What does legally blind look like

I use these images as examples in my presentations.

Open this link: getting close to legally blind
20/20
20/40
20/70
20/100 definition
There is only 1 letter of difference on the vision chart between 20/100 and 20/200...they are that close in visual acuity

Open this link: legally blind
and you will see
20/20
20/200, which is legally blind
20/400

Now, you can get an idea of what a visual impairment actually looks like

Contest for a Free Computerized Brailler

Winning a Mountbatten brailler could be one of the greatest gifts for your child.

HumanWare 2011 Braille Literacy Scholarship Program

HumanWare
2011 Braille Literacy Scholarship Program
5128 Oak Point Way, Fair Oaks, CA 95628
Contact: Sharon Spiker
sharon.spiker@humanware.com
Deadline for Entries: Dec 31, 2011

Contact Sharon for details: Any child between the ages of 3-8 years old can apply for this scholarship to win a complete Mountbatten Learning System and all associated software and accessories.

Where any of my students who had difficulties with little or weak fingers, the Mountbatten was the machine the enabled them to learn braille with ease. This could be the solution for your child also.

Mac and Voice Over

I have had several students graduate and have someone talked them into going Mac instead of PC with JAWS-- RIGHT before a major life change. Then they start emailing me with their issues of not being able to access what they need on their new Mac. This really is more a matter of a lack of knowledge than an inability of the Mac. The most difficult part about the major switch of technology is they did it going into college or before a major event in their lives. They go from knowing how to operate a PC with JAWS with confidence to a brand new piece of hardware and software. If you are daring and can learn fast, that is fine. But if you have a learning curve, changing to a brand new product right before going to college, or in the middle of college or just getting a job, might not be the best move. There is always going to be a lull in your life, when this approach may fit better. However, nothing wrong with a bit of a challenge.

For all of those who took the step into a Mac with voice over, but would like a bit more help, here are a few basics to get you going or moving faster.

Voice over is built into the Mac OS X Lion
Command+F5 will turn on voice over quickly
Turn on voice over before attaching a supported Braille display. When you plug in a braille display, Voice over will detect it

This information is taken from the Mac manual: You enter VoiceOver commands by holding down the Control and Option keys together, along with one or more other keys. The Control and Option keys are called the “VoiceOver keys,” or “VO keys” for short. They are shown in commands as VO—for example, to use the command VO-F1, you press Control, Option, and F1. You can assign VoiceOver commands to numeric keypad keys, keyboard keys, braille display input keys, and trackpad gestures, so you can use the commands with fewer keystrokes.

The first time you start VoiceOver, I highly suggest you take the Quick Start tutorial, an interactive tour of VoiceOver navigation and interaction basics. When VoiceOver is on, you can start the tutorial at any time by pressing VO-Command-F8.--Remember, the VO key command is: control+option+F8 for the tutorial

Let's practice reading a document.
Open a document
To read an entire document from the top (called “Read All”) without interacting with the document, press VO-A.
When you’re interacting with a document, to read from the VoiceOver cursor to the bottom of the text area, press VO-A.
To read a line, press VO-L. To move to the next or previous line, press VO-Down Arrow or VO-Up Arrow.
To read a paragraph, press VO-P. To move to the next or previous paragraph, press VO-Shift-Page Down or VO-Shift-Page Up.
To read a sentence, press VO-S. To move to the next or previous sentence, press VO-Command-Page Down or VO-Command-Page Up.
To read a word, press VO-W. To hear the word spelled, press VO-W again. To hear it spelled phonetically, press VO-W again. To move to the next or previous word, press VO-Right Arrow or VO-Left Arrow.
To read a character, press VO-C. To hear the character spoken phonetically, press VO-C again. To move to the next or previous character, press VO-Shift-Right Arrow or VO-Shift-Left Arrow.

