On paydays and light bulbs

I’ve been working with a group of kids now for a period of roughly two months. Most of what I’ve been doing is teaching them how to use the JAWS screen reader, although I know there are many other fine points I’m overlooking if I say that’s all I’ve been doing with them. I have also demonstrated for each of them what the Victor Reader Stream is, and how this versatile media player can assist them in day-to-day activities. I’ve also introduced them to DVS movies and computer games for the blind, mostly those from Jim Kitchens’
Kitchensinc
Web Site.

There is more to come and I'm learning as well as the kids are. I am learning the keystroke commands for Serotek's
System Access Mobile
screen reader so that I can teach them how to use this as well. As the students turn in their application forms, they are getting their own jump drive versions of the System Access Mobile screen reader as part of Serotek's Keys for K-12 program.

The experience of teaching and empowering these young minds is incredible. I don’t think the students realize just how much they give back to me, but they pay me in denominations beyond words or anything of monetary value. It is so beautiful when the lesson we’ve been working on comes together for the student and that light bulb clicks for them. It just warms my heart each time this happens and I’ve been getting warm-hearted a lot lately. Its like the assistive technology professional I work with tells me, Today was payday and you just got paid.”

I was working with one of my elementary school boys yesterday on a lesson involving editing a document. He was learning where to place the curser to insert a letter in a word. Instead of putting it on the letter in front of which he wanted to insert the text, he would put the cursor on the letter he wanted the text to follow. Needless to say, he was getting a little frustrated. He was undaunted though, and kept trudging through the lesson, putting the pieces into place and finally finished the document just like it needed to be. It was beautiful to see that whole process happen.

While he was doing this, I was sitting back, coaching him, just grinning ear-to-ear as I witnessed learning in action. I told him that he was learning what to do as well as what not to do and attempted to illustrate with the story of Thomas Edison. I asked him if he knew who Edison was and he replied, Isn’t he the man who invented electricity, or was that Ben Franklin?” Then he went back to editing his document.

I grinned and then shared the story about how many times Edison had to work at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked Edison how it felt to fail so many different times, his reply to the reporter was, “ I didn’t fail those times. I just learned that many ways that the bulb didn’t work, which led me to figure out how to make it the right way.” (I wasn’t sure of the exact quote, but was paraphrasing in an attempt to illustrate the learning aspect for my student.)

Then, this boy told me, “Yeah, but he was just inventing the light bulb. He wasn’t trying to write a document like I am.”

Ka-ching! I just got paid again.

If you can’t tell, I love this job.

HealthSims web site offers educational resource for Type I diabetes

Through a family member’s recent diagnosis with Type I diabetes, our entire family has had to come to understand a lot more about the disease. This, of course, has included gathering resources to help learn the information that we needed.

One of those resources is the
HealthSims
Web site. HealthSims is focused on education about Type I diabetes at present, but will include material about Type II later this year.

The site is a rich informational resource that includes a forum and an in-depth educational course about Type I diabetes. Dana Blankenship, whose son has Type I diabetes, is the founder of the site.

The learning material is targeted towards those who are newly diagnosed, as well as their family members, to help them learn to manage the diabetes. Additionally, it is useful for any professionals who work with diabetics, or those in fields needing continuing education. The training material is non-sequential, thus allowing the user to go to a particular area of interest or concern first, rather than having to follow a rigid design structure.

The course is thorough, running approximately 12-16 hours. The following course description is from the web site:
“The course includes the basic facts about type 1 diabetes and the common treatment strategies. You will also find lessons learned and practical tips on a wide variety of topics from over 300 people from across North America that have first hand experience managing this disease. In this exciting training course, you will hear people tell their own stories and share their personal lessons learned. You will also get the opportunity to test your own knowledge of type 1 diabetes in the practice activities embedded in the training topics as well as in the Practice Activities Topic which includes 100 questions to test your knowledge of content taught throughout the course. You can complete the training topics in any order you wish.”

EASI offering podcasts, tips for creating accessible web seminar

I have previously posted information about
EASI,
the web site for Equal Access to Software and Information. These are usually about educational seminars teaching how to create accessible materials. Today, I will share two more resources from EASI, one that is a new feature and another web seminar they are offering.

Podcasts have grown in popularity as a timely and useful medium to get information to users. Many colleges are employing podcasts in some manner, either as part of information distribution of course material or as informational outreach. EASI is no different and is also making some of their information available with a
podcast page
recently added to their site.

The staff from EASI will report from next month’s CSUN Conference on Technology and People with Disabilities. This is the 22nd edition of this annual event and EASI is going to bring highlights of the event to you by means of their podcasts. So, if you’re not able to make it, but want to know the latest scoop in AT and what is cutting edge out there, watch the EASI podcast page for updates.

The other EASI tool that I want to share is an upcoming web seminar on
Making web seminars accessible.

This is a free seminar, but you need to register in advance to participate.

The seminar is being presented on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at 2 pm Eastern.

If your school offers web seminars in any form, then it is imperative to have these accessible to all students. If it is not the DSS office teaching accessibility to the creators of your school’s seminars, then who is?

The price is right for this seminar. Check it out and see what they have to teach.

Accessibility training opportunities

I want to pass along information about two on-line accessibility training opportunities that are being offered next week. These are good informational opportunities and are both free.

First, The Hadley School for the Blind is offering
Digital Accessibility in the workplace
On Wednesday, January 24 at 2 p.m. central time.

The Hadley Seminars web site states:
“This 45-minute interactive seminar will be presented by staff from the Hadley School and will explore the various ways employees more effectively share data in the workplace using email, PDFs or word processed documents. Presenters will share tips for handling tables and graphics along with other kinds of electronic files.”

Registration is required and can be done at the web site linked above. The school encourages participants to enter the room prior to the the beginning of the seminar to check out conection and interactivity. Additionally, they recommend entering the room ten minutes prior to the beginning of the seminar as it will begin promptly at the scheduled time.

While this particular session addresses the workplace, the parallels to the academic setting can not be overlooked. It may provide some good information to pass along to students as they prepare to enter the world of work. And, you can always share the link with your students so they can participate in the seminar on their own.

Secondly,EASI, Electronic Access to Software and Information, is presenting a seminar on
making accessible Google Maps
on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 3 p.m. central time.

The EASI page describes the seminar as follows:
“Google Maps is a great tool that allows information to be presented in many exciting ways. Unfortunately it's very inaccessible to many people. Using Google's publicly available API we will see how to create custom Google Maps and make them accessible at the same time. We will see how to navigate the map by using the keyboard and also how to make the data behind the pushpins accessible.”

Even if this seminar is not one that you believe is pertinent at this time, it could offer some good resources for future application in assisting your students. Again, registration is required, so go to the site linked above and get this done prior to the event date for best results.

Finally, if you are seeking other access training opportunities, look over the EASI site and check out what other classes they offer. Some of them are offered for a fee, but there are some at no cost. One in particular that may be of interest is the March 22 session on authoring DAISY documents. It will be offered for free and will be broadcast live from CSUN.