For some blind students, braille is the better skill/method for achieving literacy. The use of a refreshable braille display to both read and control a computer can be the best choice.
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A stay-at-home father using specialized screen enlargement software, to perform his part to keep the family functioning.
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PROJECTS BY FRIENDS OF NCBVI
Accomplishments to date are presented below, starting with the most recent. The nature and scope of our giving of a monitory support range from serving individuals, granting funds to NCBVI programs and a few worthy non-NCBVI programs, and establishing a unique program.
2022
Friends granted $20,000.00 to cover costs for NCBVI’s Project Independence (PI); for ages 9-13, a yearly event since 1983. PI was held July 24th through July 29th. The theme was “Adventures in Technology: Problem Solving with Technology for Home, School, Work and Fun!” A total of 13 campers attended Project Independence. The campers utilized learning shades (a blindfold) that they decorated to focus on their other senses and gain skills over a wide variety of fun and engaging experiences. This started with a scavenger hunt activity to learn the various places at camp. Campers used an App called Seeing AI to read the clues. Campers learned how to play beeper baseball with audio beeping balls and audio bases, and played frisbee golf with adapted frisbees with Apple Air Tags attached for audio that were synced to an iPhone. Campers created art on a canvas frame using tactile materials (yarn, puffy paint, and stencils), and learned how to use a 3-D Doodle Pen to create their own tactile art.
Campers learned non-visual skills through classes in Technology, Homemaking, Braille, Techniques of Daily Living, Cane Travel, and the annual Home Chore Challenge.
A major focus was on Technology. Each student received an iPad with accessible apps installed (Seeing AI and Talking Typer), an iPad case with Bluetooth keyboard, a backpack, a pair of earbuds, a braille keychain, an iBill, a 3D Doodle Pen, and a camp t-shirt to take home. Students learned how to use both Voiceover and Siri to complete the following tasks: Unlock iPad, Adjust Voiceover and Siri settings, Open apps and learned how to navigate the Talking Typer app by successfully completing typing lessons and games. They asked Siri to get information, such as finding out the time, weather or to how to spell words. Students also learned how to power off, power on and charge the iPad, as well as how to pair and charge the Bluetooth keyboard.
In Homemaking, students learned cooking alternatives and used the Seeing AI app to scan and read the recipes and to identify cooking products by scanning the product barcode. They also used the iPad to set a timer for baking. In Braille class students were introduced to a slate and stylus, a braille notetaker, a braille display, and some listened to Alexa read a story while following along with the braille book, to help with reading speed and comprehension. In Tasks of Daily Living, students learned how to use an iBill device to identify different denominations of money, how to use a talking alarm clock, and how to set an alarm on the iPad. The Home Chore Challenge gave students the opportunity to learn and practice folding towels, sort silverware, clean up a sticky mess, and how to identify products using Seeing AI to scan product barcodes.
They explored the world of employment and operated their own PI Ice Cream Shop. They met a blind employee at the Lincoln State Office Building who shared her experience of using technology on the job (a talking cash register and Seeing AI App). Students learned about the pros and cons of having a guide dog from NCBVI Staff, Charlie. Also addressed throughout the week were social skills, eating techniques, being a good listener, following instructions, and being courteous. Each student was able to expand their belief in themselves and gain independence as the week progressed.
Students also had fun times swimming, bowling, hanging in hammocks, watching an audio descriptive movie, and enjoyed making smore’s at a campfire.
Parent: ”I was so pleased to hear how independent that my daughter has been this week and all she has accomplished. I can’t get her to do anything at home. I now know that I need to have these expectations and that we need to be involved in more activities with NCBVI.
Student: “This was my first year, I wasn’t so sure about attending, but now wish it was 2 weeks long. I made a lot of new friends, friends that have accepted me. I really learned a lot.”
Craig Huffman, Calvin Crest Camp Director: “I don’t think that you realize the impact that this program has on educating the public about blindness. We have people that come and go throughout the week, and they remark that they have stood and watched students and staff. That they are excited to see student learning to be independent and fully involved in all activities. That it is obvious that vision loss doesn’t limit them. These students are the most respectful group we have all summer.”
In our proposal for this PI program, we stated that we would provide three quarterly sessions to follow up on the technology training, to be held at the Aurora Leadership and Retreat Center in Aurora, Nebraska. We are working with JB & K to help coordinate these three training sessions. There are additional skills and apps we will be addressing at each of these sessions.
We will be incorporating a parent seminar where we address the importance of elevated expectations of their child. They will observe how we work with students, the skills they are employing and that these same expectations should follow them as they return home. In future sessions we will provide parents with information about their rights in the IEP process. Having social, technology and blindness skills are all vital to a successful future. The funding for this program is making a difference in the lives of each of these students.
2017
Established a Unique Program called Access to Nonvisual Technology for Seniors (ANTS): Friends took note of services for the older blind provided by NCBVI was being scaled back. The total visits per program, for counseling and instruction, decreased from ten visits to four. In addition, only low-tech equipment was being supplied for independent living skills; no computer access software for computers, nor provision of expensive magnification devices, were being provided. Thus, seniors were not getting a chance to regain key skills that would allow them to carry on with important personal and family responsibilities. And there was no other Nebraska service to step in to help complete needed instruction.