If you selected the “Use phonetics” checkbox in the Announcements pane of VoiceOver Utility, characters are automatically read phonetically. For example, VoiceOver reads “a alpha n november t tango.” (If you do not want this feature, go back to your Utilities and turn it off)

Practice these techniques and more lessons will be added

FIND command- Access Information in Books FAST

The way blind people can find information in books has changed dramatically.

Years ago, a blind child would sit in class with the multiple volumes of braille books in front of them, which is great if they actually got them. But if a teacher asks the class to open up to page 243 in the novel, "Of Mice and Men" it takes the blind students many minutes to thumb through the correct volume, then to find the correct page.

Today, that is no longer true. Students download electronic textbooks from the Internet and load them onto their note takers or laptop. When the teacher asks everyone to turn to page 243, or any page in any book, our students can do a Find command and jump to the passage faster than the sighted students jump in their print books. There is a trick to doing this flawlessly. Page numbers can vary in books depending on versions, so this is how you get around that. The blind student asks the teacher for the first 3 words of the paragraph she wants everyone to turn to. Then the blind student types those 3 words in the find command and enters, and immediately jumps to the text and is ready to read from their braille display along with the rest of the class.

Another advantage of this method is the teacher hands out questions to the story that is being read. The student can read the question, do a Find command within the book and jump to the major headings dealing with the question. They can copy and paste that information out of the book, jump back to the document where they will be typing the answers and paste in the content and answer the question quickly.

The FIND command is powerful. In WORD, it is CTRL+F, on many note takers, it is SPACE+F. Always search using more than one word, and you can find your information faster.

Lessons to help you more, click on link below


Technology skills

College made for children with Learning Disabilities

This is brand new and I do not know anything about it, but intrigues me on the possibilities it may bring. You may also want to check it out.

The Sage Colleges is launching a new program for college students with special needs, called the Achieve Degree. This online bachelor's degree was developed by Sage in collaboration with Excelsior College specifically for people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders or other learning disabilities.

The first cohort of students will begin the program in January 2012; application deadline is October 15. To raise awareness of this program, Sage and Excelsior are presenting a series of free webinars. Our first webinar was held on September 20th and webinar # 2 is scheduled for this evening, September 27th at 7:00 p.m. We encourage you to log on and learn more about the program, and spread the word to those you think may be interested in the program.

Click here to register for the first webinar, or visit the program page www.sage.edu/achieve or the Achieve Degree community blog, Achieve Ideas.

WEBINAR #1
Achieve Degree Program Overview
Tuesday, Sept. 20
7:00 - 7:35 p.m.

WEBINAR #2
Meet the Achieve Degree Dean & Faculty
Tuesday, Sept. 27
7:00 - 7:35 p.m.

WEBINAR #3
A Detailed Look at the Achieve Degree
Tuesday, Oct. 4
7:00 - 7:35 p.m.

WEBINAR #4
How to Access the Achieve Degree
Tuesday, Oct. 11
7:00 - 7:35 p.m.

To register, go to www.sage.edu/sca/academics/achieve/webinars/
(We suggest registering in advance to check your system and ensure your computer is set up to access the webinar.


--
Mike Jones
Assistant Director
Graduate and Adult Admission
The Sage Colleges
(518) 292-8636

NVDA-totally Free - Forever Talking Software

NVDA is an Australian company that was started by a young college blind man, and friend of mine. The young blind man could not afford $1000 for talking software but needed a way to use the computer. So he and his friend wrote the talking software program that has become known as NVDA.

NVDA has a very computerized voice, but is also now compatible with some SAPI download voices, which you may enjoy more. It has many of the exact same keystrokes commands as JAWS. It can also be downloaded directly to a thumb drive and taken anywhere to about 80% of computers. It works better in Firefox than Internet Explorer and you may just want to stick with Firefox for its use. It cannot be utilized in all programs yet, but other industries are working with this little company, so believe more compatibility is just down the road.

