Guide Dogs help students Compete in LIFE

A young high school woman loses sight but loves cross country running. She gains a guide dog and gains LIFE back. Read her full story at

Teen Blinded by Stargardt's Disease Chases Dreams With Guide Dog

Blind Technology Helps Students Succeed in School

Here is a video of a 4 year old and a 2nd grader racing each other on their Braille Computerized Technology. Learning is fast and fun when you have the right tools and friendships to learn together.

Watch video at: Blind Technology Helps Students

Technology tells Blind students date and time

I want my students to be able to quickly know the date and time at any point during the day. I do not want them to have to ask those around them to keep track of their schedule. One of the first JAWS commands I teach is the INSERT+F12, which will tell them the time, then INSERT+F12 twice quickly tells them the date.

My students have become so astute with what time it is that they don't start checking the time until about 10 minutes before our class ends. I love hearing that time announcement as they are working along. They have taken charge of their schedules and know how quickly to finish work and get it emailed off before the end of the period. With them taking their own time and schedules on, they have become more competitive with completing work at the same time as their peers.

Being aware is the first place to start with making change in how we do things.

Instant Lessons at your finger tips when you need to Teach something

Have you ever sat with a child and thought, "OH, I WISH I had a lesson on this to teach!" Immediate download of Microsoft Lessons, and other blind tools is now available at your fingertips. In addition, there are hundreds of articles on how to teach lessons or what types of lessons to teach for a particular situation. There are also articles on the above products, daily living skills, how to teach math, a foreign language and so much more. All on one site

As a teacher, you can download lessons the day before, the morning of or as you sit with a student who just came to you with a question on, "How do you do a PowerPoint Lessons?" or any other type of lesson. You go to PowerPoint lessons on www.yourtechvision.com and download it digitally within a couple minutes (all depending on the speed at which you use a computer). Lesson planning is now made incredibly easy and simple. You also discover that if a lesson in not on the site, a request on the contact page for a particular lesson will be added to the site within a week for your use.

Parents who are homeschooling also have the same ability. With the ever changing technology and questions on how to use talking software, adapted braille computers, the Internet and the software that goes with it, the answers are in articles and in easy lesson download format with just a click away. Articles to read on how to go about teaching your blind child and which lessons to download with the article are just a click away.

For the Blind user, who wants to learn skills themselves, everything above applies too and a click away is just an INSERT+F7 using JAWS. Everything on the site is link based, using INSERT+F7 you can access lessons and articles. Edit boxes can be accessed using the letter e, and hitting ENTER will turn on the ability to write. If you hit a combo box, ENTER activates that too. TAB always moves you easily through the whole site, every link, heading, and form box. If you want to read the articles on the site, H will jump you to the headings and down arrow enables you to read it. If you bring up your links, just go to the next article with 2, 3, etc, as their are hundreds of articles to peruse.

Education, Instruction and Lessons are now in quick text download format and close to as instantaneous as you can work a computer. Help is always at the contact page and you can request a private free lessons with any purchased product to get you up and running.

Video- Blind student using slate n stylus, the blind persons' pencil

The slate n stylus is the perfect quick writing tool used by the blind: It can be placed in a back pocket or purse and quickly taken out to use. Any piece of paper lying around will emboss or imprint braille using the slate n stylus.

Blind student on Youtube using slate n stylus

Get a Job, Keep your Job

To get a job, you need more expertise in the area you are applying for than anyone else does. You need to be dressed appropriately for the job you are applying for, also. You are going to need the confidence to show others, you can do this job and great skills will give you this confidence!

Once you get the job, you need to keep up with your skills, especially technology. Make yourself invaluable. Technology is crucial. If you are a K-12 educator or parent, then make sure your children are getting technology training at the youngest grade possibly....preschool is ideal, after that time, just begin ...IMMEDIATELY!

If blind, this training is even more crucial. You need to start young to learn what it is like to keep up with your peers and compete with the rest of your class, so when you get to college and the workforce, you have gained the experience you need to prove yourself to the potential employer.

Without technology skills, it is very hard to compete in the world. If you are blind and lack technology skills, it will be harder. Computers and talking software will give you the advantage of getting a job. Once you get the job, continue to gain training to keep up with your skills.

There are many places to gain education: Your local college, online classes and a myriad of information right on the Internet.

If you are blind, be upfront about the issue of your blindness. It is on everyone's mind whether you want to admit it or not. Tell them to ask you any question they have, let them know how you would tackle certain job aspects. If you are not comfortable with your blindness, they will not be either and that will hinder potential employment.

If you want a job and you want to keep your job, then get those technology skills to compete. Word skills enable you to write any type of document to any specification. Excel will help you auto-calculate math and get you organized for all projects and so much more. PowerPoint will enable you to walk into an interview and demonstrate a rundown of you skills on a PP and in the process show the potential employer your skills. PowerPoint will also enable you to give any type of presentation to impress any group of people. Internet skills will enable you to do the research on any project the boss may give you. If you are blind, learning those talking software skills combined with the above will enable you to go anywhere and compete with anyone.

Find the AntiVirus that Works for You

One thing is for sure....if you want to keep your computer running well you MUST have antivirus protection on your computer. There are many types available and many do not cost anything, but do compare the ones that cost to the ones that do not as you may need to pay for that extra protection.

Here is a list of antivirus programs that you can look over to see what fits you best. Antivirus List

For good free Antivirus software, see the following
Microsoft Security Essentials
AVG
AVAST
AVIRA

Video-Blind student learning how to sew on a sewing machine

Blind students can learn how to do anything with education and instruction. This young lady also sews beautiful beaded necklaces and bracelets.
Learn more about education for the blind at: www.yourtechvision.com

Watch Blind student Sewing

JAWS 13 is out TODAY--lucky 13

Freedom Scientific just released JAWS 13 today

One of the biggest items is Convenient OCR--for all those nasty PDF files that are inaccessible and refuse to be read...AH HAH...there is a solution now

Frequently, you will encounter images that contain textual information. These can include a PDF file, the setup screen of an application, or the menu of selections for a DVD movie. While these images contain text that is readable by a sighted person, JAWS is unable to read the text as it is part of the image.

The new Convenient OCR (Optical Character Recognition) feature enables you to access any image on the screen that includes text. With just a few simple keystrokes, JAWS will recognize the image in a matter of seconds and activate the JAWS cursor so you can navigate the resulting text. The recognized text will be in the same location as the actual image on the screen. In order to differentiate the recognized text from other text that may be in the window, JAWS will use a different voice when it encounters the recognized text. When you activate the PC cursor, or switch to another application or dialog box, the text is removed, and you will need to perform the OCR again.

To use Convenient OCR, the following layered keystrokes have been added:

INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, W. Recognizes the current application window that has focus.
INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, S. Recognizes the entire screen.
INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, C. Recognizes the currently selected control, such as a graphical button.
INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, Q. Cancels recognition while it is in progress.
INSERT+SPACEBAR, O, H. Speaks a brief help message describing the commands in the OCR layer.

Read about all the new features at JAWS 13

Video-Perfect Touch Typing leads to Fast keyboarding for Blind Student

This young lady started computer skills with talking software, early on, so by 3rd grade she could email her work to her teacher. She learned hundreds of keyboard commands to move quickly over the keyboard, doing anything she needed. Teachers today can grade work using TRACK CHANGES and send it back in email. This way, blind people can work independently, checking their own work and scores. Hundreds of keyboard lessons at yourtechvision.com

Easy Lessons to make you SMART

Yourtechvision.com has added bulk lessons, so when you order the lesson, it will take you from the basics of instruction, through advanced techniques. All based on keystrokes, you will fly over the keyboard just as this student.

Video-Blind and singing like an angel

I have been blessed with many musically talented students. I wish I could take credit for this young lady also, but I cannot. See this wonderfully talented young lady, playing the piano and singing like an angel. It does not take sight to be gifted, it just takes practice. Click on link below.

: Pianogirl281

Video of Blind Student on Computer

The Student in the link to a YouTube Video below lost her sight quickly and had never touched a computer before 10th grade. She learned how to use a computer with talking software within 2 weeks, which lead to freedom.
Lessons to your freedom at www.yourtechvision.com

Blind Student Learns FAST

How to Make your Work LOOK Beautiful

In the upper elementary school, and beyond, students are asked to make their presentation or research papers look colorful. Where sighted children are cutting and pasting onto their work, blind and low vision students are taught how to make their fonts with great color, putting borders of artwork around paragraphs, words or the whole page. Students also insert pictures and position them where they need along with different types of WordArt.

