Tech Talk

Tech Talk

Serena Cucco

Tech Talk

by Serena Cucco

Editor's Note: Who are the experts on blindness technology? I don't know about you, but

when I have a question or problem with my computer, I call my son. He usually knows the

answer, and he doesn't charge me. So, when it came time to put together a workshop about

technology for the 1998 Parents Seminar, it only made sense to ask the "real"

experts—the kids who use the stuff—to give the presentations. The resulting

workshop, entitled "Technology from the Point of View of Blind Youth," was a

great success. Parents and teachers enjoyed the opportunity to learn from students Andrea

Barker (Arizona), Wayne Pearcy (Texas), and Serena Cucco (New Jersey). Much of the

workshop consisted of free-flowing discussion and questions and answers. However, Serena

Cucco did prepare a short presentation to kick off her part of the panel discussion. Here

is Serena's "Tech Talk."

Hello. My name is Serena Cucco, and I am going into eighth grade at the Madison Junior

School, in Madison, New Jersey. I began my adventures with technology when I was in second

grade. My Braille teacher hooked up an M-Print to my Braillewriter. The M-Print printed

out anything that I Brailled. That way my teachers could see what I was writing right

away.

That year we also got a Braille Blazer, which my school bought. The Braille Blazer is a

Braille printer. The classroom aide used it to produce Braille for me. She would Braille

the teacher's comments, my grades, and even Valentine's cards from my friends. At the end

of second grade, I started to learn keyboarding on an old Apple 2 E computer at school.

The New Jersey Commission for the Blind gave my school the adaptive equipment to make the

computer talk, and I learned to type with the speech set to announce each letter as I

typed it.

When I was in third grade, I had to change classes a few times a day, so my parents and

teachers decided I should get a laptop computer. I got a Compaq laptop equipped with Word

Perfect 5.1, Telesensory Screen Power screen reader, Personal Vert II speech, Easy Braille

Translator, and a Navigator Braille display. I began to take some of my notes in class on

the laptop. I also began to use it for some of my homework. I used this system at home

until last month.

In third grade I also began a low-tech blindness skill—slate and stylus. I worked

on that new way of writing when my classmates were working on learning script.

In sixth grade we got a Braille Blazer for home. It's attached to my computer with an

A-B switchbox, so that I can type out my homework and then send it to both the print

printer and the Blazer. That way I have a print copy for the teacher and a Braille copy

for myself.

Seventh grade got complicated! Because I would be changing classes for every class each

day, I needed a portable writing device. I got a Braille Lite to use for taking notes. I

also needed to do research on the Internet as part of the school curriculum, so the school

decided to get a new system that would enable me to go online, and it would also enable

the technical assistant to Braille out the hundreds of worksheets the teachers give her at

the last minute!

We decided on a laptop. The assistant uses it in her office to produce Braille, and I

take it into the library when we have to go online. I had to know how to go online by

November for a huge research project. The topic was natural disasters—volcanoes,

earthquakes, monsoons, and tidal waves, that sort of thing. Our assignment had a million

parts, and I had to find tons of information! During the six weeks that my classmates had

computer cycle, I had lessons in Windows 95 and going online with a blind computer

teacher, John Hess, from DeWitt and Associates. By the way, I got my disaster report done.

It turned out to be fourteen pages long, single-spaced!

This is what we have at school now: A Toshiba laptop with Jaws for Windows screen

reader, Duxbury Braille translator, and Dectalk Express speech. We also have an HP 4C

scanner and an Index Braille printer. Recently, I was invited to be a part of DeWitt's

Computer Proficiency for Students program. My computer teacher delivered a new PC to our

house. We get to keep it if I do well in the program! I am learning Windows 95 in more

depth, and I am going to really explore the Internet.

I have saved my favorite technology for last. It's the Spanish program for the Braille

Lite. It's really cool—instead of saying, "top of file" it says,

"principio de fichero" and when you need to enter the file name it says,

"introduce el nombre." It's really fun.

Well, that's the story of my technology so far. Thank you for listening!