The most important programs, like Microsoft Office and the Internet can be accessed and used with NVDA. If you would like to try this product out, click on: NVDA

To go through the user guide for comparison to other talking software, click on NVDA user guide

HINT: The NVDA key is the insert key

If you just do not have a $1000 laying around right now for other talking software, this just may be the thing for you. If you do download and use this product please think about making a donation to the company so it can survive for all those others out there, that cannot afford the more expensive versions of talking software.

Braille Note Made Easy

I was talking with a father last night at a conference in another state who was explaining they had just purchased a Fabulous new APEX for their daughter. Their teacher was reading the manual to learn how to teach it. In the meantime, they would like her to use it. Father is a techy, so I knew I could explain a few things and he could actually contribute to some of the instruction and really get her daughter kick-started on the Braille Note.

I sat him in front of my computer and explained it like this. On the Braille Note, if you hit 1 2 3 4 5 6 +space, that is main menu which is like hitting the start key (also called windows key) on a computer-I hit the key for a visual. All the menus are now available. As you press the space bar on the Braille Note, it is like hitting the down arrow on the computer, taking you through your menus (the light bulb went on so bright over dad's head, it lit up the room). If you have renamed your programs on the computer, such as W for word, then after you hit the start key, and hit W, you open word. On the Braille Note, you hit W and go to the word processor.

When you are on the Main Menu display, as you hit the space bar on the Braille Note to move through the menus and listen or read the display, you will know that quick key to get to where you want to go: B is for Bookreader, S is for Scientific Calculator, F is for File Manager and so on. Then you can be on main menu and hit B and your bookreader will open. Go back to main menu and hit F and your file manager will open. If you ever get lost in the Braille Note, you hit 1 2 3 4 5 +space bar and you will go back to main menu and you can start over.

The basic commands that follow getting into the Word Processor are, create or open a Folder, then create or open a File....c is for create, o is for open. On the computer, you do these commands at the end when you save. So just know, you do these up front on a Braille Note. You can do a save command to change it to a Word document as anything you save on a Braille Note is a Key Word soft document with the extension .kwb. Only a Braille Note can open this type of document so if you want to also use it on the computer, you must translate the document. into a .doc. S+space goes into save, X+backspace takes you through all the options of saving, just go to save as word document, type in the same name you used for the document you just brailled and enter, go back to main menu and now you can pull out your thumb drive, take it to a computer, open and use it.

If you are not sure what to do as you are working anywhere in the Braille Note, H+ space is your help menu. When you want to exit somewhere, e+space will exit you out. If you ever get totally lost, go back to main menu with 1 2 3 4 5 6+space.

That simple, now go have some fun!

Start Young & Take a Multi-Sensory Approach to Teaching

When your child is a baby, hold and cuddle them often. While you are walking around describe what you are seeing and when they are old enough or can reach out, have them feel what you are describing. Every time you have them touch something while you are describing, they are creating images in their mind about the world.

Vary your child's experiences. They need to help you clean the house, cook dinner, go shopping, go on trips, smell a cow yard, play in a garden, smell and eat at different restaurants, and so much more. By them grasping an item and you gently placing your hand over top, you can teach them how to stir, string beads, dig a hole and learn everything else there is to learn about their surroundings.

If you hold your child often, tickle, and massage his different body parts while playing with him, he will have a greater chance of not being tactile defensive, which is where a child does not like to be touched but also does not like to touch things. If you start young and continue, the child learns that touch can be wonderful and that is how he is going to learn about the world. He must touch, smell, and hear...that is how he sees. In the book, The Brain that Changes itself" by Norman Doidge, he explains that when you integrate all the senses, they take over the visual cortex and images are created in the brain. For any child that has even a small issue in learning they will learn faster if you integrate all the senses. For a regular child with just blindness, they will just learn faster in general.

