Topic: How people with vision loss can work and attend school in a sighted world

Audience: Speech class

Main idea: How the blind and visually impaired, with the aid of assistive technology, excel at work and in school

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever met someone with blindness or low vision and wondered how that person can perform competently at work or in school? You think it’s impossible, right? That’s what most people assume when they first meet us, but that’s because 70 per cent of the vision loss community in Canada are unemployed and aren’t educated.

My name is Kristen, and I have sight loss. I had low vision since birth, and my goal today is to educate you about how the other 30 per cent of us crush goals, succeed, and thrive in a predominately sighted world by using what we call ‘adaptive technology’. There are barriers we face, but with the right accommodations, we excel too.

First, I will explain what vision loss is and provide you with a brief overview of the most common visual ailments. Second, I’ll define and explain what adaptive technology is and highlight the many different types of technology we use in school and at work. Thirdly, I’ll talk about pricing. And finally, I’ll leave you with a personal narrative of how I made it through grade school in comparison to where I am now.

Are you ready to learn about how we get things done and achieve top-notch results like everyone else?

Transition: First, let’s talk about what vision loss is by exploring different types of visual impairments.

SPEECH BODY

So, what is vision loss?Vision loss has three levels: visual impairment, where a person has an acuity of 20/80; legal blindness, where a person has an acuity of 20/200 or a visual field of 20 degrees or less or total blindness, meaning that a person can’t read print even when it’s made bigger. Being totally blind doesn’t mean someone lives in complete darkness. Some describe it as seeing a “grey midst and/or having light perception. Blindness doesn’t look the same for everyone. Some have loss of peripheral or side vision, others have loss of central vision and some have blind spots spread around the visual field.

According to CNIB research, the most common eye conditions include macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and total blindness.

For reference and clarity, I have a vision simulation printout I’m now going to pass around so that you will have a better understanding of what someone with impaired vision might see depending on their condition. There’s also a smartphone app called Aira vision sim that does this.

Transition: Now that we talked about the three types of visual ailments and the five most common eye conditions, I’m going to talk to you about assistive technology that helps get us through our jobs and through school.

What types of assistive technology do people living with vision loss use that will help them excel at work and in school? We will explore those now.

• ZoomText: This is a program specially designed for people with a visual impairment or legal blindness. The screen is magnified and makes it easier for a person with low vision to read print on a computer. This is my personal favorite. I used it at work and in school.
• Job Access With Speech, or JAWS, is a program designed for the totally blind who cannot read print at all. It is a speech software that reads what’s on the screen to the person using the computer. This software revolutionized lives for the blind.
• Kurzweil: It is a scanning software that allows us to scan a textbook into a traditional scanner and have the text read aloud on the computer via the program.
• CCTVs: This is short for Closed Circuit Television. It is a monitor that sits on top of a base which is hooked up to a light and a camera to take a visual image of the book. The book appears on the monitor and you have the option to increase or decrease font size, change colour, make it talk, or take a photo of the text. CCTV’s that are built today are clearer, more vivid and do not cause eye strain. There are desktop models and portable ones. I use a desktop model at home to do the readings for the public relations program.
• Laptop: This speaks for itself. It is a portable computer and it too has revolutionized lives for the vision loss community. We can now take our own notes, use it for audio books and do assignments without the help of a sighted person.
• Scanner: This is a device that allows us to transport books from the shelf to e-format. We have the opportunity to have books in audio format.
• BrailleNote: This was once a personal favourite among the blind and legally blind. It is a personal note taker where an individual can write and read notes in braille on the go. It is small enough to slip into a backpack. Traditional braille notes are obsolete. The latest version of BrailleNote is the BrailleNote Touch by HumanWare Canada.
• Braille Display: A Braille Display hooks up to your computer and allows you to read what is on the computer screen in braille. These are still used today among the blindness population.
• Smartphones and Smartphone Apps: Smartphones have revolutionized lives among the blind and partially sighted for many years now. The invention of the iPhone is by far a life changing device.

There are a wide range of applications that the blind and partially sighted community use to accomplish a task at work, in school, or anywhere. There is so much you can do with a smartphone that wasn’t possible before. The apps are amazing. These days, all you need to do is go to a local Best Buy or Staples, buy a smartphone, configure its accessibility settings and it’s ready to use. You can download as many apps as you want for little or no cost. I love it.

To note, the CNIB offers ‘Tech It Out’ workshops on Wednesday nights from six to eight to inform and educate people about the latest types of technologies used by people with varying degrees of sight loss.

They also another program called ‘phone it forward.’ You can donate your old smartphone to have it refurbished for someone who’s living with vision loss.

Transition: Wow, we covered quite a bit. So far, we talked about common eye conditions and different types of assistive technology blind or partially sighted people use everyday. It’s now time to talk about cost.

Pricing: How much do these technologies actually cost? Well, the answer would depend on a person’s needs. It could range anywhere from $0 to $8,000. Please know that students and employees with vision loss have access to grants and funds to receive technologies too.Let’s take a look at what’s free. The magnification and voice over feature on an iPhone and a Mac are free of charge which come built into the device.

Let’s take a look at what costs money.

• ZoomText is $700, JAWS is $1,200, Kurzweil is $700, CCTV’s are around $5,000, and braille notes and braille displays are about $5,000.
• Laptops, smart phones, tablets and other devices can run from $250 to $2000 depending on your needs and personal preferences.

Transition: Now that we discussed cost, let me leave you all with a personal narrative of how I accomplished things in school and at work from grade school to now.

In grade school, there was no assistive digital technology. I remember having to get my books sent away to the Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority, or APSEA, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to have textbooks and assignments made bigger. I had to read with a hand-held magnifier. I owned several in different powers ranging from 3x to 5x. I also had to read with a wooden stand on my desk to prevent back problems in later life. Teachers did not understand academic accommodations because the term was rare and there was no term with the name “assistive technology.”

Now, we have talking computers and laptops with zoom text and Kurzweil installed. We have hand-held electronic magnifiers and CCTV’s where we can change the magnification’s power according to the font size we need. My favourite technology is the iPhone. It is also a popular favourite among the sight loss community. We can take our phones and make them fully accessible in the settings – it is a magnifier, reader, and GPS in one unit and that’s what I love about it. Today, I don’t have to take multiple things with me to gain full access to something. My phone can do many things that I didn’t have in childhood, teenage or early adult years. I remember how much I disliked texting until the iPhone was invented. It changed my life. It opened doors that no piece of technology could open before. My favourite app is the magnifier. I can access restaurant menus by activating the magnifier instead of taking pictures of the menu and trying to zoom in. There are many technological devices that sprung to life over the past decade. We can now have our textbooks converted to e-book format in case we can’t access a CCTV or if our eyes become strained by trying to read with a hand-held magnifier. Adaptive technology is amazing.

CONCLUSION

Thank you all for taking the time to listen to my talk. You were a great audience and I hope you gained valuable knowledge about how people with sight loss can work and study in the same way as their fully sighted co-workers and classmates with the assistance of adaptive technology. During this speech, we covered what vision loss is and the five most common eye conditions among the Canadian population, different kinds of assistive technologies people with vision loss use, the pricing of these technologies and my personal life narrative about how technology changed my life in comparison to my younger days. Again, thank you so much for being here today.

Do you have any questions?

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