Full Transcript
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. I’m sitting in the Blind Abilities studio and I want to send a message out to you that the team here at Blind Abilities is thinking of you. We want you all to stay well and to stay informed, be kind to others, wash your hands regularly and practice good social distancing. And if you’re in a situation where you’re doing your education, you are schooling from home, we’ve put together some resources and some suggestions that can be useful during these times of isolation away from our school, our work, our normality. And be sure to check out all the links in the show notes.
Jeff Thompson:
We then talk to Maria. She’s a parent of a high school student, Simon, who’s at home continuing his education. Maria herself is doing her work from home too. The different dynamics that the family has adjusted to, the challenges that they have faced and how these moments, some of the flexibility that is built into the entire family staying at home has given them the opportunity to enhance their skills in technology, alternative techniques and enhancements in life skills as well. We hope you enjoy, and for more podcasts with a Blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities and subscribe to our Blind Abilities podcast. Remember, it’s two words; Blind Abilities on any of your pod catchers of choice.
Jeff Thompson:
For many people with disabilities, much of the data regarding the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak, which is typically in a graphical format consisting of graphs and charts and inaccessible to the blind and visually impaired. Tyler Littlefield has created this site in hopes that people with disabilities can be able to access the information. So check it out, that’s C-V-S-T-A-T-S.net, cvstats.net. Thank you Tyler. And we put that link in the show notes. Another good resource for information about the COVID-19, coronavirus is the Weather app. This is a native app to the iPhone and it’s owned by the Weather Channel. Now, the Weather Channel is owned by IBM and because of location services, they’ve been able to track the movement of all these iPhones throughout the states. Thus, they can come up with some models and some information about the coronavirus and the people movement.
Jeff Thompson:
This has been used in Minnesota as they put some models together and so I got curious so I opened up the Weather app, went down to the bottom left hand corner and tapped on the Weather Channel, and then there’s a link for the coronavirus and it’s interesting information, so check that out. The National Homework Hotline for Blind and Visually Impaired Students has been launched and you can find that at www.vistaseducation.com/homeworkhotline. And this is a free service for K through 12 and college students in the United States who are experiencing school closures due to the COVID-19. Areas of help include but are not limited to science, math, social studies, ELA, Nemeth and literary braille. Questions regarding jobs, voiceover, screen readers, refreshable braille displays, the type of questions that you would ask your teachers, your TVI’s or your friends, mentors with experience, with accessible devices or topics of education. On their website they say that the NHH-BVI responders are experienced TVI’s, tutors, STEM professionals, blind mentors and college students. And you can submit these by email or phone, so be sure to check out the links that we’ll drop right here in the show notes.
Jeff Thompson:
If you go to freedomscientific.com you’ll find an announcement that they made about JAWS, ZoomText and Fusion free up until July 30th, 2020. And this is for all households in United States and Canada, such a great deal. You can find that at freedomscientific.com. A couple of Facebook groups that you can ask questions on, one is Assistive Technology, Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The other is the Blind Abilities Community. Here you can ask questions because other people are there with experience with the technology and may have answers for you, are willing to help and willing to learn from you too. And once again we’ve got all the links in the show notes. And if you need assistance, there’s a couple of apps that I highly suggest downloading. Be My Eyes is a free app for Apple and android that you can download and get visual assistance through a video feed from a volunteer. That’s Be My Eyes.
Jeff Thompson:
Another application is Aira, A-I-R-A and that’s available on the app store and Google Play Store. This is a free app that you download, the first five minutes are free. You are connected with a trained agent to help you, assist you or answer some questions or to visualize something that you have trouble accessing. Beyond the five minutes they have plans that you can purchase and Aira just announced that college students can now receive free Aira access. And you can inquire about this by emailing them at support@aira.io. A few apps that I feel are essential, especially if you’re going to school or working from home. One is Envision AI. This is the OCR reader plus a little bit more than just that, but for the most part it’s a quick way to access the printed word. You can try out the free trial and believe me, the Envision AI app is one of the most accurate and efficient OCR apps available to us.
Jeff Thompson:
They got a great support staff and they’re always updating the app, keeping it running at the most optimal performance and efficiency. Another is Seeing AI, it’s a free app and this has a great many of options built into it. This too is an OCR reader. Optical character recognition gives you access to the printed word, just hold it over the image and it’ll start reading. Both of these apps work pretty dang good and you can find them on the app store and the Google Play Store. Video chatting or audio chats, stuff you can do with like FaceTime, make FaceTime audio calls, FaceTime video calls or you can use apps such as Zoom Cloud Meetings. Zoom seems to be one of the most accessible applications out there. I have it on my phone, I also have it on my Mac.