If a child can become aware of his own body, then he can place himself within the environment he is sitting or walking. He will learn how far away to stand from someone, he will be able to tell when a wall is approaching as he walks with his cane, because you can feel matter. Matter is any solid surface. If you are sighted, close your eyes and just start talking and walking toward a wall. You can feel the wall approach, through the sound of your voice bouncing off the wall and the "feel" of the wall on your skin as you approach. We need to teach our blind children that matter has substance and as they walk with a cane, they will be able to steer around any object because they will feel themselves approach it. They can also use echolocation, which is sound bouncing off matter. Hard-soled shoes are a great way to get sound to bounce of walls without anyone being aware of what you are doing as you walk. You may notice some children clicking their tongues. They have figured echolocation out, but everyone around them think they are doing something odd. They are just using the sound to bounce off walls to figure out where to go.

If your child has any vision at all, use a light box and let them choose the light level. Then place objects and colors on top of the light box so they can get a better idea of what it looks like. Next, have them pull off the object, close their eyes and just feel it. When you take sight away, touch and hearing kick in and their focus in on what they are feeling, not what their poor vision is trying to incorrectly see. In this manner, of no sight when they touch, they put it together with what they saw and have a truer idea of fact versus something off of poor vision. In this way, their world becomes alive, but more importantly, if the child loses any more sight, he will have learned how to put a 1 dimensional brailled object on paper into a 3 dimensional world because of all the "vision games and practice" with the closing of the eyes and touching after. Learning his colors, numbers and letters, will also be accessible in his knowledge bank, because of these "games" early on.

There are many wonderful web sites out there that give even more activities to do with your child. The biggest thing, incorporate everything, describe the world as you walk and let them touch, smell and listen and you will have a well-developed child, understanding the world. Now, incorporate the academics and you will have a child that can achieve anything he desires.

Windows 7-Speed Up Your Computer

Has your computer slowed down over time. Here are some quick tricks to improve its speed and performance.

Windows 7- Speed up Your Computer

Every week you need to do maintenance on your computer. It is just like you cleaning your clothes. You also need to clean your computer if you want it to keep performing like the day you got it.

Be aware, the websites have viruses, spam and a slew of other things that will dump onto your hard drive and slow it down. Be careful where you surf. In addition, the more programs you put on your machine, the slower it will become also. However, we will talk about maintenance and speeding it up right now.

From now on, every week, you need to do the following. Disk Clean Up, Disk Defrag, Error Check


Disk Clean Up
1. Hit your Start key and type in disk
2. Down arrow to Disk clean up and ENTER-your computer will start scanning your computer
3. When the box comes up, you will check every square with a space bar
4. TAB to Ok and begin clean up. If you have not done this in a while or ever, it will take up quite a while.

Disk Defragmenter
1. Hit your Start key and type in disk
2. Down arrow to Disk Defragmenter and ENTER
3. Hit the space bar on C: and TAB to defrag—this will take some time also depending on whether you have done this before or not
4. Defrag any other drives you have
5. Do NOT interrupt this process

Error Check
1. Hit START KEY, arrow to Computer, and ENTER
2. Hit your applications key or right click on C:
3. Up arrow to properties and ENTER
4. CTRL+TAB to tools and ALT+C to check now and ENTER
5. When the dialog box comes up, hit space bar on both choices, it will find and fix your hard disk problems
6. TAB to Ok a box comes up saying to schedule it Just restart your computer now. When your computer comes back on, it will start going through the process. Normally, you will have a blue or black window with white letters taking your computer through the fix stage. Do not do anything until your computer goes to your desktop and everything looks normal.
7. Do NOT interrupt this process


Try it out now. You will notice an incredible difference in speed and performance.

XP-Speed up Your Computer

So has your computer slowed down over time? Here are a few things you can do to make marked improvements on the speed and performance of your computer

XP- Speed up Your Computer

Every week you need to do maintenance on your computer. It is just like you cleaning your clothes. You also need to clean your computer if you want it to keep performing like the day you got it.

Be aware, the websites have viruses, spam and a slew of other things that will dump onto your hard drive and slow it down. Be careful where you surf. In addition, the more programs you put on your machine, the slower it will become also. However, we will talk about maintenance and speeding it up right now.

