What's The Answer?

I was intially very excited when Ashley came home with a packet of information from our state agency, the Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired. It was an invitation for Ashley to attend a 4 week summer program called LIFE. LIFE stands for Learning Independence, Feeling Empowered.

The brochure said the program was to help students who are blind make the transition from high school to work or futher education. Experience would be provided in how to obtain and keep employment, how to navigate the world as a blind person, and provide opportunities for socialization and group interaction. Sounds great, eh?

Well it did until I started reading the list of qualifications. The one that concerned me the most stated that a student should..."be able to perform self-care activities with minimal supervision."

Ashley is deafblind, not just blind. She has medical issues, specifically seizures which can occur anytime day or night. Because of that, she must have someone very close by at all times. And, she must be monitored at night for seizures. The LIFE program would not provide that kind of support.

This is an issue that I have also faced with Ronnie. There do not seem to be programs that support people, especially young people, who have both a sensory disability and a physical disability/medical issues.

I have never been successful finding a camp for Ronnie. I can find Deaf camps and they aren't accessible for wheelchairs. I can find accessible camps and they can't provide a fulltime interpreter. So he has never gone to camp.

Now I am facing the same thing with Ashley. If she were just blind, she would be welcomed at project LIFE. But because she has significan medical issues which must be attended to, she cannot.

What's the answer...?

Not Wimpy At All

This is a company that 'gets it'! Makes me want to move to South Africa!

Have a wonderful weekend!

An After-Easter Egg Hunt

VAAPVI, the Virginia Association for Parents of the Visually Impaired had planned a beeping Easter Egg hunt for the weekend before Easter. Unfortunately, we had a week and a half of monster storms, and the egg hunt had to be postponed.

It was held this past weekend, and the weather was beautiful! The beeping eggs were made by our city's police bomb squad, and then they were 'hidden' all over the football at the University of Richmond. They even made vibrating eggs for Ashley to find!

Everyone had a blast - well, except Ashley, when the Easter Bunny tried to make nice with her :)

Repurposed Sight Centers in the Brain

My sweet Ashley can use inappropriate language quite well. She signs it instead of speaking it, but I learned a long time ago, that not only was she making the signs correctly, she was using them in the correct context.

I've never really known where she learned those inappropriate signs. Most of them were ones I had never seen or used. Keep in mind that she is deafblind. More than likely she wasn't seeing the signs too clearly, even from her peers. But somehow she has learned them, and uses them well.

I may now have a few more clues into the functioning of her brain that helped her learn the signs and learn to use them appropriately. Checkout this post from a blog titled, "Wired Science". This is fascinating - well, at least to me!

In the brains of people blind from birth, structures used in sight are still put to work — but for a very different purpose. Rather than processing visual information, they appear to handle language.

Linguistic processing is a task utterly unrelated to sight, yet the visual cortex performs it well.

“It suggests a kind of plasticity that’s even broader than the kinds observed before,” said Marina Bedny, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s a really drastic change. It suggests there isn’t a predetermined function an area can serve. It can take a wide range of possible functions.”

In a study published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bedny’s team monitored the brain activity of five congenitally blind individuals engaged in language-intensive tasks.

Immense neurological plasticity was suggested by research conducted in the late 1990s on “rewired” ferrets — after their optical nerves were severed and rerouted into their auditory cortices, they could still see — but such studies, already ethically troubling in animals, would be unconscionable in humans.

Instead, researchers have used brain imaging to study plasticity resulting from natural sensory deprivation in people. They’ve found that the visual cortices of blind people become active as they read Braille. It wasn’t clear, however, whether this was a function of Braille’s spatial demands, which overlap with the spatial aspects of sight, or a radical repurposing of supposedly specialized areas.

In Bedny’s study, the brains of blind people were analyzed as they listened to complete sentences — a relatively high-level comprehension task. Then they were given lesser linguistic challenges, from listening to lists of unrelated words to hearing sentences played backwards, or trying to comprehend grammatically structured speech containing nonsense words.

The results were twofold. Blind people’s visual cortices clearly responded to language, not to space. Moreover, they were most active in response to high-level language demands, just as the brain’s “traditional” language centers are.

Implications of the findings are many. Some neuroscientists have proposed that human brains are hard-wired for language, with specific regions evolved for the task. While our brains are obviously well-suited for language, its performance by visual centers suggests that more than hard-wiring is at work.

