[blindkid] computers as school credit

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi all,
Forgive me for beating a dead horse, but I  just don't understand why
we are waiting on school personnel who aren't very tech-savvy to teach
blind kids JAWS when the JAWS program has excellent user
documentation, enabling any blind student to learn JAWS on their own?
Why are blind kids having to do a boring tech tutorial at school when
they could be playing online games, using Facebook or looking up cool
things on the Internet at home, like their sighted peers are?
I believe that the way a sighted child first learns to use the
computer is by sitting down in front of it and looking around the
screen, eventually learning to identify the different icons, the start
menu, programs on the desktop, etc. A blind child can learn the exact
same way. Turn on JAWS, have them sit down and press the tab key, or
arrow around the desktop, so they can hear all the different programs
that are available to them. Have them open up a program like Word,
tell them to press the Alt key and they will be able to hear all the
different options located in the menus or ribbons.
JAWS is not much more complicated than using Windows as a sighted
person. If a sighted person wants to move around the screen, they use
the mouse; the JAWS user presses Tab or the arrow keys. If the sighted
person wants to click something, they click the mouse; the blind
person presses the Enter key. There are more advanced keyboard
commands that a blind computer user can eventually memorize so they
don't have to go looking all around the screen, but these more
advanced commands aren't necessary for basic computer use. A blind
student who has basic computer knowledge, gained from exploration,
should be able to learn the more advanced commands independently from
a tutorial.
I learned JAWS twenty years ago when computers still used command
prompts and were much less user-friendly than they are today. Plus,
there wasn't much funn stuff to be done on the computer then, like
there is today. With all  the free screen reader options out nowadays,
I just don't understand why any blind child is not
technology-literate. Why wait for a student to fail a computer course
when so many self-teaching opportunities exist at home?
Perhaps there are some kids who don't have the motivation or attention
span to self-teach technology, but I suspect that will be a minority
of students. Why not have them start on their own, and then ask the
school to help if they get stuck?
If there is something I am missing please let me know. I do not intend
to offend anyone, but I really just want to better understand what the
issue is and why parents aren't able to address it on their own.
Best,
Arielle

On 9/15/12, Pat Renfranz <dblair2525 at msn.com> wrote:
> Hi Rosina,
> My daughter was in a similar boat: sluggish tech training, required
> computer
> tech class, etc. One thing we did to force the issue was to use the course
> requirements to lay out what had to be done by the TVI during the year, and
> put those as goals in the IEP. The goals were very specific. The tech
> teacher was great at making sure the TVI knew the material and knew what
> needed to be taught. The district, knowing the TVI did not have the skills,
> purchased training materials to lead the TVI step by step; the materials
> were from a company called DeWitt and Associates. I have no idea if this is
> the best stuff out there (probably not!) and it was boring as heck for my
> daughter, but it got her through the class. Because working through this
> took some time (why should anything be worked out before the school year
> start?), the teacher allowed my daughter to work on the class into the next
> semester.
> pat
>
>
> On 9/13/12 3:56 PM, "Rosina Solano" <colemangirly at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Okay, so I just got a notice that my 9th grader is failing computer
>> applications and it is a required course.  WOW, possibly because they
>> haven't
>> taught him ANY computer or tech skills at all.  And here is the clincher,
>> if
>> he does fail it, he has to repeat it next year.  Gee, if they don't give
>> him
>> the education to use JAWS and such I don't think it will matter how many
>> times
>> he repeats it.
>>
>> Maybe this will be the sign that I am not the only one who knows that
>> they
>> should be teaching him technology. Sigh
>>
>> Rosina Foster
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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