From now on, every week, you need to do the following. Disk Clean Up, Disk Defrag, Error Check


Disk Clean Up
1. Go to Programs
2. Accessories
3. System Tools to disk clean up
4. When the box comes up, you will check every square with a space bar
5. TAB to Ok and begin clean up. If you have not done this in a while or ever, it will take up to an hour.

Disk Defragmenter
1. Go to Programs
2. Accessories
3. System Tools to disk defragmenter and ENTER to open
4. Hit the space bar on C: and TAB to defrag—this will take some time also depending on whether you have done this before or not
5. Do NOT interrupt this process

Error Check
1. Hit START KEY, go to My Computer, and enter
2. Hit your applications key or right click on C:
3. Up arrow to properties and ENTER
4. CTRL+TAB to tools and ALT+C to check now and ENTER
5. When the dialog box comes up, hit space bar on both choices, it will find and fix your hard disk problems
6. TAB to Ok and restart your computer. When your computer comes back on, it will start going through the process. Normally, you will have a blue window with white letters taking your computer through the fix stage. Do not do anything until your computer goes to your desktop and everything looks normal.
7. Do NOT interrupt this process


Try it out now. You will notice an incredible difference in speed and performance.

Low Vision- Enlarge Text and Wrap it to Window for Easy Reading

If you would like more options on how to see better while working in WORD, this may do the trick for you

Low Vision- Enlarge Text and Wrap it to Window for Easy Reading

To enlarge and wrap text so it fits within your window, to make reading easier.

Windows 7 & Office 2010

Open Word
CTRL+N for a new document
Type: =rand() and ENTER to insert text
CTRL+ALT+N for normal view
ALT+F, then hit T for options
Down Arrow to Advanced
ALT+W, 3 times until you jump to show text wrapped within document window
Hit space bar to select this option and ENTER to close window
ALT+V, then hit Z for zoom
ALT+E to percent and type 500 and ENTER to close
The text is large and wrapped for easy reading
CTRL+ALT+P back to Print view to see size difference
CTRL+ALT+N back to Normal view with wrapped text


XP and Office 2003

Open Word
CTRL+N for a new document
Type: =rand() and ENTER to insert text
CTRL+ALT+N for normal view
ALT+T, then hit O for Options
Make sure you are on the VIEW TAB
Hit W to Wrap to Window
CTRL+ALT+P back to Print view to see size difference
CTRL+ALT+N back to Normal view with wrapped text

Low Vision - SEE the Internet Better

Low Vision - SEE the Internet Better

Open Internet
1. Hit the command CTRL+ continuously until you get the screen to the size you want—hold down the CTRL key while hitting +
2. CTRL- will decrease the screen—hold down the CTRL key while hitting -
Get the Internet page to the size you like


If there is a picture on the Internet that is too small to view for your vision, do the following
1. Hit the PRINT SCREEN button --usually at the top right hand corner of the keyboard, in a set of 3 other keys...you probably have never used it before
(Many people on Facebook say they cannot see small pictures of their family even with the above commands)
2. Open Word and paste with CTRL+V (the image now pastes into your word document).

Increase the size
ALT+V, then hit Z
ALT+E to percent and type in 500 and enter
The picture will be enormous now, so take your mouse and move around the page to see what you wish to see. Use your slider bars at the bottom and the right hand side also. If you have a wheel on your mouse, just move the wheel to move around your page.

Be aware that when the picture enlarges, it may become blurry, but it will give you a better view than looking at it at 1 inch square

Microsoft Outlook, with or without JAWS

Most of these steps will work in Outlook 2003, but will definitely work in 2010, so if you were thinking of upgrading but were unsure how you would learn it, here are some quick easy tricks.

