[blindkid] computers as school credit

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Rosina and all,
I agree that he should be learning JAWS at school; however, the
ability to self-teach technology is an important lifelong skill and I
would encourage you to give him the opportunity to learn, or at least
practice, computer use with JAWS independently at home. If you cannot
afford a JAWS license and if the district won't provide it at home
(they should, but often refuse to do so) there are free screen readers
he can use at home, including System Access, NVDA or VoiceOver on a
Mac. JAWS has excellent user documentation in audio form as well as
on-screen tutorials he can use to self-teach. When he is out of school
and a new screen reader or operating system comes out, he will need to
know how to find the information he needs to learn the new program,
and how to explore the program's menus and other features in order to
learn it without the support of a TVI. The vast majority of computer
knowledge that sighted people get is through self-teaching and it
needn't be any different for a blind computer user. An instructor,
such as the TVI or a tech-savvy blind person, can give him basic
orientation to the JAWS interface and tell him how to access the
tutorials and on-screen help files, and he should be able to do the
rest on his own. He should be motivated to self-teach if this will
give him access to fun activities on the Internet, including Facebook
or other social media, games, etc.
FYI to all: I am a proficient JAWS and Braille Note user and I have
never received any formal instruction on the use of the Braille Note,
and only two formal JAWS lessons in my entire life. My technology
expertise has come almost entirely from reading tutorials and help
files, and just exploring and poking around inside individual
applications and seeing what I needed to do to get a particular task
accomplished.
Best,
Arielle

On 9/13/12, Denise Robinson <deniserob at gmail.com> wrote:
> Rosina...exactly as Susan stated is how it should go. TVI should be working
> on jaws with him at this time
>
> Denise M Robinson
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Sep 13, 2012, at 4:07 PM, SUSAN POLANSKY <sepolansky at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> We addressed this issue through Jason's IEP by placing specific tech goals
>> on it that included what is taught in the required computer class.  He was
>> pulled out by his TVI who worked with him one on one on his technology in
>> the office that they have at school. He was graded by his TVI and he was
>> granted the required computer credit.
>>
>>
>> Susan T. Polansky
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Rosina Solano <colemangirly at yahoo.com>
>> To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
>> Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 5:56 PM
>> Subject: [blindkid] computers as school credit
>>
>>
>> Okay, so I just got a notice that my 9th grader is failing computer
>> applications and it is a required course.  WOW, possibly because they
>> haven't taught him ANY computer or tech skills at all.  And here is the
>> clincher, if he does fail it, he has to repeat it next year.  Gee, if they
>> don't give him the education to use JAWS and such I don't think it will
>> matter how many times he repeats it.
>>
>> Maybe this will be the sign that I am not the only one who knows that they
>> should be teaching him technology. Sigh
>>
>> Rosina Foster
>>
>>
>>
>>
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