Nevada Blind Children's Foundation

Among these are 3D pictures of sound that converts spatial information into acoustic maps and actually help the blind to see. Then there’s the Haptic Reader – a device placed onto a book that converts the text to Braille.

And speaking of Braille, Samsung has introduced a concept for a Braille phone, enabling calling and text messaging, while B-Touch now has a touch screen display for Braille which doubles as a book reader and object recognizer.

The list continues, so take a look and try to remind yourself that you’re not in a science fiction novel. Here are 12 of the most innovative inventions that are developing right now.

With childhood obesity on the rise, video games might not seem like the most obvious solution to improving health in young Americans. Well, that statement may not apply to blind children, who unfortunately suffer from a much higher obesity rate due to the physical barriers that a lack of vision presents.

Enter Vi Fit, the brainchild of University of Nevada’s Human-Computer Interaction Research Team. Vi Fit is tailored to help blind children become more physically active, by modifying traditional Nintendo Wii fit games so that they no longer require visual feedback.

Vi Tennis and bowling will be the first games made available to visually-impaired kids, complete with audio cues as well as handset vibrations that will enable the player to follow along without sight.

The team hopes to follow up with other games, as well as continuing research on other types of exercise interactions for the blind.

Check out more sweet stuff here.

In society today we frequently hear the phrase “special needs” when it comes to children with disabilities. Although some might view that term simply as a broad euphemism, others view it as something much more. Children with disabilities are special in the sense that they deserve our attention and care. As for needs? Well don’t we all have needs?

Musical talent and blindness have often been thought to be linked – and now there’s proof in the form of new research.

So here’s the great news…

New research suggests musical talent and vision impairment are closely linked. High-profile and brilliant blind musicians such as Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Andrea Bocelli have long caused people to wonder if there is a link between music and blindness. Now Professor Adam Ockelford, a musician and visiting research fellow at the Institute of Education, London, has some solid evidence. He and his research team surveyed and visited visually impaired children who had been premature babies, at home and at school. Working with around 40 blind children, as well as surveying parents, teachers and music therapists, the study showed that blind children are 4,000 times more likely to have perfect pitch – a traditional marker of exceptional musical ability – than their fully sighted peers. 4,000 times more likely? Wow, that’s pretty incredible!

Click here to read the full article and learn more about others with amazing musical talent!

The U.S. Senate passed the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (S. 3304) on August 5, 2010, by unanimous consent! Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of advocates across the country and in Washington, DC, the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), of which the NAD is a leader and steering committee member along with other disability organizations, secured a monumental step forward in accessible technology. Earlier this week, Senator Pryor (D-AR) introduced an amendment to improve S. 3304. S. 3304, as amended, was passed by U.S. Senate by unanimous consent. Like H.R. 3101, which was passed on July 26, 2010, S. 3304 will also:

• Require captioned television programs to be captioned when delivered over the Internet.
• Authorize the FCC to require 7 hours per week of video description on the top 4 network channels and top 5 cable channels nationwide.
• Allocate up to $10 million per year for equipment used by individuals who are deaf-blind.
• Require televised emergency information to be accessible to individuals who are blind or have low vision.
• Require accessible advanced communications equipment and services, such as text messaging and e-mail.
• Require access to Internet services that are built-in to mobile telephone devices, like smart phones, if achievable.
• Require devices of any size to be capable of displaying closed captioning, delivering available video description, and making emergency information accessible.
• Require accessible user controls for televisions and set-top boxes, and easy access to closed captioning and video description.
• And more.

S. 3304 will now go to the House of Representatives. Our coalition, COAT, supports and expects the House will pass S. 3304 soon. Job well done, everyone! Like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 20 years ago, we are making history now!

We are so excited that the Act passed and recognize this as a significant period and step forward for the visually impaired. We only hope for future endeavors such as the COAT Act as we are making history now!

To read the full article and get more information, click here.

This week we are featuring one of our star students, Jaime Esparza. Jaime is a 16 year old native of Las Vegas, who isn’t your typical high school teenager. As a junior at Shadow Ridge High School, he enjoys the same activities most other teenagers do, such as hanging out with friends, playing guitar, and hitting baseballs. So what makes him so unique?

Jaime is an active participant in the Nevada Blind Children’s Foundation (NBCF). Jaime confidently states, “I am a teenager who is visually impaired and can do anything that anyone else can.” And he means that– recently Jaime has been organizing dinner parties for the NBCF all by himself, in order to benefit other members of the Foundation (The next dinner is to be held on August 18^th at TGI Friday’s). When asked why he does this, Jaime replies: “I realized how much they do for me, I thought if they help me I should help them in return.”