Jeff Thompson:
It’s an easy way to schedule a meeting, just put in the date and time and then save that information with one click of a button, then you can pace that right into the email, which there’s a link and a person can click on that link and if they already have the app, it just connects right up to the meeting or it instructs them to download the app. Once the app is installed, they click on that link and poof, you’re connected. It’s kind of like a FaceTime call, but you have so many more options and so many features. You can share information, you can share files, you can share screens, you can record the meeting and save it to the cloud or to your computer. This is a great application where you can utilize the internet to get a lot of people altogether on the same page, on the same screen all at once. Checkout Zoom Cloud Meetings.
Jeff Thompson:
And there’s a free book that’ll guide you and give you instructions on how to best utilize Zoom from a Blindness perspective available from Jonathan Mosen, from Mosen Consulting. It’s called Meet Me Accessibly, and you can check that out on the web at https://mosen.org/zoom, that’s M-O-S-E-N.org/zoom. And now here’s Maria with a parent’s perspective.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to the Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. Today in the studio we have Maria Ceferatti and she’s a parent and she happens to have Simon who we all know as a member of Blind Abilities at home. He’s in 11th grade and he is schooling from home. Maria, welcome to the Blind Abilities.
Maria Ceferatti:
Thank you, Jeff. It’s a pleasure to be with you.
Jeff Thompson:
So there’s been some changes, especially in work and schooling around your parts or all across the whole nation really.
Maria Ceferatti:
Yes, absolutely. It’s slightly surreal, but everybody’s doing the best they can.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, it’s a big change. It’s a big change for everyone and I suppose especially for high school students because they have such a social component.
Maria Ceferatti:
Exactly, yeah. Yeah, that’s one of the things I feel that has changed the most probably with this new situation. I mean, Simon is still getting homework, he’s still getting classwork, he’s keeping up with his studies. So, that piece hasn’t changed, but the fact that he doesn’t go to school every day surrounded by his peers, that is very different. They’ve had some Zoom classes throughout the week and a couple last week, which has helped just to hear the voices of his classmates participating in classes, but just the day to day class to class interactions are not there, which is a big change.
Jeff Thompson:
It’s interesting that so many people have turned to Zoom and that’s something that Simon was pretty familiar with, with podcasting.
Maria Ceferatti:
Exactly. Yes, we were really lucky that that was the platform that the school chose to go with. I mean, he’s also familiar with Skype, but terms of accessibility and familiarity, yeah, we were very fortunate in that regard.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, that’s great. Now you said he’s getting his homework and getting his assignments and staying on top of everything. So is all the interaction through Zoom then?
Maria Ceferatti:
Well, he gets his work typically through Google Classroom. That is the platform where teachers all through his high school career so far have been using to disseminate homework and classwork. So, that’s kind of the go-to platform. So, he still goes there every day to check what his responsibilities are, what his schoolwork is and then teachers will notify the students about special kind of Zoom meetings that they decide to have. So Simon goes to a Catholic school, so one of the classes, he takes a theology class and a priest teaches the class. So, one of his assignments was to watch a religious service online and then they discuss that in a Zoom meeting because all the kids went to different churches, possibly heard different homilies, online of course. So, that was a chance for them to collaborate live after using technology to go to a service, that was kind of interesting.
Jeff Thompson:
How did you as a family unit adjust to the scheduling? He has his school time, his privacy, his workspace, how did that come about? You knew something was going to have to be formulated.
Maria Ceferatti:
Yes, and I think we’re still adjusting. I don’t know if we have sort of a perfect fit yet, but we’re working on it. So Simon has his own bedroom and he has a desk there with his three computers. He has a Dell laptop, he has a MacBook and he has an HP along with his iPhone, iPad, stuff like that. It’s definitely a tech hub there in his room. He uses usually either his MacBook or his HP to access his work and he does his work on his BrailleNote Touch as well. And he emails his teachers his work rather than putting it on Google Classroom. And they’ve agreed to that format back when he started freshman year. So he’s able to do his work in quiet, with privacy and then my husband and I help things like math, he’s an algebra two this year, the teacher only sends printed worksheets, so he has a worksheet with about 10 pages of equations on Google Classroom.
