[blindkid] Franklin Regional junior in 5-day science program for visually impaired youth - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

[Hai Nguyen Ly]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_758725.html

Franklin Regional junior in 5-day science program for visually impaired youth

Tommy Brown has been fascinated by cars and how they work since he was a toddler.

"When I was young, I loved to play with cars," said Brown, 16, of Murrysville. "For a while, I've been interested in the building aspect."

With that in mind, the visually impaired teenager is working toward his dream of becoming an engineer, taking another step when he enrolled in Youth Slam in the summer.

"Mentors for (Youth Slam) are blind, visually impaired," Brown said. "I talked to them to see what they do, how they do it and what equipment they use ... to help me do a similar job."

Youth Slam is a five-day STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — academy held every two years for 150 visually impaired teens from across the country with "successfully blind" adults serving as mentors. The program, held at Towson University in Maryland, is sponsored by the nonprofit National Federation of the Blind.

"We found in many cases, blind or visually impaired students are being steered away from the STEM subjects," said Jim Antonacci, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania. "This made it a whole lot easier for them."

Brown, a junior at Franklin Regional High School, enrolled in the engineering track at Youth Slam. He worked on such projects as building models of bridges using Popsicle sticks to see how much weight they could hold, and helping build a track to move a hovercraft. He was a passenger in the Blind Driver Challenge Car, which makes use of nonvisual technology.

He hasn't decided what type of engineering he wants to study in college — possibly civil — but he knows it's his career choice.

Brown is legally blind from neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition in which tumors grow on nerve endings, including the optic nerve. Typically, the tumors stop growing around age 8. For Brown, whose tumors were discovered when he was 2, they did not, and he lost most of his sight as a second-grader.

"It was different. I started using some magnifiers and learned to use a long cane," Brown said. "At the time, I guess I was all right with it. Obviously, I was upset I was losing my sight."

The loss has not hampered his active lifestyle. Brown plays cymbals in Franklin Regional's marching band, participates in Boy Scouts, serves on student council and plays goal ball, a sport similar to soccer that's played by visually impaired athletes with a ball equipped with bells.

Philip Brown, Tom's father, is not surprised by what his son has accomplished and has faith in what he can accomplish in the future.

"He's always been interested in how things worked," his dad said. "That, I guess, is where the engineering is coming in. He never says, 'I can't do it.' He always wants to try it or adapt."

Brown uses a cane to get around and reads Braille, including his sheet music for the band. He accesses a computer with screen reader software Jaws and ZoomText, a screen magnification program.

He recommends that anyone with vision challenges become involved with the National Federation of the Blind.

Antonacci said the organization stresses to blind and visually impaired individuals how important they are.

"Our philosophy is it's respectable to be blind. It's OK to be blind. All a blind person is is a person who does things differently," Antonacci said. "We not only tell them they can do it; we prove to them they can."

Brown has a message for anyone with visual impairment:

"You can do anything," he said. "If there's something you want to do, go for it."