large print, for any length of time. She was inefficient completing homework assignments. She had to choose between spending an inordinate amount of time on homework or accepting the accommodation of assignments lighter than those expected of her classmates. Intelligent and motivated, she decided to put in the time and effort it took for her to complete all tasks.
After her three-week middle school program at the Colorado Center last summer, Christina went back to school. In her quiet but determined way, she told the professionals at her IEP meeting that she needed to use Braille. She now loves to read. In fact, she participated in "Read Across America Day" this past March to celebrate Braille literacy. (Read Across America Day is a national event that encourages reading to and by children, whether visual or tactile.) Christina's confidence, ability, independence, and self expectations all were raised through her experience at an NFB training program. And sleepshades were a major part of her success.
The choices alluded to at the outset of this article come when a student such as Christina takes off the sleepshades and goes home and back to school. Now the student can choose between techniques and strategies based on which is more effective for her. She knows how to listen for parallel traffic, take notes in Braille, and make uniform slices of a tomato using her sense of touch.
And then there's the intangible--confidence. Time and time again, students arrive at the center feeling anxious and sensitive about how little they can see, all the while protesting how much they can see. They feel empowered when they realize that under sleepshades they can do tasks that once were difficult and stressful. Believe it--the world can become a much bigger place for a child who has gone through an NFB training program under sleepshades!
by Charlene Guggisberg
From the Editor: Charlene Guggisberg is the director of youth services at BLIND Inc. in Minneapolis.
When students come to BLIND Inc., one of their first concerns is the fact that they have to put on sleepshades. We require sleepshades for every student who has any degree of residual vision. A lot of kids argue about it at first. "I've only got light perception!" they tell us, or, "All I can see are shadows, anyway." Even kids with such minimal amounts of sight will try to rely on it, and that gets in the way of their learning. Our rule is that they wear sleepshades, regardless.
Though there is a lot of grumbling at the start, wearing sleepshades very quickly becomes the norm. I remember one time when a totally blind student asked for sleepshades. I knew he had no sight because both of his eyes were prostheses. He wanted sleepshades so he could be like everybody else.
When the kids come in, they tend to expect the hierarchy of vision that they're used to at school. They assume that the kids with partial sight will be the most capable and most responsible students in the program. We see this pattern especially with kids who go to residential schools for the blind. The totally blind kids frequently ask the kids who have some sight to help them find things they've misplaced or to walk them wherever they need to go. That's what they've been encouraged to do at school. We work to change that thinking. We try to teach them that they can find things and walk to unfamiliar places perfectly well by themselves.
Some kids come in with a lot of confidence, but others struggle to absorb what we're telling them. I remember one boy with low vision who kept trying to peek. When he dropped his slate and stylus, he wanted to take his sleepshades off in order to look for them. We insisted that he keep his sleepshades on, and one of the instructors found the things he had dropped. The boy couldn't believe that a blind person had found them. He got angry and accused the instructor of cheating. When we finally convinced him that the instructor was blind, it was a real breakthrough. After that he followed the instructors around for days, observing everything they could do.
Even the totally blind kids sometimes insist that the instructors must be doing things visually. They have completely bought into the idea that sight is necessary in order for a person to be fully competent. Once a couple of our students approached my children and demanded to know if I am really blind. They thought maybe I was faking it. My kids assured them that I really and truly can't see.
We conduct interviews with the children and their parents before they enter our programs. Not long ago I interviewed the mother of a girl who is in the process of losing her sight. "Is she going to be afraid of training here?" I asked.
The girl's mother thought for a few moments. "It's going to be hard for her," she said, "but she's ready. Right now she's surrounded by people saying, 'You poor, poor kid! Let us help you.' She needs to be with people who tell her, 'You can do it. We'll show you how.'"
Once a child or teen learns nonvisual skills, the new techniques can be added to the visual methods he or she knows already. The student can figure out what works best in a particular situation. One of our adult students was a professional videographer before he entered the program. He could still make videos, but he could only work for short periods because of intense eyestrain headaches. He thought he would have to give up on his career because of his vision loss. At BLIND Inc. he learned to use the VoiceOver program with the iPad, and he switched to film editing. He still works with videos, but in a different capacity. He comfortably integrates visual and nonvisual techniques to do his job.
Not only do our students have to learn new skills. They have to learn to trust the skills we teach them. Under sleepshades they are forced to use techniques that don't require vision, and they have the chance to find out that those techniques really do work. When they learn to trust their skills, they can begin to trust themselves.
by Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, Esq.; Natalie Shaheen, Ma.Ed.; and Jayne M. Wesler, LCSW, Esq.
Originally presented at the 2014 COPAA Conference: The Power of a Quality Education
From the Editor: When disputes arise about the best learning strategies for a student with low vision, the parents and the education team generally sort out their differences and develop a plan that is agreeable to all concerned. In some cases, however, negotiations break down, and the parents must resort to legal action. This article is based on a presentation delivered at the 2014 conference of COPAA, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates. It outlines some of the critical things that lawyers must understand when they advocate for blind/visually impaired students. Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, a partner in the Baltimore firm of Brown Goldstein and Levy, has extensive experience advocating for blind and low-vision students in the education system. Natalie Shaheen is director of education at the NFB Jernigan Institute, and Jayne M. Wesler is an attorney with the New Jersey firm of Sussan, Greenwald and Wesler who specializes in special education advocacy. Ms. Wesler obtained a ruling that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA 2004, also known as IDEA 2004) has a Braille Presumption for blind students.
This session will discuss the most effective methods of advocating for blind students. The presenters will discuss the importance of the recently released National Reading Media Assessment (a new research-based assessment tool to determine the literacy needs of blind students), IDEIA's Braille Presumption, and effective advocacy related to today's technological environment. This topic is being presented so that advocates are aware of the issues most important to ensuring that blind students gain the skills necessary to be successful in school and as they enter the workforce.
Many educational experts in the field of blindness recognize the significant benefit of teaching Braille for a student whose vision is not sufficient to read print comfortably and to do so at a competitive rate for a sustained period of time. These experts credit Braille for increasing the likelihood that the blind student will become more competitive in gaining employment than a blind student who lacks Braille literacy skills. It is critical that educators and parents understand the importance of Braille literacy and demand that school districts provide effective Braille instruction as early as possible in a child's education. Moreover, it is critical that advocates understand the other blindness skills that must be part of a child's IEP (Individualized Education Program), including effective orientation and mobility as well as technology training. By knowing the law and the supporting research, the effective tools for assessing literacy media, and the advances in accessible technology, advocates can be ready to disarm faulty assumptions by those who may not fully appreciate the needs of blind students. Advocates must also be aware of the technological barriers that blind students face and the legal tools to confront such barriers.
Braille literacy, effective cane travel, and an ability to utilize today's technology are all critical factors in a blind student's success at school, in the workplace, and in the community. It is essential that a blind student's IEP include a roadmap for ensuring that the student will gain the necessary blindness skills to compete on an equal playing field with his sighted peers.
A central piece of the IEP involves the student's literacy skills. For the blind/visually impaired student, the best criterion against which to measure literacy and success is the performance of sighted peers of similar intellectual ability. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the benchmark often used by team members.
The United States Department of Education issued an important Dear Colleague letter on June 13, 2013, which reiterates Congress's mandate regarding the literacy needs of the blind/visually impaired student. As the Department indicates:
[I]n the case of a child who is blind or visually impaired, [the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team must] provide for instruction in Braille and the use of Braille unless the IEP Team determines, after an evaluation of the child's reading and writing skills, needs, and appropriate reading and writing media (including an evaluation of the child's future needs for instruction in Braille or the use of Braille) that instruction in Braille or the use of Braille is not appropriate for the child.
Despite the law's mandate, in many, many cases school districts have ignored this directive. An example of this travesty is a young man to whom we shall refer as student A. Student A, like most blind students, has some vision. His IEP team determined that it would be best for him to use his vision as much as possible, utilizing large print books, magnifiers, and a CCTV, but not to learn Braille. He was told he was "lucky to have some vision" and thus he should use it. Although his parents tried to convince the school to provide Braille instruction, the school refused. The student struggled to read, holding his materials two to three inches from his face and contorting his body to see the text. He found reading out loud "mortifying" since he read so slowly. By fifth grade, he was reading on a second grade level, notwithstanding his above-average intellect. It inevitably took him two to three times longer than his sighted peers to complete his assignments.
