Success Stories

Collaboration Leads to Learning at Robot Competition

Education and fun often go hand-in-hand and such was the case when students from the Maryland School for the Blind recently entered a LEGO® robotics competition! James and Ladrea are 7th grade students who collaborated on the robot design by using documents located in the cloud, accessing them using JAWS® text-to-speech software for Windows®.

Read the rest of James and Ladrea's story.

David Has Equal Access with His Peers

David is a first grade student from Montrose, Colorado, and has low vision. He was born with congenital glaucoma, and is able to read print as a result of using prescribed magnifying devices and because of good instruction from his teachers. David was prescribed an APH Video Mag HD handheld video magnifier during a low vision evaluation.

Read the rest of David's story.

Students James and Ladrea are pictured with their competition robot. Teacher Gina Fugate looks on.

9th grade student Taiye uses both magnification and speech for his schoolwork.

Photos by Dotty Raynor.

Collaboration Leads to Learning at Robot Competition

Education and fun often go hand-in-hand and such was the case when students from the Maryland School for the Blind recently entered a LEGO® robotics competition! James and Ladrea are 7th grade students. In 2016, they were part of a team that developed a robot with an “Animal Allies” theme. The students collaborated on the robot design by using documents located in the cloud, accessing them using JAWS® text-to-speech software for Windows® from APH and Freedom Scientific.

Taiye, a 9th grade student at the Maryland School, uses both large print and text-to-speech to access information. Taiye is known as a bright and hardworking student and he’s very interested in engineering and design. He uses the Video Mag HD as one of his tools to examine items such as drawings of bridge designs. He also uses JAWS speech access to read documents on his PC.

“JAWS ultimately provides the opportunity for students to independently concentrate on learning rather than using a reader or scribe.”

— Gina Fugate, M.Ed., Technology Teacher, Maryland School for the Blind

LEGO® The LEGO Group.

David using the Video Mag HD to view a worksheet on an APH ReadWrite Stand.

David Has Equal Access with His Peers

David is a first grade student from Montrose, Colorado, and has low vision. He was born with congenital glaucoma, and is able to read print as a result of using prescribed magnifying devices and because of good instruction from his classroom teacher and his teacher of the visually impaired. David was prescribed an APH Video Mag HD handheld video magnifier at a recent low vision evaluation.

The American Printing House for the Blind and Freedom Scientific partnered to develop the Video Mag HD, a durable, handheld high-definition video magnifier that is rugged, kid-friendly and highly versatile.

David says he loves his Video Mag, “I turn it on and it makes everything bigger. Letters, pictures, everything. I do it by myself. I use it for reading and math and for everything.”

The Video Mag HD allows David to magnify and have equal access to his printed classroom materials. Using it allows him to read and view information in his textbooks and other materials from a more typical viewing distance, and this decreases his visual fatigue.

“The Video Mag HD is easy to use without assistance for a first grader who just wants to be independent.”

— Meghan Crosby, David’s teacher of students with visual impairments (TVI)