All the Basics of Inserting Word Art and Clip Art just click on Office 2003 or Office 2010 to get what you need. You can also download 12 lessons on how to make your papers look beautiful with all the tricks to make is easy.

Enjoy and have fun. Students Love knowing they can do anything their sighted peers can do when the teacher starts giving directions, they just do it on a computer. It is a huge confidence builder and reinforces all their skills now and makes them want to learn even more so they can tackle anything that comes up in the future.

Lessons to help you learn more

Work looking beautiful

First Steps in Great Braille Readers

First!!! Know that braille readers can read material as fast as print readers. I teach it and see it all the time. Attitude is the first hurtle. Once you know a braille reader can read as a print reader, then you are ready for the next step.

Second, if the above is to happen, the child has to start in that 0-5 year old mark. They could read faster if they are older too, but the mental adjustment into braille reading, or the "bad press" on braille being too hard is difficult for many to overcome ...thus they are slower braille readers. There are many more reasons off this, but those are 2 biggies.

Third, get the child excited about reading--This applies to Blind and Low vision children. Start with reading print/braille books to them, so if they can see color or pictures, they can look at the colors while feeling those wonderful dots. Put braille all over the house using sticky tape (just go to local hardware store and pick up sticky shelf paper and braille label words on that to put all over house). So wherever they touch, they feel braille. Once again, BOTH low vision and blind. This really applies at any age level...so start doing all these steps, no matter what age....they can get over the "bad press" on braille if you have a really positive attitude about it.

Fourth, when you are reading to them,(this is cuddle time-them on your lap or very close) have them put their fingers over top of yours and you move your hand from left to right across the page with all 4 fingers down on the page and those 4 fingers slightly curled touching the line of braille, so they can feel the smooth motion across the page (You will be holding the book with the other hand, so don't worry about both hands yet). It does not matter you can't read braille yet...fake it until you learn. Just read the print above on the page, as you smoothly move your fingers across the line of braille. It is the smooth movement you want them to learn.

Fifth, when they are babies and toddlers, have all those blind tools around, so they can "scribble" on the brailler, as in pressing the keys, knowing this will be their writing tool. Help them with a slate n stylus to make dots on paper. Also have an older computer around with free talking software, so they can press those letters on the computer and get that cause and effect...They need to learn the computer typing and braille at the SAME time, so they understand how these tools go together later for school.

Sixth, when they are ready to start formal brailling of words and letters, and today most children are doing that somewhere between 2-4 years old, so blind, low vision children need to start then also. You will read the word and then you help them braille it. At first, their hands are on top of yours so they can feel the smooth motion of you pressing the keys. Then they get to try. If their fingers are too weak, then look at something like a Mountbatten brailler with very easy keys, that gives verbal feedback along with the output of braille.

Seventh, When they are brailling, have them braille the same contraction or word over and over, so they can feel the flow of brailling--several lines of the same words or simple sentences---have them braille something to do with their life....it helps them remember the words. Then when you pull the brailled sheet out, they place their hands on top of yours first, to get the feel of smooth braille reading across the page, then you help them position their hands on the braille line -- BOTH HANDS! All 8 fingers slightly curled under, all 8 fingers touching the braille line--trust me--all 8 fingers are going to do something, but have them focus on their pointer fingers to do the major reading of the words. You lightly cup all 8 fingers with your 8 fingers to help them, then you read the words as you both go across the page, having them focus on those pointer fingers. (I have had kids come in with bandages on their pointer fingers saying they injured them....their middle fingers got to do the reading for the day--they were amazed at how all their fingers could read the braille--they can if you practice the method above!!)

Now some kids get this right off the bat and do not need help, so figure out your child and how much help they need. Lift your hands off as they begin the journey across the page by themselves...YOU still reading each word before they hit it, so there is NO scrubbing or back tracking on the word to figure it out. As they read, they are going to split their hands several words in on the line and they WILL need help doing this until it is a smooth motion. About 2-4 words in on an 11 x 11 paper, the left hand will go back down to the next line as the right hand finishes the line. As the right hand finishes the line of braille, the left hand begins reading the next line. REMEMBER, you are reading the words for the child before they hit the word, so they get and continue that smooth motion with NO scrubbing.

Keep it simple. Braille sentences with contractions and about 3 words each. I like cats. and so forth.....keep it up and this child will be reading 300-400+ words per minute by high school.


Lessons and articles to help you:
Fast Braille Reading

Beginner Drawing of Pictures on a Brailler

If you are one of those creative imaginative people who can create pictures in your head then you can braille that picture straight out on a brailler, great, but if you need more direction, see below.

Here is some more guidance. You will draw the picture first, then insert into a brailler and braille over the picture. You can tactile the picture while drawing it out on sandpaper using a draftsman tool kit or use a window screen, and lay a piece of paper over it and press down with a wooden tool to draw a basic shape....there are many tools out there to do this. Then once you get the basic shape, go back to your brailler, wheel in the paper and start at the top, brailling over the copy you just designed. Sometimes you are going to braille a full cell with all 6 dots, sometimes, only an L or sometimes 4 5 6 or any combination of dots as you move down the sheet. You can make a beautiful border around the sheet also.

For my wedding, my mentor had made us an incredibly beautiful card. He was a guide through my sight loss and regaining of it who had a big influence in my teaching style and of whom I also became his student teacher. He had been blind all his life, was very creative and quite a genius to boot, had made us the most beautiful braille picture-wedding card. My sister-in-law wanted to frame it immediately. I told her if she put glass over it, that no one could touch it, and that is what needed to happen.

When I student taught with him, we had all the students make cards like this for their parents for holidays. They became very adept...just takes practice, some math, and some perceptual skills. With Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and all other holidays coming up, this is a great time to practice. If you need a simple braille drawing lesson using the brailler, go to Beginner Drawing of Pictures on a Brailler If the blind child does these projects with his sighted peers, I can guarantee you they will be VERY impressed...a great confidence builder too.

Ok, so if you are not THAT creative you can buy a book and read all about it...I love books and learning. Just click on Drawing with Your Perkins Brailler and order a copy to do some great creative drawing with your brailler if the simple lesson from above is not enough. When the site comes up, just do a search for the book.

If the child needs to be quicker about accomplishing a drawing task, Quick Draw Paper is Great, where you just use a very liquid pen and draw away and the paper rises up to feel--but then they may prefer the Draftsman again that is a sandpaper type material and the sandpaper disperses as you draw on it, so you can feel the lines you just made.

If you are a teacher and need something like every type of science graphic around, you may want to pick up a Basic Science Tactile Graphics book....if you are a teacher of the blind, you can order this with quota funds from your resource center who works with American Printing House for the Blind...true for the quick draw Paper and Draftsman too.

In general, everyone, if you are related to or working with a blind or visually impaired child in anyway...go to APH.org and ask them to send you a catalog. This is an invaluable site.

How to STOP scrubbing While reading Braille

If students are left to their own devices when they first learn to read braille and no one is checking those fingers, a child will scrub, as in move finger up and down or around and around on the dots, or any deviation off these movements. This will not only squash all the braille dots down, scrubbing will make you a VERY slow Braille reader. If you cannot create enough speed when you read Braille, then comprehension will be difficult. You have to be able to read a certain amount of information within a certain period of time or the brain forgets.

Starting off correctly is the best way to begin instruction. Start off with words that are applicable to the child. They will braille the words first, for example: I love cats. --Make the sentence short and double-space every word and sentence and they will rebraille this on half of an 11 x 11 piece of braille paper. Then they braille a second sentence: I love dogs. Double-space every word and sentence. For an example to download and use go to: Beginner Braille Reading

After you use this one lesson, create others that are exactly like this for them to reread until you see that fluid movement over the braille page. They need to create a good habit of fluid motion across a page, so they must know the content they are reading well...this way they do not have to focus on decoding, but rather the movement. When they want to braille a contraction, make sure they braille a couple of lines of it, then read it over and over before putting into a sentence.

If they are already scrubbing the braille, reading from lessons like Beginner Braille Reading will help them break the habit of scrubbing. You will need to be persistent in breaking this poor practice. A habit takes 30 days to break or make...keep it up and beautiful braille reading will happen

Blind/Low Vision software for Cognitively or Memory Challenged

This software has been around for more than a year but I did not have a chance to try it out until today.
CDesk is a very basic talking software program for older adults who have lost sight or cognitively challenged children in school who cannot remember hundreds of commands to make their computer do what they want it to do. I have trained many adults and I can tell you, the challenge in remembering all these commands starts in the late 20's, so when I say older, you may be included in this category where technology is concerned.

