[nabs-l] Seeking Technology for a hands on expo

[Ashley Bramlett]

Ellana,
I like your list of technology! How about also adding a digital recorder in 
case someone uses that to record class.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Ellana Crew via NABS-L
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2017 11:49 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Cc: Ellana Crew
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Seeking Technology for a hands on expo

Hi there Jessica,

That sounds like a fantastic idea for a student seminar, and if you were 
looking for some general blindness technology staples that can benefit 
virtually any student, I may have some suggestions. Not sure if you guys 
have already come up with some of these, but here's what I've thought of 
pretty quick:

– Standard braille display would be a good one to include, preferably one 
with more cells than fewer so that students who may not have been very 
exposed to Braille displays yet can more realistically imagine reading a 
textbook or taking notes on it.

– An iPad running voiceover, possibly along with a Bluetooth keyboard. For 
less exposed students who may be great with their phones but haven't done 
much in the realm of using a full desktop screen reader, a tablet with a 
Bluetooth keyboard can be a good working and notetaking alternative to a 
laptop.

– A tactile drawing board, especially if you can get your hands on the nice 
one with the iron eraser or a sensational blackboard. Those can be immensely 
beneficial for students in all kinds of classes, especially math and 
science. I believe the company that makes the very fancy one with the iron 
eraser is in the process of creating a tactile printer using the same 
technology and computer software that takes a diagram inputted on the 
computer and printed tactilely with braille labels in place of print. I'm 
not sure if that is out just yet, but I do know that it is in the works and 
you can probably at least get information about it on the website. The 
drawing board itself though can be great for diagrams as well as tactilely 
writing out math problems in a way that can be visually represented through 
tactile means, and I even found a use for it in my psychology class.

– A Perkins Brailer and a slate and stylus are always great staples to have. 
The brailler can be great for taking notes from homework or rewriting your 
notes from class to help remember them, as can a slate and stylus, and a 
slate and stylus can always be handy to keep just to write small things, 
like if you ever need to take down the website or phone number and don't 
have easy access to your phone or some other means of writing it down. 
Physically writing it with the slate can also help you remember it better.

– I try to encourage students to go passed low vision techniques as it 
usually tends to be slower than non-visual techniques, but if your audience 
will have a large amount of students who may be more comfortable venturing 
into low vision Technologies, some digital magnifiers might be nice, 
something portable like one of the rubies. They can be handy to be able to 
carry it around anywhere and be able to write under it.

– KNFB reader is probably a really good one. They can use it to read 
assignment sheets handed out in class, handouts from the disability services 
office, sometimes even bulletins posted outside of the classroom talking 
about class cancellations and such or even flyers around the school for 
different school-provided services or activities.

– Possibly some other apps, like tap tap see, a color identifier, and a 
money reader app, or just an actual money reader from the Bureau of 
engraving. I also use an accessible app for creating a list of to do tasks 
that turns your to do list into a game to encourage you to check off the 
things on your list. It is called CARROT to do.

– Something for listening to textbooks would probably be good, too, like a 
victor stream, a book port, the Bookshare app, or learning Ally.

Hope this is helpful! Good luck with your seminar!!

Ellana Crew, Vice President
Maryland Association of Blind Students

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the 
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the 
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles 
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; 
blindness is not what holds you back.

> On Jan 3, 2017, at 7:55 AM, Jessica via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> hello,
> I am the Vice President of the Alabama Association of blind students, And 
> we are in the process of putting  together our student division luncheon 
> seminar for our state  convention. We have came up with the idea of having 
> A hands on demonstration technology  expo. We wanted to know if there are 
> any new and or  old technology that will be beneficial to all blind 
> students in  the classrooms.
> Thanks
> Jessica Williams
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