[blindkid] computers as school credit

Sun Sep 16 02:20:17 UTC 2012

Arielle,

Ok you made me laugh. I think the best way to learn any kind of tech is
just try and use it. Rosina is taking a proactived approch. She bought a
laptop for her son about a month ago because the school resisted. Rosina
knows its import he learn JAWS she doesn't know much about computers. She
lives a wonderful life on a farm with goats her boys help take care off.  I
think her goats know more about computers than she does. I know her boys
do. She is concerned right now her son is failing a class that has subject
matter he hasn't been exposed to at all. He hasn't been taught to how to
use it. This is an area the school district should have been working on
years ago.

In an ideal situration blind kids will get exposed to JAWS early (like even
as preschoolers)  so they can just explore and figure it out.

You gave some great sugestions and ideas.  I know your email helped me. I
am really good at computers but JAWS seems very alien to me and I guess I
need to get over it.

_Penny
On Sep 15, 2012 5:26 PM, "Arielle Silverman" <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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