CDesk offers several enlarged fonts for viewing. White letters on Black is the most popular, but it has other options too. Any major command begins with the Alt key, so that is only 1 thing to remember. Even if you do not remember ALT-the TAB key will move you through every option and ENTER opens the option. The Main menu consists of:
- WORD PROCESSING
- EMAIL
- INTERNET BROWSING with SCREEN READER
- DOCUMENT SCANNING with OCR PAGE READING
- ADDRESS BOOK/CONTACT MANAGEMENT
- CALENDAR/APPOINTMENTS
- NLS/BARD/MUSIC/GAMES/INTERNET RADIO
- SKYPE AUDIO/VIDEO CALLS

You can download books straight from Bookshare or BARD. If you are looking for games for blind children and adults, it has that in the Media Center. Simple email that you are already on is incredibly easy to navigate and use. Anything you scan can also be brought right into the CDesk Word and the same commands that you use for word processing are used now for your scanned object.

Enlarging your page is simple and easy with the F12 key, so when you go into an email that has pictures, you can enlarge them enough to see them, true for Internet browsing and the other programs in CDesk too.

If you have tremors or palsy in your hands, the company will be putting out a new speech program soon, which works off of CDesk basic commands already, so it is easy to verbally command your computer to do what you need it to do. Your voice just needs to be loud enough to be heard by the mic. It has also come out with a simple small camera that will take a picture of any print work and put it on the CDesk format on your computer for you to immediately have feedback.

The more I work with this software, the more I see its potential for those who have difficulties remembering all those commands. In addition, the company: adaptivevoice offers the option to buy a computer, monitor, printer, scanner and software for $1999. Within that agreement is Best Buy will come out and set it up for you. So you can be set up to go in a very short time.

Secrets in Magnification on EVERY computer

Many do not know that magnification is already on every computer built with Microsoft Technology.

On XP, hit your Start Key+U to begin your utility manager. Your computer will begin talking to you also and the words magnifier is not running will be your first options, do an ALT+A to get the magnifier working and turn off narrator if you do not want speech. The magnified part of the screen will come up at the top of your monitor. Take your mouse and drag it to where you want it to be. You can also drag the corner of the magnifier to make it larger and more easily to see. As you move the mouse around your machine, everything will be enlarged in this magnified window.

On Windows 7, Start Key+U then hit ALT+G to start your magnifier and Enter to start the magnifier window at the top of your monitor. You can take your mouse and go to the bottom line of the magnified window and while you hold down the left click of the mouse, you can drag down the window to make it larger. Once again, as you move around your machine, everything will be enlarged for you.

There are many free options already built into computers today, that you may not need to buy something else. Try it out.

Secrets to Getting Every Computer to Speak

Narrator is built into every PC computer, if you are running Microsoft products and their operating systems (OS).

If you are using talking software already and you use the following hotkey, the double speech may get annoying, so turn it off. Narrator is a basic program. If you do not have talking software on your machine and need to get it installed, this is a way you can do it independently. It is a basic talking program and does not come close to a speech program such as JAWS, but it does help you to get things setup.

In Windows 7, Hit your Start Key+U also known as the Windows key with the Logo+ U - hit ALT+N to start narrator...if you are blind, you are going to walk by faith as you turn on your computer with NO speech and just do those 2 commands and narrator will start speaking to you. A dialog box will open with options, just TAB through to select the ones you want to use and continue with your work on the machine.

In XP, hitting the Start Key+U will immediately get Narrator talking. A dialog box will open with options--down arrow to listen to the options, then TAB to your next options, then TAB to OK.

This is a wonderful option for anyone who needs speech to get things setup on his or her new computer or fix one where the speech has gone down.

IPAD, Iphone and great Apps

The new operating system iOS5 is out and works much better with voice over on your iproducts. The new iphone 4S just works better all-around in so many areas and with the app Siri where you can give voice commands to make it do what you want, frees up more than your hands...it frees up time.

But if you are looking for a good word processor for your Ipad that you can use voice over with and a braille display iA Writer at the iTunes store is only $4.99 . Hook to a Braille display or a Bluetooth keyboard also! If you want to be able to use spell check, it will do that too, rename files, copy, paste, and a host of other options.

iA Writer is a really good basic all around writing program and students will love using the braille display with it to get that tactile feedback that helps in their learning. That cause and effect approach..They braille it, hear it, feel it.

What Blind-VI Need in School TODAY

Teachers and Parents often ask me what their child needs for school. Here is the basic rule of thumb. Look around in the world today and see what is everyone else basically using. What are they using in class today? Educate today, what they need tomorrow.

First, to compete in the world and be able to do what every else is doing, blind, visually impaired children must learn the computer inside and out, Excel, PowerPoint and Word are the main programs. Having an adaptive laptop (such as a Braille Note) is incredibly valuable, but if schools only have enough money for 1 piece of equipment, go with the computer, as it will do everything the Braille Note will do, but the Braille Note can NOT do what the computer can do. They must learn how to do email and socialize on social networking sites like Facebook. There are many other things off this, but those are the main points. If using talking software, they need to learn how to control it and make it do what it needs to do for them. If visually impaired, use magnification where possible BUT also ask, "if my eyes cannot do as much and as quickly as my peers around me, then I need to learn blind skills also."

One thing for sure, you will never go wrong if you teach many tools. The child will get into big trouble if they do NOT have enough skills in their toolbox of learning. Get the education and lessons they need and parents anything that is taught at school, backup at home, or vice versa. Get everyone on the team involved in the education of this child, and you will have someone who can meet tomorrow's challenges.

Yourtechvision.com fast keystroke lessons=no Mouse

The Logo that Stands for the Vision in all of us. The eye over the TechVision word is to show the inner potential we all have. The reflection below the name is to show that if we look inside we can truly reflect our ability outside and TechVision lessons can help you reach that potential.

This logo goes with the new website that is completed with hundreds of lessons that are all done using keystrokes and not the mouse. The lessons are linked to the blog so every lesson I teach you can teach too or just learn yourself. The website is: YourTechVision.com which is here to inspire and help people who want to learn more technology skills and develop their true ability.

Find your Computer's IP address and Speed

If you have not already had this experience, some day, someone is going to ask you for your IP address, especially if you start teaching virtually, or you need to hook into a school. Go to Find IP Address

Have you ever wondered why your Internet runs so slow during some parts of the day? First, the Internet is like a highway and the more people on, the slower you will go. If you are on during the peak of the day along with everyone else, you will run slower. If you are on at midnight, you will zoom like a speed car. Here is a test to see how fast your Internet speed is.. Speed Test

Many Services providers offer a faster speed if you need it. By checking your own speed you can be better informed on what you need.

A Song to Help Children Learn Braille

There is an enormous amount of research on music and learning. Music makes learning fun and fast.

Here is a Braille Rap song that will enable your children to learn the Braille Alphabet quickly. Have them sing it for awhile, then when they place their hands on a brailler, it will all come together. Make sure those fingers are in the correct position on the brailler.

Click on the link to go to Braille Rap Song and download a copy for yourself

Free Braille Books-Where to go to get Books

There are many options when it comes to finding and getting braille books.

For Free Braille books, go to Seedlings Braille Books for Children
They offer 2 Free braille books per year through their Angel program. Otherwise they offer very low cost braille books for your children.

If you want to create your own braille or audio books, you can download books from bookshare.org, where school children can sign up for free. Bookshare offers thousands of books at your fingertips. You can download Victor Reader Soft, from their site, which is free audio software. When you download your books, you will download them in daisy format to be played on Victor Reader Soft right from your computer. Sign up and get your child registered.

Bookshare offers braille book downloads also. If you have braille software such as Duxbury Braille Translation software you can download books in the .brf format and have them open in braille. Combine this with a braille display and your child can read the book from their computer. If they are blessed with an adaptive laptop such as a Braille Note then the file can be saved to a thumb drive and loaded onto the Braille Note, or the Braille Note can go online and download it directly from Bookshare and can be read in the bookreader of the Braille Note.

National Braille Press also offers books, some for purchase and others for free.

