American Printing House for the Blind (APH) is always coming out with new materials and equipment to assist the blind and visually impaired children to participate with their sighted peers in all aspects of their academics, daily living skills, technology, orientation, and mobility skills.
This year, one of our Brocton’s students, Keara, is enrolled in Mr. Ken Kowal's Technology class for 8th graders. Instead of the usual skills taught in Technology over the years, the class started learning about computer coding. It is all based on the computer with visual icons to click on in order to design robots and have them move in various patterns within the program. (This is just one aspect of the class.) Keara needs total assistance to access the program. Because it is very "visual", her computer with the JAWS screen reader could not navigate and read the information to her.
This past summer, APH came out with a new computer tool, called Code Jumper. Using federal quota funds from the Resource Center for the Blind in Batavia, NY, E2CCB was able to order this device. It was originally designed by Microsoft and developed by APH. The product is designed to teach students how to write computer code. It consists of brightly colored plastic pods with oversized buttons and knobs which are connected by "jumper cables" to physically create computer code.
With the expertise of Mrs. Jodi Huber, BCS’s Instructional Coach and STEM Coordinator, Mrs. Jessica Hornbuckle, BCS Teaching Assistant, and Mrs. MaryAnn Oyer, Teacher of the Visually Impaired at E2CCB, is collaborating to learn this device in order for Keara to use it successfully in her Technology Class and achieve the same success as her peers. This demonstrates excellent collaboration between E2CCB and BCS! Keep up the great work!