Last school year, I worked with a teacher of the visually
impaired and the technology person in a middle sized county somewhere in the
middle of Florida…give you a hint…John Travolta lives in the vicinity. Okay
with that said, my first round with the Technology gods last April didn’t bode
well. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Isn’t that usually the case
when dealing with these crafty beings??
November 2011, Round 2:
I had my work cut out for me.. the computer that was suppose
to have the software loaded on it, took forever to boot up and then as it was
near completion, it completely died…Tech.
gods: 1, me 0. None of the computers had power cords, TG- 2, me-0. Refresh a Braillers not charged..TG-3, me 0. It was
beginning to remind me of that day back in April, so the tech person and I decided
to take a lunch break, and discuss our strategies on how to out wit these sly
foes, in reality we needed to give the Refresh a Brailler time to charge.
30 minutes later: the Refresh a Brailler still wasn’t charged
so that called for drastic measures…I called the APH tech. hot line and talked
to Pamela again. She guided me through the entire process, such as plugging the Refresh a Brailler into a wall, loading the correct
drivers and reading the Braille on the device- I discovered two things, I need
to get my eyes checked because I was having a difficult time reading the Braille
cells; either that or I need to refresh my Braille skills. I decided that I
needed to get my eyes check and finally admit I need bifocals and it wouldn’t
hurt to re-fresh my Braille either.
Once the device was charged and Jaws was rebooted,things
went relatively smoothly with loading everything on
to the computers-Jaws and the Refresh a Brailler communicated with each other with
almost no difficulties.. I overcame whatever the Tech Gods threw at me this time and
prevailed. Chalk 1 up for me! Now
this student will be able to use this device in class starting tomorrow. That
is if the teacher remembers to charge the Refresh a Brailler…….To Be Continued!
Until next time,
Diana
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