But never forget about your state book and braille library. This is a free book loan program in your state for braille and audio books. For more books than you can dream of, go to the largest braille library source in the country: Utah State Library for the Blind and Disabled
If you go there, they will have a host of other information and where to go and get more braille books and materials. Your state library can help you get books from this resource if you do not happen to live in the loan area for books from them.

Web Braille is the National Library of Congress loaded with thousands of braille books for download also. When you sign up for services you will go to their download section of Braille Books which will require you to have a username and password. There you will find a plethora and myriad of braille books at your fingers tips also.

So here are a few options to get you going. For more information on educating your child based on experience and years of education, visit yourtechvision.com and ask questions that you need answers too.

Virtual Teaching using Remote Access

When one of my students is having difficulties with their Jaws or needs help installing it, I need to connect to their computer a different way than through Jaws TANDEM. There are many ways to do remote access, but I chose to connect yesterday through SKYPE. For those new to the idea, remote access is where someone can help you resolve computer problems, no matter where you or they are in the world. You just need a phone line, but better is a wireless connection...anything works though.

The student called and then I gave her directions on the key commands so I could call up her computer.

Within minutes her Jaws was fixed. I then gave her the JAWS commands to pull up her computer using JAWS TANDEM and continued her lesson.

When you connect remotely using anything else other than JAWS TANDEM, you will not be able to hear JAWS unless the person turns him way up, which I have done also depending on the issue, but you miss too much information. To truly check to make sure JAWS is working correctly you must pull the students' computer up using TANDEM. I had her and SKYPE on one of my monitors, still connected remotely and then pulled her computer up using TANDEM on the other monitor. I could easily watch the interaction on both screens, tweaking as I needed. Well actually having her tweak. In general, I will not touch my keyboard to control their machine, as this is a great chance for the student to learn how to fix their own problems.

The point is giving them applicable skills that will work for a lifetime, so when they are on their own, they can fix their own issues as they come up. My older students who have long since graduated, can just email me now with a problem and I can give them the answer back through email. Rarely do I have to pull their machines up. Watch video: Virtual teaching

Give someone a fish and they eat for a day.
Teach them how to fish and they eat for a lifetime!

Looking Outside Yourself Gives you Hope

Ever notice how you get a problem and all you can do is think about it? Ever notice someone go into a depression and you are not sure what to do? Ever see someone so lonely it hurts you to watch them?

We can get so self-absorbed in our own problems that is all we see.

The only way to get your mind off yourself is to put it on someone or something else. A pet will do that in a heart beat.

A child that is rocking in a corner will now have a puppy to lick all over them and to walk around, to sleep with, hug and hold, as is true for an adult too.

When you can start looking outside yourself, you gain perspective and HOPE.

Help for the Low Vision Student in the classroom

We have many low vision students, sitting in the classroom and unable to see what the teacher is doing when she uses the document camera, or projector or computer to project images up on the board, in front of the room.

There is a very inexpensive way to combat this problem. A simple VGA splitter and an extra monitor is all that is needed. An extra monitor can be connected to these other pieces of technology and brought right to where the student is sitting. The student can now easily participate with the rest of his peers, take notes as needed and complete work with more understanding of what is occurring in the front of the room.

Lessons to help you learn more

Help Student

Free Office Tools

Open Office is an option to use instead of purchasing expensive software. Open Office will open all Office documents too. Basic and easy to use and perfect to get little kids going while you save up the money for years later when they need more sophisticated tools.

Also remember that when you do purchase Microsoft products that one license can be used on 3 computers. You can use it on a home and work computer and a laptop, so you do not need to feel you need to buy multiple licenses for many machines. Lessons on how to use these products, only using keystrokes, can be downloaded at yourtechvision.com

Touchscreen Braille writer

All those wonderful flat screens from the IPhone to the IPad to the IPod, Kindles, etc are going to make a leap into touchscreen braille writing given the new technology that has just come out.

Standford University just released a newsletter describing the Touchscreen braille writer. It is intuitive and however you hold your fingers in the 6 key fashion, the tablet will adjust to your fingers and allow you to braille on this flat screen.

You can watch a video at this link Touch Screen Braille writer and learn move about this upcoming technology at Braille Writer Tablet

Answers on How to Use Windows 7

When you are using Windows 7, every time you hit the start key, think of it as entering a huge search engine for your computer. Any word you type in, Windows 7 will find.

Your Start Key or Windows Key is the second key in on the left of a desktop keyboard (the key with the windows symbols picture on it). For sighted people it is the round button you most likely click on at the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

Let's do some keystrokes to see how fast Windows 7 is:
Hit the start key and type in: volume and down arrow to adjust system volume or what is applicable to your version of Windows 7. Enter on the volume and your options open. Up and down arrow to adjust the volume. Hit ESC --top right hand corner on keyboard to get out of the volume

Hit the start key again and type: documents and down arrow to documents and enter to open--down arrow through all the documents you have already created on your computer
ALT+F4 to close the documents folder

Hit the start key again and type in the name of a file on your computer, down arrow to find the file and enter to open it. The file opens.
ALT+F4 to close the file

You can search for anything on your computer with that START Key....it is very powerful. Now go have some fun and look for other things on your computer using the Start key.

If you would like to learn how to use Windows 7 and Office products using just the keyboard or keystrokes with JAWS, go to yourtechvision.com and go through the site either with a mouse or with JAWS using Insert+F7. You can move through your options easily on every page, using your TAB key.

If you don't see a lesson you want, just go to the contacts page and request a particular lesson you need and it will be added to the site.

You can be Pitiful or Powerful, but NOT Both

I have the students who take on everything I have to teach them and rise to the top of their class, eventually with no accommodations at all. Completely supported by parents who fight for this independence also and let their child know they can reach this goal. The children have learned how to read their Braille work, so their fingers fly across the page, then they quickly turn to the computer and output the answer. When the teacher says it is time to hand in the work, they open their email, attach the lesson and send it off before all the other work is collected in the class from the sighted students. The teacher grades the work, using TRACK CHANGES to mark the paper. The teacher emails the lesson back with grade and remarks and the student can easily read it with her JAWS commands. , all independently. All these children, are powerful and everyone looks up to them. One particular child even scores the highest on state tests in the spring time and she is only in the 6th grade. Greater things follow and people seek her out to be her friend and she becomes middle school president of the ASB and later successfully enters the college of her choice.

I also have other students, who are backed or rather fronted by parents who seek unlimited time for their child to finish work and they do poorly in class because their lessons have been cut in half or less, so they are not learning the same amount of content as their peers. This child has the same abilities as the fore mentioned child but because of the limited work and due to an unlimited amount of accommodations insisted by parents, they child cannot rise to their potential. Children like this are frustrated by their poor grades and it hurts their self esteem and they either act out or go into depression or just mediocre silence and apathy. They feel sorry for themselves and believe the school needs to do more for them. The parents believe this also. The more the school does, the less the child does and the less they learn other than they have become pitied and pitiful. They do not have friends. They stay home every weekend and do not even have the skills to go to camps in the summer. They graduate school and cannot get into college or find a college to finally go to after many rejections. They go and within the first month cannot do school and drop out. Some call later to ask what to do, others stay with their parents. Some insist that their rehab counselor find them a job and the pity from others and themselves grow.

This is not a blind thing or a sighted thing, this is a human thing. I have seen it in every age, ability, creed and color. You have the people who believe the world owes them something and you have the people who actively put out the energy to make the world a better place. I go back to what Kennedy said decades ago "Ask not what your country can do for you--- ask what can you do for your country." So what are you doing? Are you taking or are you adding?

You can be pitiful or powerful, but you cannot be both. Life is choices. What choice will you make?

Tricks in SEEING the Computer Better

I have spent the last few days with my mother in law—an incredible woman. She has a bit of age on herself and as many older people she is having difficulties SEEING the computer screen.

So, with indelible ink , using large black letters, I wrote on the hard space of her laptop to help her remember the important keystrokes.
To enlarge the Internet, use CTRL+
To reduce the size, CTRL-
When you are in WORD and having difficulty seeing the words, keep the same font size so you don’t print out large letters, but use a ZOOM effect
ALT+V then hit Z, then hit 2 and enter and you will have 200%. No matter what Office you are using, just keep hitting those keystrokes and ZOOM effects will open

Just little fast keystrokes can make all the difference in your life. For more ways to make your life easier in using your computer, Go to Low Vision Lessons for a multitude of low vision lessons

The advantage of Firefox over Internet Explorer

There are a couple great advantages in using Firefox over Internet Explorer (IE).

