[Nfb-idaho] Post Register Article

[Chris Jones]

Dear All:
Wonderful article! Congratulations Sandy and everyone involved!
Chris Jones

-----Original Message----- 
From: Sean Malone via Nfb-idaho
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2016 1:02 PM
To: nfb-idaho at nfbnet.org
Cc: Sean Malone
Subject: [Nfb-idaho] Post Register Article

Hey everyone we're on the front page of the Post Register newspaper this 
morning! And don't forget to tune in to 94.3 FM BYU Idaho radio at 12:45 PM 
and again at 5:48 PM for the interview and story on the local Idaho Falls 
chapter and organization!

Post Register Article
Here's the story:

The goal is to push blind and visually impaired children toward autonomyBy 
KEVIN TREVELLyAN
ktrevellyan at postregister.comSeveral children slipped what appeared to be 
sleeping masks over their eyes Monday morning, and began clacking away at 
what looked like misshapen metal type- writers from a bygone era.The 
children are blind or heavily vision-impaired. Their keystrokes punched 
braille dots into heavy card stock paper, and the masks prevented some of 
the kids from cheating and using their limited vision to type, faces inches 
from the keys.It was the first reading and writing lesson of this year’s 
BELL Camp at the Idaho Falls Activity Center. Short for Braille Enrich- ment 
for Literacy and Learning, it’s the camp’s fourth year under the National 
Federation of the Blind’s Snake River Valley Chapter.The two-week camp was 
the first of its kind in Idaho. Another opened this summer in Boise, and 
Coeur d’Alene will host a third in August.The goal: to push blind and 
visually impaired children toward autonomy.“It’s respectable to be blind,” 
said Snake River Valley chapter President Sandy Streeter. “It’s important 
for these kids to have these skills for them to leadsuccessful, independent 
lives. And they need to have good attitudes too and realize that there’s 
nothing wrong with being blind.”Five children sat at different stations at 
the activity center Monday, separated by their levels of Braille 
fluency.MeiMei Hill, 10, has partici- pated in the camp since it began.BELL 
Camp’s group-oriented nature is central to its purposeFluent in Braille, she 
fin- ished typing sentences about her time at school last spring — time with 
friends, learning about Idaho’s history — before moving to another table 
with Carver Anderson, 9, and Streeter.A pile of note cards sat between 
them.Streeter quizzed the children on contractions. Instead of words such as 
“we’re,” Braille contracts words that remain whole in written English: 
 “not,” “they” or “then.”“How many dots are there; tell me the dots,” 
Streeter said to MeiMei, guiding her fingers.Braille takes up a lot of 
space. MeiMei’s algebra textbook last year was 36 volumes. The braille con- 
tractions condense the type into a more efficient, usable length.“It’s a 
little bit like learning Chinese charac- ters; it’s much more concise. It 
allows you to have less print on the page,” said Teri Hill, MeiMei’s mother
and teacher of the visually impaired.MeiMei and Carver both read above grade 
level compared to their sighted counterparts. MeiMei learns math in Braille 
and is set to begin calculus next year as a fifth-grader.“The kids here are 
mostly good students with good grades. This isn’t remedialfor handicapped 
kids; it’s a fun way to give them good experience as average or even 
advanced kids,” Hill said.The children also practice everyday activities 
that they wouldn’t be exposed to during school. How to do the laundry based 
on touch, for example, or cook.The BELL Camp is run by blind instructors, 
which can be critical for teaching visually impaired children the mundane 
activities nec- essary to provide a founda- tion for self-reliance.“Last 
year MeiMei wanted to fix dinner like her sister, and I had to call a blind 
friend and ask ‘How do you make cheese sand- wiches?’” Hill said.MeiMei uses 
her hand as a thermometer to test whether the griddle is prop- erly heated, 
and she knows how long to grill each side of the sandwich for. MeiMei can 
smell whether the sand- wich is cooked, and she presses a finger into the 
toasted bread to make sure.Monday, after the chil- dren finished their 
reading lessons, they baked cakes with Braille-inscribed mea- suring 
cups.The kids are also taken on field trips. Prior years they went swimming 
or jumping at a trampoline park. This year they’ll go horseback riding, and
Wednesday they’ll take a Museum of Idaho tour. Arti- fact donors have given 
the museum permission to let the children handle Revo- lutionary War relics 
outside their display cases.The BELL Camp’s group-oriented nature is central 
to its purpose. In instructors the children find role models, in their peers 
they find friends.“It’s just kind of fun to hang out with people who have 
the same thing about themselves that you do,” Carver said.
Every year,sticks close to Carver at the camp and at regional National 
Federation of the Blind holiday events. The two have grown close over the 
last four years, Hill said.MeiMei is the only heavily vision-impaired child 
at her school in Pocatello.“She doesn’t have anyone who has some of the same 
everyday issues. She has lots of friends, but there are times when she says 
‘I want to be normal.’ This is a chance for her to under- stand that she is 
normal, to not feel quite as isolated,” Hill said.

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