Friends decided that within our limited resources we could step up to aid some of these seniors to learn what they needed to know. This could be an opportunity to build a framework of post-rehabilitation services, carrying on instruction after a government funded program had run its course. Excitingly, we would hire competent users of the very equipment being taught; the instructor would be legally blind and we paid them an hourly wage of $30.00.
Note: Six months after the kickoff of this unique program, with several successful trainings on the books, this service was no longer needed. For NCBVI, with help from the National Federation of the Blind and Friends, were able to convince the Nebraska legislature to increase the state funding for independent living services, of which the older blind services is covered. NCBVI was able to increase the number of staff and time to provide needed services to the older blind.
FRIENDS PAST PROJECTS, prior to our seeking of grants
Serving Individuals
In the beginning of Friends, 2005, our monies only came to us by relatively passive efforts, bequeaths and donations. From our creation and continuing to date, one important purpose/project has been to provide small financial grants for helping an individual consumer of the commission. The most common donation type of this kind has been the purchase of needed medications, food and/or lodging for NCBVI’s consumers who are in a phase in the rehabilitation process where the Commission IS NOT legally able to provide services of this kind. Though our assistance in these cases may be small, it can prevent a hitch in the successful outcome of the rehabilitation process.
Granting Funds to Programs
In 2015, Friends expanded their scope of services to include monetary grants, offering them to both NCBVI and non-NCBVI sponsored programs for blind Nebraskans.
Grants to Non-NCBVI Programs
In 2015 and 2016 Friends created a grant opportunity that we called Blindness Education Enrichment Grant, aimed to provide monies to Nebraska-wide, approved non-NCBVI programs serving blind youth. We felt that this effort would not only serve to help blind youth but help us build bridges among the better Nebraska programs and Friends. Read the text immediately below to learn of how we presented our criteria for interested non-NCBVI grantees.
Our Grant Notice: Friends of the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired is pleased to announce the availability of a Blindness Education Enrichment Grant of up to $1000 to support a worthy project benefiting blind youth in Nebraska. Friends is a nonprofit entity established to both supplement and compliment the work of the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (NCBVI) as it seeks to fulfill its mission of empowering blind individuals, promoting opportunities, and building belief in the blind.
As a government agency, NCBVI operates under laws and regulations which sometimes limit its ability to fully serve the entire population of Nebraskans who are blind. For example, the funds are limited for services to blind and visually impaired persons under the age of 14. Yet we know that those who develop effective alternative skills at a young age dramatically improve their odds of achieving success later in life. The board of Friends believe we can enhance skill building opportunities for this population by offering Blindness Education Enrichment grants, thereby better preparing young blind adults to benefit from NCBVI’s transition services when they become eligible for them at age 14.
2015: The first year of Friends Blindness Education Enrichment grant offering we received two applications. Both were found to be worthy and after much discussion, the following decisions were made: We would grant the full $1,000.00 to Camp Abilities Nebraska, an overnight week-long residential sports camp for children and teens who are blind, visually impaired, or deaf-blind; some NCBVI consumers attend this camp.
Additionally, to the second applicant we decided to donate a sum of $300.00. The Braille Enrichment for Literacy Learning program (BELL) was sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind of Nebraska. This program was a day camp, spanning two weeks. It was designed to introduce children between the ages of four and 12 who would not normally receive instruction in braille to the wonders and capabilities of the only method of true literacy for the blind.
[Annette – I do have several photos; Jan needs to view them, you’ll get them soon.]
2016: On this, our second year of the Blindness Education Enrichment Grant, Friends received three applications. Two were repeats from last year’s applicants, and one new: Camp Abilities Nebraska; the NFB’s Braille Enrichment for Literacy Learning (BELL), program; and Project VIEW, from the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
We did grant the full $1,000.00 to the National Federation of the Blind’s Braille Enrichment for Literacy Learning, program (BELL). This program was a day camp, spanning two weeks. It was designed to introduce children between the ages of four and twelve who would not normally receive instruction in braille to the wonders and capabilities of the only method of true literacy for the blind.
(We have some pictures)
Grants to NCBVI Programs
The first ever request from one of the Commission’s internal programs came to us in 2016. We honored a request to cover the cost of T-shirts for the students and staff of the NCBVI Project Independence (PI) program, and have done so for each subsequent PI program; participants range in age from 9-13. In 2016, All campers and counselors wore the shirts on the field trip day to Omaha; the theme was “Come Sail Away With Me.”. In 2017, the T-shirts had the theme We Put the PI in Pioneer: Exploring my Future Frontier, which is inspired by Nebraska’s 150th Birthday. The 2018 PI T-shirt had a superhero theme! The 2019 year’s theme for PI was Independence is EPIC! And in an effort to be more cost effective, each camper made an EPIC Tie-Dye T-shirt to have as a keepsake of PI.