The biggest one is the advantage of automatic spell check on any and every word you write. It will be underlined in red for you sighted people, and for JAWS users, it will say the word oddly. You can arrow back and hit your applications key (3rd key to the right of the space bar on a desktop keyboard), which is just like using the right click on your mouse. The keystroke is faster—try it out.

The next and most important for any JAWS user is the great accessibility and interaction with websites. Where they are problematic in IE, they are not in Firefox. Even if you do not know the h for headings, or ; for landmarks, you can easily TAB through content, slowly, but TAB through content to move through a page.
For more quick keystroke lessons go to http://www.yourtechvision.com/products/jawsinternet

TAB through your lessons or Insert+F7 for your links and just down arrow through all the possibilities of keystroke lessons of JAWS with the Internet.

How many Accommodations should a child have in school?

When a blind child first starts school, the child needs to learn everything about the print world AND the blind world. You will need to find that fine balance between cutting down lessons, but still getting the point of the lesson; allowing more time to finish an assignment because the child may be using technology that he is just learning to output work and reading Braille books where he is just learning the Braille code and if he has some sight, may be using a CCTV that enlarges pictures and graphs for math class.

The biggest point is every year you want to diminish how many accommodations the child needs. The child needs to get to the point where he can finish the same amount of work as everyone else is doing in the same amount of time given. That means the child needs to be gaining enough skills each year to reduce the accommodations down. By high school these accommodations are very minimal and by graduation, the child can do what he needs to do to go onto college, self-advocate and find the answers he needs to be independent. That independence may be in hiring a “reader” where the reader comes in and helps the student pay bills or shows him the campus so he can travel independently with his cane; the student needs to know all types of technology to scan the printed work the professor just handed out, or the ability to go to the Internet and find anything he needs to complete his work or use an adaptive Braille note taker.

This independence goes after graduation from college to the job when the young person is confident in his/her abilities to travel anywhere, asks assistance for the tasks that are completely visual, but for the most part knows how to take the visual world and put it into a tactile or verbal feedback so he/she can access what is needed.

If you are asking for accommodations by the time you want a job and you are competing with others that are NOT asking for accommodations…who do you think is going to get the job? Go back and get the training you need to gain the skills necessary so you can go in with skills and confidence to do the same job within the same general time period as your potential colleagues. That is the way to compete in a global market that is looking for people with talent and skills to ADD to their business.

Keystroke Lessons at yourtechvision.com

For lessons on using only keystrokes, go to yourtechvision.com

If you want to advance in your computer skills and do it the fastest way possible through keystrokes, then this site is for you:

At yourtechvision.com hundreds of lessons are ready to download, on Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word, other lessons on Braille Note and other blind technology under OTHER TAB and Mac-iPad-iPhone lessons under the Mac/iTool Tab--skills to learn yourself or teach a student. All lessons are compatible with Jaws talking software too.

If you are low vision, there are dozens of lessons to see your computer better too- yourtechvision.com under the Low Vision Tab

If the lesson is not there that you need, make a request and it will be written up for you and added to the site

LookTel Money Reader on IPhone

Are you blind and you want a way to know what money you are holding without using sighted help. The IPhone 4 offers you an app to do that.

How about going to a restaurant and they have no braille menus. This app also offers you the ability to take a picture and have the iphone read it back to you.

Would you like to know the objects in any cupboard, this app will do that for you too.

An incredible new app that gives so much. Go to this site and watch the demo and read all about it LookTel Money Reader

It is more than a money reader...it does a little of everything.

Phone that you can Speak to and it will Text for you

This is a WOW moment.
SIRI is a new app on the iPhone 4S that lets you listen and respond to voice messages automatically. Send and receive texts all with verbal commands.
Ask for weather in different parts of the world, ask any question and your app will find the answer and tell you verbally the answer.
Listen to how incredible this new piece of technology is:

Apple - Introducing Siri on iPhone 4S

Internet, JAWS and hotkeys

I get many requests from people on how to navigate the Internet more quickly. Many hotkeys can be used without JAWS also.

Here are a few hotkeys to get you going
Hit your windows key+R for your run menu and type in: www.google.com and ENTER and your Google page will open (you can use your run menu to get wherever you need to go VERY quickly) Your windows key is at the bottom of the keyboard to the far left. It goes CTRL, the Windows Key, also called Start--it is on the right hand side of your keyboard also.

After you enter your Google page, if you are using JAWS and you do not hear him say edit: type a text, then hit the letter E until you hear this, then hit enter for forms mode on, and type in a search word: Type: yourtechvision and hit enter and all searches for that word will come up.

Now hit the letter H for headings until you get to the link that says: Blind/Visually Impaired Education: YourTechVision and hit enter to open (you will hit H several times to get through your headings)
You will come to my blog with that heading on it, so hit the letter H again until you jump to the heading of YourTechVision and down arrow to listen to the content

When you are done, in Internet Explorer you will hit CTRL+O and in Firefox you will hit CTRL+L to jump to your URL address edit bar. This time you will type in: ask.com. This is a site where you will type in a question you want to know the answer to. Type: How many blind people are there in the world and ENTER

When the page opens hit the letter H for headings until you jump to: How many blind people are there in the world and then down arrow to listen to the answer
Hit SHIFT+H to go back up to the link and hit ENTER to open the link. When the page loads, jit the letter H again to jump to the heading and down arrow to listen to the content

ALT+F4 to close the page--More quick key lessons -practice and have fun

Leave room for MARGIN

I was talking to a very busy father the other day. He is the Chief of Staff of medicine at one of the major Hospitals in the area and was taking time out for his daughter's soccer game, though he admitted he regularly worked 16 hour days and did not see his children often enough. He is a brilliant man of medicine yet confessed he did not know how to use technology well. I immediately had him pull his iPhone out and showed him several features. A major one was texting.

Many parents are overloaded with schedules that are too busy, not enough time and especially not enough time for their children. I told him that texting his children several times a day, just to say "I love you," "You matter", "What are you doing?" will make all the difference in the world in keeping connected. It will let them know you care and are really just a call or text away.

We need to leave room for margin. That white space on a page. That free time in our day for something else to occur. We cannot get so busy that we forget about doing those special things for our spouse, our children or a stranger.

Do you know that Jesus did his greatest healing in what you would call "margin"? He was always on his way to somewhere, when someone in great need stopped him and asked for a healing. He took time out and healed them. He made time for something else along the way, which made the greatest impact in someone else's life.

Are you making room for MARGIN? Are you taking the time to help someone along the way, or help your family along the way? Are you looking around and noticing the unnoticeable? You can make some to the greatest impact with some of the littlest things in life.

Breaking BAD HABITS

Bad Habits have many names, but the one that prevails in the blind field is "blindisms". A Blindism may be rocking, poking eyes, pressing or hitting oneself, light gazing and a plethora of other things.

We all have bad habits and the only way to get rid of one is to do something else consistently for a minimum of 30 days. Yes, you can take the "Will Power" route and say you are just going to break the habit. In general, I have NOT seen this work. Where I see success is exchanging one habit for another less noticeable or offensive habit. Oh yes and the most critical is you have to get that person on board with changing the habit. You will have to show them there is something better and a better consequence will occur if they get rid of the bad habit.

If you take drugs or smoke, you have a chemical bond to break in your body , which makes it very difficult to break such a habit. With a body injuring technique or unusual movement, that no one else does and everyone stares at you while you do it, you have some sort of psychological need of doing a particular habit and is also a bond. It is giving them stimulation that they are being rewarded by and they don't particularly care what others think, when young....and by the time the habit is so well worn it, everyone is making fun of them by now, and the child feels they cannot break it when they really want to.

You have to exchange one stimulus for another. Example: One of my students rocked furiously and poked her eyes while doing it. She is very intelligent but did not look intelligent while in this frenzy of motion. Her peers jeered and made jokes and it was difficult for her to make friends. When young, her parents were told it was fine. No one knew the consequences of being told that. So instead of giving her other activities to keep her entertained, they let her entertain herself with rocking and eye poking. Then it became such a problem the girl had a terrible time breaking the habit. By her teens, she was very distressed at the lack of friends and worse the damage that she had done to her eye sockets. She had pressed her eyes back in the socket, had dark circles around her eyes and further damaged her optic nerves and lens'. Doctors refused to do eye surgery because she would cause even more damage after the surgery if she could not break the eye poking habit. (I have had kids actually pull their eyes out of their sockets, or pressed them so deeply that the deep black circles around their eyes looked as if someone hit them hard every day). Habits like this look bad but also damage...damage physically but also possibilities of making friends, getting jobs or advancing and competing with others around you.

