[blindkid] BrailleNote use

Sally Thomas seacknit at gmail.com
Thu Sep 6 05:06:53 UTC 2012


My son began using a braille PDA in 2nd grade. He always had the technology
at school and at home.  He is a very responsible user of his technology.
 If you believe that your son will use the technology responsibly, you
should fight for the ability to bring it home.  Technology is both the
present and future for our kids.  They need to learn to use it well.
 Besides, if a kid is using the BrailleNote to do school work and then has
to do additional work at home, how will that happen if he can't take the
BrailleNote home?  Find out what the sighted 4th graders are doing.  How do
they access the 4th grade curriculum?  Does the school provide your blind
child equal access to the curriculum?  Are they preparing him to do work at
the 5th grade level and beyond?  Supposedly each school year builds on the
prior year.  Will the school have all the braille ready for your child when
it is needed?  Wouldn't it be helpful if they could give him a file that he
could load on the BrailleNote without having to go through the process of
creating hard copy braille all the time? Do the sighted kids get to take
home their notebooks and pencils?  Why shouldn't your child take home his
BrailleNote--his equivalent of notebook and pencil?

I think that you will probably need to reconvene the IEP meeting.  Make
them justify removal of the BrailleNote.  Make a recording of the meeting
and get them to say, on the record that your child doesn't need access to
the technology.  If they aren't cooperative, it can get very contentious
but you need to push.  Some people will say that they don't want the school
to get mad at them.  In my experience, although the school got very mad at
us, they finally realized that we were sincere in our desire to have our
child succeed and we weren't going to back down.

You will need to look at your situation to find out what will motivate the
school to provide the technology.  I think it is rare that a school
provides a blind child with everything he needs without significant pushing
from the parents.  The school needs to know that you are informed and will
keep up the pressure on them to provide what your child needs.  We had to
put constant pressure on the school.

I wish there were magic words that would make the schools do the right
thing.  Best of luck.

Sally Thomas


On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Carly B <barnesraiser at gmail.com> wrote:

> I really appreciate that... my question is (since I expect resistance to
> the idea... based on how difficult it was just to get it in the first
> place) how typical is this, for schools to provide this? Or, how do I make
> a case for it... one that will really hold water (beyond, we just really
> want it).
>
> Does that make sense?
>
> On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 9:56 PM, Denise Robinson <deniserob at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Make an addendum to the IEP...if any issues then re convene the IEP and
> > get this straightened out ASAP
> >
> >
> > Denise M Robinson
> > Sent from my iPad
> >
> >
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