When teachers wrote on the board or used an overhead projector, he could not see the information even with his magnifying devices. His teachers always praised him for doing well, although he was often excused from assignments.
When he reached middle school, Student A was given audio books which provided him no basis for learning grammar, spelling, punctuation, or sentence structure. He could not write a thoughtful paragraph. By eighth grade, his IEP team decided that it had made a mistake and recommended Braille instruction.
Student A was upset, frustrated, and angry. He was afraid that if he started to learn Braille at age fourteen, he would never graduate on time. He resisted and tried to rely on audio books and human readers. Both proved totally ineffective.
It was not until he graduated from high school that he understood that he needed effective blindness skills, including Braille, in order to be competitive, successful, and independent. Although he began to study Braille, it was too late for him to catch up. He enrolled in a community college. It took him four years to earn a two-year associate's degree because he needed so much remedial course work. He went on to college, but again found that he was at a distinct disadvantage. He was still not proficient enough in Braille to read his college level texts, nor could he see well enough to read the texts in print. He learned to use screen reading software, but this proved difficult because the text had not been sufficiently remediated to allow him to navigate in the way sighted students read text. He was never taught to self advocate, and thus he did not know that he could have demanded that his university provide the necessary remediation. He continued to gain blindness skills and finally, after six grueling years, he obtained his college degree.
In stark contrast is Student B, who also had some vision. Although he could see large print text, his IEP team determined that he should be provided with Braille instruction and other critical blindness skills, including cane travel. His school district started teaching him these necessary skills when he was in preschool. He became a fluent Braille reader and utilized his Braille skills extensively. He also used his print reading ability when he found it helpful to do so. Student B enjoyed school and found that he was as successful as his sighted peers. After he graduated from high school, he obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the same time or more quickly than others he knew.
Why the stark difference between these two students? Both boys were blind and had no other disability, and both boys had some limited vision. Although there could certainly be other factors involved, at least one significant reason for the difference had to be the way educators approached these students. One group of educators embraced their student's blindness by providing a full complement of blindness skills as far back as preschool. Another set of educators focused on the student's limited vision and did not provide the alternative skills that surely would have changed the student's educational experience.
Advocates need to know what educational tools work best for blind students. Advocates must demand that districts provide their students with these tools.
An advocate for a blind or visually impaired student should presume that the child will receive Braille instruction. If an IEP team suggests that Braille would not be in the child's interest, the advocate must demand that, before such a decision is made, the team comply with the requirements of 20 USC Section 1441 (d)(3)(B)(III)); 34 CFR 300.324 (a)(2)III). A full assessment must be completed, and only if there is an objective showing that Braille "is not appropriate for the child" may a district deny the request. As the Department of Education has made clear:
[t]he evaluation of vision status and the need (or future need) for Braille instruction should be thorough and rigorous; include a data-based media assessment; be based on a range of learning modalities, including auditory, tactile, and visual; and include a functional visual assessment. An assessment of a child's vision status generally would include the nature and extent of the child's visual impairment, and its effect, for example, on the child's ability to learn to read, write, do mathematical calculations, and use computers and other assistive technology, as well as the child's ability to be involved in and make progress in the general curriculum offered to nondisabled students. Such an evaluation generally would be closely linked to the assessment of the child's present and future reading and writing objectives, needs, and appropriate reading and writing media. The information obtained through the evaluation generally should be used by the IEP Team in determining whether it would be appropriate to provide a blind or visually impaired child with instruction in Braille or the use of Braille as required by the IDEIA. Factors, such as shortages of trained personnel to provide Braille instruction; the availability of alternative reading media (including large print materials, recorded materials, or computers with speech output); or the amount of time needed to provide a child with sufficient and regular instruction to attain proficiency in Braille, may not be used to deny Braille instruction to a child. ...
The advocate should be particularly concerned with any reluctance by the district to provide Braille instruction for reasons that are unrelated to the objective data. Moreover, it is critical that the assessment tool that is used to determine the appropriate literacy medium be free from bias and designed to accurately predict the most effective and efficient literacy medium. We believe that there is a research-based tool that meets these criteria, known as the National Reading Media Assessment (NRMA).
Using the NRMA, educators can assess a blind student with residual vision under standardized conditions to determine which reading medium is most appropriate. Based on the assessment, the student's reading medium may be determined to be Braille, large print, or dual Braille and print. In addition to the data collected from the child's performance on literacy tasks under standardized conditions, the NRMA also gathers information from interviews of the parent/guardian, the teacher, and the student. The interviews are a series of questions on a five-point Likert-type scale. Both the interviews and the assessment are "standardized to have a score range between 20 and 100." The final score for the entire assessment is calculated by averaging the scores from each of the four components, (i.e., the three interviews and the performance assessment). The final score, ranging from 20 to 100, determines which medium is to be recommended for the child. A score of 20-49 indicates that the child should be a Braille reader. A score of 50-70 indicates that the child should be a dual Braille and print reader. Finally, a score of 71-100 indicates that a child should be a print reader.
The data collected through the NRMA provides a clear, objective picture of how the student is currently functioning, and, based on that data, provides a recommendation of what literacy medium will allow the student to perform at a level commensurate with his typically developing peers of the same ability. After conducting the NRMA, educators can begin (or continue) instruction in the appropriate medium or media.
Of course, Braille instruction is only one piece of the service needs of the blind student. An appropriate technology assessment must also be conducted. There are a plethora of access technologies (e.g., screen access software, refreshable Braille displays, and stand-alone notetaking devices) that, when coupled with mainstream technologies, afford blind users access. Determining which devices will best meet the needs of a given student requires careful examination of the student's skills, the demands of the curriculum, and the student's reading medium. For example, a student who is a Braille reader will likely need access to Braille input and output when using technology. A blind student who has the appropriate technology tools and the associated skill sets should be able to complete a technology-based task in the same amount of time as his peers of similar abilities. This assumes, of course, that the mainstream technology the student is being asked to use is nonvisually accessible.
Consequently, the advocate must also be alert to the accessibility (or lack of accessibility) of any technology that is used by the student's school. The advocate must press hard to ensure that a school district uses only accessible technology. For technology that is not accessible to the blind user, the advocate must demand assurances that the blind or visually impaired student is afforded the same opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as sighted students. Although this might not result in identical ease of use for the blind student, the school must ensure equal access to the educational benefits and opportunities afforded by the technology and equal treatment in the use of such technology. To do otherwise would violate Section 504 and Title II of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). [Note: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 USC Section 794, 34 CFR part 104) prohibits discrimination by entities, such as public schools, that receive federal financial assistance; Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits disability discrimination by public entities, including public schools, regardless of whether they receive federal financial assistance (42 USC Section 12131-12134; 28 CFR part 35).]
HM's school district, in consultation with the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (NJCBVI), determined, without a comprehensive assessment, that HM, a nine-year-old boy with significant visual impairments, did not need Braille instruction. His parents challenged that decision, using experts who conducted the type of assessment envisioned by IDEIA. The assessment supported the parents' position that HM should learn to be a dual media reader, that is, he should become fluent in Braille and utilize his sight when he finds such effective. The experts recommended that the school district provide HM with Braille instruction for the same amount of time and frequency that his sighted peers spend on language and literacy instruction. This recommendation was consistent with the instruction recently mandated by the United States Department of Education:
IEP Teams must ensure that the instructional time allotted for Braille instruction is sufficient to provide the level of instruction determined appropriate for the child. For example, if a particular student has little or no skill in Braille reading and writing [the case with HM], the IEP Team may conclude that frequent and intensive instruction in Braille would be necessary to enable the student to have meaningful access to the general curriculum.
With the district digging in its heels against Braille instruction, the case went to trial. Based on expert testimony, the Administrative Law Judge concluded that (1) the district had ignored the Braille presumption; (2) HM needed intensive Braille instruction for ninety minutes a day; (3) HM needed instruction in assistive technology; and, (4) HM needed effective goals and objectives to meet his needs. The Judge awarded significant compensatory damages in an effort to bring HM's blindness skills up to grade level.