This is the attitude Jaime has taken as he calls TGI Friday’s every month and organizes a time for the NBCF to gather together and enjoy good food and company. “I like to be charitable towards other people because I liked being helped,” says Jaime. “It makes me happy to help others.” Jaime is certainly a highly motivated teenager; he thanks his mother and father for that. “They have proved to me that you can do anything you set your mind to, no matter what… they are the most important thing because they support me and care about me.”

Although Jaime is a typically happy teenager, he does have his fair share of challenges. When asked about these challenges, Jaime states with radiant positivity, “I try to overcome my challenges.” And he certainly does. Like Jaime said earlier, “I can do anything that anyone else can.”

Thank you Jaime, we appreciate you and everything you do! We look forward to seeing Jaime and everyone else at the benefit night on August 18^th, at TGIF (4570 West Sahara Avenue Las Vegas, NV, 89102).

Another piece of recent news that we found quite exciting, the new ideas seem very well

NEW YORK and BOSTON (July 21, 2010)—The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and the Perkins School for the Blind announced today that they have joined forces to ensure the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) is taught in mainstream schools. The groups will be undertaking an aggressive education effort to include the ECC in the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the law that guarantees services to children with disabilities throughout the country. IDEA is scheduled to be up for reauthorization in 2011. As part of the campaign, AFB and Perkins will be launching a new advocacy website (www.ECCAdvocacy.org) that will host online discussion forums on issues related to ECC and provide links to online resources. The site will serve as the central point for dissemination of information on the campaign, and will give readers information on how to support this key effort.

“At Perkins, we are reminded every day just how life-changing it is to teach students with visual impairments everything from how to use technology, to how to get around, to how to interact socially with friends,” said Steven M. Rothstein, President of Perkins School for the Blind. “Sighted children learn these skills through visual cues and mirroring, but children with visual impairments need to be taught these skills through other methods.”

The expanded core curriculum has been taught in schools for blind and visually impaired children for decades, but is not fully incorporated into the curriculum in mainstream schools. It combines the general core curriculum for all students with a specialized program designed to meet the disability-specific needs of students with visual impairments. The areas it covers include:

• compensatory or functional academic skills, including communication modes
• orientation and mobility
• social interaction skills
• independent living skills
• recreation and leisure skills
• career education
• use of assistive technology
• sensory efficiency skills
• self-determination

“We are determined to make sure all children with visual impairments have access to the same opportunities as their sighted peers, and have the tools and knowledge necessary to thrive in the classroom, the workforce and everyday life,” said Carl R. Augusto, President & CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. “The ECC has been developed and supported by the field and taught in Schools for the Blind for many years; it is time to make sure all students who are blind or visually impaired are taught these crucial skills.”

We found this statement from Paul Schroeder (Vice President of Programs and Policy for the American Foundation for the Blind) to be great news.

Washington, DC (July 21, 2010)—Today, less than a week away from the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the House Energy & Commerce Committee approved H.R. 3101. This measure, also known as the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, updates our nation’s communications laws to ensure that new technologies are accessible to people with disabilities.

In addition to Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the original sponsor and champion of this legislation, we applaud Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va), Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) for leading this bipartisan effort. Once signed into law, this legislation will dramatically improve the lives of the more than 25 million Americans with vision loss by ensuring expanded access to the technologies of the 21st century, including television, the Internet, and smart phones.

H.R. 3101 will:

• Restore and expand requirements for video description of television programs, in addition to requiring cable companies to make their program guides and selection menus accessible to people with vision loss.
• Mandate mobile phone companies to make web browsers, text messaging, and e-mail on smart phones fully accessible.
• Ensure people with vision loss have access to emergency broadcast information.
• Provide $10 million in funding each year for assistive technology for deaf-blind individuals.

We expect the House to take up the bill next Monday on the 20th anniversary of the ADA. This will be a fitting commemoration of this landmark law—often called the Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities. Once passed, we will implore the Senate to promptly pass H.R. 3101.

One of the ways we get everyone together here are the Nevada Blind Children’s Foundation is with sporting events. One of our favorites is beep baseball, a national sport that levels the playing field for sighted and blind players with blindfolds and a ball that beeps. Here’s some more rules you might want to know:

• There is no second base, just first and third bases, four foot padded cylinders with speakers, that are placed one-hundred feet down their respective lines and ten feet outside the foul line.
• A batter is allowed four strikes and one pass ball. The fourth swing must be a clean miss.
• The bases contain sounding units that give off a buzzing sound when activated. The batter does not know which one will be turned on.
• When the ball is hit, the base operator activates one of the bases. The runner must identify the correct buzzing base and run to it before the ball is fielded by a defensive player.
• A ball that travels 170 feet in the air is considered a home run, worth two points as long as the batter makes it to the buzzing base in 30 seconds.

Pretty cool, huh? You can read more rules here. Study up, and maybe we will see you at our next event.