[nfbmi-talk] Volunteer opportunities

[Cheryl Wade]

Dear Listers,

As a future rehabilitation counselor, I want to volunteer my time working with people with disabilities before my practicum and internship next year. I live in East Lansing.

People who are blind are the population that most interests me. Are there any opportunities for tutoring blind children, working with Braille or helping in any job search types of programs? I have thought that, living in the Lansing area, there would be children who might benefit from summertime tutoring in Braille literacy or other skills. It would be fun if blind adults in the Lansing area, where I live, could band together and serve as tutors for blind children.

I attended the Braille-athon on Tuesday and liked it very much. I was most encouraged to see children there who were writing with slate and stylus and to meet people representing various organizations.

Another question: does anyone know of any research in developing a computer screen with refreshable Braille? I have always thought that, since blind people go to school to learn to rread rather than to learn to listen, we ought to be able to read -- literally -- our computer screens. I'm thinking of refreshable Braille buttons, or even a very large screen, and a cursor that we could manipulate with our hands, the way a person manipulates a mouse. 

It would seem this idea is far-fetched and unlikely but, with the new refreshable Braille displays that National Braille Press is designing, refreshable Braille would be much more reasonably priced. Think of seeing the words "click here" and being able to feel, with our hands, where the "here" is because there would be a literal box made of raised dots, and we would simply move the cursor into the box. 

I'm hoping someday blind computer users will be able to do a lot more pointing and clicking than they do now. iPads are wonderful, but they still don't have a raised-dot screen and we still have to plot visual points using our ears, not our hands. Translating a visual screen into an audible equivalent, to my way of thinking, has not been much fun. So once again, we must be content to listen.  I would much, much rather be able to have a touchable screen that duplicates the visual computer screen instead of a car that I could drive blind. Visual people could say "see that box on the upper left of the screen? Click that," and we could just reach over and feel the box and drag the mouse over to it.

Forgive my rambling.

Cheryl Wade