It is imperative that advocates come to the IEP table advocating for Braille instruction, technology instruction, and effective orientation and mobility skills training. These critical skills are necessary to provide FAPE (free and appropriate public education). The presenters cannot stress enough the importance of educating parents and teachers on the role that Braille can play in a student's life and how Braille and technology can work together to empower a blind student to do anything that a sighted student can do. The advocate must help empower children and their parents to dream big and never to let barriers get in their way to success.
Bell, E.C., Ewell, J.V., and Minor, N.M. (2013). "National Reading Media Assessment: Complete Report." Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, 3(2). Retrieved from: <http://www.nfb-jbir.org/index.php/JBIR>
Bell, E.C. and Minor, N. M. (2013). "Blind and Visually Impaired Adult Rehabilitation Survey: Final Results." Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, 1(1). Citing Ruby Ryles, PhD, "The Impact of Braille Reading Skills on Employment, Income, Education and Reading Habits" (1996); See <www.pdrib.com/pages/researchreports.php>.
IDEIA Part B regulations, 34 CFR Section 300.324(a)(2)(III)
United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. (2011). "Frequently Asked Questions About the June 29, 2010, Dear Colleague Letter,” p. 2 (May 26)
United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. (2013). "Dear Colleague Letter" (June 19). <www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-ebook-faq-201105.html>
by Clara Van Gerven
From the Editor: Clara Van Gerven is a technology specialist at the International Braille and Technology Center (IBTC) at the National Federation of the Blind. The following article is based on a blog post on the NFB Access Technology Blog <https:/nfb.org/blog/about/blog> on low vision reading features on the Nexus 7 and the iPad Mini. It was posted on Friday, November 30, 2012 at <https://nfb.org/blog/atblog/low-vision-and-books-and-few-other-things-ipad-mini-and-nexus-7>. The information in this article has been fully re-tested, and the text has been revised accordingly.
There is nothing new about low vision readers using ebooks to their advantage. However, the quality of that experience and the devices with the best features change all the time. This article aims to give some insight into the current state of affairs. I will report on a little experiment I conducted with devices from two of the major players in the market--Apple and Google.
Let me briefly bore you with the finer points of the devices I picked for this test and why I chose them. I tested on the iPad Mini (iOS 7.1, the current release on 3/31/14) and the Nexus 7, 2013 model (Android 4.4.2, KitKat, the current release on 3/31/14). I picked these two because they represent the two big players in the market, and because they are full-function tablets, but still small enough to fit into a smallish bag and a smallish budget. There are a million Android tablets out there, but only the Nexus devices run unmodified, as originally designed, up-to-date Android, hence my choice. Now, on to the main feature.
The book guinea pig of choice for this test was a set of Humble Bundle books <https://www.humblebundle.com>. Humble Bundle lets you buy games and books (in my case, books) at a price you pick (really!) and with a payout distribution you pick. That is to say, you get to decide how much of your money goes to the authors, to Humble Bundle, and to a short list of charities Humble Bundle supports. It's quite a nice system! More importantly, all of these ebooks are DRM-free, and they are available in multiple formats (usually MOBI, PDF and EPUB), so you can pick your device--it's as easy and flexible as you could hope for.
Buying ebooks in the company store is easy, but not always ideal. I purchased the books, and a download email was sent to me. The folks at Humble Bundle give excellent instructions, which I used as needed.
On the iPad Mini, I went to my download page and hit the button for Wil Wheaton's The Happiest Days of Our Lives in EPUB, my accessible and fully reflowable format of choice. Voilà, it asked me whether I wanted to read in iBooks or something else. The "Open in ..." option let me open the book in a plethora of ways--Nook, Reader, Voice Dream Reader, and Google Drive. Your options will depend on which reading apps you have installed. I chose to open in iBooks, as that is Apple's own reader. The book simply opened.
On the Nexus 7, I tried the same operation with Google Play Books. No luck. Then I went back to the actual instructions and read the ones for Android. I admit that I was discouraged by the length of the instructions and the fact that the first two options involved a computer. I decided to try Play Books, as this is the native option. This prompted me to ask myself a series of questions. Do I really need to read all these instructions? Why does my first option require me to use a computer? What if I'm not near one? What if I forgot my connection cable?
I skipped to the Android device option, which was easily the simplest for my purpose, my book, and my device. I read:
"Using your Android device
You can upload EPUB and PDF files from your Android device to Google Play Books. Before you can upload PDF files, you'll need to change your upload settings. Open the Google Play Books app > Touch the Google Play Books app Books icon > Settings > Check the box next to "Enable PDF uploading."
Download an EPUB or PDF file on your device. Select the downloaded file on your device notifications or Downloads menu. If prompted, select Upload to Play Books. Open the Google Play Books app. Go to My Library > Uploads to see your uploaded files."
I followed the steps and met with success. Here, too, non-Google options were offered for reading my book. I chose Google Play Books. While there are still a few more steps involved in getting these books onto Android as compared to iOS devices, I was delighted to find that Google has actually made vast improvements to this process since I last tested. First of all, you can now read EPUB in Google Play Books, and you are no longer forced to use a computer and an EPUB-friendly app to get EPUB books onto the device. The settings change needed to upload a book directly is a one-off change, and while it's odd to have to enable PDF uploads to upload an EPUB document, it works nicely enough.
The basic low vision functionality is similar in iBooks and Play Books--you can adjust font size, brightness, and color scheme (regular, sepia, and night, which means white on black). You can also choose a font. In addition, on both devices, double tap will open an illustration and let you zoom in on it individually. The glitch that used to make images disappear in night view on the Mini has been fixed. On the Nexus 7, you can also pick text alignment and line spacing in the settings. On the iPad Mini, you can choose a scrolling view instead of flipping pages.
Where it gets interesting is with the peripheral items--how easy is it to get to these controls? How easy is it to get into a book? On the face of it, the magnification gestures on both devices are similar--you can magnify while in a book, and pan through the page and controls when you reveal them. This is quite handy. The magnification on the Mini is crisper and clearer all around compared to the Nexus, though it has been cleaned up in KitKat and looks better than it did in the past. That said, the gestures on the Nexus are, I think, nicely intuitive, more so than on the Mini (for me, at least).
Here's a very quick comparison:
Nexus
Start magnification: Triple tap, one finger
Change magnification: Pinch/reverse pinch
Pan: Drag two fingers
Temporarily magnify: Triple tap and hold (revert to previous state when finger is lifted)
iPad Mini
Start magnification: Triple tap, three fingers
Change magnification: Triple tap three fingers, then drag up or down
Pan: Drag with three fingers
The change magnification gesture on the Mini proved especially challenging to me. There are some more quirks once you stray away from books even a little. For one thing the magnification is, for lack of a better term, more persistent on the Mini. The Nexus switches you back to regular view every time you change apps or screen orientation, which is irksome if you need the magnification consistently. Obviously, on triple tap, the magnification restarts.
Large text, another useful feature, is quite different on each device. iOS gives you more size options, but only works in Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Messages, Notes, and certain aspects of Maps. The large text in Android KitKat gives you only one option for size, but applies it more broadly to things such as the settings screen, which is quite nice. Icon names remain tiny in either case. That said, iOS gives a low vision user a few more options than Android does--you can bold the text (requires a restart), turn on button shapes to make buttons more findable (if also lower contrast). You can up the contrast in a number of ways--you can reduce the transparency that is so troublesome in iOS 7, or darken colors and reduce the white point for those sensitive to glare. One other feature that currently has no Android counterpart is inverting colors, which can be done on iOS and which works well. There are ongoing rumors of improvements for the next release of Android, so we're on alert for that.
All in all, I have to say that book reading on either device, purely from an in-book perspective, is pretty similar, with a slight advantage to the Mini. It is with the other, peripheral, and related tasks where the iPad Mini shines and perhaps--perhaps!--merits the price difference. The magnification is a bit better, but it is the consistency of the magnification that really makes the difference. If you want it to stay on, it will stay on, and if you want to turn it off, that's easy, too. What's more, if you're one of the many people who will use speech for reading books occasionally (but not all the time), turning it on and off is much easier on the Mini. On the Nexus, turning off speech requires the user to change the accessibility settings. On the iPad Mini, you can set triple tap Home either to toggle VoiceOver or prompt you to choose whether you want Zoom, VoiceOver, or both.