Maria Ceferatti:
So we’ve downloaded the worksheet and then we read the problems to Simon and Simon uses his braille writer to do all his algebra work. So he’ll write the problem out and then we’ll assist if he needs it with math. I think that’s the most challenging subject that Simon has currently, is math. And he typically gets some support from a resource teacher at school each day, especially with math and also his TVI helps him a lot with math. And we have FaceTimed the resource teacher over these past couple of weeks, a couple of times just say, hey… For me it’s been 30 years since I’ve taken math. So this stuff is a little rusty and a lot of its review for Simon, but it’s review from maybe stuff that they did in the fall, so he’s kind of rusty a little bit too.
Maria Ceferatti:
And the resource room teacher was very kind and he explained what we needed to do and talk directly to Simon and said, “Don’t you remember Simon? It was…” I don’t know, God helped me, “… Some linear equation or parallel versus perpendicular lines or something,” and for Simon he would kind of click, once the teacher kind of spoke the language that the two of them knew, Simon is like, “Oh right, right. Okay. I remember.” And then it would kind of go from there. So math has been probably the trickiest and our arrangement with our school, because Simon goes to a Catholic school, the public school that supports us there is not having school right now, they’re not in session at all. So Simon doesn’t receive any services right now, while we’re on in this arrangement. So his TVI and his tech instructor and mobility instructor are really not allowed to provide him services at this point because the public school in our district is not in session and we have faith through the public school, if that makes any sense.
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative) So the public schools will probably be going online next week or sometime with services or not?
Maria Ceferatti:
I don’t know.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh wow.
Maria Ceferatti:
I’m not sure how that’s going to work. I don’t know what their plan is at the moment.
Jeff Thompson:
So you’re going to be shaking a lot of rust off that math skills you once had.
Maria Ceferatti:
I probably am. Yes, God help us all. Yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, quadratic equations and everything. It’s starting to come back to me a little bit, but-
Maria Ceferatti:
Maybe we’ll call you Jeff if we have to then.
Jeff Thompson:
Ah, there we go. So what is it like for Simon and all of you? I mean, at school they have lunches, they have work breaks, when you combine all this into the household, are you all getting along still?
Maria Ceferatti:
Yes. Yes, by the grace of God, but my husband works from home normally, so he’s usually at home all day and he has a separate kind of a… We call it a cabin in our yard that we got a couple of years ago, kind of a man cave. It’s really nice, it’s his office, basically. Sort of a very large shed and he’s got heating and cooling in there and all his needs, the desk and computer and all that stuff out there. So he works out there. Simon has his room. I teach music lessons. So I’ve been doing my private violin, viola and cello lessons on FaceTime in the house and trying to schedule them at a time where I’m not disturbing too many people and when my dog is not barking in the background. And then I also teach writing classes to adults, creative writing classes. I have two of those a week and I’ve been using Zoom for those classes and my husband has let me use his cabin to teach those classes because those are a couple of hours at a time. So it’s forcing everyone to be creative basically. Yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s pretty sweet. I got to talk to him about that man cave that he’s got going there. That sounds pretty good.
Maria Ceferatti:
Yeah, I’m sure it would be great for a sound studio, it would be awesome.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, we could mass produce these things and get them out to people. I’m sure a lot of people would be wanting them right now.
Maria Ceferatti:
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, we didn’t foresee this happening, but I’m glad we have it because we have a very modest home. It’s just the three of us here, but with now everyone home, there’s really nowhere to escape to, so.
Jeff Thompson:
How is it psychologically, emotionally as you’re hunkering down without knowing the timeframe? We don’t know if school is going to ever start up in May or June, what’s that like without knowing any answers really? You just do your best I suppose.
Maria Ceferatti:
Yeah, of course. Sort of just taking it one day, one week at a time. I mean, I’m lucky that Simon is pretty motivated to do well in school and he does have to check in, in the mornings for attendance purposes. So, he’ll set his alarm, make sure he checks in online to make that attendance deadline. Sometimes he goes back to sleep for a little bit and then he’ll eventually get up and start his work. And part of me sort of appreciates the flexibility in the schedule now because typically he would get up at six in the morning beyond the bus by five of seven and be finished his day at school at 3:30 and then come home and then it’s homework, dinner, practicing piano.
