Take Charge with Confidence and Self-Reliance

Category: Computer and Adaptive Technology

  • Turning the Tables: CCB Role Reversal Day 2022

    by

    Dan Burke

    A standing woman gestures to the room of seated fellow students as she talks

    Students from every continent and every epoch imagine, even if only idly, of someday, somehow turning the tables on their teachers. Likely they don’t realize until they have done it, that their teachers also may see such a reversal as an opportunity to return the torment.

    That’s partly the story of Role Reversal Day 2022, held on Friday, February 4. Hand it to the leadership of the CCB Student Association for organizing carefully and thoroughly, putting staff into groups and planning the schedule, even reviewing lesson plans from each ”teacher of the day.” This is the group, remember, that collected necessary items for the NICU babies when Avista Adventist Hospital was forced to evacuate during the December, 30 Marshall Fire in Boulder County.… Read the rest “Turning the Tables: CCB Role Reversal Day 2022”

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  • Seniors Are in Charge and In-person This Week at CCB!

    by

    Dan Burke

    a blind instructor talks with his student, a senior woman as they walk with white canes along a residential street

    a blind instructor talks with his student, a senior woman as they walk with white canes along a residential street
    Dishon and Olive on the return leg of a travel lesson near the center. Seniors in Charge this year was blessed with lovely fall days.

    For the first time in two years, our week-long Seniors in Charge is live and in-person at the Colorado Center for the Blind! These four dynamic and intrepid older blind folks have been waiting since spring of 2020 to get five full days of blindness training in Braille, technology, cane travel and kitchen skills, and they are determined to get the most out of this opportunity to spend quality time with our Senior staff! Duncan, Chris, Stephanie and Dishon are not disappointing them with long, and at times, intensive training every day.… Read the rest “Seniors Are in Charge and In-person This Week at CCB!”

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  • Happy Holidays! Thanks to All of You, Lives Change at the Colorado Center for the Blind

    by

    Dan Burke

    Three young students stand in front of a medical vehicle, all wearing Santa hats

    Three young students stand in front of a medical vehicle, all wearing Santa hats
    Caption: Cristian, Shyanne and Kelly stand in front of the medical vehicle at South Suburban Fire and Rescue Station #12 on December 16. They had just delivered a box of holiday cookies and treats baked by students to on-duty fire fighters. In turn, fire fighters showed students one of the trucks and the medical vehicle. The three students assisted in delivering treats to Littleton Police, where they met Chief Doug Stephens, as well as other officials. It is an annual tradition, our way of thanking the community that is the home of the Colorado center for the Blind.

    We’re celebrating the holidays, and we hope you are too!… Read the rest “Happy Holidays! Thanks to All of You, Lives Change at the Colorado Center for the Blind”

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  • Meet Adama, a Disability-rights Champion from Sierra Leone

    by

    Dan Burke

    Adama sitting at the table in the travel lobby with her phone and her slate and stylus.

    For the past three weeks, we’ve been delighted to have Adama Conteh as a special student at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Adama is from Sierra Leone, a country of about 6 million in West Africa. She has been in the U.S. under the sponsorship of Hope International, which has provided Adama with training at their headquarters in Tennessee, and transportation to Colorado to attend the Center for these three weeks.

    You don’t have to talk to Adama more than a couple of minutes to understand that she is a disability rights and women’s rights advocate at her core.… Read the rest “Meet Adama, a Disability-rights Champion from Sierra Leone”

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  • Technology Giveaway in Memory of Former Summer Student, Staffer Megan Bening

    by

    Dan Burke

    Grinning, Megan shows the Apple watch on her wrist to the camera

    We want to tell people about the Megan Bening Memorial Fund Technology Giveaway by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children (NOPBC) because it will put over $10,000 of technology into the hands of blind and low vision students. But we also want to tell you about it because Megan Bening was one of our own.

    Megan Bening was a summer student at the Colorado Center for the Blind in 2009.