There are, of course, other reading options on both Android and iOS devices. I have not covered these here, though some have good low vision and/or speech functionality, simply because there are so many. Furthermore, Apple iBooks and Google Play Books on their respective devices are the default option and ideally integrate the best with the rest of the tablet's functions.
In short, the Nexus 7 is a little like duct tape--it's cheap and mostly functional. The iPad Mini, on the other hand, is more like one of those fancy rabbit-shaped bottle openers--well designed and a little overpriced. It does its job very elegantly, but sometimes it's a little baffling.
by Carlton Walker
No matter where you are in your journey as the parent (or guardian, relative, or family friend) of a blind/visually impaired child, you are on a journey. You have a past behind you that cannot be changed and a future ahead that can be.
The past can be incredibly valuable as a source of information and experience, but it can also be a source of regret. I often hear from parents of blind children who feel guilt over missed opportunities and wasted time. I completely understand these feelings, and I have felt them on many occasions (regarding my blind daughter as well as my sighted son and daughter).
My youngest child, Anna Catherine, lost a great deal of her vision in early infancy. However, my husband Stephen and I did not discover this for many months. An ophthalmologist told us that she was “legally blind,” but we didn’t begin to comprehend that her visual loss was having an impact on her life until we noticed that she was not keeping up with her peers in terms of independent and confident movement around our community.
In May 2005, when Anna Catherine was four years old, the three of us attended an amazing conference (sponsored by NOPBC and the National Federation of the Blind) at the NFB Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. There we learned about the importance of blindness skills and met many successful blind adults and educators. We even took home a long white cane for travel—which we soon put in the closet.
You see, as a mom new to the world of blindness, I was petrified that I would do something wrong. I knew that I did not have the skills to teach my daughter what she needed to know. Even after attending the Baltimore conference, I didn’t trust myself to implement the lessons we learned there. I was so afraid of teaching her incorrectly that I made the biggest mistake I could—I failed to teach her at all.
Luckily, with the supportive persistence of NOPBC President Emerita Barbara Cheadle, our family attended the 2006 NFB National Convention in Dallas, Texas. Even though we had become stuck in our old ways for over a year, we knew we needed to take this next step toward getting Anna Catherine on the right track.
You might remember that back in 2006, air travel was quite different from what we experience today. Each individual holding a ticket was entitled to take two full-sized pieces of luggage plus a carry-on and a “personal” item. I have never been one to pack lightly, and I certainly did not do so when I had such a generous luggage allowance and when flying out to Dallas for a whole week. We arrived at the airport long-term parking lot with a small five-year-old Anna Catherine, six full-sized pieces of wheeled luggage, three large carry-on items, three “personal” items, and a long white cane. As Stephen and I struggled to empty this immense amount of baggage from our minivan, I pulled out that long white cane. Looking at it with frustration, I told Anna Catherine, “Here, you take this!”
To be honest, I paid no attention to the cane until we arrived at the Security Gate. As Stephen and I focused on getting our carry-on and “personal” items through security, a TSA agent asked Anna Catherine to place the long white cane on the conveyor belt. Suddenly, my genial five-year-old planted her feet on the floor and announced, “You CANNOT have my cane!” Stephen and I stared at each other quizzically. I stammered, “Well, I guess it’s a good thing we decided to pack the cane.”
I’d love to tell you that, at that moment, I “got it.” But I cannot. Instead of fully backing up our little girl’s attempt to stand up for her rights, we cajoled her into letting the cane go through the conveyor belt and walking through the metal detector without her cane. After all, she hadn’t had the cane for so long, how could it have become so important to her in the short trip from the airport parking lot to the security gate?
I didn’t get all of it then, but I did get some of it. My little girl demanded that she be allowed to keep her cane even though she had not had very much instruction in using it. Her technique was not perfect, but she understood that her cane provided her the independence that she had been missing. Once she had that taste of independence, she was not about to give it up without a fight. And, yes, I felt horrible about putting her cane in a closet for fourteen months—fourteen months of independence I could never give back to her—but I also began to see the independent future she could have ahead of her.
It can be tempting to relive the past. However, our greatest opportunity for growth occurs when we learn from the past and use this information to shape the future. On July 1, 2014, take the next step with us at the National Federation of the Blind Convention in Orlando, Florida. Join us, the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC), a division of the NFB, as we partner with Professionals in Blindness Education (PIBE) to present information, ideas, and inspiration through speakers, workshops, and fellowship with parents, professionals, and successful blind adults eager to walk with us on this important journey. I invite you to take your cane out of the closet and join us!
TUESDAY, JULY 1
Full-Day Seminar for Parents and Teachers
7:30 - 8:45 AM—REGISTRATION
9:00 - 10:45 AM—GENERAL SESSION
Welcome—Carlton Walker, President, NOPBC
Kid Talk with Dr. Marc Maurer—Kids get a chance to speak to the president of the National Federation of the Blind about anything on their minds
Taking the Next Step—Mark Riccobono, Executive Director, NFB Jernigan Institute
I Took the Next Step—Arielle Silverman, University of WA; Evelyn Valdez, Veterans Administration
The Next Step—The Students Speak
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM—NOPBC CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY (ages 5-12, in NFB Child Care)
Music and Movement—Conchita Hernandez, Special Educator
NOTE: NOPBC children’s activities will take place in NFB Child Care throughout the week. Be sure to register your child with Child Care! (NFB Child Care has separate registration and fees—see article elsewhere in this issue.)
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM—NOPBC YOUTH TRACK SESSION (ages 11-18)
Be Your Own Boss—Kevan Worley, Entrepreneur
Putting It Together for Good—Darian Smith, NFB Community Service Division
Trading Places—Joe Naulty, Dave Hutchins, NFB CARS Division
PLEASE NOTE:
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM—NOPBC CONCURRENT SESSIONS—PARENTS AND TEACHERS
Independence in the Classroom
Tools, tips, and techniques for setting up the classroom and training the student for independent functioning. Instructor: Jackie Anderson, Teacher of Blind Students
Independent Movement and Travel for Children with Additional Disabilities
Working toward maximum independence and self-determination for the child with additional disabilities. Instructor: Denise Mackenstadt, NOMC
Low Vision Toolbox
Useful items for low vision students and how to determine the most efficient method for the task. Instructor: TBA
First Steps
Exploration and independent movement and travel in early childhood. Instructor: Mary Jo Hartle, NOMC, Teacher of Blind Students
Accessible Technology
Using accessible technology for meaningful participation in school, at home, and in the community. Instructor: Eric Guillory, Director, Youth Services, LA Center for the Blind
12:15 - 2:00 PM— LUNCH on your own.
Pick your child up from NFB Child Care promptly after your workshop session ends at 12:15.
2:00 PM—NOPBC CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY (ages 5-12, in NFB Child Care)
Self Defense Workshop—1Touch Self Defense
NOTE: NOPBC children’s activities take place in NFB Child Care throughout the week. Be sure to register your child with child care! (Separate registration and fees)
2:00 – 4:45 PM—NOPBC YOUTH TRACK SESSION (ages 11-18)
Be Your Own Boss—Kevan Worley, Entrepreneur
Putting It Together for Good—Darian Smith, NFB Community Service Division
Trading Places—Joe Naulty, Dave Hutchins, NFB CARS Division
2:00 - 3:15 PM—NOPBC CONCURRENT SESSIONS—PARENTS AND TEACHERS
Independence Skills at Home and in the Community
Teaching and supporting the development of independence skills for full participation in home and community life. Instructor: Mary Jo Hartle, NOMC, TBS
Hands Off!