“Language is a property that emerges out of the system, rather than a magic-bullet solution from one brain area,” said Bedny.

Indeed, the brains of congenitally blind people may even hint at the human brain’s early state, with “visual” centers open for processing different types of information, and only later becoming involved in vision.

Bodny is now using behavioral tests to investigate in greater detail how blind people process language. “We really want to know what sort of things are blind people better at,” she said. “Parsing complicated sentences, with different grammatical structure? Might they be better at resolving ambiguities? If they’re listening to several things at a time, can they parse two speech streams rather than one? We don’t know the answer to those questions yet.”

Where Am I?

I used to travel a lot for work and I always had recurring nightmares about being in a strange city, walking around, and getting horribly lost. Those nightmares would keep me from exploring some really fantastic places, and now I regret that. If only IPhones and IPads and such had been around then...

Google has announced two new apps, specifically targeted for people who are blind and who must find their way around a city. Think GPS for the walking crowd...

The apps are called WalkyTalky and Intersection Explorer.

WalkyTalky reads out not only the directions as you walk, but also the intersecting streets that you pass by. Not only will it help with your bearings, but it'll give you a greater understanding of the city—the next time someone mentions meeting on Maple Street, for example, you may well remember passing it previously.

Intersection Explorer isn't quite as useful, but I imagine it would help steel my nerves about my upcoming journey before even leaving the house. You can virtually walk through Google Maps, with the app reading out the directions of the proposed journey ahead.

It's great that someone was thinking about the Blind when these apps were developed, but honestly, I think everyone, disabled or not, could benefit.

Now let me go talk to the only two people in my house who have an Idevice - my two teenage sons - and see if they can download the apps!

Exciting Times

It seems to me that technology to assist people with disabilities has really taken a huge step forward recently. Almost every day, I read a new article or blog post about a technological advance that is improving the lives of people with disabilities.

Since I have both a Deaf child and a Deafblind child, I am always interested in things that can help them. I've been keeping a list of articles when I find them, and today have decided to share them. It really is an exciting time! Although we have a long, long way to go, I truly believe my childrens' lives will be greatly enriched by the application of technology.

Read how Austin Seraphin believed his life changed the day he bought his new IPhone.

Visit the Alabama School for the Deaf, and it's impossible to miss the signs of a revolution that many hearing people simply never noticed.

Can the Deaf enjoy music? Indeed they can!

Do you think a Braille GPS device would help a Blind person as they travel through city sidewalks? The jury is still out on this one, but hopefully it is just the starting point for futher product development.

I do most of my shopping online these days, especially during busy holiday times. Will my Blind daughter ever be able to do the same thing? Just maybe...

And finally, some Korean designers have crafted a Braille Stapler that they claim will revolutionize the way a Deafblind person communicates with the world. Ashley is Deafblind, so this piqued my interest. But, sorry Korean designers, I'm just not seeing it yet...

The Color of Water

I love having a geek in the family! My son, Chip, is always finding things that I never knew I needed, but then realized I couldn't live without.

Today's find is something that will help Ashley know when the water from our faucets is either hot or cold. Even though I had already put red and blue electrical tape on the handles, she had a tough time seeing that with her significant visual impairment. I needed something else...

Chip came to the rescue by finding a faucet light with led heat sensitive color changing ability. We had seen similar products a year or so ago, but the cost was prohibitive. Chip found this one on Amazon and it only cost $10!!

Here are some pictures. The water appears red when the temperature reaches 85 degrees. Otherwise it appears blue. Needless to say, Ashley loves it!

Refreshable Braille Display

Anyone that has been reading my blog for a while knows how I feel about devices such as the Kindle reader and the lack of accessible features. The Kindle is making progress but it's not there yet. So, I was really interested to learn more about the accessibility features of Apple's new iPad.

So far, I haven't found much information - perhaps because the device is so new. But I did find one article that discussed future possiblities for the iPad and other such devices. From the Smart Planet website:

Refreshable Braille display could change how the blind read

Scientists at North Carolina State University have developed a refreshable Braille display system that would allow the blind to read digital content on the Web.

The Braille system, of course, allows the blind to read by using a series of raised dots to represent letters and numbers.

The problem with existing electronic Braille displays is that the expensive devices generally only show one line of text per time.

