[blindkid] Article about blind student

Wed Feb 22 02:30:42 UTC 2012

Hello everyone,
The link is not working for anyone using screen-readers because it has 
spaces in it and also words which aren't part of the link. For future 
reference, if one is really interested in making the link work, you can copy 
and paste everything into notepad and then take out the spaces, random words 
etc.

For everyone's convenience, I have done just that, visited the website and 
copied the article. Here it is below.
Regards,
Heather

Eagle Scout honored for Braille project at LSU
By Mark H. Hunter
Special to The Advocate
February 21, 2012
0 Comments
Michael Taboada was a high school senior visiting the LSU campus during the 
2010
Spring Invitational when he had to use the restroom.
Most people can just look for a sign, so finding a restroom is no big deal, 
but Taboada,
being almost totally blind, has to find buildings, classrooms and restrooms 
by touching
Braille signs.
After asking for directions, he found a restroom and filed its location into 
his
memory. But what he learned is that in many older LSU buildings, restrooms 
are not
marked with Braille signs — a discovery that sparked an idea that would net 
him the
2011 Eagle Project of the Year for the Boy Scouts of America’s 13-parish 
Istrouma
Area Council.
Taboada, a licensed amateur (ham) radio operator, who plays the piano and 
trumpet,
practices tae kwon do as a second degree black belt, has even learned to 
snow ski,
so he is used to taking on challenges.
He and his pals from Boy Scout Troop 5 last year applied more than 100 clear 
vinyl
labels he made with his Braille printer to men’s and women’s restroom doors 
in several
dozen LSU buildings. They also applied some labels in a few elevators to 
mark the
floor numbers on the control panel.
“A big part of the Eagle project is supposed to be service to the community 
and in
this case the LSU community and the blind community,” said Taboada, now an 
18-year-old
LSU sophomore. “Not only will it help me, but it will help a lot of people, 
I believe.”
He knows of at least five other blind students his project has assisted.
“Michael Taboada is leaving his mark on the LSU campus, and all 
vision-impaired students
at the university will benefit from his passion and willingness to make a 
difference,”
said Tammy Millican, manager of communications for the LSU Facility Services 
in an
email.
Taboada made his own signs, he said, because such building laws as the 
Americans
With Disabilities Act don’t require Braille signs in older buildings until 
they are
renovated.
“Since LSU really doesn’t have the money to renovate a lot of the buildings, 
and
I don’t see them being renovated in quite a few years, that’s quite a few 
years they
won’t have Braille signs except the ones I put up,” Taboada said.
Millican said it costs LSU from $120 to $200 per sign to install actual ADA 
signage.
J. Lea Callaway, executive director for the Boy Scouts’ Istrouma Council, 
characterized
Taboada’s Project of the Year award as “huge,” and reported that it will be 
submitted
to the national Eagle Scout project contest.
Cathie Louis, a longtime volunteer in the Istrouma Council who organized a 
recent
awards ceremony at the Catholic Life Center, said of Taboada, “What he has 
in common
with a lot of Eagle Scouts is that he has the ability to set goals. They 
know what
they want and they know they have to work for it and they’re not
afraid of going for it.”
Taboada has grown up in Baton Rouge, the son of Joseph Taboada, a 
veterinarian and
associate dean at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, and Sandy Merchant 
Taboada,
also a professor at the LSU Vet School. He graduated from McKinley High 
School in
2010, a year early, and has one brother, Robert, 16, who attends the Runnels 
School.
Michael Taboada was 2½ when it was discovered that he had a pituitary tumor 
called
a craniopharyngioma, his father said in an email. The tumor was removed at 
Ochsner
Hospital in New Orleans.
“I was throwing a ball with him the day before surgery, and he had no 
difficulty
catching it,” Joseph Taboada wrote. “But when he came out of surgery he was 
blind.”
Michael Taboada said he can see shadows and outlines but cannot read or 
clearly see
a TV or computer screen. He utilizes audio programs, such as on his 
cellphone, and
reads with Braille or someone reads his homework assignments to him.
He is pursuing a double major of computer science and math and hopes a 
master’s degree
program in computer gaming is soon created so he can attend that program. He 
wants
a future career in computer gaming, he said, and is already creating games 