Microsoft Outlook – opening, reading and replying to messages with JAWS

1. Open Outlook
2. Hit the command CTRL+Y, which is the –go to folder—
3. Down arrow to inbox and hit ENTER to open
4. Your inbox opens with all the people who have written you
5. Down arrow and move through the people’s messages
6. Now up arrow to the first message
7. Down arrow again at least 5 times
8. Now, hit the command CTRL+HOME to quickly jump to the first message
9. The first message is highlighted
10. Hit ENTER and the message will open
11. INSERT+DOWN ARROW and Jaws will begin reading the whole message
12. Hit the CTRL key to stop JAWS from reading
13. CRL+HOME to get to the top of the message
14. Now, just down arrow, one row at a time so JAWS reads slower and very controlled
15. After you listen to the email hit ALT+R to reply to the message
16. The cursor is at the top of the message. Begin typing your reply
17. When you are done typing your message hit ALT+S to send
18. You land back in you inbox
19. Down arrow to the next message
20. This time hit F6 to jump to the pane at the right where the message is contained
21. Down arrow and listen to the text or INSERT+DOWN ARROW and quickly listen
22. ALT+R to reply to the message
23. The cursor is at the top of the message. Begin typing your reply
24. When you are done typing your message hit ALT+S to send
25. You land back in you inbox
26. Continue to practice

Education Nation -WHO & WHAT

There are more than 350 people meeting in New York this week to talk about the education of American children. Our nation's children are falling behind in many areas. Why is that occurring?

I have had the great pleasure of working with many incredibly dedicated teachers, but I also have parents who have actually said, "my child will not have or do homework at night." Sadly, the parents prefer not to have homework because they do not have an education and they do not want their child asking for help. When the child asks for help, it makes the parent feel inadequate. Alternatively, the child does not want to do the work because partying is far more important in their lives than studying.

I have known, unfortunately, teachers who put books in front of the kids and basically told them to just learn themselves. They have told me point blank, they are not going to learn anymore and are waiting for retirement.

I have had and have great parents that despite what is going on at school, make sure their child does their work, helps them when needed and gets them into activities to help them be well rounded.

I have also seen parents who have their children into everything and the child is overwhelmed and burned out, but will not tell the parents because they do not want to disappoint them.

I see kids putting far more importance into how they look, what they wear, and who is famous instead of thinking about the ideals of what education can do for them.

I see kids that prefer to stay up late, watch TV, and not want to come to school the next day because they are tired and the parents say okay.

I have seen children achieve despite all the other horrific things going on in their lives.

I have seen parents and schools working together to the greatest achievement of their children. A fine-tuned, well-oiled system, which involves the parents active participation with the school and their child and the parent and teacher have communication often about goals reached and new goals created.

I have seen such a wide range of reasons why or why not. I am a big believer in stopping the finger pointing and blaming everyone else and instead looking inside ourselves. As long as you point fingers and blame, that is where your energy will be going and it won't be in helping your child make the right decisions in their lives, enabling them to go on and do even better than you did.

Yes, if there are egregious errors, they must be corrected, but are you doing your part within the errors being made?

I tell my students, parents, teachers and Para educators that they do not have to know everything, just keep growing and when you do not know, ASK. Our goal is to make the next generation better than ours. That takes all of us to keep learning. Only together, helping each other and everyone doing their part, will we be able to rise above the ashes.

Are you doing your part?

JAWS, Inserting Symbols & Office 2010

Office 2003 and 2010 both offer thousands of symbols to insert into documents. However, if you were to go into the symbols option (Alt+I, then S in Office 2003) and (ALT+N, then U in Office 2010), you will see that Jaws cannot talk the majority of the symbols. However, Office 2010 offers an additional feature that has become invaluable.

Every week or so, we go through the list of symbols the students need for math class. Last week one of my students needed the angle for her geometry class. We first located it by following this path: Alt+N, then U, then M for more options, ALT+F to font, sy and down arrow to symbols and enter to open the symbols, TAB into the symbols options, down arrow to the angle and hit enter and close. Yes, an angle inserted into the document, but more importantly, it also inserted into the "20 most used symbols box." Check it out. ALT+N, then U to symbols, there in the first spot is the angle. Now JAWS will call it symbol 208. Fine for now as everyone works on accessibility issues. The student knows as they arrow around their document that symbol 208 ABC is angle ABC. JAWS will talk everything within those 20 symbols, so no sighted person is needed after the initial insertion of the 20 most needed symbols.

