Podcast Summary:
Get ready to explore, experiment, and own the kitchen! In this exciting episode of Blind Abilities, Jeff Thompson visits the Ready, Set, Prep program at State Services for the Blind of Minnesota—a hands-on class designed for blind and visually impaired students to learn cooking and life skills in a fully accessible kitchen. From learning how to shred chicken, use the oven, or master kitchen gadgets like garlic presses and rice cookers, students are not only building skills but gaining confidence, independence, and community. Led by rehabilitation teacher Kia Sadler and Pre-ETS counselor Kate Larson, the program is about more than food—it’s about teamwork, creativity, and realizing that you can take the lead in your own kitchen. Hear from students who share their favorite recipes, learning moments, and how they’re already impressing their families at home. This is where blind youth cook up confidence—one recipe at a time!
To find out more about the services provided at State Services for the Blind, and what they can do for you, contact Shane DeSantis at shane.desantis@state.mn.us or call Shane at 651-385-5205.
Full Transcript
[Music]
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson. Ready Set Prep. It’s a program for pre-eds taught by rehabilitation teachers. And it’s held at State Services for the Blind of Minnesota. As part of their Evolve VR initiative, they created a kitchen, an accessible kitchen that rehabilitation teachers can utilize to teach students. And in that kitchen, there’s microwave, oven, stove top, dishwasher, air fryer, mixers, the whole ball of wax and a refrigerator of course. Everything that you would expect to find in a regular kitchen at home is all there.
The only difference is there’s a couple bump dots, tactile bumps that they put on strategically, like on the 250, 350, 450 spot on the oven setting, the on off buttons, and some buttons on the microwave, dishwasher as well.
Adjoining this room is a big open area with some tables, some high tables, some low tables with chairs sitting around. That’s where I noticed that the students, when they arrive, sit down at those tables and they start chattering and they just fill the room with chatter. They also use it to go check out recipes and to do some minor mixing of ingredients, depending on the size of the groups.
And just off that room is a accessible washer and dryer as well. And this was designed so rehabilitation teachers can bring in groups of people to do training.
And I was fortunate enough to be there on their last day and they were gonna make cookies.
Kia Sadler, a rehabilitation teacher, and Kate Larson, a pre-eds counselor at State Services for the Blind, were leading the show. And I was curious, so I went right into the kitchen and asked Kate Larson, how did Ready, Set Prep get started?
Kate Larson:
Ready, Set Prep began as my desire to work with Kia more closely. I was able to see how empowering and how confidence building the skills were to a young person. Also, the importance, as so many of our students are maybe the only low vision or blind student in their school, being able to be with other young people in an empowering space where this is their kitchen to explore, this is theirs to really take ownership and responsibility over. Where they might have really thoughtful and caring and loving families that are used to cleaning up the table after kitchen or are used to anticipating their needs, whereas they’re getting out all the ingredients, they’re putting all of the responsibility with a lot of latitude. I think having a space where they got to learn together and explore
Student 2:
This one? or this one.
[SOUND OF MIXER RUNNING]
Kate:
Perfect, You got this.
Kate:
I also just think having a sense of community while learning something new is just a really empowering space.
Student 6:
I make banana cookies with two ingredients and they turn out better than these.
Kate:
Okay, so there’s some recipe talk in this group.
Student 1:
I make banana bread.
Student 2:
My mom makes the best banana bread I’ve ever had.
Kia:
So what kind of things like if you guys were to be in charge of running a class like this, what kind of things do you guys want to see happen?
Student 3:
Eggs.
Student 1:
That would be cool.
Student 6:
I work with eggs a lot.
Student 4:
Like every group does a different egg.
Student 3:
Just to fry a single egg.
Student 5:
Yeah.
Student 3:
That’s such a useful skill. Or like making just the basics like eggs, rice, potatoes.
Student 6:
I make a Korean dish that’s called Kimbap.
Student 2:
I would want to make rice balls.
Kate:
Rice balls, yum.
Student 6:
I like spicy food.
Student 5:
Spicy fried chicken.
Kate:
Like I might use a frying pan to cook eggs at my house, but someone else might use it in entirely different ways to make a bread that I don’t even know what it is. And so you learn so much about your community and your broader world through cooking in a way that I think is really expansive. And I certainly learned from the group.
There were six languages spoken among the students. There’s so much that they had in common and so much that they brought to one another. And so I think the opportunity to teach in a group was certainly one that we learned a lot. I learned a lot in teaching in community, but also I think they ideally made community as they learned these skills.
Kia: Are we ready?
Kate:
I think so.
Kia:
What is the first thing we got to do before we start cooking guys?
Student 5:
(Pre-heat.
Kia:
Before that.
Student6:
Wash hands.
Kia:
Thank you. All right, let’s go.
Student 3:
And for me, put a blindfold on.
Kate:
If you want, you are welcome to do training shades. Anyone is welcome.
Kia:
And explaining as to the why, especially these are your students that you saw such a need for that connection and for the skills building and how important it really is.
Kate: Yeah.
Kia: And it was just really fascinating to kind of just hear them interact with one another and just kind of like helping each other.
Kate:
Yes.
Kia:
We really emphasize communicating with one another in a small space
Kate:
Right
Kia:
And they did that naturally without really struggling to do so like happening amongst people.
Washing hands SOUNDS]
Student 2:
And the entire stick of butter, right?
Kate: Perfect. You got this.
Kate:
And as much as we’re joking about the cookies not turning out great today, I think learning and problem solving.
Student 3:
Add more like sweeteners or they’re like too thick.
Kate
Oh, is it not sweet?
Student 3:
No. It’s not very sweet. No.
