February 2017

As Trevor explains, he’s been “cubing” for years, figuring out better and faster ways to solve the Rubik’s Cube. Working out how to make the Cube tactile and using all that he’s already learned to solve it nonvisually is just a part of solving the blindness puzzle for Trevor – of taking charge and living the life he wants!

Oh yes, we’re big on Braille here at CCB, because it is fundamental to literacy for blind people and has high correlations with successful employment of blind adults. Our camera man Mike stopped by one of Jen’s classes recently and collected this video.

The pond at nearby Sterne Park usually has a fair share of Canada Geese and Mallards, and today was no exception as the group walked the path this morning.

Birding by Ear started up again today with a visit from Ali Mayes of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. Though it was warm, not a great variety of birds are around in February.

We were delighted to have a visit from 2016 alum Peter Slatin, who is also now on our Board of Directors. Peter was in Colorado for Ski for Light and spent a few days in Denver afterward. He dropped in on art class and took up the Sensational Blackboard to do some experimenting with paper textures. That was Tuesday afternoon, and on Wednesday he returned to the Center to conduct Philosophy Class.

We were pleased to have three professionals from Blind Low Vision Services, part of Colorado’s Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) at the Center for training this week. We spent four days together exploring every topic we could think of, including cane travel and cooking under sleepshades. We’ll let them introduce themselves and the meal they cooked on Tuesday for themselves and our staff involved with the training. For the record, it was top shelf, and so are they!

The day didn’t go uncelebrated. The Seniors had a Valentine’s party (there are rumors of romance there). Even ITP got into the act with Valentine’s cookies to mark “National Singles Day”?

We were pleased to host usability testing of Dominion’s electronic voting system on February 13 and 14. Students, staff, seniors and alums took the system for a spin and provided feedback to Dominion’s engineers. We’re especially excited to partner on this project because Dominion will provide electronic voting systems to every county in Colorado for the next 7 or so years. What we share with them will be reflected in our nonvisual accessible voting for a good long while, and we applaud their effort to get our feedback!

CG admits she’d done very little cooking before starting her training at the Center. Now she enjoys it, enjoys sharing with friends. Watch how calm she is as she prepares her mini-meal for 15 guests.