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This issue was edited by Deb Lewis, Co-ordinator, Statewide Vision Resource Centre.
The SVRC PD program for term 2 appears below. For the complete list of activities for 2006 and where available downloadable programs, go to: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/pd2006.htm
All activities offered by the SVRC are open to class and subject teachers, integration teachers and aides, careers teachers, therapists, parents VTs, students etc. Please register: tel (03) 9841 0242, fax (03) 9841 0878 or email svrc@svrc.vic.edu.au
Note: More assistive technology workshops will also be offered throughout the year – watch this space!
The April issue of JVIB 2006 is now available:
International trainer Clarence Whaley from GWMicro will be in Australia soon to offer train-the-trainer sessions in Window Eyes – in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Melbourne’s dates are May 10th and 11th.
Please contact Phil Hazel on 0409 862600 or Chris Edwards (03) 9520 5555 to register your interest in attending.
Soundbooks are a local supplier of audio books which may be of interests to students, parents, VTs and schools alike! For a full catalogue of new release titles, including brief information and image for each title, please download the New Releases catalogue from their website: http://www.soundbooks.com.au/audiobook_newreleases_1_2006.pdf
For more information contact Soundbooks:
1292 Malvern Rd Malvern 3144
Phone: 03 9824 7711
Fax: 03 9824 7855
Email: audiobooks@soundbooks.com.au
Website: http://www.soundbooks.com.au
Source: Online Newsletter April 2006
To locate C drive, Documents and Settings, Account Name, if you need to check or find information, simply press the Windows Logo/Start Key + R (to display the Run dialogue box), type a single full stop (period) and press Enter. If you are on a network, however, this may take you to another default drive. Check what happens when you enter two or three full stops!
To locate correct spelling of a word (in a Microsoft Word document):
Source: EASE News, April 2006
Everyone’s favourite disability website Ouch! has gone all techno happy! Ouch are now producing a monthly radio talk show that can be downloaded right onto your iPod, mp3 player or computer. Actor Mat Fraser and comedian Liz Carr host the first edition featuring:
Details of how to subscribe to this groovy new podcast can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/podcast/
Source: Online Newsletter April 2006
There are a number of online dictionaries – that is, if you are connected
to the internet, you can search for definitions online. Here are a few examples:
• http://www.dictionary.com
• http://www.m-w.com/
Google also has a definition feature which may even be a quicker option…
Go to: http://www.google.com
And type: define: (the word you’d like to have define)
Here is what google came up with for former Visiting Teacher Kay McQualter’s favourite word...
True story, folks! Defenestrate means “throw through or out of the window”
eg “The rebels stormed the palace and defenestrated the President”
I've had a look at the website called Blindcooltech (mentioned in Issue 4 of The Bulletin). It’s a website I enjoy going to BUT we end up with a bill from our service provider.
Whenever you download audio files you are dealing with quite large files and therefore many megabytes at a time. You either have to keep a record of how much you are downloading so you don’t go over your download limit or consider upgrading your plan with your service provider to one that allows “unlimited downloads”. I am afraid this is a problem that everyone who likes to download music or audio files has! Rather pesky!!!
Source: VisionConnection
Reading is an important aspect of child development. Determining the appropriate method of magnifying text for children with low vision thus becomes an important issue to ensure that difficulties in reading do not impede progress in educational, vocational and recreational activities.
The use of large print, known to researchers as relative size magnification
(RSM) and the use of near spectacle correction - relative distance magnification
(RDM) - are two ways to assist readers with low vision. Studies comparing these
two approaches have tended to yield reading rates that were equivalent or better
for subjects using optical correction with regular text, including closed circuit
televisions (CCTVs), than for subjects reading large print.
For more information see: http://www.visionconnection.org/
Freedom Scientific and Quantum Technology are again offering support to eight lucky students who will make the move into tertiary study in 2007!!! A total of eight scholarships for a free copy of JAWS Professional screen reading program are again up for grabs. Applications for this year’s scholarship are now open, so it’s time to get behind this worthy initiative. If you are an Australian or New Zealand citizen who is blind or vision impaired and are planning on entering tertiary studies in 2007 you are eligible to apply.
To enter please, tell us in 500 words or less why you need a Freedom Scholarship and how it will assist you in your tertiary studies. Applications must be made in writing by email to info@quantumtechnology.com.au or via mail to Quantum Technology PO Box 390, Rydalmere NSW 2116 Australia. Applications must be received by Friday 29 September 2006, and winners will be notified by e-mail and announced in LiveWire. Good Luck!
