[blindkid] Why JAWS?

DrV icdx at earthlink.net
Thu Mar 7 06:13:51 UTC 2013


Hi Brandon,
I totally get the "there is only so much time in a day concept".
That being said, kids love technology & are eager learners in that area.
They quickly out-pace their TVIs & parents.
While seemingly more foreign to a sighted person, including many TVIs, I
think that a BrailleNote is simpler to use & more straightforward than
learning all the navigation need to use Office programs & jaws commands.
Kids can easily learn more than 1 technology at a time.
After a 1 hour lesson with a BrailleNote tech specialist from the
California School for the Blind, my then 1st grader was literally able to
create documents, open & read books, read & write. We put this to
immediate use in the classroom.
His local TVI kept referring to the BrailleNote as a BrailleLite for 2+
months & hadn't a clue on how it worked. So what he learned in that hour &
by experimenting was all he needed to get over the initial hump &
jumpstart him.
The BrailleNote was both my kids first real technology tool. I would
absolutely do it the same way if I had to again. My younger one caught on
just as fast & for him technology is even more intuitive.
I think that with significantly less of a time investment, Emilia is more
likely to be independently cruising on an electronic notetaker than on a
computer. A notetaker is also portable & works great in the car for
encouraging braille reading. There is no set up, it has near instant power
on, a long battery life. Its more portable than a computer or even a
laptop with braille display & because their is no set up needed, it is
more likely to be used spontaneously more. The BrailleNote made doing
school work faster & I think helped contribute to improving their reading
speed.
Technology has not been our TVI programs strongpoint, yet we managed to
push forward & technology has definitely been a huge benefit to my kids
being able to access their general education curriculums.
I don't think you need to master one to then move on to the other.
It is ok to learn these in parallel & then she will quickly figure out
which one works better for her - you may be surprised.
Best wishes in which ever approach you choose to pursue.
Eric  



On 3/6/13 9:02 PM, "b&s" <lanesims at gmail.com> wrote:

>I absolutely agree with Jim's expression of "Grrrr," as it applies to the
>notion that cost should not be an issue in a blind kid getting their
>educational needs metŠI also shouldn't know more about blind technology
>than the TVI at this phase, but I do - which isn't saying much for either
>of us. However, this is the situation we seem to have. I have to educate
>myself so that I can then educate the TVI on what's appropriate and when.
>
>With that said, I am keenly aware that we can only take on a certain
>number of learning projects at a time. I think it may be overload for
>Emilia to learn a notetaker and JAWS/computer and do regular schoolwork
>and work on increasing braille reading speed. Do kids really manage all
>this at the same time? My thought has been that I'm willing to go with a
>phase in approach - My impression from the comments so far is that maybe
>JAWS/computer with braille display might take first priority, then
>notetaker once she's cruising on the computer. Brandon
>
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