Back to breaking the habits: For the fore mentioned girl, we tried bracelets and necklaces for her to rub instead of eye poking and rocking. That worked for a while, then it stopped. We moved to makeup and that was almost the breakthrough. Then we added a cool looking pair of glasses and that pretty much did it, but it took a couple years, until she could do it consistently for 30 days. She is pretty much steady as a rock now, though she admits, behind closed doors on those depressed days, she reverts back. But she knows she has to fight it every day until it stops being a urge to revert back.

Other techniques that have worked: That soft fleshy part of the skin between the thumb and pointer finger. Yep, that's the part, press it and just slightly massage it. Very stimulating and enough to break another habit you do not want others to see. Holding a paperclip or pen, yep, even blind people can hold a pen and twirling it in the fingers keeps yout mind off doing the other habits that are not as acceptable in society. Others shake their leg, well just about everyone shakes their leg, so that is really acceptable. Find something!

I even had a friend who told me that for Lent she gave up rocking and eye poking and it worked after the period was up. Yep, God is a good one in helping you break those habits.

Grocery Shopping for the Blind

The grocery shopping skill is used for everyone; I will just be putting a blind twist on it here. There are many different ways to do this, so here are a couple.

Get Organized...hmmm, an absolute running theme in what we do
Keep a grocery list throughout the week, either on a brailler or slate-n-stylus (slate n stylus is truly easiest at a home. Easy to put in a drawer, take out to add an item then slip it back in the drawer because it is so small and compact), yes a Braille Note or other adapted laptop works too, but I am always leery with computerized equipment around food and liquids. A grocery store can mean anything and you will never cry over ruining a piece of paper you brought to the store versus a Braille Note. Bring a calculator.

In school, students can practice this also, except it will be for a cooking lesson at the end of the week. So a list is made with a budget.

Today, this step takes a leap and a bound. Prices can be looked up online, to get the idea of the budget you have and need to stay within and if you are in a big enough town, groceries can be ordered online. What an incredible time saver. Yes, you are going to have to be a bit tech-savvy, but once you learn the ropes in ordering your food online, it is an easy process. In a small town, with a small store, a telephone still does the job.

So let's say you do not want or can order food online. Pick a local grocery store where they will get to know you. You can bring a sighted friend with you, but if you would like to do this on your own, make arrangements for someone at the store to walk through with you and get food items (The ease of asking for help depends on the store, so find a willing one and give them your business). Call ahead and establish this connection so the person is waiting for you when you get there. Take the bus to the store. If at school, take the bus or walk. What a great way to work in an orientation and mobility lesson. When I lived by myself, I would always bring a rolling shopping tote and I would only buy as much as I could fit in the tote, so I could easily get it back home. When you are doing this with students, I bring the reusable shopping bags and they get to carry the contents. Working in the shopping tote should also be used so they have options.

I do also have students who are not handling the food and liquids, keep track of the items as they are being purchased on the braille note and keep track of the total--great math lesson; yes, there are exceptions to every rule, but I always go back to the options thing.

They need the whole experience of making a list, checking prices, calling for assistance at the store or bringing a friend, walking or taking the bus to the store, buying the food, paying for it, packing their tote or bags and getting back home, or school.

We have refrigerators at school and shelves to store the food until we use it. You need to divide these activities up, so we shop one day and cook or bake another. This way the students get to bake their reward and learn shopping techniques in the same lesson. When out on their own, they will have been through this process to know how to do it by themselves better, but as you know a bit of fear of doing this by yourself always enters. Just do it and the fear will go.

When in school it is a greater benefit when you can do this in groups. I have my high school students mentor the young students...or sometimes everyone is learning the same thing and mentoring each other, but being together always adds to the fun.

JAWS spelling magic

Jaws offers up a great spell check option that WORD cannot.

Word offers you the applications key any time you misspell a word. Open word and misspell any word, arrow into it and then hit your applications key. Those of you who do not know what the applications key is, on a desktop keyboard, it is the 3rd key to the right of the space bar. It is the key you most likely have never used because you have no idea what it does. It is a very powerful key. Any time you do not know how to spell a word, spell it out the best you can, then hit that applications key and it will give you the correct spelling...that is as long as you have not misspelled it so badly WORD really has no idea what you want.

The next spell check in WORD is F7. I will provide a lesson on that later on, as it is very involved.

But the power spell check for JAWS is ALT+SHIFT+L. Try it out. Open word, misspell several words, then hit the command ALT+SHIFT+L and it will bring up your misspelled words and tell you how many you have in the document. Hit enter on the word and you will pop back exactly to the word, hit your applications key and enter on the correct spelling. Repeat the command ALT+SHIFT+L and continue until all words are correctly spelled.

Today, as I showed one of my students this power command, I could hear her smile across the miles of our virtual screen. She lit up the room and once again, she is shown how technology is making her life so much easier.

Lessons to help you learn more

Jaws magic

The UnTEACHable

First of all, there is no such thing as unteachable. The only people who are unteachable are those who decide NOT to learn any more.

In regards to people, we all have this tremendous ability to learn, no matter where we start out. Children are given labels and everyone starts teaching DOWN to that label. We need to teach UP to the child.

"The Structure of the Brain changes with ACTIVITY!!!!" The Brain that changes itself by Norman Doidge

I have proven the brain changes itself through activity over and over: Taken children that had been written off or inundated with labels that said "unteachable." Ignoring the label I taught the child about a world they could access. Computers and different types of technology have enabled the deaf/blind to "talk" with their friends through texting. The Blind to be independent and keep up with their peers. The low cognitive to "speak" and interact with their surroundings.

Emailing opens up everyone's world and if you have a reluctant child to learn, tell them you will start with making friends on email. Add a braille display and they start reading. Everyone wants friends and it gets any child engaged.

One of my children who was put in the lowest class in the district, was thought unteachable. It appeared he had no skills. Slowly but surely through many activities of teaching color, moving and stacking objects and yes, teaching conversation skills, this child began to open up. After a year, I added a talking computer. As soon as I placed it in front of him, he placed his hands on it and said, "My computer." He got it. He knew this would help him even more. When we opened it I helped him to learn how to type words, so even when he did not want to speak, he could through his computer.

Everyone can be TEACHABLE!

Babies, beads, cupboards and Math

Counting starts with the simple things.

Inexpensive counting starts with a long sting and a set of beads...or even lots of buttons lying around. Help the child string the beads or buttons on the string and count as they string it. Then tie knots at each end and have the child count moving the beads from left to right and back again. Make strings of ten, so counting to higher numbers is easy.

Make different lengths and tie around their neck for a necklace. Make a small strand on elastic and tie around wrist for bracelets. Keep their minds active and busy so they won't be thinking about poking their eyes or rocking for entertainment. They can wear their entertainment.

Cupboards are also a great way to learn math, spatial concepts and stacking. Have your child sit on the counter after you go grocery shopping and have them place the cans of food in the cupboard. I can already tell you, they will want to do this over and over again. That is fine. It is worth the mess at first and the inconvenience for you, as this teaches so many concepts.

I used to have several drawers and the bottom cupboards of my kitchen just for small children who would enter our house. I had a large can of beans with a bowl and stacking cups. The child will get these out, open and start scooping from the can of beans and measuring into the bowl and vice versa. I did this with rice also. They have that lower cupboard full of canned goods and the child will pull them all out (you will have to help them at first to know what to do) then 1 by 1, place them back on the shelf, counting each can they place back in the cupboard. Depending on the size of your cupboard, the child should be able to stack 2 or 3 cans on top of each other. For beginners, the sides of the shelf are great to help support an off centered can, but they get good at this. Then they count the cans as they stack. They also eventually learn how many cans will fit in a certain space.

While the tiny child would be playing in the cupboards, I would be making dinner. Of course, if the child were 3 or more, the child would get up and help me. As you know their attention wane's quickly, so then they would go back down to the cupboards and continue to "play".

By building in things to do at the child's level and around what you already do, they quickly gain concepts about the world around them.

Perception is Not Necessarily Reality

Working with many children, but especially teenagers who feel everyone is staring at them and judging them for every little thing is only in your mind: Ache on the face, their clothes; for beginner blind students, it is carrying a cane, or reading braille in front of their peers.