For further enquiries please call or e-mail your local Quantum Technology office – in Victoria that would be the Southern Office (03) 9545 4100 or vic@quantumtechnology.com.au
Tools for inclusive education by Drew Cullen
Published Wednesday 29th March 2006 10:59 GMT
Case study Lawrence Momanyji, 10 sits at the front of class with a Brailler at his desk. Lawrence is a bright boy – he came fifth out of 52 in the recent class exams. He is a pupil at Kilimani Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya, one of 32 blind and visually impaired children on the school roll.
Kilimani is, according to its headmistress Salome Kariuki, “a very big and old school – the buildings are falling apart. The parents do not have the means to repair it, and the city council has other things to spend its money on. But despite that, the performance is good”.
The school has 1,200 children aged between five and 14, most of whom come from very poor families – it is near one of Nairobi’s biggest slums. The average class size is 50.
Kilimani’s Integrated Education programme for blind and visually impaired has run since 1983 and some of its ‘graduates’ have completed university courses. The programme is supported by the charity Sight Savers International, a strong advocate of inclusive education. In all, 220 blind and visually impaired children are being taught in Nairobi's mainstream public schools - a specialist peripatetic teacher, Anthony Mwangani, based at Kilimani, also services so-called sub resource centres in other schools in the city.
At Kilimani, the blind and visually impaired children start off in a beginner’s class, currently 19 strong. They join a mainstream class as soon as they can read Braille unaided. Typically, it takes two years to make the switch, but there is a wide range of abilities and differing ages within the beginners’ class – the current intake has children aged between three and eleven.
All the blind children in the mainstream classes are supplied with their own Braillers, but the problem is “they are owned by children”, the school says and are often broken. Braillers are expensive too – around K Sch 40,000 (£320), as are Braille books and Braille paper. And Braille is clunky.The Braille version of the Bible occupies 49 large-format books.
The blind and visually impaired children follow the normal curriculum, but when changes are made it takes four to six months for updated Braille versions to arrive, Kenyan Union of the Blind executive officer Martin Kieti says.
This is where computers would come in useful. But it is early days yet. A year ago, the school got its first computer for the blind students - a refurbished Pentium III funded by Sight Savers and supplied by Computer Aid International, the UK-based PC recycling charity.
The children are taught in ones and twos, away from their classes. First thing on the agenda is mastering the keyboard as the children can’t use the mouse. They start with Microsoft software and learn the keyboard layout and then how to format a document. This takes about a year, though the length is determined partly by the rationing of access to the computer. “We have only one computer and the children are many,” says Mr Mwangani. But the school is also keen that children do not miss out on their mainstream courses.
Kilimani's lone PC has some software called JAWS - Job Access with Speech. This is a voice output facility which enables students to play back what they have written. But it is only a trial version: the computer must be rebooted after 40 minutes.
JAWS is limited because it deals with speech only, Martin Kieti says. Partially-sighted, Mr Kieti is a keen advocate of the Dolphin Project, Sight Savers’ latest project for education. He carries a 256KB USB flash drive in his pocket, containing all the software configuration he needs. He can put this into any PC running Windows XP or Windows 2000 and with a USB port. “If I go to a cybercafe, I can simply plug it in,” he says.
On the flash drive is Supernova software supplied by Dolphin Computer Access. There are three facilities, or consoles, covering magnification, speech, voice input, and Braille. Using Supernova, the keyboard can be configured as a Brailler and a specialist printer prints out raised dots in Braille.
Sight Savers is to roll-out the Dolphin Project with 45 refurbished laptops supplied by ComputerAid and flash drives containing SuperNova to support blind students at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. At a cost of US$250 each, for the laptop and the flash drive, the prices compare very well with Braillers and Braille books. Using the PC, lecturers who are not conversant in Braille can input normal text which translates into Braille.
Kieti hopes that technology will opens up job prospects. Most blind undergraduates go on to become teachers, a few go into law. But job prospects are seriously limited in a country that has an effective unemployment rate of 45 per cent. However, Kieti is hopeful that technology will make it easier for young blind adults to find work. The Supernova software, already configured, will remove employers’ expense of having to set up dedicated workstations for visually impaired staff.
The theme for Education Week (May 8-14) this year is ‘Bringing Learning
to Life’ and we plan to do just that!!!
The ‘Roaming Reptiles’ are coming in the morning with live turtles,
lizards, snakes and crocodiles. Then it will be onto the bus with the Guide
Dogs Victoria’s Children’s Mobility Services personnel to have an
orientation and mobility session at Melbourne Zoo.