Kate:
I love how critical you are. This is so good. This is such a good skill as a baker. Like what a great thing to learn without the pressure of maybe wanting to do it right in your own house. Like you get to make mistakes here.
Kia:
This is the perfect environment to ask that the cookies. I’m glad because they were so self-aware and in a sense, critical of themselves. And that’s how you become a good cook.
Kate:
For sure.
Kia:
You recognize that even though they might not have very many cooking skills, they’re recognizing, hey, this does not taste right. This either needs to be cooked longer or whatever it was. I mean, done a lot of stuff. I mean, this is only a four series class that we had and the first time was just learning about different tools in the kitchen and exploring the kitchen space. And then our second class, we had a no heat prep lunch. So they learned all about spreading
Kate:
and washing different ingredients
Kia:
And making their own sandwiches and they had to learn how to shred a chicken?
Kate:
Yeah that was the second class.
Kia:
Yeah that was the second class. So we started them right in and so they had like a rotisserie chicken that they had to learn the different pieces of the chicken and learn about shredding the chicken and whether or not to keep the skin and learning that the chicken is tied up with the cooking twine and how to untie that and throw that away and so they learned quite a bit and then our third class was adding heat to it so they made them English muffin pizzas in the oven.
So they learned all about oven safety and all that fun stuff and then today was using the oven again and making a recipe, a cookie from scratch which by the way is really really tough.
Kate: Totally
Kia:
And I was saying to Kate this is not something that I would definitely jump the individual student into. Like okay now you learn how to use the oven you’re gonna make a cookie from scratch like you don’t you know but this is just to give them a taste because they have such varying skill levels and it’s really good for them to work with one another. So I really think that group instruction is so important.
I’m really glad that there is like we have a kitchen here now for those that maybe the kitchen space in their homes is not the most accessible for them.
Kate:
Yes
Kia:
You know or parents aren’t the most comfortable with them.
Kate:
For sure.
Kia:
That’s totally okay because these skills are transferable.
Student 3:
Yeah we’re gonna turn it on high speed. Okay. Alright hands up. Okay. It’s on.
[BLENDER SOUNDS]
Kate:
I’m curious have you talked to your family about what you’ve been doing in class?
Student 5:
My mom asks twenty four seven so even if I don’t want to talk about it I have to.
Student 2:
My older sibling will be like okay and you’re gonna tell me all about what you learned today.
Speaker 5:
Oh no.
Student 3:
Why? So. You know how to cook I’m so proud.
Kate:
So are they asking you all to make more stuff in the kitchen?
Student 2:
Actually yes. My dad fried up the peppers that I cooked before this time.
Kia and Kate (together):
Nice.
Kia:
For a first time go I learned a lot about the timing and just kind of working with students with having different skills. One of the biggest things I learned is that we need more time. Two hours is definitely not enough but it’s hard to fit the student schedules in along with this class.
But I think one of the things that Kate and I noticed is that you know having that social connection really is so important and learning like these skills while being social has been so beneficial.
The first class was so quiet and then by the end of that class everyone was chit-chattering so having that time built in for just kind of social interaction and just kind of learning in a slower pace will be I think something that I incorporate the next time we do this again.
It definitely taught me that a lot of our students really do need this program and just they talked about wanting to learn more practical dishes. This class was really meant to be very very intro very basic. Talking about reading packaging and not like just learning how to make a no-heat lunch to learning how to spread and one of the bigger things I really wanted them to get comfortable with was looking for items.
So a lot of times what I’ve been seeing is students not going into their family fridge or into the cupboards to get themselves things and that was a big part of this program was having them search the kitchen for things and having them finding things and they learned a lot about different gadgets and different like a garlic press or what is a scooper what is a spatula what is a frying pan what is the difference between a frying pan and a saucepan what is a colander.
And then we had like a smell like the first class we had a smelling and touching game so they had like different things they had to learn about like what is a sweet potato what is a potato what is an onion garlic all these different produces and different like how do we tell like what’s in this can if we cannot read the label.
And it gave me a lot of insight as to where the students each and every one of them were in regards to even just the their adjustment to vision loss so that was really important to nail down.
Hey there are non-visual skills that you can learn when you you can’t see what’s on the label or even if you can how would someone how would your friend who couldn’t see the label figure that out.
So that’s why we had everyone sniffing the cinnamon and talking about the salt and the pepper and that the salt is heavier than the pepper and that there are non-visual ways to figure out these things.
So I think overall it being our first class that we ran having two hours I think that it went really well.
One of the things I really want to focus next time is also besides cooking and stuff like that is the cleanup. So but I think I think it went really well.
Student 5:
Half cup of butter?
Student 3:
Exactly
Student 5: I’ve got the shortening.
Mixing SOUNDS]
Jeff Thompson:
I really enjoyed being at the ready-set prep program. This was the fourth class of four classes two hours a piece and it was the inaugural class that Kia and Kate put on.
I think just witnessing the students’ confidence as they learned and as I heard how they grew from the first class to the fourth class, It’s a wonderful class for them to have an opportunity to get a taste of the experience of cooking and to learn how to make ovens and microwaves accessible just by placing tactile dots in certain locations.
They learned from Kia and Kate they learned from each other and I imagine now that they got a taste of it they’ll keep on learning and hopefully they’ll teach their parents that they too can participate in the cooking at home.
So whether you’re a student a parent or a teacher and you’re interested in learning more about cooking from SSB let them know. Give SSB a call, talk to your counselor ask your teacher and find out what your State Services for the Blind can do for you.
[Music]
Jeff:
To find out more about all the programs at State Services for the Blind, contact shane.desantis at state.mn.us that’s s-h-a-n-e.d-e-s-a-n-t-i-s at state.mn.us.
Jeff:
Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your Voc Rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed.
[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