The disservice imposed on blind students is real. Every day, blind people are denied something others take for granted: digital independence. They are shut out of opportunity, not by lack of ability, but by the way they are taught.
Most blind computer users can perform very specific tasks in precise and measured ways. They learn from trainers who learned keyboarding from someone else, and the cycle continues. The pattern of computer illiteracy is passed down by well-meaning individuals who think they are empowering their students. They’re shackled to keyboard guides that limit their access to a world full of opportunity.
Students in most training environments don’t learn to access Windows, Outlook, Word, or Excel. They learn to complete specific tasks that digitally hobble them. These students may reach entry-level jobs, but have little hope of advancement or fulfillment.
Think about your own skills. Do you accomplish tasks or do you access an application?
If I asked you to:
- Add a ribbon command to a custom Word ribbon
- Create an Outlook rule that texts you when an email arrived from a specific recipient
- Add a custom Edge search engine
Could you? Without foundational knowledge, skills like these are roadblocks.
Granted, AI and a Google search might offer step-by-step instructions. That isn’t understanding, and it isn’t access.
We must change the way blind students learn. Foundational skills lead to advanced learning, exploration, and independence.
Access Technology Trainers, Rehabilitation Counselors, and blindness industry professionals all make good-faith commitments to change lives for the better. But intention alone doesn’t shift the outcome. This book is about doing better, and teaching better.
We’ll go beyond memorization to understanding. Students will know how to access an application by listening to their screen reader and letting muscle memory take over.
Our students succeed because we listen to their needs and consider their “wants.” Student knowledge shapes lesson goals. We match their energy. We lift them when they fall and gaze in awe when they take the lead.
Join me on a journey into a new and innovative teaching style, 30 years in the making. This book is your guide to changing lives. Your students will leave your classroom better and stronger.
A student who dreamed of typing her own essay enters law school. Another who wanted to teach remotely is hired by Microsoft.
They’ll write you to share their successes. The warm fuzzies that scamper up your spine. You didn’t just teach them keystrokes. You gave them a future.
That’s what I want for you.
May these pages do my dream justice.