[blparent] Check out my latest blog on blind parenting

[Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter]

I'm pasting the article itself since a couple have had problems accessing
the link. I double checked it, and it works for me, so sorry about this.
Nonetheless, here you go:

Blind parenting: How we handle all that back-to-school paperwork 

By Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
 Aug 31, 2016

Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter lives in Omaha with her husband, Ross, and their
3-year-old son, Declan. She's active in the National Federation of the
Blind, and is determined to change perceptions about blindness. She wrote
this blog for momaha.com. 
 
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter family photo

Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter poses with her husband, Ross, and their
3-year-old son, Declan.  

Parents need to read their children's school material - even parents with
disabilities, like my husband and I who are blind.

Disability is not an excuse to exclude parents and deny information. We need
to be aware and prepared just like any parent. And we need to have the
ability to assist our kids with homework.

So how do blind parents handle this?

Braille is essentially a tactile form of print. It's not a foreign language.
And contrary to popular belief, it's not as difficult to learn as some
think. It follows all the same grammatical and punctuation rules as English.
Most people learn Braille in four to six months - some even sooner. When
print material is provided in Braille for those who learned it, it allows us
to access material. When requested, most schools can provide parents with
Braille.

With technology growing at the speed of light, multiple devices now exist
allowing blind people to access material. Adaptive computer software called
screen readers are text-to-speech programs that read whatever print is on
the computer screen. This means school material can be sent electronically,
and a screen reader can likely read it out loud to a parent. By manipulating
hot keys on the keyboard, we can use screen readers, allowing us to read
paragraph to paragraph, sentence to sentence, word by word and even
character by character. We can slow it down or speed up the speech.

Sending parents an email is simple and not too much to ask. Several
accessible scanners have been developed, the most recent being the KNFB
Reader mobile app for IOS devices. Right from my iPhone, I can scan print
material and have it read out loud with a voice-over program available on
all Apple devices. I simply place the phone over the document, take a
picture and the app scans it then uses text-to-speech software to read it
out loud. This is a quick and simple way to access print when not readily
available in Braille or electronic means.

It's important schools work with blind parents, ensuring they have access to
all and any material sighted parents do.

***

Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter lives in Omaha with her husband, Ross, and their
3-year-old son, Declan. She's active in the National Federation of the
Blind, and is determined to change perceptions about blindness. She wrote
this blog for momaha.com.