Honoring the child’s right to personal space and control over his/her body. Instructor: Carlton Walker, Teacher of Blind Students, President, NOPBC
Independent Movement and Travel for the School-Age Student
High expectations, real-life goals, and how to achieve them in the area of independent movement and travel. Instructor: TBA
Tactile Graphics—The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The basics of creating a good tactile graphic that will really work for the blind child. Instructor: Carol Castellano, Director of Programs, NOPBC
I Get Around
Getting around independently when you do not drive. Instructors: Pam Allen, Director, LA Center for the Blind; Roland Allen, NOMC
3:30 - 4:45 PM—NOPBC CONCURRENT SESSIONS—PARENTS AND TEACHERS
Low Vision Technology
From low tech to high tech, learn about the many options for the low vision student. Instructor: Janet Bernhardt, Owner, Low Vision, Etc.
Saying It My Way
Encouraging communication, learning, and play in children with communication needs. Instructor: Natalie Shaheen, Director of Education, NFB Jernigan Institute
Social Skills for the School-Age Child
Encouraging appropriate social interaction and play. Instructor: Sheena Manuel, Outreach Specialist, Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness
How to Set Up a Saturday School
Empowering families to learn and teach the skills of independence. Instructor: Jackie Anderson, Teacher of Blind Students
College Checklist: Is Your Blind Child Ready? Are YOU Ready?
Preparing for heading off to college—what parents and students need to know, with a special visit from one of “the roommates from hell.” Instructors: Kim Cunningham, second vice president, NOPBC; Kayleigh Joiner, Student; Arielle Silverman, Fellow, University of WA; Deborah Kent Stein, Editor, Future Reflections
5:00 - 6:00 PM—Youth Get-Together (ages 11-18)
6:00 - 8:00 PM—NOPBC Family Hospitality
Relax, chat, meet new families, and connect with old friends. Veteran parents will be on hand to welcome you and provide information. Co-sponsored by PIBE.
8:00 - 10:00 PM (time tentative)—NABS Student Social (ages 14-18)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 2
No NFB Child Care on this day
7:00 - 8:45 AM—NOPBC Board Meeting
8:45 - 10:30 AM—CANE WALK Session I
11:00 AM - 12:45 PM—CANE WALK Session II
Learn and experience the Discovery Method of travel at these special workshops. Parents, teachers, blind children, siblings welcome. Instructors: Jeff Altman, NOMC, and cane travel instructors.
2:45 - 4:00 PM—NOPBC YOUTH STYLE SHOW
This is an opportunity for your aspiring model to take a walk down the runway in a favorite outfit from his or her closet. Contact Kim Cunningham at 713-501-9659 or [email protected] to sign up and for further information. All ages welcome.
4:00 - 5:30 PM—NOPBC YOUTH TRACK SESSION (ages 11-18)
The Play’s the Thing
Discover the anatomy of writing a play. Come prepared to help write, direct, and act in a short play. Bring something to write with if you can. Robert Leslie Newman, NFB Writers Division
5:45 pm—NOPBC BREAKING BARRIERS TRIATHLON
In our first ever Breaking Barriers Triathlon participants will swim through shark-infested waters, race through an alligator-infested swamp, and shoot down barriers to independence (all on the hotel grounds with no danger involved). Join us for this fun-filled family fundraiser! $5 registration fee collected at the event. Help raise money for the NOPBC by collecting pledges. We hope to have prizes for the top fundraisers. A pledge sheet appears near the end of this article. Please bring pledge sheets and donations to the event. All donations are tax deductible. For more information contact Andrea Beasley at 608-449-7906 or [email protected].
THURSDAY, JULY 3
10:00 AM—NOPBC CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY (ages 5-12, in NFB Child Care)
Tinkering with Tools—Dave Hutchins, Joe Naulty, and the NFB CARS Division
12:45 PM—You may drop off your child early at child care on this afternoon so that you can attend the NOPBC Annual Meeting.
2:00 PM—NOPBC CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY (ages 5-12, in NFB Child Care)
Beep Kickball—Judy Byrd, Beep Kickball Association
1:00 - 4:00 PM—NOPBC YOUTH TRACK SESSION (ages 11-18)
Student to Student—National Association of Blind Students (NABS)
1:00 - 4:00 PM—NAT’L ORGANIZATION OF PARENTS OF BLIND CHILDREN ANNUAL MEETING: OPTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Keynote address by the 2014 Distinguished Educator of Blind Children award winner, special guest speakers on accessible science, cutting-edge products and services, summer programs for our kids, Parent Power, and much more! Business meeting, elections.
5:00 - 7:00 PM—BRAILLE BOOK FAIR
A book lover's dream! Browse tables of new and used Braille and print/Braille books. Volunteers will box your books and the post office will deliver them to your home as Free Matter. Books are free; donations are encouraged to help support our Braille programs. Cosponsored by NOPBC and NAPUB. Coordinator: Krystal Guillory, Teacher of Blind Students, NFBL BELL Coordinator.
7:30 - 9:00 PM—DADS’ NIGHT OUT
All dads, sighted and blind, are welcome. Call Bill Cucco at (201) 602-6318 for location.
FRIDAY, JULY 4
7:00 - 9:00 AM—NOPBC BOARD MEETING
10:00 AM—NOPBC CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY (ages 5-12, in NFB Child Care)
Making Raised-Line Drawings—Staff of E.A.S.Y. LLC
2:00 PM—NOPBC CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY (ages 5-12, in NFB Child Care)
Science Adventures—Robert Jaquiss, American Thermoform; Cary Supalo, Independent Science
7:00 - 10:00 PM—NOPBC CHILDREN’S ACTIVITY (ages 5-12)
Crafts and Games—For children whose parents are attending NOPBC evening workshops.
7:00 - 10:00 PM—NOPBC YOUTH TRACK ACTIVITY (ages 11-18)
7:00 - 9:45 PM—NOPBC CONCURRENT SESSIONS—PARENTS AND TEACHERS
7:00 - 8:15 PM
Unified English Braille (UEB)
It's new. It's coming. What is it, how will the transition be made, and what will it mean to your child? Instructor: Casey Robertson, Teacher of Blind Students
7:00 - 8:15 PM
IEP Basics for Parents of Blind/VI Students
The sections of the IEP, essential assessments, how assessment information is used, how to be an active and effective participant. Instructor: Carlton Walker, Attorney, Teacher of Blind Students
8:30 - 9:45 PM
IEP Development and Legal Process Overview
Do’s and Don’ts for the IEP meeting; preparing for possible mediation, due process, appeal, etc; overview of the legal process; how to prepare for a due process hearing so you don’t have to have one! Instructor: Carlton Walker, Attorney, Teacher of Blind Students
8:30 - 9:45 PM
Spanish Language Session
This session will cover a range of subjects of interest to parents of blind children. Instructor: Conchita Hernandez, Special Educator
NOPBC INSIDER INFORMATION
National convention is a complicated week of events. Here are a few tips to help you stay organized and take advantage of the many opportunities that will be available.
Registration Information
Seminar Day Information
Activities for Children and Youth; Child Care Information
Other Activities Going on All Week Long
In addition to the special NOPBC activities for parents, children, and youth listed in this document, other activities that you and your child may be interested in attending will be going on all week. Often many activities are going on at the same time and you and your child will have to make choices! Here is a sampling:
Make check payable to NOPBC and mail with form to:
Pat Renfranz, NOPBC Treasurer
397 Middle Oak Lane, Salt Lake City, UT 84108
Save money by preregistering! Preregistration must be postmarked by June 15.
After June 15, please register on-site in Orlando.
FEES |
By June 15 |
On-site in Orlando |
1 Adult |
$30 |
$40 |
Child/Youth (up to 18 years) |
FREE |
FREE |
Adult Name _____________________________________________________________
[ ] parent of blind child [ ] professional [ ] other___________________
Adult Name ____________________________________________________________
[ ] parent of blind child [ ] professional [ ] other_________________
Please list additional adults on a separate sheet.
Address______________________________________ City_______________________
State________________Zip _________________ Phone _________________________
E-mail _______________________________ Alt. phone _________________________
Child/Youth 1—Name (first and last), age, brief description of vision and any additional disabilities: _____________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Child/Youth 2: ___________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Please list additional children/youth on a separate sheet.
