These computer camps offer many an opportunity they otherwise would not
have had.  However, a week or so of computer camp is a poor substitute for
nine months of academic instruction that uses computers regularly.
sighted students have nine months while the blind students have one week of
computer access.  The reason for the camps is made clear in the article:
school districts spend millions of dollars wiring and equipping *one
school for computer and Internet access while refusing to spend the
relatively modest funds needed to adapt a computer with speech synthesis
for the blind student.  I encourage people to consider ADA complaints and
lawsuits to balance this inequity and withholding of adequate instruction
for blind students to participate in our information society.

kelly

The New York Times

July 7, 1999

     Education

By PAMELA MENDELS

Camp Teaches Blind Students Computer Skills

     Like a lot of kids throughout the United States, Kelly Struder
     welcomed the onset of summer this year by saying goodbye to her
     family and hello to sleep-away camp.

     She enjoyed picnics, nature walks and swimming. She also spent time
     in front of a computer, learning skills like how to use a basic
     word processing program and how to surf the World Wide Web.

     Nothing out of the ordinary in an age when computers are as much a
     part of the camp experience as bonfires and roasted marshmallows.

     Except for one thing: Kelly and her fellow campers are all legally
     blind. The program they attended last week was intended not only to
     give them some summertime fun, but also to teach them computer and
     other skills essential to navigating modern life.

     "We teach the campers independent living skills, of which we think
     technology is the anchor, because so much can be gleaned from it,"
     said Lila M. Cabbil, who runs the Activities of Daily
     Living/Computer Camp, which is held at Western Michigan University
     in Kalamazoo, Mich. The program is sponsored by the Upshaw
     Institute for the Blind in Detroit, Michigan and several other
     organizations.

     The project is not unique. Mary Beth Caruso, outreach supervisor at
     the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., said that in
     recent years many schools for the blind have begun offering summer
     programs with a heavy dose of technology training. She estimates
     that there are 20 to 25 computer-related summer courses for the
     blind and visually impaired around the country. Perkins, for
     example, hosts a five-week residential program for public
     high-school students in which participants work in the community,
     learn job-hunting skills like resume writing and get computer
     training.

     Such efforts are important not the least because computers are
     essential to most blind and visually impaired workers, according to
     Corinne Kirchner, director of policy research and program
     evaluation at the American Foundation for the Blind in New York
     City. Of the population of blind people who have jobs, she said,
     about 90 percent use computers at work. "For the blind, computers
     are as important -- and probably more so -- as they are to anyone
     else in society," she said.

     Carroll L. Jackson, executive director of the Upshaw Institute,
     said the camp was launched in part to address what advocates for
     the blind consider a major problem: Computers at public schools are
     often inaccessible to students with visual impairments.
     _________________________________________________________________

   The program tells the user where the cursor is and points out where
   links are on a Web page.
     _________________________________________________________________

     In some cases, even though a school system may have spent millions
     of dollars on wiring, computer labs lack a voice synthesizer or
     other equipment that would allow students with vision difficulties
     to benefit from the equipment, he said. In other cases, the gear
     may be in place, but teachers do not know how to operate it. "There
     is a major lag between where educators are in their knowledge base
     and the state of the art of the technology," he said.

     Now in its third year, the camp runs for one week during the
     summer. Last week, it hosted nine 12 to 17-year-olds, all with
     severe visual impairments.

     The camp is held at Western Michigan University in part because it
     is home to a nationally respected program to train specialists in
     rehabilitating individuals who are blind. The university's
     Multi-Purpose Enabling Technology Lab is equipped with hardware and
     software to assist the blind, like voice synthesizers that can take
     text on a screen and read it aloud and devices that can print
     Braille versions of text that appears on screen.

     For three hours every morning last week, the campers assembled in
     the lab and learned how to do things like surf the Web by using
     keyboard commands rather than a point-and-click mouse. The
     students, who must know touch-typing as a prerequisite for
     attending the camp, are taught Web basics, like the way 'dot'
     refers to the period in a Web address. They also learn the
     fundamentals of a "screen reader" software program that reads aloud
     text from a computer screen. The program tells the user where the
     cursor is and points out where links are on a Web page.

     To operate these types of programs, students have to learn a series
     of commands using a standard keyboard. They learn, for example,
     that in many cases pressing the tab key will activate a hypertext
     link, taking them to a new Web page. "The children have to memorize
     more information than a sighted person," Cabbil said.

     Using these skills, the students engaged in e-mail exchanges,
     interviewed one another in a chat room and conducted research on
     the Web. But it wasn't all easy.

     "The hardest thing for me to learn was remembering all of the hot
     keys [keyboard shortcuts] to access different ways to use the
     programs," Demarcus Williams, a 17-year-old from Detroit, wrote in
     an e-mail message. "But, I did and now I know. And I am hoping to
     return another year."

     Kelly, a 13-year-old from Swartz Creek, Mich., initially found it
     difficult to keep track of all the commands necessary to gain
     access to the Web. But in the end, she said she felt a sense of
     accomplishment in being able to visit her school district's site,
     as well as sites about cosmetology, a possible future career.

     "I enjoyed the most being able to go on different Web sites,
     because I was able to see what was out there," she wrote in an
     e-mail message. Mastering a software program that enlarges type
     size was another skill she learned.

     Camp time was not devoted solely to technology, however. Campers,
     who lived in a university dormitory, also practiced non-technical
     skills, like using a can opener, cooking simple dishes and making
     their own beds. "We are not talking army-barracks-good, but basic
     competency," Cabbil said.

     And for Kelley, the camp provided one benefit that many a teenager,
     visually impaired or not, could enjoy: a breather from siblings at
     home. "It's nice," she said in a telephone interview from the dorm,
     "not having your brother being a pest."


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