“I’m just now starting to get into video making and cinematography,” says Kevin Figueroa, a 10th grader.
It is a common hobby for your average tenth grader. The thing is, Kevin Figueroa is not your average tenth grader.
“My eye sight with my left eye is 20/200, so I’m right on the line of legally blind. On my right eye I can only see light perception,” Figueroa says.
Kevin goes to school at The New York Institute for Special Education in the Bronx, one-third of which is a school for children who are blind or visually impaired.
Those students and many around the country, like Kevin, are increasingly using iPads or other mobile devices to do things that were highly improbable just a few years ago, like excelling at a visual art like cinematography.
“The iPad is something that they see other students using around the world, and I think that’s what’s helpful. And to have the iPad with the accessibility features it allows them to have access to their email, to books, coursework, take their notes,” says Bernadette Kappen, executive director at NY Institute for Special Education.
Those accessibility features, built in, include the ability to magnify text, text-to-speech technology, and color changes for more contrast. There are also accessibility devices like braille keyboards or readers that translate what is on the screen.
The tablets also make sense from a cost standpoint. Downloading a book on an iPad costs anywhere from zero to $15 or $20. Getting that same book in braille can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
In addition, there’s the issue of access. A book out today in digital form could take weeks or even several months before even being made available in braille.