How many people? |
Prereg. |
On-site reg. |
Totals |
1 Adult _____ |
@ $30 |
or @ $40 |
= $______ |
2 or more Adults ____ |
@ $50 |
or @ $70 |
= $______ |
Child/Youth _____ |
FREE |
FREE |
= $__00__ |
Total Registering ____ |
|
|
Total enclosed: $______ |
For parents/teachers of blind children:
___ I receive Future Reflections |
___ I am a member of my state NFB/POBC |
___ This is my 1st national convention |
___ If not, how many have you attended? |
PLEASE NOTE: Preregistrations postmarked after June 15 will be returned. Also, remember that registrations for the NOPBC Conference and NFB Child Care are separate and must be mailed to different places.
TUESDAY, JULY 1
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM (Please mark how many will attend each session.)
_____ Independence in the Classroom
_____ Independent Movement and Travel—Additional Disabilities
_____ Low Vision Toolbox
_____ First Steps
_____ Accessible Technology
2:00 - 3:15 PM (Please mark how many will attend each session.)
_____ Independence—Home and Community
_____ Hands Off!
_____ Independent Movement and Travel—School Age
_____ Tactile Graphics
_____ I Get Around
3:30 - 4:45 PM (Please mark how many will attend each session.)
_____ Low Vision Technology
_____ Saying It My Way
_____ Social Skills—School Age
_____ Saturday School
_____ College Checklist
CHILDREN—Please mark number of children and ages for each session.
NOTE: NOPBC children’s activities take place in NFB Child Care. In order for child to participate in an activity, you must register your child for NFB Child Care for that day. Child care has separate registration and fees. (See article elsewhere in this issue.)
How many? Ages
_____ __________ 11 AM - 12:15 PM—Music and Movement (ages 5-12)
_____ __________ 2:00 PM—Self-Defense Workshop (ages 5-12)
YOUTH—Please mark how many will attend and ages for each session.
How many? Ages
_____ __________ 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM—Youth Track Session (ages 11-18)
Be Your Own Boss, Putting It Together, Trading Places
_____ __________ 2:00 - 4:45 PM—Youth Track Session (ages 11-18)
Be Your Own Boss, Putting It Together, Trading Places continues
_____ __________ 5:00 - 6:00 PM—Youth Get-Together (ages 11-18)
_____ __________ 8:00 - 10:00 PM (tentative time)—Student Social (ages 14-18)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 2
Please mark how many will attend and children/youth ages for each session.
8:45 - 10:30 AM—Cane Walk Session I
_____ adults _____ children _____ youth
_________ ages _________ ages
11:00 AM - 12:45 PM—Cane Walk Session II
_____ adults _____ children _____ youth
_________ ages _________ ages
CHILDREN AND YOUTH—Please mark how many will attend and ages for each session.
How many? Ages
_____ ______ 2:45 - 4:00 PM—Youth Style Show (all ages) (Rehearsal at 1 PM) Contact Kim Cunningham at 713-501-9659 or [email protected] for participation information.
_____ __________ 4:00 - 5:30 PM—Youth Track Session (ages 11-18)
The Play’s the Thing
_____ __________5:45 PM—NOPBC Breaking Barriers Triathlon (all ages)
($5.00 registration fee collected at event; bring Sponsor Sheet/s and donations to the event. Contact Andrea Beasley at 608-449-7906 or [email protected] for participation information.
THURSDAY, JULY 3
CHILDREN—For child to participate you must register child for NFB Child Care for the day (separate registration and fees).
Please mark number of children and ages for session.
How many? Ages
_____ __________ 10:00 AM—Tinkering with Tools (ages 5-12)
_____ __________ 2:00 PM—Beep Kickball (ages 5-12)
YOUTH— Please mark how many will attend and ages for the session.
How many? Ages
_____ __________ 1:00 - 4:00 PM—Youth Track Session (ages 11-18)
Student to Student
FRIDAY, JULY 4
CHILDREN (ages 5 - 12 years)—You must register your child for NFB Child Care for the day for child to participate (separate registration and fees)
Please mark number of children and ages for session.
How many? Ages
_____ __________ 10 AM—Making Raised Line Drawings (ages 5-12)
_____ __________ 2 PM—Science Adventures (ages 5-12)
ADULTS
7:00 - 8:15 PM (Please mark how many will attend each session)
_____ Unified English Braille
_____ IEP Basics for Parents of Blind/VI Students
8:30 - 9:45 PM (Please mark how many will attend)
_____ IEP Development and Legal Process Overview
_____ Spanish Language Session
PLEASE NOTE: Sign your child up for the following activity only if you will be attending NOPBC workshops that evening. Please mark number of children and ages for session.
How many? Ages
_____ __________ 7 - 10 PM—Crafts and Games
YOUTH (ages 11 - 18)—Please mark how many will attend and ages for the session.
How many? Ages
_____ __________ 7 - 10 PM—Youth Track Session (topic TBA)
SPONSOR PLEDGE SHEET
Please make checks payable to NOPBC and bring to the event.
Donations are tax-deductible. Feel free to make copies of this sheet.
TRIATHLETE NAME: ______________________________________________________
ADDRESS: ______________________________________________________________
CITY, STATE, ZIP: _________________________________________________________
PARENT’S EMAIL: ________________________________________________________
TRIATHLETE’S GOAL AMOUNT: _____________________________________________
Sponsor Name: __________________________________________________________
Pledge/Donation Amount: _________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip: __________________________________________________________
Email: _________________________________________________________________
Sponsor Name: __________________________________________________________
Pledge/Donation Amount: _________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip: __________________________________________________________
Email: _________________________________________________________________
Sponsor Name: __________________________________________________________
Pledge/Donation Amount: _________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip: __________________________________________________________
Email: _________________________________________________________________
Sponsor Name: __________________________________________________________
Pledge/Donation Amount: _________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip: __________________________________________________________
Email: ________________________________________________________________
Sponsor Name: __________________________________________________________
Pledge/Donation Amount: _________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip: __________________________________________________________
Email: ________________________________________________________________
Sponsor Name: __________________________________________________________
Pledge/Donation Amount: _________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip: __________________________________________________________
Email: ________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, July 1
9:00 - 10:45 AM Taking the Next Step Seminar General Session (Adults, Children, Youth)
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM NOPBC Children’s Activity in Child Care
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM Youth Track
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM NOPBC Concurrent Workshop Sessions
2:00 PM NOPBC Children’s Activity in Child Care
2:00 - 4:45 PM Youth Track
2:00 - 3:15 PM NOPBC Concurrent Workshop Sessions
3:30 - 4:45 PM NOPBC Concurrent Workshop Sessions
5:00 - 6:00 PM Youth Get-Together
6:00 - 8:00 PM Family Hospitality
8:00 - 10:00PM Student Social (14 -18 years); time tentative
Wednesday, July 2
7:00 - 8:45 AM NOPBC Board Meeting
8:45 - 10:30 AM Cane Walk Session I (Adults, Children, Youth)
11:00 AM - 12:45 PM Cane Walk Session II (Adults, Children, Youth)
2:45 - 4:00 PM Youth Style Show (all ages)
4:00 - 5:30 PM Youth Track
5:45 PM Breaking Barriers Triathlon (all ages)
Thursday, July 3
10:00 AM NOPBC Children’s Activity in Child Care
1:00 - 4:00 PM NOPBC Annual Meeting—Drop kids in Child Care early
1:00 - 4:00 PM Youth Track
2:00 PM NOPBC Children’s Activity in Child Care
5:00 - 7:00 PM Braille Book Fair
7:30 - 9:00 PM Dad’s Night Out
Friday, July 4
7:00 - 9:00 AM NOPBC Board Meeting
10:00 AM NOPBC Children’s Activity in Child Care
2:00 PM NOPBC Children’s Activity in Child Care
7:00 - 9:45 PM NOPBC Concurrent Workshops
7:00 - 10:00 PM Children’s Activity (for children whose parents are in the NOPBC workshops)
7:00 - 10:00 PM Youth Track
by Carla McQuillan
If you are between the ages of six weeks and twelve years, NFB Camp is the place to be at national convention this year in Orlando. During meetings and general convention sessions, NFB Camp will be open for fun.