What: ‘Scales, fur, claws and MORE!’
When: Friday 12 May
Where: Meet at the SVRC at 9.30am
BYO: Lunch (if coming to both the morning and afternoon session)
Numbers: strictly limited – contact us to register your
interest and we’ll send VTs the relevant forms!
Cost: Free!
Have you heard about the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge? Students from Prep to Year 9 are challenged to read a certain number of books by August 30, 2006. If they meet the challenge, they receive an award certificate from the Premier in Term IV. Last year more than 130,000 children read more than one million books!
There are lists of books for children at four different levels – Prep to Year 2, Years 3 to 4, Years 5 and 6 and Years 7 to 9. Children must read a certain number of books from these lists, and can read some others.
Schools register online to be a part of the challenge and appoint a ‘School Reading Challenge Coordinator’. These coordinators register children, verify the books they complete and register these on the challenge system.
Have a look at the information about the challenge at http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/vicprc
Our students should find out who the ‘School Reading Challenge Coordinator’
is in their school and register to take part. If you as a VT wish to talk to
the coordinator, you can even suggest what you think is an appropriate challenge
for your student. Students are able to read audio books and use other formats,
as determined by their supervising teacher or coordinator. The program is designed
so that all students can meet the challenge. Detailed information about ways
the program can be flexible to meet the needs of different students can be found
in the document ’Booklists’ which can be downloaded from http://www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/vicprc/schools1.htm.
If your students want to take part, contact the Resource Centre for information
(at the appropriate year level) of the listed books which are available in alternative
formats. Or let us know what format your student needs and we’ll tell
you what’s available.
The Statewide Vision Resource Centre website has a terrific summary of camps and recreation options for students with vision impairments. It includes a wide variety of activities with contact details including:
Visit: http://www.svrc.vic.edu.au/sapce.html
For more information and ideas visit our Physical Education page: http://www.svrc.vic.edu.au/PE.html and if you know of any other activities that we could include, please email Deb Lewis!
Vision Australia and Blind Sports Victoria invites you to a ‘Come N Try’ Tandem Bike Riding Day
When: Wednesday 17th May
Where: Vision Australia Cricket Pavilion 454 Glenferrie Rd
Kooyong
Time: 10.30am until 2.00pm
Registration: $7-00 includes sausage sizzle
RSVP: by Friday 12th May
For further details contact: Di Hayward (Rec Support Worker)
tel (03) 8872 7000
Source: Ozbrl listserve 3 April 2006 – email from Kathy Riessen, Braille Production Co-ordinator, South Australian School for Vision Impaired who writes:
“Thank heavens for UEBC. Having just had a document to braille on Visual Basic, which has lots of Words with capitals in the middle such as cmdExit, words with one letter underlined such as Exit [with the x underlined], and words with symbols in the middle such as E&xit, lots of filenames etc, it was wonderful not to have to think about which should and shouldn’t I put into computer code – which has always been a nightmare for transcribers where it is unclear what should and shouldn't be in computer code.
The ability to distinguish between italic, bold and underline is also just so invaluable in such a document, – where each are used for very different purposes. It is just so easy to indicate a single letter, a word or passage.
This was just so much easier to braille, and with the appropriate cheat sheet, will be much easier for the student to follow than with the old method of a mixture of literary, maths and computer braille.”
For VTs – not sure what all this means??? Make sure you are at the next
VT PD day – Tuesday 9th May and we’ll introduce you to the changes
– there are not many – AND they’ll make it easier to read
braille – AND what’s more easier to teach it!!!
Anyone else who would like to attend this session or any other offered at the
VT PD day, please contact us to discuss!
Source: EASE News, April 2006
Are you a young person who wants to make Victoria a better place for young people with disabilities? Yes? Then you may like to consider becoming involved with a new advocacy service for young people with disabilities called YDAS!
YDAS is seeking expressions of interest from young people, between the ages
of 12 and 25, to be involved in making decisions about the direction and priorities
of the new service and to take part in advocacy to improve the lives of young
people with disabilities. These young people will form the YDAS steering committee
and will work closely with the coordinator to ensure that the work of the service
is relevant to young people with disabilities and that it is actively addressing
their advocacy needs.