But a research team led by Neil Di Spigna and Peichun Yang wanted to create a full-page display that effectively “maps pixels in an image,” allowing the full-page Braille display to represent the images as raised dots.

The researchers call the concept a “hydraulic and latching mechanism,” which is made of an inexpensive, resilient electroactive polymer that allows the dots to be raised to the correct height for reading.

Once the dots are raised, the latching mechanism supports the weight being applied by a person’s fingers as they read the dots.

The material’s quick response rate allows a reader to quickly scroll through a document.

The researchers said they are working on a fully functioning prototype, with next year as a target.

If successful, the blind will be able to take better advantage of the myriad gadgets — laptops, smartphones, GPS navigation devices, e-book readers, even the Apple iPad — that access the Web.

My Funny Valentine

It's almost Valentine's Day, and again I need ideas on what to get Ashley.

She has a very limited range of foods that she will eat, so candy is out of the question.

Since she is blind, a greeting card doesn't catch her eye (get it - catch her eye, bad joke).

She might like flowers but only if they are edible.

Maybe one of these teeshirts from CafePress:


It say "Kiss My A**" in Braille and is very indicative of her teenage attitude these days.

Or maybe this one since she is so fascinated with her new womanly body:


It says "Boobies" in Braille.

So she can wear it to school, and since it screams the truth about her, I think I will just stick with this shirt that shows the ASL sign for Princess:



Who's your Valentine this year, and how will you be celebrating??

Sight Unseen

How can you use a camera if you can't see? Over 30 blind and visually impaired adults from the UK, Mexico and China have been trained in sensory photography techniques to create and experience photos.



Check out this audio slideshow that explains the process and the beautiful results:

Sensory Photography

Patrick Henry Hughes

Some of you may have seen this remarkable young man on Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I watched the show and fell in love with Patrick and his wonderful family. My brother shared this latest video featuring Patrick with me and now I want to share it with you. It's a great way to end the week on a positive note!

Happy long weekend, everyone!

Amazon Listened!

First, an update to yesterday’s post – thank you all for your comments. I have some places to start looking now, and I’m not feeling quite so bad. Asperger’s is a tough disability. Corey looks like every other teenager his age, but if you spend any amount of time with him, the social skills issue will be quite glaring. Couple that with his awful past and the lack of good role models during the most impressionable time of his life, and you have a troubled young man who tries really hard to present himself as ‘normal’. Somewhere along the way he also picked up a very strong lack of motivation, and no desire to work at all. It’s a tough situation, but all your comments have been very helpful. I will keep you updated as we progress through this difficult time.

And Terri, yes, Corey does have an IEP. I think staying in school a while longer would be beneficial for him, but convincing him of that is probably not going to happen.

Now, onto today’s post.



I know I have bashed the Amazon Kindle several times on this blog for not being fully accessible for people who are blind. It always made me crazy that we had an amazing piece of technology that could have been a real asset to a person who is blind, but because of some design decisions, wasn’t.

Well that has now changed!

Amazon has announced that by the end of the next summer, new features will be added to the Kindle that will make it accessible to people who are blind. Check out this article from MSNBC:

Kindle Improvements

Now if we can just get authors and publishers to stop refusing to make their books on the Kindle audible…..

Get It Right

I’ve written before, here and here, about the Kindle and how it is not accessible for people who are blind. So, I was really pleased to read that both Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have both rejected the Kindle as a replacement for textbooks. And their main reason for the rejection – the Kindle is not accessible for students who are blind.

The Kindle does have a text-to-speech feature, but I know from using my son’s Kindle that not everything can take advantage of that feature. The National Federation of the Blind, a group that is applauding the decision of Syracuse and the University of Madison-Wisconsin, said last week that while it appreciates the text-to-speech feature, the “menus of the devices are not accessible to the blind..making it impossible for a blind user to purchase books from Amazon’s Kindle store, select a book to read, activate the text-to-speech feature, and use the advanced reading functions on the Kindle DX.

And add to that the fact that many authors and publishers are intentionally disabling the text-to-speech feature on their electronic books.

It saddens me that we have such a remarkable piece of technology and some of the most basic merits of that technology are not being utilized or allowed.

Amazon, it’s time you took another look at this device and your policies regarding people with disabilities. It is a brave new world and you need to embrace that fact, not work against it.