Our camp rooms are divided by age, with toys and activities appropriate to the ages served in each room. We have rooms for infants and toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children. The infants and toddlers spend much of their time in the room, with occasional walks around the hotel and stories read from Braille books. The preschool group will enjoy Braille story time, arts and craft projects, and small group play on the hotel lawns. The school-age children will have special guest presentations on writing stories, science and technology, music and movement, and blind people employed in different professions. In addition, we will have daily excursions to the hotel lawns for outdoor games and water play.
Field Trips to Monkey Joe’s
Just down the street from the hotel is an indoor fun house called Monkey Joe’s. This air-conditioned party room has several giant inflatable structures with slides, obstacle courses, bounce houses, and ball pits. In addition there are several carnival and arcade games. We will be taking small groups of children to Monkey Joe’s several times throughout the week. The cost will be $10 per child, which includes transportation on the local shuttle that runs up and down International Drive and admission to all the attractions at Monkey Joe’s.
Children must be between the ages of five and twelve, and priority will be given to children enrolled in NFB Camp for the week. Look for sign-up sheets at the NFB Camp Registration Desk when you get to the convention.
Banquet Night
NFB Campers will enjoy their own banquet night activities beginning with their meal.
NFB Workers
NFB Camp is under the supervision of Carla McQuillan, President of the NFB of Oregon, and a longtime member of the Federation. Carla is the Executive Director of Main Street Montessori Association, operating three Montessori schools. She has directed NFB camp since 1996. Alison McQuillan serves as the activities and staff coordinator for camp. Alison monitors the daily programs, drop-off and pick-up, staff-to-child ratios, and ensuring that only parents and authorized adults are allowed into camp rooms. Each of the three camp rooms has a supervisor who is responsible for the activities of that age group. These leads are chosen because of their experience and demonstrated capacity to handle groups of children and workers. Other workers and camp volunteers are drawn from within the organization. We usually have a mix of blind and sighted teens and adults who work with the children.
Blindness Professional on Staff
Michelle Chacon is a certified Orientation and Mobility instructor and a teacher of blind children. She will be available throughout the week to consult with parents and staff, as well as provide some individualized instruction for our campers.
Babysitting List
NFB Camp maintains a list of people who are interested in providing care outside of the scheduled hours for camp. The list is at the check-in desk for NFB Camp. Parents are welcome to review names on the list if they are in need of caregivers during off hours. NFB Camp and the National Federation of the Blind are not responsible for the actions and behavior of those on the babysitting list. We do not screen the people; we merely maintain a central list for the convenience of convention attendees.
Preregistration
Because of the limited space, we require that parents wishing to enroll their children in NFB Camp complete and return the registration form below no later than June 15, 2014. You may also email or call to reserve your child(ren)’s space: <[email protected]> or (541) 653-9153. Any questions can also be directed to Carla McQuillan at the same address, email, and phone.
RegistrationPacket:
NFB Camp Registration Form
Camp Rules
Photo Release
Medical Release
Waiver of Responsibilities
Make checks payable to NFB Camp. Return form to NFB Camp, 5005 Main Street, Springfield, OR 97478; (541) 726-6924
NFB CAMP SCHEDULE
NFB Camp will be open during general convention sessions, division and committee meeting day, and the evening of the banquet. The hours for NFB Camp are tentative. The actual hours will be based on the beginning and ending of sessions so that parents can drop off their children thirty minutes before the start of session and must pick up their children within thirty minutes of the end of session. On occasion the actual end or beginning of session may be earlier or later than the agenda indicates. We charge a $10 per quarter-hour per child late pick-up fee. NFB Camp provides morning and afternoon snacks. You must provide lunch for your children every day.
Date NFB Camp Hours
Tuesday, July 1st 8:30 AM–12:30 PM and 1:30–5:30 PM
Wednesday, July 2nd Camp is closed.
Thursday, July 3rd 8:30 AM–12:30 PM and 1:30–5:30 PM
Friday, July 4th 9:30 AM–12:30 PM and 1:30–5:30 PM
Saturday, July 5th 8:30 AM–12:30 PM and 1:30–5:30 PM
Sunday, July 6th 8:30 AM–12:30 PM and 1:30–5:30 PM
Banquet 6:30 PM–30 minutes after adjournment.
Additional forms (emergency info, waivers, etc.) will be due when we receive the registration form.
Parent’s/Guardian’s Name ________________________________________________
Address ________________________________________________________________
City _______________________________ State _________________ Zip __________
Home phone _________________________ Cell phone ________________________
Cell phone___________________
NFB Camp may text your cell phone? __Yes / ___ No
Child(ren)’s Name(s)
_______________________________ Age ____ Date of Birth ____________________
_______________________________ Age ____ Date of Birth ____________________
_______________________________ Age ____ Date of Birth ____________________
Include description of any disabilities or allergies we should know about:
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Who, other than Parent/Guardian named above, is allowed to pick up your child(ren)? _________________________________________________
Per Week: (Does not include banquet.)
___ Total #child(ren). $100 for first child + $75 x _____ #Siblings = $ __________
(or) Per Day: (Does not include banquet.) Circle: TUES. THURS. FRI. SAT. SUN.
$25 per child per day. $25/child x _____ # of children x ______# of days = $ ________
BANQUET (box lunch): ____# Turkey Sandwiches. ____ #Cheese Sandwiches.
$25 per child x _____ # of children = $__________
TOTAL: $ _________
We understand that NFB Camp is being provided as a service to make our convention more enjoyable for both parents and children. We will pick up children immediately following sessions. We understand that, if our child(ren) does not follow the rules or if for any reason staff are unable to care for our child(ren), further access to childcare will be denied.
Parent’s/Guardian’s Signature: _______________________________ Date:_________
Braille Book Fair 2014
UPS
Elainna Moore, Area HR Manager
c/o 2014 NFB Convention Braille Book Fair
8901 Atlantic Ave.
Orlando, FL 32824
Contact: Krystal Guillory, (318) 245-8955
[email protected]
Calling all Braille readers, teachers, and parents! It's that time again--time to sort through all those boxes and donate your gently used but no longer needed Braille books to the 2014 Braille Book Fair sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. The book fair takes place at the NFB convention, and the books are given away to blind children free of charge on a first come, first served basis. The primary goal is to get more Braille books into the hands of children, youth, and beginning adult readers. Needed most are print/Braille storybooks, cookbooks, and poetry. Children are so hungry for their very own books that every year, despite generous donations, most of our books for young children are gone in less than twenty minutes. Please search through the books in your basement and attic, and ship them to Elainna Moore at the address above.
NFB STEM2U
<http://www.blindscience.org/nfb-stem2u>
Contact: Natalie Shaheen, [email protected]
Application deadline for high school students: June 15, 2014
Application deadline for teachers and elementary school students: July 30, 2014
The National Federation of the Blind, in partnership with museums and science centers, will facilitate three regional science, technology, engineering, and math programs in 2014-2015. NFB STEM2U is an extension of the NFB's National Center for Blind Youth in Science initiative in local communities. NFB STEM2U will provide great learning opportunities to blind students in elementary and high schools, parents of blind children, and teachers of blind students. The first NFB STEM2U programs will be held in Baltimore; Boston; and Columbus, Ohio.
Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students (SCIVIS)
<http://www.tsbvi.edu/space>
Contact: Dan Oates, (304) 851-5680
[email protected]
September 20-25, 2014
SCIVIS is a week-long camp that takes place at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Open to blind and visually impaired students, the program is coordinated by teachers of the visually impaired, and all computers used by the students provide speech and large print output. Materials and equipment used during missions are available in Braille and large print. SCIVIS is comprised of four programs: Space Camp, for students in grades 4-6; Space Academy, for students in grades 7-12; Advanced Academy, for students in grades 10-12; and Aviation Challenge, for students in middle and high school. Registration is now open. Applications will be sent to registered students and teachers in late July.