    “She had such a spark,” said Director Julie Deden. “That’s why we were so excited to have her back as a summer staff member.”

    Megan came back to teach technology to our summer students in 2015.… Read the rest “Technology Giveaway in Memory of Former Summer Student, Staffer Megan Bening”

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  • Soldering wires nonvisually is .. well, a BLAST! @BlackbyrdFly @COSpaceGrant

    by

    Dan Burke

    Jamie talks to Maddie while she works with a breadboard

    Jamie talks to Maddie while she works with components on a breadboard

    Somebody had to do it. So Jamie Principato decided she would take the skills she’d learned and taught herself as a blind Physics student involved with a Colorado Space Grant rocket project and teach them to other blind students. That’s where the idea of BLAST came from – Blind Learning All Skills Too launched on August 10 with the express purpose of teaching other blind people the skill of soldering small electronic devices, the precursors of instruments like those Principato and other students at Arapahoe Community College (ACC) built earlier to send high into the Earth’s atmosphere.

    Naturally, we were excited to host the BLAST project’s first-ever soldering and circuitry workshop for blind participants.… Read the rest “Soldering wires nonvisually is .. well, a BLAST! @BlackbyrdFly @COSpaceGrant”

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  • A Farewell Wave to Our Alabama Friend

    by

    Dan Burke

    a woman wearing sleep shades uses her cane to maneuver in the Travel Lobby.

    We want to give a farewell wave to Jessica Edmiston, who spent Monday through Thursday here at the Center, not just observing, but working under sleep shades all week, going to classes with student mentors and working on the basics of Braille, Assistive Technology, cooking and travel. And as it happened, she was here to witness three graduations, including partaking of the meals prepared for 60 by the graduates, and the awarding of their Freedom Bells!

    It’s no small deal for Jessica to take a week to do this, since she’s the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind Birmingham Regional Center Director.… Read the rest “A Farewell Wave to Our Alabama Friend”

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  • Sleepshades, Cinnamon Pudding Cake & Seniors In Charge May 2017

    by

    Dan Burke

    Steve works with Janet to learn the Braille Alphabet using a muffin tin and tennis balls

    Steve works with Janet to learn the Braille Alphabet using a muffin tin and tennis balls

    You wouldn’t have needed to be told that Dorine’s Cinnamon-Pudding Cake was an award-winner if you had been anywhere near the Center’s kitchen this afternoon. It’s our spring Seniors in Charge week, and we have five dynamic seniors determined to keep living the lives they want. This afternoon, of course, they were cooking and baking under sleepshades, and the smell of that cake had mouths watering out in the lobby and beyond!

    Sleepshades are optional, though encouraged, in the five-day training for seniors. This group is pretty game though, and all are giving them a good workout this week.

    All five, along with some of our Senior Services staff, are staying in our apartments, traveling back and forth to the Center on the bus every day.… Read the rest “Sleepshades, Cinnamon Pudding Cake & Seniors In Charge May 2017”

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  • Graham’s Tech Project

    by

    Dan Burke

    Graham editing tracks on the computer for his tech project

    Graham's hands turn dials on the audio mixing board, mic, headphones and guitar visible

    It just so happens that Graham graduated today, but we’re posting a sample of his Tech Class project. He of course worked with screen readers and other tools in his Tech Class, but as a songwriter and musician with a fair bit of recording experience, he wanted to try his hand at recording and mixing a music track for his final Tech project. Tricky enough, but it takes some skill and patience with the computer and screen reader to make it work with audio editting software, and then only a few such applications are actually accessible for blind users. So, that’s what Graham did, selecting Amy Winehouse’s “Love Is a Losing Game,” recording vocals and guitar and multiple tracks for background vocals, then editting and ixing … Well, here’s asnippet, just to give you the flavor.… Read the rest “Graham’s Tech Project”

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  • Nonvisual Feedback Loop: Testing Dominion’s Accessible Voting System

    by

    Dan Burke

    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!

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