Today I am thankful for all the technology that does enrich the lives of people with disabilities

Smart Canes

Almost every day I run across a news story about technological advances to aid people who are blind, deaf or deafblind. It's very exciting time right now as it seems there is more and more focus on finding assistive technology to make all of life more accessible for people with disabilities.

I've mentioned in previous posts about how my son, Chip, worked in the biomedical engineering lab at our local university this summer to assist in the development of a haptic device used to teach geometry to students who are blind. And then there was the story about Virginia Tech and their car for blind drivers. Now, I've found a story about a 'smart cane', a white cane with technology inbedded to make travel safer for people who are blind. What makes this all the more exciting is knowing how much more Ashley will be able to accomplish and experience as a result of all these developments!

According to the Associated Press, A cane equipped with the technology that retailers use to tag merchandise could help blind people avoid obstacles.

An engineering professor and five students at Central Michigan University have created a "Smart Cane" to read electronic navigational tags installed between buildings to aid the blind in reaching their destinations more easily.

"This project started as a way for me to teach students to see and understand the ways that engineering can be used for the greater good," said Kumar Yelamarthi, the professor and project leader. "We wanted to do something that would help people and make our campus more accessible."

During the spring term, Yelamarthi and five senior engineering students tested the cane, which is equipped with Radio Frequency Identification technology, similar to what retailers put on products to keep them from being stolen.

The Smart Cane contains an ultrasonic sensor that is paired with a miniature navigational system inside a messenger-style bag worn across the shoulder.

For the test, the students installed identification tags between two buildings on the campus in Mount Pleasant, Mich.. A speaker located on the bag strap gave audio alerts when the system detected an obstacle and told the user which direction to move.

Students wearing glasses that simulate visual impairment tested the cane.

The students also created a vibrating glove to assist those who are both visually and hearing-impaired.

Yelamarthi said it's one of the first outdoor applications of RFID and said he plans for students in upcoming classes to further refine the system while he seeks grants to speed the research.

The next step probably involves using the system in a wider area. Down the line, Yelamarthi wants to work toward integrating the Smart Cane's data with GPS.

Wanna Go For A Spin?

When I first met Ashley and her then-foster mother, Linda, she was quick to point out all the things Ashley couldn’t do. I, on the other hand, take a much more positive approach to life, and envisioned all the things Ashley would be able to do.

Linda either didn’t understand or chose not to seek out the supports that could make a significant difference in Ashley’s life. There had been no early intervention – Ashley was two years old when I adopted her – no therapies of substance – an absolutely no planning for a future involving anything other than constant caregiving.

One of the stories Linda related to me was how a doctor once told her Ashley would never be able to drive a car. Linda said she replied to the doctor, “Well, of course not, she’s blind”. Linda thought it ludicrous that anyone would even suggest there may be a chance for Ashley to independently navigate a vehicle.

Well, you know what, Linda – you were wrong! A student team in Virginia Tech's College of Engineering is testing a vehicle aimed at giving the blind an opportunity to drive!

A retrofitted four-wheel dirt buggy developed by the Blind Driver Challenge team from Virginia Tech's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory uses laser range finders, an instant voice command interface and other methods to guide blind drivers as they steer, brake and accelerate.

The vehicle has been tested by folks who are totally blind, and according to Wes Majerus, of Baltimore, the first blind person to drive the buggy on a closed course at the Virginia Tech campus earlier this summer, "It was great!"

Read more about this remarkable step towards more independence for people who are blind, here and here.

Oh, and just so you know, Ashley is already deciding what color car she wants :)

Geeky Friday

One of the wonderful things about having a geek for a son is that I find out about all the new products being developed or already available for people who are blind, deaf, or deafblind.

Chip, my 18 year old geek, was so excited to share information about the potential of the Kindle E-Book reader as a tool for a person who is blind. He was so impressed he said he wished he had thought of it first because he could probably become a very wealthy person as a result! Check out these two stories about the Kindle as a tool for the Blind. It’s not a reality yet, but it seems very close to becoming one.

Kindle for the Blind

Kindle for the Blind - Part Deux

But then every geek also has a playful side, and as a result, Chip also found this story about adapting a Rubik’s Cube for someone who is blind:

Accessible Rubik's Cube

And finally, although the previous stories were about devices still being planned, here is a device that is a reality. People who are blind are now able to ‘visualize’ rides at Disney World. Personally, this one doesn’t interest me as much because I almost always have my eyes tightly shut on any amusement park ride!