As adults, we judge ourselves from everything from what we wear, the job we have or the house we live in; to waking up at night thinking, we may have said something to hurt someone's feelings (OK, that last one might just be more of a woman thing).

Here is what we must realize.
Our children who are self-conscious about what is growing on their face, well everyone else has something there too.
Our children who "don't want to be different" by reading braille or carrying a cane, sighted kids think it is cool and you fight something that everyone else is REALLY impressed by seeing, but even after the initial seeing of it, it is out of their minds.

People in general who are beating themselves up about every little detail because they THINK someone perceives them in a certain way, is not necessarily reality.

In general, everyone is so involved with their own lives that after the 3 initial seconds of talking with you or seeing you, you are pretty much out of their mind.
In general, your perception of yourself is not reality for the way others are thinking about you. Everyone is too caught up in his or her own lives.

Even if you trip and fall (OK, the exception is a President, where the media decides to play the same video over and over for the world) so even if you trip and fall and we all do it, after 3 seconds, you are pretty much out of everyone's mind.

We need to get over ourselves, so we can go on uninhibited and do greater things. As long as you are self-absorbed, you cannot see the bigger picture of what can be accomplished. You are wrapped up in the fears in your world that are not true reality and then you cannot improve yourself, because all you see are your faults. Figure out your faults and correct them.

You will make your fears and faults your REALITY if you don't change.

m.facebook.com is FASTER

All you who are using talking software and are trying to use FACEBOOK.com, it is time to switch to m.facebook.com

m.facebook.com is an HTML version of Facebook. All the information is lined up vertically so you can easily move through the text. You will save tons of time reading the Wall and responding to people

So save time and frustration...go to m.facebook.com and TAB through the pages. You will start smiling about your Facebook experience.

Survey for Teachers-Win a Blind Tool

TVIs Needed for AT Study! It's not too late to help the field and have the chance to win fabulous prizes!

Researchers from Texas Tech University and Missouri State University are surveying TVIs to determine what assistive technology competencies they possess. If you are a certified TVI in the United States, please consider completing the online survey at survey monkey by October 31st!

All participants who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing to win one of many wonderful AT prizes such as: a Book Sense Audio Book Player, Audio Graphic Calculator, talking alarm clocks, Victor Reader Stratus, Book Port Plus, Keyboarding Key Guard, Big Eye Magnifying Lamp, or one free single-user copy of Window-Eyes!

Already we had four lucky winners who completed our online survey so far, and who have received a New Generation Perkins Brailler, a ReproTronics Thermo Pen, and two Talking Alarm Clocks. Congratulations to:


Ms. Pam Duda in Illinois,
Ms. Sallie Case in Alabama,
Ms. Jamie Baggett, in Washington, and
Ms. Lori Pulliam in Washington.

It is still not too late to participate in sharing your perspectives and win! See the survey for more information.

Best IPAD APPS for kids

If you are looking for a few IPAD apps for kids check out the link.

Baby Finger is an IPAD app that has been touted as a great tool for children with cortical visual impairment or low vision children learning their colors and shapes.

With large bright objects and verbal feedback giving directions on objects to touch, children are absorb in this interaction. It is also free, which makes it something great to try out to see if this would be right for your child.

Interesting article to read about how to use the IPAD with low vision children

Another free app iFarkle which is a dice game for iphone or the IPAD--and a completely blind person can utilize this game..fun for adults too.

Click on link for extensive list

An extensive list at: Apple Apps

Watch Video: Just out of the box learning with IPad and refreshabraille

Hot Stoves- Blind or Sighted--Teaching Tricks

I always think about the tricks I use for teaching the blind and realize almost all the same techniques work great for sighted people too. How many sighted people have placed their hand on a burning stove? Yep, me too! LOL! We are a funny bunch of human beings.

As I take my students into the kitchen, the first thing we do is feel EVERYTHING with it off. They feel every burner, or flat cooking surface, all dials, open oven and pretty much do everything but climb inside. They need to feel every corner, all the racks and pull them out and in, feel what they will need to clean on the bottom when something spills over. This exercise relieves their fears immediately. Yes, food will spill over and YOU will have to clean it. They practice using oven-mitts while pulling the racks in and out of the oven. Then they practice with heavier dishes so they can get the idea of how much harder the rack is to pull out with weight on it. All with the stove off! Same thing for the burners, they lift different sizes of pans of water onto and off the burners.

They turn on the burners one at a time, so they can see which dial goes with which burner. They hover their hand above the burner. If I have a scared and reluctant child, I have them put that oven-mitt on their least dominant hand, touch the burner and hover with non-mittted hand to get the idea of distance between the heat and their hand. We do this with each burner and this takes some practice. Once again, I relieve their fear of being burned and tell them, "You most likely will get burned if you are cooking."

What does not kill us does make us stronger. How can we pass knowledge along, good and bad, without experience? If you are going to experience life, you will be injured along the way. Oh yes, I teach first aide too--smile

After they prepare an item to bake, and need to place it in the hot oven, I have them place their least dominant hand on the side of the opening into the oven, then slide it down onto the rack, so they know where the pot is going to be placed. Then their dominant hand places the pot on the rack and slides it in. When done, using the same method of placing their hand on the side of the opening of the oven, down by the rack so they can get their bearing and support themselves, then with the dominant hand joining the least dominant hand, they slide the rack out with the dish of food. The other hand reaches for the dish and they easily lift the dish of food out and place it on the stove. Bend over, push rack in, lift door up and they have just baked their first food item in an oven. The oven-mitt is essential at first because they will touch hot surfaces and if the mitt covers their whole hand, then they will not be burned and the fear level goes down tremendously. If the child is afraid, they will tentatively do something and are more likely to make errors, such as dropping the dish because they fear getting burned or other silly things we humans do when afraid.

By using the method of them touching everything when it is cold and getting the idea of place, position and heat, the fear starts to wane and cooking begins to be more of a part of their life.

I even had one student who became a great cookie baker. When her sisters would come over, they always would ask, "How did you get these cookies so perfectly round and baked?" She told me this story and of course, after mixing the batter, she used her hands to form the perfect round ball, flattened it with her hands and placed it on the baking sheet. She knew her oven (oh yes, side note, 350 degrees is not the same on every oven, so get to know yours) and knew the exact time to cook them, because of experience and lots of practice her cookies were delicious.

Good articles to read on this subject:
Cooking Without Looking"….for Kids
COOKING MADNESS
A huge list of other cooking ideas

Be that Rare Person and ADD

Be that person who stands up and takes responsibility for your actions. If you do not have knowledge you need, you go out and find it and learn. If you fail at something, you look inside yourself and ask the question, "What more do I need to know to achieve this goal?"

Don't point your fingers at others and say, "You are not doing enough for me?" or "You are the reason I am failing!"

Look at others and see how you can help them. What can you do to improve someone's life? In turn, you make yours better. If you are always looking for ways to add, you will not subtract.

The only way to grow is to continually add. Life is math!! If you are always taking, little by little, you become less. Don't subtract from life itself.

So, add: If everyone keeps adding to the good and to knowledge, then everything grows.

AND, if you feel offended by this, maybe you are taking too much away from life....Something to think about!

Digital Handwriting and Voice Recorder

One-step further than just digital handwriting into text: The Digital Ink Pad with Voice Recording. Compare this to the previous Digimemo on the Blog, which did not allow voice recording, or to be used as a functional PC Tablet when hooked to a computer.

This notebook sized pad allows you to hand write information (or a sighted person to do take notes in class, then hand back to someone who cannot see the board) But also add verbal notes, that when you upload it to your computer, the voice recording will be linked to the page. The product comes with Handwriting Recognition Software; Using MyScript Notes, OCR handwriting recognition software & you can transfer your handwriting to text.

In addition, In PC Tablet Mode; once connected to computer through USB port, Digital Ink Pad + could be used as fully functional PC tablet. If you already have a computer, this is a great addition to computing capabilities. The handwriting recognition software is also already included in the package when you buy it. After you upload your work, you can edit it on the computer.

The feedback on this product has been very positive: "What makes it better than the DigiMemo (my second option) tablet is that it has voice recording capabilities, a headphone slot for playing music (via a SD card), and if you connect it to your computer via USB, it becomes a fully functional tablet with the pen as a mouse"

Some tricks you will need to keep in mind if you buy this. Have several sheets of paper on the pad, use your best penmanship or tell the person who is taking notes for you to use good penmanship. Hold the tip of the pen up and don't rub your hand on the pad as you write. This is true for the digimemo also.