So the sighted person helps the blind person insert the 20 most needed symbols and the blind person now becomes independent in the class in typing our their work. Go back and insert the Greek pi π, then try inserting other symbols and notice how JAWS will talk everything within the 20 most used symbols.

Another additional feature with the symbols is when you open the symbol box, look down or TAB to the bottom and it will give you the shortcut key for the symbol, for example, if you hit these numbers and letter, using WORD, then do an Alt+X, it will turn into a pi: 03C0, Alt+X =try it, then go back and discover other shortcut keys for other symbols.

Another fast way to insert these symbols: smiley face, black smiley face, heart, diamond, club, spade, bullet, white bullet and hollow dot, is using the alt key with the numpad: alt1, alt2 and so on...try them out ☺☻♥♦♣♠•◘○

Install a Free Version of Talking Software

There are many types of talking software from PC to voice over and Snow Leopard on Mac, but the one I prefer is JAWS talking software, though Snow Leopard on Mac is coming in close.

I have used JAWS (by Freedom Scientific) since the late 1990's. Several things I appreciate greatly about the company is that they are constantly working to update their product so it is always compatible with other new products. This causes great chagrin to many as a new license runs about $1000. I highly recommend getting the SMA (software maintenance agreement), which is a fraction of the cost and can keep your software up to date far less expensively. You really need upgrades to keep up with the constantly changing software products you want on your machine and Internet.

Another huge feature of this company is the support. If you need help loading this product or it has developed a hiccup--unexpected problems while using--they will help you resolve the problem.

However, the biggest feature is the ability to go anywhere and do anything. Truly, I can go anywhere on this machine and access anything I need. They are also constantly finding more ways to access those nasty Internet sites, where web designers have no idea how to use accessibility features...well JAWS is still inaccessible there too, but the additional commands they come up with make navigating the Internet a great experience.

For the person who wants to try before they buy, you can go to this link JAWS and download a free 40-minute version for yourself right now. When you run out of time, turn off your computer and every time you turn it back on, you get 40 more minutes. Make sure you learn some of the basic commands to truly give this a go. There are several lessons in this blog to help you on your way. Even if you have an older version than JAWS12, update an additional copy anyway to try the differences. You never know, you might have an upgrade you did not even know about, When you install, if you do, JAWS will just take over the old JAWS and do the upgrade for you.

Have fun!

Learning How to Sew Blind

A blind person learning how to sew puts a new spin on the term blind stitch. I want all my students to learn to sew but it really is up to the individual. If they want to do anything, I want to find a way for them to do it. Astonishingly, I have had many students who want to learn to sew. Therefore, to set up a class, I went through lots of legwork and work and work and there will be more work in getting permission for this, but it is worth it. A class is set up where I teach the students adaptive methods.

We start with needle and thread. You can get a self-threading needle at any fabric store or online (go to self-threading needle). They made these special needles for people who had difficulty putting thread through the eye of a needle. Well, they are perfect for anyone who cannot see. Use a thimble at first also, so the child can poke the needle through the material and be able to feel the needle coming through without drawing blood on the other side. They will get to the point where the thimble is no longer needed, but to begin with, is a great tool. The basics are learning how to hem pants and sew on buttons. For practice, we take a piece of fabric and just start sewing buttons on, then when they are ready they usually have buttons they need re-sewn on their own clothes. The lesson allows them to now be able to fix their clothes.

Then we move onto the sewing machine. You can go to any sewing store and also buy a needle threader, which enables the blind person to easily thread their own needle--you can get one the size of a dime and very inexpensive to very fancy, costing much more, all work well. Next, I braille a large 11 x11 paper with lines from top to bottom: The student practices putting the sheet of paper in the sewing machine and lining up the braille line with the needle. They practice sewing the braille line repeatedly until they can sew a straight line. It does not take long. Once they have mastered that, we move onto material and a pattern. Depending on capability, it may be pillows or a skirt or vest pattern. They gain enough skills so they know if something rips, they can at least repair it.