If you are a young person with a disability with an interest in disability rights,
this is an opportunity for you to increase your skills, work in a team and participate
in disability advocacy. For more information or to express your interest in
joining the steering committee of YDAS, please contact George Taleporos, Coordinator,
Youth Disability Advocacy Service, Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc., Level
2, 172 Flinders St Melbourne Vic 3000, Ph 03 9267 3755, Mob 0412814851, Fax
03 9639 1622, E-Mail gtaleporos@yacvic.org.au
Information from Victorian President of VAPVI, Gayle Skinner to all parents and interested parties:
The next meeting of VAPVI will be on 8th May at the Avenue Neighbourhood House, the Avenue, Blackburn at 8.00pm. Representatives from the national group AAPVI attended the CAB client discussion group in Sydney. A report on this and other happenings will be presented at this May meeting.
Phone Gayle for more information on (03) 9431 2678.
Apparently Louis Braille turns 200 in 2009 and Judith Dixon from the Library of Congress in the USA is compiling a 2009 calendar to mark the occasion. Judith is hoping to collect an interesting (or frivolous) fact or event for each day of the year relating to braille and braille devices.
If you can think of anything that might help her out email her direct: jdix@loc.gov
The Onkyo Co Ltd, The Tenji Mainichi Newspaper (The Braille Mainichi) and World Blind Union-Asia Pacific (WBUAP) invites blind or vision impaired braille writers in Australia to take part in the 2006 4th Onkyo Braille Essay Competition for the Asia Pacific Region.
The objectives of this contest are:
Topic: “How Braille Has Changed My Life”
You can expand your essay with these sub-topics: “How Braille and Talking Devices Are Helping Me To Be A Confident Person”, or “How Braille And Music Are Enriching My Daily Life”. The essay should describe how you make use of braille (and talking devices) to overcome obstacles and problems encountered in your daily life in order to achieve self-confidence and success. It should be an account of your own experiences. Do not trace the history of braille or describe the method of writing.
My least favourite teacher in primary school was Mrs. T. I had her in Grade 1 but it was a mixed class. The class consisted of Grade is and 2s. I can say now that she is a total b****.
She was a grumpy, old teacher with a few pimples. She went off at the littlest things. Like when I used to have my turn at show and tell. I always told everyone my progress in the games I played. My show and tells did take a while but no one really minded, except Mrs. T.
One day she was in a really bad mood and when I did my show and tell hit the five minute mark, she yelled at me and said I could never say anything about my games again.
In protest I sat in front of her and made a pout face, which is when you frown and curl your bottom lip over the top of your chin.
When she noticed me, she interrupted the person after me and said to everyone, “Look at James everyone. Let’s make the face he's making.”
Even though I was young I was feeling the humiliation of everybody looking at me and making the face I was making at Mrs. T. Even she was making my face and shoving hers in mine to see when I would crack.
I felt like crying but I held my face for half an hour.
When the bell rang for recess, I was a minor hero with the rest of the class for wasting boring work time.
By James
In 2005 Visiting Teacher Lillian Adler came up with a plan … to begin fundraising towards the purchase of some assistive technology for her student Alex. Here is a letter she wrote recently to the Waverley Leader.
Alex became blind in 2003 after being vision impaired since birth. In addition, he is hearing impaired and wears hearing aides in both ears. Alex uses a cane for mobility.
This is Alex’s second year at Wellington S.C. and he is currently in Year 9. He uses braille to read and record his work. We have been fundraising for Alex to purchase equipment that is essential for Alex, enabling him to access the curriculum all the way throughout his schooling.
Many readers of the Waverley Leader must have read the article, printed in September 2005 about Alex. Alex and I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of individuals and organisations within the community. The money that has been donated since the article was published, has speeded up what was meant to be a two year process of fundraising. Your readers’ overwhelming generous spirit has meant that this has been achieved in less than six months. This has enormous implications for Alex as he has been able to purchase his BrailleNote and now produces all his work on it. Below is a photo of Ramona Mandy from Human Software teaching Alex on his BrailleNote.
It’s difficult to articulate how touched we feel, however we would like to mention Mount View Primary School for their outstanding contribution and their continued friendship for an ex-student, Wellington Secondary College, St Margaret’s School, Waverley RSL, Country Women’s Club and various other organisations. Thankyou so very very much. When Alex uses the BrailleNote computer, it will be a constant reminder of a cherished friendship with the Waverley Leader and its valued readers.
Thanks to Pam Barras, Bronwyn Davies, Maria Elford, Jill Keeffe, Mike Steer, Lyn Robinson and Renee Williamson for contributing to this edition of The Bulletin. Thanks also to my fabulous proof-readers, stuffers and mailers.
Deb Lewis (who can be emailed at deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au).