Maria Ceferatti:
It was getting kind of exhausting. And I think the level of work this year as a junior kind of ramped up, so having a little more time to rest, especially in the morning has been kind of nice, I have to say. I mean, I wouldn’t want this global situation to happen, but one of the good things is that these kids are allowed to be a little more flexible with their schedule.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s a popular thing across the workforce, flexibility, flex jobs, being able to work from home and stuff like that. So this is probably a good experience and it’s so great that, well, like you said, he has a whole tech store, whole best buy inside is bedroom there per technology, that’s awesome that he has the technology, which encourages me to remind people who have youngsters, younger than Simon to have the versatility from a PC to Apple, from different devices because you never know what piece of device is going to be working best for you.
Maria Ceferatti:
Exactly. Yeah. That sort of breadth of knowledge, it can’t hurt. Yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
Especially with the Google Drives, a lot of high schools, I see a lot of them using the Google platform, the Google ecosystem through the elementary schools, K through 12. I don’t see it as much in the college situations, but I know businesses are, but I know that sometimes there’s some accessibility glitches, so it’s great that he’s able to advocate and work it out with his teachers that he can email the assignments and contact with them rather than going through that system.
Maria Ceferatti:
Yeah, and you’re right, Google is not 100% accessible, which gets frustrating sometimes. So, Simon sort of knows when he can… He utilizes it as much as he can, but he will reach out for her, I think this week he even called Aira to help him get through a Google glitch and he was really excited about that. He was just thrilled that he used that virtual assistant aside from asking me or his dad, it was nice that he knew that there were other avenues to get help.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s the thing about being independent. He didn’t even have to open up his bedroom door and boom, there it was. He had an agent come in, help him out and he moved on. Great.
Maria Ceferatti:
We should’ve shoved his dinner under the door and he would be good I think at this point.
Jeff Thompson:
I’m not getting involved in that. Well, that’s great. It’s great that he’s motivated, I think that’s one of the things I’ve always said about students is if they have a drive, you don’t really have to push them too far, they’ll take it and run with it. And I know Simon over the years, he’s always had a great drive so he’s doing a good job. You guys done a good job and it seems like you’re keeping up a good job here through these times.
Maria Ceferatti:
Oh, we are trying and I have to take my hat to you as well Jeff, really enjoys Blind Abilities, it’s opened up a world for him. Part of his leisure time in his room is getting on the Blind Abilities Community groups and listening to the podcast and stuff, that’s opened up a whole world for him. So I appreciate that.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, he is part of that world. He has been part of it since he was… Before his voice even broke he was part of it, so that was imp… I remember that day when he gave that speech at the school, all of a sudden Laurie and I were like, “Wait, his voice, it’s changed.”
Maria Ceferatti:
Exactly. Yeah, he sang a Barry White song at my sister’s wedding and that’s the moment I knew, I’m like, “Okay. He’s a baritone, it’s happening, it’s here. Yes.”
Jeff Thompson:
Well, it’s pretty impressive to hear that you’re doing music lessons through this technology that so many people, it’s brand new to them, reaching out and conducting classes. Is this something you’ve done before?
Maria Ceferatti:
No, not at all. As a matter of fact, as technologically advanced as Simon is, I am on the opposite end of the spectrum. I still use, believe it or not, a 2007 MacBook and Simon is appalled. He was like, “You need a new computer? When are you going to get a new computer? This is ridiculous.” Literally, I can’t even update the operating system anymore. It is kind of ridiculous. So I had to have a tutorial by my husband with Zoom and I often go to Simon for help with things that happen with my technology. So, it’s been a little bit exciting for me as a kind of a Luddite dinosaur to try out this new technology and it’s exciting and it’s working, so that’s even better. It’s great to see my students playing their instruments and to be able to continue and keep their musical lives consistent, at least during this kind of upheaval that we’re in.
Jeff Thompson:
I love the sound of the string instruments especially the cello, especially in movies when you’re here coming in the background, all the soundscapes, those are great instruments to be hearing.
Maria Ceferatti:
They are, they are. The thing that you and Simon need to invent though, what is tricky is I can’t rehearse my string ensemble because there’s a lag. So, we can’t all play at the same time. So right now I’m doing individual lessons, which works out fine, but I would love to rehearse the kids as a group and I can’t do that right now. So that’ll be next.
Jeff Thompson:
Is the lag intermittent, just way off.
Maria Ceferatti:
It’s off enough that it would be disturbing to try to rehearse everyone together-
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah.
