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Ava Hansen is a renowned author, motivational speaker, and life coach with 25 years of experience. She is the head of The Eyes and Ears of Children organization, dedicated to ensuring children’s well-being. Ava is also a highly skilled spiritual healer, guiding individuals on their transformative journeys. With her expertise and passion, she empowers others to reach their full potential and live a purposeful life.
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— My story
How are the visually and hearing impaired learning and functioning as a child?
If you were watching the show in the 70’s, like myself, the blind school had dim lights in a concrete small building holding a rope all in a row to get to their rooms that is not exactly up to date! They only had Braille books. They didn’t pay $4,000 for a book. But I heard it takes a long time for them to be made. My neighbor told me she and her friends from church were making Braille books and it took them one page a day! (I also heard that’s a bit slow). Today in modern times, they have to learn modern technology designed for the handicapped. Such as BARD which can be used to download books instantly. There is a currency reader that announces a note’s value. It’s called, “free bill reader device” to those who are blind or visually impaired so they know what dollar amount is handed to them. There is even a scanner for their prescriptions to be filled and sent to the pharmacy. By the way, the children K-12 live in “cottages”, which are dorm rooms they live in. It’s a very spread out campus with about 25-40 kids. What they don’t have sometimes they have to run across the street at the high school to borrow.
NLS is the National Service for easy access to talking books.This is also beneficial for physical, perceptual, or reading disabilities in high quality sound. NLS circulates books and magazines in Braille or audio formats instantly downloaded. There is speed control and with that can download even more than one book. The formats can go right to a USB Flash device. These players even have rechargeable batteries.
For more insight of the visually impaired and hearing loss, headphones, switches, remote controls…They are only supplied to eligible persons or loans.
There are BARD Mobile Apps with iOS devices.
EBRAILLE EQIPMENT is still keeping up with the rest of us, just in a way they can learn and understand.
One computer allows a person to magnify the screen of a laptop. AccessWorld is a magazine of the American Foundation of the Blind. (AFB)
Now WHAT ABOUT THE CONTREVERSY???
For one, it’s leading these victims of severe handicapped children and adults, to illiteracy. A lot of the handicap are used to reading Braille with their fingers on pages of a book. They don’t want high technology just like some of us NOT handicapped. I, myself am not very tech savvy and it’s because it can be overwhelming. Right when I think I figured something out, there’s something newer. There was no social media, apps, this and that…. Can you imagine how it is for the kids? There are the students who use a BrailleNote laptop. Some students can’t get one.
How much does all that equipment cost? The visially impaired technology costs thousands of dollars. If there isn’t the basic and workable Braille how are the students going to learn to read a book like some have said they wish they can do? This also goes for any adult out there who goes through the same issues. It’s pretty complex. There is no insurance that can pay for all that the visually impaired people need! It’s heartbreaking!
Right now there are 10 million people in the US with a visual handicap. It’s a total of 34 billion dollars to help. They need these devices! Congress is the one who is hesitant to require this new technology.
That is only one part of your visually impaired story.
THERE IS MORE TO LEARN which most don’t know about.
There are almost forty schools in the US. What are they like? Do they live there? What’s a day in the life of some student like? None of us would do except for their families and friends. There is a lot wrong I’d like to bring attention to because the children K-12 have enough hardship to go through.
Do they get service dogs? How much do they cost? Some charities do donate dogs, however there is a reason why little kids don’t have them. One school in which some students live on campus, they don’t have enough laptops! Come on, people. Someone is taking donations. The donations go through the state. There are other nonprofits out there, but there is an increase of blind and deaf people around the world. India has the most! I don’t know why.
I’m not saying the state is taking away the money. It’s that the school children don’t have enough supplies. They have a swimming pool with merky water that has been unfixed for a long time. It’s depriving the children a fun enjoyable activity. There are no paddles or toys to swim with. They do that without seeing either. How are they going to swim in a straight line?
The Montana State School for the Blind and Deaf has a stage they’d like to perform on for them playing instruments for concerts and drama plays, but it will take $80,000 to build correctly having it prepped for the blind. They need a ramp, and other gadgets so they can find where to stand without falling off. The school doesn’t have enough for that either. I have spoken to the Superintendent there and also a business manager who both described different frustrating problems. Right now the country is trying to help the housing issue due to economy. But these children who would be absolutely helpless if they didn’t have their good parents to help or some equipment to do homework on.
Imagine closing your eyes. Try to walk all around your house and see what you run in to? What would it be like to know how to get to the kitchen for snacks, or washing dishes, finding everything… It was dark the other night in the hallways and I couldn’t find the light switch I ran right into a tall wooden bar stool and bashed my head against it causing me a bloody lip! That was just walking ten feet. Imagine how much the blind especially have to depend on so much help to get around. Each person doesn’t have a service dog and they are thousands of dollars, also. I will say that there are many impaired people who can be completely functionable and get around just fine.
What is the answer about doing this in a better way to contribute???
What I think I am going to set up is, “Adopt a parent/impaired child”. They are Parents barely hanging on and running up credit cards just to keep their kid in 12 years of special schooling. Then the graduates have to stay in their own apartment on campus so they can learn to live on their own. This way the person wanting to send money it goes directly to the parent to help with all the costs they have strived to keep paying. All we would need are 40 generous donations and it could change everyone’s lives for the better.
Since I am a promoter and a go-getter loyal child advocate of many kinds, I am going to expose this news and wake-up call. There are Wounded Warriors, The dogs in rusty old cages that we hate seeing. There’s St. Judes for cancer kids. Both of THOSE funds aren’t exactly what you think they are. So watch your money. We even see, “Adopt a kid in Africa” eating pourage. Who gets THAT money?
The next time we say, “I’m having a bad day.” Ask yourself, “Compared to what???”
My surprises soon!!! I have a plan and I will let the cat out of the bag soon!
Thanks for reading. There are other schools that are more impoverished than Great Falls, MT. Some might be better. If you want to read about them you can look them up online.
Remember, YOU make a dry run and close your eyes for ten minutes to see how well you get along. The blind students go 24 hours a day.
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