[blindkid] 1st grader can't see the board

[Leah Pratt Roberts]

My son hasoptic nerve and eye muscle impairment, mild CP, and brain
differences. Far vision 20/100 and 20/200. Near vision tests as good as
20/40 with a single letter - as we know here, reading is very different
than looking at a single black letter on a white screen!

In kindergarten it was a constant issue to get access to materials for him.
We asked for a desk copy of everything posted on the walls, and desk copies
of the picture books the teacher would read to the class each day, and it
never happened over two years of asking. They would sometimes move him
closer, but that also blocked access with his not having an upper field.

Now he is in first grade, at a school that has been fabulous with his cp
and brain issues, but they do not seem to get that he cannot see the
materials. In May we agreed to reconvene in Sept for a technology ARD to
work on this. The TVI made a suggestion about an older piece of equipment
that stands over his desk and by her admission is huge and heavy. It
sounds, sorry to be negative, awful. What I would like to be able to do is:

1. Have the overhead projector directly link to an iPad on his desk that
shows the same view.
2. Have a way to transmit the image on the bulletin board (it's paper that
the teacher writes on with marker; her room has no whiteboard) to an iPad
on his desk.

That would seem SO easy, but no one on the ARD committee had any idea how
to make something like that happen. If I can come in with some options for
magnification and transmission, I think they will happily adapt them. It's
just that when they don't know what to do, they look helplessly at the TVI,
and if she doesn't know what to do then we're sunk.

He does have some Braille instruction but no Braille at all in the
classroom...that is a whole other post though.

When he got to class today, the teacher was writing on the board in a light
color, and it looked like nothing was set up for him, beyond him being
seated moderately close to the board.

This child needs physical access to instructional materials at the same
time as his classmates, not two years, a month, or a week after the fact.
In this case, I would be happy to provide the iPad, cables, conversion
boxes, etc.

Leah