Disney World Device

Happy Friday, everyone.

Out Of The Dark?

If a surgery existed that might help your child’s disabilities, would you agree to it? Parents of children who are deaf agree to cochlear implant surgery daily. But what if your child was blind, and what if the surgery was experimental?

Check out this link:

Dark World May Become Brighter For The Blind

I wrote about my feelings on this subject two years ago, but what about you? What would you do?

Amazon Protest

Last February, Amazon unveiled its latest version of Kindle, an e-book reader. The new Kindle boasts some amazing features, even the ability to read the book aloud.

Unfortunately, authors of many of the e-books will not allow their books to be read aloud, and today, the Reading Rights Coalition is holding a protest in New York City outside the headquarters of The Authors Guild.

The protest will focus on the Guild's forcing of Amazon to place restrictions on the text-to-speech functions of its Kindle 2 device. The group claimed that Amazon's distribution rights did extend to the feature, and the company responded by allowing publishers to disable the text to speech feature on their books.

From the website of the Reading Rights Coalition, “We represent 15 million Americans who cannot read print because of blindness, dyslexia, spinal cord injury, and other print disabilities. We include school children, the elderly, professionals, college students, returning veterans, and your neighbors, family members and friends. We want to buy books. We have fought very hard for many years to have equal access to technology and information. For the first time, now that the Amazon Kindle 2 offers text-to-speech, which will read a book aloud, we can purchase and enjoy books like everybody else. Sadly, the Authors Guild does not support equal access for us.”

"This is blatant discrimination and we will not tolerate it." said Dr Marc Maurer, president of coalition member The National Organization for the Blind.

"Authors and publishers who elect to disable text-to-speech for their e-books on the Kindle 2 prevent people who are blind or have other print disabilities from reading these e-books."

Please take a moment to consider signing the petition in support of the protest.

Good Vibrations

A few weeks ago, I asked my geeky and brilliant son to invent a way for deaf people to play a piano and to ‘hear’ what they were playing. I suggested that he have each of the piano’s 88 keys emit a slightly different vibration which could be felt by the person who was deaf. The piano music would sound like it always does to people who are listening, but to the Deaf person, the music could also be ‘heard’ in the form of the key vibrations.

He said he wasn’t an inventor and then asked what was for dinner.

This week, however, news stories about two exciting technology advances for people who are deaf and blind appeared via my google alerts, and they both reminded me of the request I made to my son.

The first, Picking Up A Good Vibration, tells of researchers from MIT’s Sensory Communication Group who are designing new tactile devices that convert sound waves into vibrations so users can ‘feel’ words. This project was inspired by Tadoma, a method used very infrequently for people who are deafblind, and the subject of my post titled, Can You Feel Me Now?.

The second article, titled “Researchers develop braille for vibrating touchscreen devices”, talks about researchers in Finland who are working on a way to have a raised dot in a Braille cell emit a single intense vibration and missing dots to emit a longer, less intense vibration. That Braille cell could then be ‘read’ through touch, a touch screen on a computer for instance.

And all this is leading me back to my son tonight for some more talk about that piano!!

Happy Belated Birthday, Louis!

Happy birthday, Louis Braille! The 200th anniversary of Louis Braille’s birth on January 4, 1809, is being celebrated this year, and to blind people around the world, it is indeed cause for celebration.

Louis Braille became blind at the age of 3, when he accidentally stabbed himself in one eye with an awl, one of his father's workshop tools and got an infection. His other eye went blind from the infection spreading to it. But that was not enough to stop the remarkable young man from inventing a system of reading that would change the world.

In 1821, a Captain in the French Army, visited the school that Louis Braille attended to show the children his invention, called "Night writing." It was a code of 12 raised dots and a number of dashes that let soldiers share top-secret information on the battlefield without having to speak. The code was too difficult for Louis to understand, and he later changed the number of raised dots to 6 to form what we today call Braille.

Today, thanks to the ingenious invention of Louis Braille, blind children and adults throughout the world can read and write as well as their sighted counterparts. Please join me in also celebrating the braille code, named after its young inventor, and the expanded possibilities for literacy, independence, and self-expression Louis Braille opened up to blind people everywhere.

Want to see you name in Braille? Check here...