[Nfb-science] Thank you for high school biology suggestions

[David Evans]

Dear Mary Ann,

There are some tools and techniques that you may want to obtain and learn 
how to use.
A light table that can be used to trace drawings, maps and drawings can be 
very useful.  A light table is just that, a table that has a strong light 
source built into it and upon which you can place a drawing, map or other 
things that you wish to copy , by tracing, either with a pencil, pen, marker 
or tracing wheel.
If you use a tracing wheel, you will need a piece of metal or plastic fly 
screen to lay on the light table, over the drawing you are copying and under 
the paper you are copying on.
Then by following the lines of the drawing underneath, you can make raised 
line drawings of the original.
You can also use the light table to trace things on to paper that you can 
reverse the image, by flipping the paper over and then using the light table 
to re-trace the image on the back of the paper.  Now you can make use of a 
common sewing machine, with no thread in the needle, to trace the lines 
using the sewing machine needle and create a "Braille" line drawing of the 
image.
It is cheap and easy for a sighted person to create such drawings without 
knowing Braille or having a Braille embosser.

I might add, that you should get this teacher signed up on the NFB list for 
Blind Teacher, the Parent's of Blind Children's Division, the Student's 
Division list and stay in touch with her to help get her up to speed with 
other teachers of the VIP's.
Getting her to realize that Braille is very important to Blind children. 
Kids that have useable vision today, may and in most cases will not have it 
by the time they are young adults, as was my case with RP.
IF I had been taught Braille at a younger age, knowing that I would not be 
able to read print at all at a later age, it would have made a difference to 
me as an adult.
It has been the teachers of the Vision Impaired that have let us, the Blind, 
down the most and the Main Stream Schools that have let us down the most.
School boards did not want to pay for it and therefore discouraged it in 
every way possible.  Even flat out refusing to teach it if the child had any 
useful vision at all.  Even when the child's doctors testified that the 
child would have no useful vision late in life as an adult and be 
technically illiterate as an adult.  They felt that they only had to teach 
them to use their existing vision now and they were not responsible for some 
as yet, non-existent eye condition.
That is why, parents must be educated as to their child's eye condition and 
taught how to advocate for their child with the teachers and schools.
I had to teach myself Braille, in my fifties with the help of the Hadley 
School for the Blind.
David Evans, NFBF and GD Jack.
Nuclear/Aerospace Materials Engineer
Builder of the Lunar Rovers and the F-117 Stealth Fighter

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mary Ann Bennett" <mab749 at verizon.net>
To: <nfb-science at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2010 5:49 PM
Subject: [Nfb-science] Thank you for high school biology suggestions


> Hello again everyone,
>
> I've received your many helpful suggestions in the digest form of the 
> list,
> so I wanted to send a thank you to everyone who emailed suggestions for my
> 10th grader and her desire for a more satisfying science class.  You've
> provided me with wonderful resources.
>
> I did some checking and Justin had the teacher's credentials right on-she
> has a bachelor's degree in biology and is still working on her master's in
> special education.  She seems to have no understanding of vision 
> impairment,
> other than to enlarge handouts.
>
> More challenges ahead, I fear.
>
> Happy holidays and thanks again,
> Mary Ann Bennett
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