Common Core Assessment Survey
<https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MKPNP5T>
Contact: Valerie Yingling, (410) 659-9314, Ext. 2440
[email protected]
This spring over one million students nationwide will participate in field tests, practice tests, and training tests aligned to the new Common Core Standards. As the consortia selected by the US Department of Education to design and administer these new assessments, Smarter Balanced and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) are required to provide accessible tests that measure student mastery of curricula, rather than reflect their disabilities. Appropriate and individualized accommodations must be available. On February 24, 2014, PARCC and the NFB reached a settlement agreement in which PARCC committed to work with the NFB to ensure that blind students are not left behind in the assessment process. Under the terms of the settlement, PARCC will make its practice tests accessible to blind students in spring 2014 and will consult with the NFB to ensure that all subsequent practice tests and assessments will be available in accessible formats at the time of deployment. The NFB is continuing to gather information regarding both PARCC's and Smarter Balanced's field, practice, and training test availability and accessibility. As parents, students, and teachers, your feedback is critical. You can provide the NFB with valuable data reflecting the assessments' use within your local school districts. Please complete the survey and encourage others to do the same.
Parents' Survey on Experience in Education
Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness (PDRIB)
Louisiana Tech University
<https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pdribp>
PDRIB invites parents of blind and visually impaired children to participate in a study on the education experiences of blind students in grades K through 12. The study will examine factors that have an impact on service options for and academic performance of blind and/or visually impaired youth. For a parent or guardian to participate in the study, a child must be between the ages of five and twenty-two and be enrolled in grades K-12 in the United States, use English as his/her primary spoken language, and have visual impairment listed as the primary diagnosed disability on the IEP.
Teachers' Survey on Education of Blind/VI Students
Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness (PDRIB)
Louisiana Tech University
<https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pdribt>
PDRIB invites teachers of blind and visually impaired students to take part in a study to evaluate the services available to and the education experiences of blind/VI students in grades K-12. In order to participate, you must currently be a certified teacher of the visually impaired and have a caseload of one or more students with low vision or blindness as his/her primary diagnosed disability on his/her IEP.
Raise Up Spoken Word and Hip Hop Competition
Youth Speaks
<www.raiseupproject.org>
Participant Eligibility: Ages 15-22
Deadline for Entries: June 30, 2014
The Raise Up Project is sponsoring a public media spoken word and hip hop contest and radio special in partnership with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "We want to hear from young people around the US about the challenges they go through both individually and systemically," says a project spokesperson, "and we want to celebrate the successes of young people who have navigated the system and made it to graduation. Our goal is to encourage young people to raise their hands, raise their voices, raise up as an individual, raise up their schools, and ultimately use the power of their voices to help raise the rate of graduation." Each of the five winners will receive a $5,000 scholarship and will perform at the Kennedy Center.
Web Accessibility Training Day
<http://nfb.org/web-accessibility-day>
Contact: Clara Van Gerven: (410) 659-9314, Ext. 2410
[email protected]
Location: NFB Jernigan Institute
200 E. Wells St. at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
Date: September 9, 2014
The National Federation of the Blind and the Maryland Technology Assistance Program will co-host a web accessibility training day. Topics will include enterprise implementation of accessibility, education implementation of accessibility, PDF accessibility in an enterprise setting, captioning and audio description, HTML5, and more.
Adventures with Buster
by London Lake Pickett
Illustrated by Lynda Farrington Wilson
<http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Buster-London-Lake-Pickett/dp/0615706681>
This is an easy-to-read children's book that helps explain the relationship between a woman and her guide dog.
Blue Manatee Press
<bluemanateebooks.com> and click on the ManaReads tab.
Contact: Dr. John Hutton, (513) 731-2665
[email protected]
Developed by a pediatrician and child literacy expert, Blue Manatee Press publishes read-aloud books for children from birth to age three. The books encourage parents and children to share hands-on learning experiences such as playing in water, making toast, and putting on new shoes.
Dolly Parton Imagination Library
<www.aph.org/dpil>
The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and the Dollywood Foundation have an exciting partnership that expands Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL) program to provide young blind and visually impaired children with books in accessible formats. Thanks to APH/DPIL and Penguin Books USA, the accessible books website offers a growing collection of audiofiles of Imagination Library titles as free downloads. Selected Imagination Library books are also available free of charge in print/Braille format. By enrolling in the Partners Print/Braille Book Program, participating families receive six free print/Braille books each year until the child reaches his/her sixth birthday. To be eligible for the program, the parent or child must meet the definition of blindness. Enrollment is on a first come, first served basis.
Disabled Education: A Critical Analysis of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
by Ruth Colker
NYU Press, 2013
ISBN: 9780814708101
This book tells the stories of some of the families who set key precedents for children with special needs and gives an in-depth description of the political and legislative process of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). One reviewer calls it "a shocking, important, and even frightening book that unveils the mistreatment of disabled learners seeking an appropriate education in public school."
Writing Disability: A Critical History
by Sara Newman
Lynne Reinner Publishers, 2012.
ISBN: 1935049542
The author examines the life writing of people with physical, mental, and sensory disabilities from ancient Greece to the present time. She seeks to unravel the dynamics that have shaped personal and societal conceptions of difference.
National Braille Press
<www.nbp.org>
88 St. Stephen St.
Boston, MA 02115
(800) 548-7323
National Braille Press recently announced the publication of two new books on iOS technology. Both are available in hardcopy Braille and electronic formats.
Get the Picture: Viewing the World with the iPhone Camera
by Judy Dixon
Judy Dixon applies the knowledge she has gained from months of research on iPhone photography and has put into practice strategies that enable blind people to enjoy creating and sharing their own photographs.
Getting Started with the iPhone and iOS 7: An Introduction for Blind Users
This third edition of NBP's complete, soup-to-nuts tutorial for beginners contains everything you will need to know about using the iPhone and the iOS 7 operating system. You will learn how to set up your phone, load and back up contacts and music, use the built-in apps, and purchase from the App Store. The appendices include all the gestures used to operate the phone, as well as troubleshooting tips and a list of resources.
YouTube Videos about Using Access Technology
Dr. Denise Robinson has created a series of videos on YouTube that demonstrate how blind and visually impaired students can use technology to keep up with their peers in math and other subjects. Some examples include:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB0YqBWxg7M>--Fifth-grade student learns to do exponents in Word with JAWS and Braille display
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVV3kY7NgHo>--Eighth-grade student shows low vision tricks to see in the distance or anywhere
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDSNYugqr_Y>--Middle and high school students deal with math inequalities in Excel and answer problems in Word
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzw9UxW_CWk>--Students hang out, find images, insert into Word with talking software, virtual instruction
Human Anatomical Models for Students
Home Science Tools
<www.hometrainingtools.com/anatomical-models/c/174>
(800) 860-6272
Established in 1994, Home Science Tools sells affordable models of anatomical structures. Offerings include plastic models of the human brain, ear, heart, eye, and skeleton.
Pathway to Our Dream
<https://m.facebook.com/groups/639707646049109?refid=18>
Pathway to Our Dream is a Facebook group designed to serve as a resource for high school and college students who are blind. The group posts announcements about a variety of scholarships and provides a forum for students around the world to meet one another. Admins Mi So Kwaak and Kaiti Shelton, both winners of 2013 NFB scholarships, are available to answer questions, help students research testing requirements, advise on how to secure accommodations at school, share resources (including the NFB and its student division), and to help with résumé editing. Students are encouraged to apply for scholarships both inside and outside the blindness community, such as those offered by corporations and local businesses.
Top Twenty-five Websites for Gamers Who Are Blind
7-128 Software
<http://www.7128.com/top25/topsitesblind.html>
7-128 Software has just published its 2014 listing of the top twenty-five websites for gamers who are blind. The site has links to free and commercial games that are blind accessible. It also includes reviews of accessible games and links to forums and blogs visited by the blind gaming community.
Autism on the Seas
<www.autismontheseas.com>
Contact: (800) 516-5247
Autism on the Seas provides accommodations on family cruises for adults and children with autism, Down syndrome, and other cognitive and developmental disabilities. Staff members assist families to take part in typical cruise services and provide specialized respite and private activities/sessions that allow guests the use of the ship's entertainment venues in an accommodated and assisted manner. Autism on the Seas collaborates with Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Disney, and Carnival Cruise Lines. The company will help families seek financial assistance from grants and charitable organizations.
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