Don't just Graduate, but LEARN along the way

This situation comes up more often than is good for the blind/low vision population. Having parents who want their child to graduate so badly, but do not really care if they learn along the way. Or, somehow they believe that when they get to that graduation stage all the things they did not learn will somehow miraculous appear through osmosis, escorted by a para of course because the child failed to learn how to walk around on their own. Along the way, the parents insisted a para do the work with minimal effort from the child and when the child went home, the parents pushed the lessons to completion, only to have her do poorly on tests. Parents getting angry because of the low scores, they have the student's work reduced even more. She does not learn the same content as her peers, which will harm her in the future.

The parents do not realize that all their efforts in getting the child's workload reduced and having a para glued to the child's side all day will have a very negative effect on the child's life, her confidence, self-esteem and how she views what or rather what  a blind person cannot do because she was never given the chance to prove herself. They essentially are telling the child: "You cannot do it on your own. You need help all the time. You will fail without help."

The solution--backup. Don't push through, but increase blind skills learning so the classes that are being taken, the student can do on their own. Instead of taking 5 general education classes, reduce that to 3 or 4 (depending on how low the child's skills are--maybe even think about a School for the Blind) and The Teacher of the Blind gives instruction on how to complete the assignments without help from a para or parent. The child's esteem grows as they realize they can do the work on their own, take a bus, go and do what they want.

Yes, this most likely will take longer than 4 years in High School. That is OK...they have a life time to now go out and achieve their goals with their own skills.

If you find you were one of those students...don't lose hope. There are great training centers for the blind around the country. One great one to check in to is Louisiana Training Center for the Blind

iPhone is so easy to use with voice over, anyone can send a message

♥   HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Easy lessons at: Mac/iTools

Come see Presentation on technology in action in ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

I will be giving a presentation on all the different types of technology that help blind/low vision students achieve success in school, on February 23-24. On the 23rd, I will speak on the what and when of technology at 1:30-2:45 and on the 24th will be speaking with a panel on the different types of technology used throughout schooling.

If you are in the area, please do come by and join the conversation of success in school.

2012 NEW MEXICO AER CONFERENCE FEBRUARY 23-24, 2012

SHERATON ALBUQUERQUE UPTOWN HOTEL

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

Making a Promethean Board flipcharts (smart board) accessible to blind students

How many out there are in school districts where a smart board or  Promethean board with flipcharts are used? These are graphic pictures that anyone with sight can easily see, but to a blind student, it is empty space. Many paraeducators have to take the pictures and turn them into text or braille for the blind student to read. There is the long way to do this, typing one character at a time ( as you cannot copy the images)  or a fast way.

Here is the fast way. You can download a personal  viewer from the company to load on your machine. Open the viewer then the flipchart, go to file, then to print. When the print box opens, you will see the "export as PDF" so save it as such. Place a folder on the desktop with these PDF files, so they are easy to find, especially if you are going to teach the blind student how to do this, and after all, that is what we want. Open Openbook or Kurzweil and go to open file. Go find the file on your desktop and have your OCR program open it. After it opens, go to launch it into word and it opens in Word. All the great text is there. Now be aware, all those pictures will not translate...they will turn out as a list of letters and symbols, so just go through and delete out what was meant for a picture. Now, all that needs to be done is those pictures are created 3-D by the para to go with this work.
One huge advantage I have discovered is on test day, the students can use their notes. If the flipcharts are in text format, then the blind student can do a quick "find" command on their computer and jump to the theorem they need ....actually faster than a sighted student pouring through their notes visually. Once they have the theorem, they alt+tab back to the exam and continue on answering all the problems.
Now this is just 1 way, but where there is a will there is a way to make the world more accessible.

Watch Video: Dr Robinson teaches-Making a Promethean Board flipcharts (smart board) accessible to blind students

iPhone, iPod Touch-VoiceOver, using Notes and the refreshabraille

Many students were fortunate and acquired an iPhone or IPod Touch for Christmas. Frustration soon turns to success with a few lessons. Learning how to use features in Notes makes these students successful any where else on their iTool. Once they can learn how to Turn contractions on and off, use auto correct features, use the rotor, move around with characters, words, lines,  edit, copy, paste, delete, move and undo mistakes, then Email note to whomever they desire their frustration turns to joy, then they stretch their wings and begin exploring other parts of their iTool.

Lesson at: iPhone, iPod Touch-VoiceOver, using Notes and the refreshabraille

Speech Recognition and Word-using numbers and words-audio/visual

Learn how to start using Speech Recognition, which is already built into Windows 7. You will go into word and begin to learn how to speak numbers and words and then how to correct any problems. Move around easily, copy and paste items you need.
Train your voice first and get set up on Speech recognition, as the more you train the better the outcome when you speak your commands at this lesson-just click to learn: Speech Recognition and Word-using numbers and words-audio/visual

Using a Braille display in WORD

Many students want to just use their adapted laptop or refreshabraille display to braille in content and move around. Click on this link: WORD and BRAILLE DISPLAY to see lessons to help you and your students learn how to
Go in and out of typing mode or braille mode
Using contracted and uncontracted mode
Navigating your pages
Moving around characters, words, sentences
Selecting and unselecting characters, words, sentences
Save, open and print
Moving around the ribbon and inserting a picture

Speech Recognition-give your computer verbal commands to make it move

Speech Recognition has come a long way. If for any reason you cannot use your hands or fingers, giving verbal commands to make your computer do what you want it to do if just a matter of learning the commands. If you are blind and need the same benefits. J-SAY provides both speech recognition and verbal feedback.
This is a quick demonstration of the power of speech recognition. This program is already built into Windows 7 already, so get going.

Watch  video at : Dr. Robinson teaches Speech Recognition