ODDS AND ENDS

ODDS AND ENDS

American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
Future Reflections Special Issue: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
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ODDS AND ENDS
SCIENCE RESOURCES
National Center for Blind Youth in Science (NCBYS)
<www.blindscience.org>
Funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation, the NCBYS is a web portal for sharing information and resources to help blind students study and succeed in the STEM fields. The site includes information about materials and equipment, links to articles, links to online resources, and stories about blind scientists and mathematicians.
Independence Science: Science Access Technology for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
<www.independencescience.com>
3000 Kent Ave.
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Contact: (866) 862-9665
[email protected]
Independence Science envisions a science classroom that exhibits the full integration of students with disabilities. It seeks to meet the needs of educators who assist students with visual impairments and other disabilities. Products break down science barriers by adding speech to data collection and analysis tools developed by Vernier Software and Technology. A free monthly newsletter helps teachers and students stay informed about workshops, conferences, and the latest developments in accessible hardware and software.
Making Science Accessible to Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
Perkins eLearning
<www.perkinselearning.org/scout/making-science-accessible-students-blind…;
Sponsored by the Perkins School for the Blind, this website includes information about teaching techniques, accessible technology, and science camps for blind students. Articles and resources are listed for scientific fields including physical science, earth science, oceanography, biology, chemistry, and astronomy.
Science for the Blind
MDW Educational Services, LLC
<www.sciencefortheblind.com>
1115 Inman Ave., Suite 116
Edison, NJ 08820
Contact: Marilyn Winograd, (908) 565-1802
[email protected]
Lillian Rankel: [email protected]
MDW Educational Services, LLC provides consultation services to educators around the globe with techniques, methodologies, and tools to teach the science curriculum to students who are blind or have low vision. Science adaptation kits have been developed as a cost-effective way for teachers to adapt the classroom. Training workshops are offered to teachers and parents, and fun science learning activities have been developed for blind students. MDW Educational Services, LLC is available for phone or email consultation regarding modifications to fully include blind or visually impaired students in hands-on laboratory activities.
TACTILE MAPS
Tactile Maps Training Book
Adaptations, the Lighthouse Store
214 Van Ness Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Contact: (415) 694-7301
[email protected]
The Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco is a leading provider of tactile maps, conveying visual or graphical information through raised-line and textural media. While the ability to interpret maps comes naturally to some people, others require teaching and practice. The Tactile Maps Training Book, available in Braille and large print, serves as a teaching aid to help students learn strategies for reading tactile graphics through a variety of exercises around transit, campus, and floor plan maps. Also available from the Lighthouse, The Tactile Maps Training Book: Audio Supplement is intended for use with the audio-tactile maps provided by the Lighthouse. The guide introduces readers to the Smartpen, followed by a series of map exercises.

To learn more about tactile maps produced by the Lighthouse, email [email protected] or call Greg Kehret at (415) 694-7349.
SOCIAL MEDIA
New Group for Teachers and Parents
Adrijana Prokopenko, a teacher of blind students in Macedonia, has created a Facebook group for teachers and parents of blind students and for university students who are studying to become teachers. Anyone else who is involved with blind children is also welcome to join. The group can be found by searching the terms "Teachers and Parents of the Visually Impaired."
BOOKS
Three new books are now available from the Independence Market at the headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore. Each of them is also available in paperback and Kindle formats at <www.amazon.com>.
Crooked Paths Made Straight: A Blind Teacher's Adventures Traveling around the World
by Isabelle L. D. Grant
Edited by Deborah Kent
iUniverse, 280 pages
ISBN: 149177035X
In 1959, two years before she retired from teaching, Dr. Isabelle Grant set off on a year-long journey around the world with Oscar, her long white cane, in her hand. She had been totally blind for the past twelve years. In Crooked Paths Made Straight she shares the story of her journey, during which she visited twenty-three countries from Great Britain to Fiji. In Karachi she traveled the streets by rickshaw and struggled to master the Urdu language. In India she explored the Taj Mahal, and in Burma she slept in a room where lizards raced up and down the walls. At a time when both women and blind people were generally seen as too helpless for solo travel, Grant fearlessly defied conventions. A dedicated teacher with a lifelong commitment to learning, her mission was to learn all she could about education in the countries she visited, in particular the education provided to blind children. Completed in 1965, Crooked Paths Made Straight recounts Grant's journey, a story of dreams deferred that did not shrivel, but sprang to life again and again.
The Power of Love: How Kenneth Jernigan Changed the World
edited by Ramona Walhof
ISBN: 9781491784501, 419 pages
The editor, a longtime friend of Kenneth Jernigan, draws together the distinctive voices of individuals who knew him and whose lives he touched through his work with the National Federation of the Blind. Each reflection begins with a biographical sketch that introduces the chapter's author and ties his or her life to Kenneth Jernigan and his work. The book concludes with a chapter called "Blindness: The Federation at Fifty," a retrospective written by Kenneth Jernigan himself in the last decade of his life. This volume gathers a polyphonic chorus of voices that tell how the power of love, coursing through the life of Kenneth Jernigan, changed the world for the blind, and in so doing changed the world for everyone.
The Future of Disability Law: Presentations from the 2015 Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium
edited by David Ferleger, Esq.
ISBN: 1491783583, 181 pages
In celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, nationally recognized disability-rights advocates looked ahead to the next twenty-five years of disability law in the United States. The essays in this book are based on their presentations and cover topics such as the future of disability law, civil rights movements, culture and policy change, the school-to-prison pipeline, aging and disability, and criminal justice and disability.
GAMES
The Ballyland Magic App
<www.ballyland.com>
The Ballyland Magic App is a fun and educational iPad game specifically designed for children who are blind or have low vision. The game helps children learn and practice a number of touch gestures used for VoiceOver, Apple's built-in screen reader. Supportive and entertaining games enable children gradually to develop touch gesture skills and become confident with this special navigation that is required for the effective use of an iPhone or iPad.

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