Maria Ceferatti:
… Unless you had no sense of rhythm, then it would be fine.
Jeff Thompson:
Isn’t that jazz? No, I’m kidding.
Maria Ceferatti:
Ooh, ouch.
Jeff Thompson:
No. I know some jazz musicians who did this online and they played, but they found the timing difference. They timed it out and they would just play knowing where the other one is. I think that takes a lot of experience and a lot of… I couldn’t do that. I need to have the exact beat going right now.
Maria Ceferatti:
Yes. Those jazz guys and girls could definitely do that, that’s right up their alley. Yeah, I would imagine they would be able to do that, but not my fifth grade violin students would not be able to do that, no.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, great. Well Maria, I really want to thank you for coming on the Blind Abilities and talking about Simon and the experiences and the challenges that you guys are overcoming and I just want to wish all of you to stay well and stay informed and thank you.
Maria Ceferatti:
Oh my pleasure, Jeff. Like I said, we’re so grateful for the Blind Abilities Community and thanks for giving a voice to the parents that are going on this ride along with their students at home. I appreciate it.
Jeff Thompson:
What advice do you have for the parents?
Maria Ceferatti:
I mean, I’m trying to remind myself to stay patient throughout this whole ordeal because sometimes I will say I do get a little frustrated, especially when we are doing math and I want to help Simon, but I don’t know how to help him and when there are tech glitches that I’m not able to work through with him because of my lack of knowledge, I have to remind myself to stay patient, that it’s not Simon’s fault that all of this is happening and it’s not my fault. It’s just the way it is and we all have to kind of work through it as best we can. So yeah, I guess patience is the best word to describe the strategy of this thing.
Jeff Thompson:
I’m putting together a few links and stuff and one of them that I came across today that I thought was very interesting, it was called the National Homework Hotline for BVIs and actually you can call in or you can email in and the respondents are TVI’s, tutors, STEM students and college students that respond to this list basically that they put together in a hotline. So, I’ll put the link in the show notes for any other parents that are listening. It might be something useful if you have a question that you could connect up with a TVI out there.
Maria Ceferatti:
That’s fantastic. We will be calling them today when we are doing algebra homework. I will be excited to see that link.
Jeff Thompson:
All right.
Maria Ceferatti:
There is one other piece that I wanted to mention that I forgot to talk about and that is the daily living skills that we’re able to work in because we have a little bit more flexible time now. I am trying to encourage Simon to be more independent in the house and he has chores and things like that, but now that we have a little more flexibility with our time, I’m trying to sort of expand those chores and those daily responsibilities and during the typical day when he’s actually in school and coming home and like I said, homework, dinner and just giving them some time to decompress, it’s been a challenge to keep those daily living skills consistent, like laundry, washing his dishes, taking out the trash, stuff like that. Sometimes, it can fall by the wayside just because of time constraint, but now that we’re all home all day, it’s easier to work those opportunities in.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great because we all know we need those as we go through. I got kids myself, so I know what it’s like. I don’t even think some of them know where the trash cans are kept, but I know they do, but sometimes I think they forget. So, that’s a good reminder. It’s great that you’re able to capitalize on these moments and Simon is going to be a good dorm roommate for someone someday.
Maria Ceferatti:
We’re working on it. Yeah. It’s a process. We’re never that perfect, but it’s a process. Yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great. Once again, thank you so much for taking the time and come on the Blind Abilities and you guys stay well.
Maria Ceferatti:
You too, Jeff. Thanks again.
Jeff Thompson:
A great big thanks to Maria for taking the time away from the family and sharing with all of us how they’re making it work during this unprecedented time. Be sure to check out all the latest podcasts from Blind Abilities. You can do it on the web, you can do it in the podcast app, any podcast of your choice. that’s two words, Blind Abilities and a big shout out goes out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music. On Twitter @LCheeChau, Chee Chau, Chee Chau. Want you to all stay well and stay informed. I want to thank you for listening and until next time, bye, bye.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:
Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com On Twitter @BlindAbilities
Download our app from the App store:
‘Blind Abilities’; that’s two words.
Or send us an e-mail at info@blindabilities.com
Thanks for listening.
send us an email at info@blindabilities.com.
Thanks for listening.
Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
To find your State Services in your State you can go to www.AFB.org and search the directory for your agency.
Contact:
Thank you for listening!
You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities
On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
Send us an email
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store.
Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired. and the Facebook group That Blind Tech Show.