How Blind & Sighted can Fold Their Clothes Perfectly

Are you wasting a lot of time ironing...or worse walking around with wrinkled clothes? Here are some great tricks to keep you looking good.

You can buy a board that helps you fold those clothes perfectly, with the perfect creases and lines, so it looks like you just picked them up from the dry cleaners without the dry cleaning bill attached.

For about $10-$20 you can buy many types of folding boards. Here are a couple links for you to choose from and you can explorer wider for more of a selection.

Bed, Bath and Beyond
Flip Fold I prefer this, due to the holes in the board that allow air to pass through for an easier fold.

You lay your article of clothing down on the folding board -- just flip, flip, flip and fold. It's that simple. A bit of practice and you will be a pro. The flipfold board even has a video you can watch or listen to to understand the perfect folding method. Some come with magnets, so you can just stick it to the dryer to keep it out of the way. It is light and easy to use. You will get to the point where you may not need the board any more, but just may keep using it because it gives you such perfect looking clothes

Today, with permanent press clothes or just cotton and other blends, the first trick is to get your clothes out of the dryer IMMEDIATELY, so you have less wrinkles. I use this trick and rarely have to iron anything. However, collars on shirts are usually wrinkled so I re-wet them in the sink, press the collar the way it needs to look and hang up...When dry, it looks like someone ironed it. I have my stack of hangers and hang all our good shirts and pants up in the closet for the perfect crease in the slacks and shirts. Match the sewed seams first and feel for the crease that was ironed in on those slacks when you bought them, Then use hangers with 2 clips, one clip goes at each corner of your pants. If I try to fold dress pants, many times I cannot match the crease of the pants all the way down the leg, then you have 2 tiny ugly creases that run the length of the pant. By hanging them up on pant hangers click on link to see the type, you will have the perfect pant.

To match the colors of your clothes, you can use braille clothing labels and if you are a seamstress, you can easily braille in dots for the colors, but that takes a lot of time.

When you are done wearing socks, pin them together to drop in the dirty clothes, so when you are done washing and drying, you have the matched set of socks right there. No hunting for them. You can do this with anything that has a pair. Before placing anything in the dryer, shake your clothes out so you are not throwing a tight ball of waded up clothes in. You will just press wrinkles in that way. Then when the dryer cycle is done, you take them out immediately, hang up the good stuff, fold the daily wear stuff and you will always look pressed and put together.

Here are a few great articles on clothes preparation and grooming.
This is the Way We Wash Our Clothes
Ironing Things Out
Clothing, Grooming, and Social Acceptability: Part 1
Clothing, Grooming, and Social Acceptability: Part 2

Low Vision-XP-Using HIGH CONTRAST to see better

Low vision-XP using HIGH CONTRAST options to see better

1. Turn on Computer
2. Hit your start key then C until you get to CONTROL PANEL and ENTER to open
3. Accessibility options is your first option, so enter to open
4. CTRL+TAB to display
5. ALT+U to select the option of high contrast
6. ALT+S to go to settings options
7. TAB to select—use shortcut-hit space bar to select
8. TAB to High Contrast appearance scheme
9. Keep hitting H until you jump to High contrast black #2 (extra large)
10. And enter to select and you will go back to the display option
11. Hit ALT+A to apply these choices and your screen will change
12. TAB to OK and close box
13. ALT+F4 to close control panel
14. The hot key to switch back and forth between regular screen and this option is: left ALT+LEFT-SHIFT + PRINT SCREEN –the print screen is all the way to the top right hand corner of your keyboard—on a laptop you will usually need to use the function or FN key and F11 to make this change—this varies depending on laptop layouts
15. Try another option-go back to accessibility
16. CTRL+TAB to display
17. ALT+S for setting and TAB to high contrast schemes and hit H until you jump to, High contrast #1 (extra large)
18. TAB to Ok, then hit ALT+A to apply
19. Open Word
20. ALT+V then hit z for zoom
21. Hit ALT+E for percent and type in 300% and enter
22. Begin typing—change the zoom size according to what you see best
23. Try other options

Get The Fastest Braille Reading Speed

My fastest Braille readers are 2-handed readers, with butterfly motion.

So picture this: Both hands begin the braille line, and as they pass about the 3rd or 4th word on the line, the left hand goes back and down to the next line ready to begin reading as the right hand finishes the line. Smooth and seamless, floating down the page.

All fingers are down on the line, so the pinky fingers can tell when they are getting close to the end of a line, whether it ends in the middle of the page or at the end. If the child reads with the book on her lap, all those fingers support the book so it does not fall to the floor, giving the student the ability to easily read. This technique is especially helpful when they go into the elementary grades and read to younger students, impressing them with the beautiful flow and movement across those delightful dots. The sighted students come up on their knees to watch closer when they sit on the floor surrounding the braille reader, OH’s and AWES as they watch this wonderful braille butterfly movement. They truly believe it is magic to read those dots.

The students who read 300-400 words per minute, do their homework and pleasure read everyday and are always looking for their next novel.
The students who read 200-300 wpm, do their homework and pleasure read several times a week
The students who read 100-200 wpm, do their homework and maybe will pleasure read a couple times a week
The students who read 40-100 wpm, do their homework and rarely pleasure read during the week

To gain in speed, you need to use hard copy braille and the butterfly motion: Getting the flow and movement down on the page. On adapted laptops, you can use the book-reader and speed up the braille display to increase reading speed also. But the most important part of gaining speed...is to just READ!! And read a LOT.

Lessons to help you learn more

Fastest Braille Reading Speed

Math, Cooking and Pumpkins

It is that time of the year, where pumpkins abound and are ready to be picked, cleaned, cut, and eaten.

This is a great opportunity for blind children or any child for that matter, to help eat and decorate but also learn about math through counting pumpkin seeds and baking pumpkin pie, bread or cookies. But first, you need to go to a pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin. Really, all the way to a field. Blind children will not understand how things are grown, if they only get food from a store, so head to a pumpkin farm.

After you pick the perfect pumpkin, it is actually best for you to have your child help you bake the "good" pumpkin pie, cookies or bread first, so they taste the end result, before diving their hands into all the goo of string, mush and seeds. They eat and enjoy, then onto the pumpkin. They will be more likely to dive in if they know they get more "good" at the end.

As you help them cut open the top and scrape out the insides, have them separate the seeds from the goo. Then they will count out the seeds into parts of 10, 20, etc., depending on age. Then have them place the seeds in a baking dish and bake the seeds, having them count as they place the seeds on the baking dish. They will find out how many seeds will fit flat on the dish. Have them spray the seeds with some cooking spray, salt the seeds and put in the oven to bake.

While the seeds bake, cut the pumpkin up, put in another baking dish, and bake that until soft and ready for pie, bread or cookies...whatever is the favorite of the child.

The other pumpkins, you get to help your child decorate for Halloween. They will start gaining incredibly fond memories of this time of season if you do this every year.

Skiing for the Blind

I have taught blind children downhill skiing for many years.

The thing that served me the best, though I get great ribbing for it, is my tangerine snowsuit. Some call it bright pink. I suppose it does change colors depending on the light.

The reason it has served me so well is my low vision students, even almost totally blind students could pick me out on the hill. Picture that bright pink or tangerine color glistening against the white of the snow. It was like a ball of sun pointing the direction to the students.

For beginners, I would ski behind giving directions. Right turn, left turn and so on down the hill. When they became more advanced, I could ski in front of them if they had some vision and they would follow my bright suit down the hill.

I have had this ski suit for over 20 years...hmm; wonder what it is made out of? Anyway, I hope I have it until I die. I have incredible fond memories wrapped up in this suit.

So for all you parents, as winter approaches, get your kids out on the hills. If they can walk, then they are ready. Just Google skiing for the blind in your area and you will be able to pull up a group that puts on these activities now and all year around. Some groups cater to just the blind, others to all different abilities. This is a great way for your children to make friends and work on their strength, along with orientation and mobility. The cost is also very negligible.

Fun for the whole family but more than anything you will see your child blossom like never before.

Braille Cheat Sheets

For a Great Braille Cheat Sheet click on link

Just remember, as you look at the cheat sheet, to do Nemeth code, you will drop the numbers into the lower cells of the six dots

Duxbury puts out this cheat sheet. They are a leader in the braille to print, print to braille translation software


Here is a more extensive list of Braille Cheat Sheets

Click on link for Lessons on how to get the fastest braille reading speed