featuring
audio signals to indicate what is occurring in the game play.
Taboada lives on campus in an honors dorm and walks everywhere, at a brisk 
pace,
using a long white, fiberglass cane to feel the ground in front of him. He 
sweeps
it from side to side and when his cane hits an object he generally knows 
whether
it is a curb, or a step or wall or doorway.
“One time I almost lost my cane down a storm grate,” he said with a laugh 
while striding
across campus. Students around him are often courteous and get out of his 
way and
open doors for him.
He also listens carefully to noises around him and has much of the campus 
memorized,
including where to turn and how many steps are in his path to a certain 
place.
His father gives a lot of credit for his son’s progress to a blind couple 
named Ed
and Toni Ames who are advocates for service dogs and members of the National 
Federation
of the Blind.
“We met so many successful blind people through the NFB, and we realized 
that he
had a future and that he could do anything that he set his mind to,” Joseph 
Taboada
wrote. “I really believe that there was some divine intervention that 
steered us
here (in 1988) because … despite all of the problems with the schools in 
Baton Rouge,
EBR had one of the best programs for blind children in the country. Michael 
had great
teachers, especially Ms. Gail Canova, who were able to help him fulfill the 
promise
of a gifted student who happened to be blind.”
As a lifelong Scout, Michael Taboada has not shied away from the usual 
outdoor activities
of camping, hiking, fishing and canoeing.
He described family snow skiing trips in Colorado and Montana.
“At first, when I was learning (instructors) had this bamboo pole they’d 
hold, one
on each end, and I’d be in the middle, so they could help me learn how to 
turn,”
he said. “And once I got better they basically just told me when to turn.
“At first it was scary, because I didn’t know how I would do it, but once I 
got better
at it, it wasn’t too scary,” Taboada said. “It’s pretty fun feeling the wind 
whip
across you and knowing, ‘Oh my gosh! I’m going so fast.’”
To earn his ham radio license, his mother read him the entire Federal 
Communications
Commission book of rules and regulations so he could pass the test, his dad 
said.
Those skills paid off after Hurricane Katrina when he helped emergency 
responders.
“One time I was moving through the different repeaters in Baton Rouge and I 
heard
someone calling from the Texas Emergency office for the Louisiana Emergency 
preparedness
people and no one was answering,” he said. “I happened to know that a link 
between
repeaters had become undone so I had to relay traffic between them.”
As a member of the National Federation of the Blind, Taboada is interested 
in increasing
the public’s awareness of the issues affecting visually impaired people and 
the language
and terms used for various impairments.
He wants others to see visual impairment as a personal characteristic, “like 
having
brown hair,” rather than as a “disability.”
“Don’t let it make you think of us any different,” he said.
Taboada plans to stay involved in Scouting, too,
“I think Scouting should be a lifelong thing,” he said. “I think it teaches 
you a
lot of ethics, morals, and it gives you life skills that you may not gain by 
yourself.”

-----Original Message----- 
From: Sally Thomas
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 3:37 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Article about blind student

Nice article Sandy!  I'm going to make sure David reads it.  The braille in
his school building here is nonexistent. Maybe he can get some tips from
Michael on getting braille in the buildings.

Sally Thomas

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 4:13 AM, Dr. S. Merchant
<smerchant at vetmed.lsu.edu>wrote:

> This may not have gone through in an accessible link, am trying again.
>
>
>
> Article in our local Baton Rouge paper about my son Michael Taboada
>
>
>
> Sandy Merchant Taboada
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>
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>
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>
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> <
> http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://theadvocate.com/utility/homepagesto
>
> ries/2006772-129/soaring-service.html&ct=ga&cad=CAEQAhgAIAAoATAAOABAtNCO-gRI
> AVgBYgJlbg&cd=fGr2yzausQ4&usg=AFQjCNHsieQzqktIufEStsNU7lJ-MOESKA> Soaring
> service
> The Advocate
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>
>
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