I have had girls go onto jewelry making and design, making beautiful beaded necklaces' and bracelets. It is all a matter of attitude. If you want to do it, there is a way.

Enhance your SIGHT--see more at any distance

Think of space age technology or "Star Trek" and you describe the JORDY (Joint Optical Reflective Display)

The JORDY™ headset, "when worn like a pair of glasses, enables people with low vision to see objects at any range."

Whatever your eye condition is and you are having difficulties with seeing print, watching TV or watching people play sports, this could be the headset for you. It is not glamorous and you will need a bit of self-esteem to put it on, but it could be well worth it. Yes, people will turn and look but more out of believing you may have just beamed down from outer space.

This piece of equipment is especially advantageous for older adults who do not want to pursue learning Braille or computers or any other type of technology. It is simple and easy to use and has a small control panel that is quick to learn.

The older adults I work with find this very easy to learn and describe the above situation. They want to continue life visually and the JORDY allows them a quicker transition into options for low vision.

Low Vision- get a LARGE cursor & find it FAST

Low Vision – Increase the cursor size and add effects so you can find it FAST

1. Turn on Computer
2. Go to the Internet by clicking Find large cursor
4. Click on the link Large Color Cursors
5. When the dialog box opens, hit S for SAVE and save to your desktop so you can find it easily
6. Go to desktop and right click on it to exact the file—a wizard will automatically open and take you through the process—if you need more help, it is on the web page under this link: ScreenShots.asp
7. Now, Hit the START KEY
8. On XP, Hit C until you jump to control panel and enter to open
9. Hit M until you jump to mouse and enter to open
10. On Windows 7, after you hit the START KEY, type in MOUSE and down-arrow and enter on it
11. CTRL+TAB to pointers for both XP and 7
12. ALT+B to jump to Browse and enter to open
13. Your cursor options will open—SHIFT+TAB up into your list view of files and go to BIG CURSORS—they will start with BIG BLUE
14. Double click or arrow to and enter on the cursor you want to use
15. You will automatically go back to your pointers dialog box when you do this
16. ALT+A to apply your choice
17. Windows will ask you if you want to replace your original scheme
18. Hit y for yes and your cursor will now be the selection you choose
19. CTRL+TAB to POINTER OPTIONS
20. ALT+S to – Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key
21. Now, if you cannot find your cursor, all you have to do is hit the CTRL key and you can immediately see it—try it now after you select this option
22. TAB to ok to close dialog box

Now you have a large cursor that you can see well. RED has been the most popular with my students. They can easily find that cursor by hitting the CTRL key. You try it now. Find your cursor quickly by hitting the CTRL key. Even if you want to use a smaller cursor, keep the CTRL key option and be able to find it FAST anytime.

Low Vision - simple ZOOM effects in WORD

Here are some Low Vision tips to see Words in Word better

1. Open Word
2. CTRL+N to open another new document, and ALT+TAB between these two documents
3. In Document1, Type: We can become bitter or better through tests and trials.
4. Hit ALT+V for view and Z for zoom
5. Up arrow to 200% and press enter
6. Your document is now at 200%
7. ALT+TAB to Document2
8. Type: There is a test in all testimonies.
9. Hit ALT+V then Z again for zoom
10. ALT+E to jump to percent that you want to increase and type in 500 and hit enter—hint: you can type any size in this box
11. Your page is now at 500%
12. ALT+TAB between both documents to compare document size
13. ALT+V, then z again and hit 1 for 100%
14. ALT+V, then z again and hit 2 for 200%

It is better to increase the zoom versus the font as the font will become distorted on the page as you type and if you forget to decrease the font size when you print it out, you will waste a great deal of paper. By increasing the zoom, you can see what you are doing and then print it out at the 12 or 14 sized font which is the typical font size of reading material.