RE: jfw for the blind or visually impaired

  • From: "Kimsan Song" <kimsansong@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:34:29 -0700

Gary:

I'm not going to touch on the comment for qualified individuals conducting
evaluations... I'm just the jaws teacher for the students and not the
evaluator and no worries I wasn't offended.

Based on: "The only valid reason for teaching JFW to students who can use
enlarged text efficiently is that their vision loss is expected to increase
in the near future, and they need to be prepared for this eventuality."

I can say from the information I have gathered from meetings and what the
teachers for the blind told me, a couple of my students vision are "stable"
and not expected to get worse to warrant jaws training seeing as its the
screen reader of choice.

Marie, as far as strain is concerned, I have noticed anything under 28 pt
font the students strain but at 28, the students are reading fluently,
coharently and not one letter at a time.

Adrian, as far as watching attitudes change, leading fulfilling lives and
accomplishing many things,  that is what its about for these blind and
visually-impaired students I work with. This is why I posted this topic
concerning jaws and the "criteria" to meet in order to "qualify" for jaws
training, only to get opinions which I appreciate and you did not leave a
negative impression. I always enjoy reading all of your posts.

If the students are able to make it without a screen reader such as jaws or
any other and will be fine using a magnification program I would hate to
waste their time providing services using jaws when its not needed but the
powers that be think different.

Bottomline is I do not want to be a dissurvice to the students and want all
of my students to succeed but until then I will provide jaws training until
I am told different.

Thankyou all to who have contributed to this discussion.

Have a great night.

 

 

 

 

From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Gary King
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 7:11 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: jfw for the blind or visually impaired

 

Kimsan,

Apparently, there aren't any qualified people in your area doing assistive
technology evaluations for your students.  The only valid reason for
teaching JFW to students who can use enlarged text efficiently is that their
vision loss is expected to increase in the near future, and they need to be
prepared for this eventuality.  In any case, they should be evaluated with
the various types of assistive technology to see what best meets their
needs.

 

Gary King

w4wkz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Kimsan Song <mailto:kimsansong@xxxxxxxxxxx>  

To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 7:29 PM

Subject: RE: jfw for the blind or visually impaired

 

Mike:

Thankyou for your input.

I am aware of the several magnification programs that exist but it seems as
if the powers that be are pushing for jaws training with my visually
impaired students and I think jaws will not be a good idea because the
students are mouse users using 28 pt font.

I just finished explaining to someone off list that I am just suppose to
teach jaws to my middle and high schoolers and if I even bring up screen
magnification programs or any other screen reader, it would just be shot
down.

Back to the original inquory, it seems as if jaws is for the blind (which I
knew so don't laugh at me) I just get confused when the teachers for the
blind are having me teach jaws to students who depend and work with the
mouse.

Thankyou.

 

From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of mike grove
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 4:40 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: jfw for the blind or visually impaired

 

 there are a number of different kinds of software for visually impaired
use.  jaws is by far the best screen reader i have found for an individual
that can nolonger read the print inspite of size. there are some products
that magnify the screen.  One in particular is zoom text. i am now blind,
but for the last thirty years i could see enough to still read larger print.
Now that i can't, i have switched to jaws.  those are just a few of the
options.  i am sure that there are more.  i hope this was of some help for
u.  

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Kimsan Song <mailto:kimsansong@xxxxxxxxxxx>  

To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 6:18 PM

Subject: jfw for the blind or visually impaired

 

Hello:

I wanted to post this here seeing as this mailing list gets lots of
traffick.

My question is concerning the use of jaws and is the "screen" reader mainly
used for completely blind individuals or partially sighted individuals?

I am not a teacher for the blind, so it is interesting to me when a person
is told due to his or her "lack of vision" jaws will be reccomended. So, the
question raised here is where would a persons vision need to be at in order
to use jaws? If someone can read 20 point font or higher would jaws be
necessary?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Take care.

 

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