Dolphin Readers Starter Level Pdf

[Cecelia Seiner]

Lastmonth AccessWorld celebrated the birthday and life's work of Louis Braille. I hope everyone had a chance to visit the Louis Braille Museum on the AFB website and had a chance to read Braille, the Magic Wand of the Blind, Helen Keller's essay on Louis Braille. If not, I encourage you to read this great work.

For February we move from celebrating the achievements of Louis Braille to recognizing February as Low Vision Awareness Month. "Low vision" is a term commonly used to mean partial sight, or sight that isn't fully correctable with surgery, medications, contact lenses, or glasses. In the United States, the most common causes of low vision are age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, cataracts, and diabetic retinopathy. Some people are born with conditions such as albinism or optic nerve damage that can result in low vision. People of all ages, from infants to seniors, can experience low vision, most often due to eye disease, but also due to eye injury.

The largest population of Americans who experience low vision is seniors over the age of 65. Therefore, for the month of February, AccessWorld is focusing, so to speak, on topics and technologies that may be especially relevant to seniors or those of any age who are new to vision loss. At times, seniors may be hesitant to adopt the use of technology, especially access technology, and in this issue of AccessWorld, our intention is to break down barriers, remove the uncertainty of what technology and access technology can do, and demonstrate how access technology can help improve independence and daily life.

People with low vision can use magnification devices, electronic devices, computer-access software, and other access and mainstream technologies to maximize their remaining vision, or they can learn alternative ways of doing things, such as using their senses of touch and/or hearing. As our regular readers know, AccessWorld regularly reports on many technologies used by people with low vision. For additional information on living with low vision, please visit the VisionAware Low Vision resources page. There you will find additional information about low vision, as well as vision simulation photos, which can help people who are fully sighted understand how people with various eye conditions see the world.

We at AccessWorld are, once again, very pleased to be partnering with the National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision (NRTC) at Mississippi State University to bring you this special AccessWorld issue on aging. The NRTC received a grant from the Rehabilitation Services Administration to provide training and technical assistance to programs serving older adults with blindness and low vision. This aging issue is part of our joint emphasis to encourage and prepare service providers to introduce seniors to technology they can utilize in their everyday lives. We also intend for information in this issue to be useful to people who are themselves aging with vision loss.

In observance of Low Vision Awareness Month, I strongly encourage everyone to have a complete eye exam from a licensed ophthalmologist or optometrist. Getting a yearly exam increases the chances of early detection and diagnosis of conditions that may lead to vision loss. If you or someone you know has experienced significant vision loss, I encourage you to have a comprehensive low vision examination.

A low vision examination is quite different from the basic examination routinely performed by primary care optometrists and ophthalmologists. A low vision examination includes a review of your visual and medical history, and it places an emphasis on the vision needed to read, cook, work, study, travel, and perform and enjoy other common activities. The goals of a low vision exam include assessing the functional needs, capabilities, and limitations of your vision; assessing ocular and systemic diseases; and evaluating and prescribing low vision therapies. Education and counseling of family, providing an understanding of your visual functioning to aid educators, vocational counselors, and employers, directing further evaluations and treatments by other vision rehabilitation professionals, and making appropriate referrals for medical intervention are all part of a low vision evaluation.

The low vision examination takes much longer than a typical eye exam, but the information gained can be invaluable. No matter what your visual acuity, it is important to understand any diagnosis you may receive and to keep your eyes as healthy as you possibly can.

In addition to articles addressing technology for seniors, this issue also contains an article covering highlights from the recent Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference. In the conference highlights article by Aaron Preece, there are links to podcasts from Blind Bargains that include interviews with product developers and dealers, and guidance on how to gain more in-depth information about the new technologies on display in the conference exhibit hall. For our readers who may be deaf or hard of hearing, these podcasts have been transcribed.

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to remind readers of the "Comment on this article" link at the bottom of each article. This link allows you to provide direct feedback on an article to the author and me. We want to hear your thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions. Being responsive to you, our readers, is our priority.

For this article I spoke with Bill Brown, whose materials are also available for purchase at GuitarByEar.com and PianoByEar.biz He told me how his own music teacher had refused to use musical notation, insisting students learned better when they learned to play by ear.

That said, I personally have found a lot of useful materials on YouTube. A few of the best channels I have found include Justin Guitar and Marty Music. Some YouTube guitar instructors use the platform to advertise their free or paid course work or their remote lessons. Most of the initial freebees I sampled were pretty much inaccessible.

Locate a .GP file online and download it either to your Android device or to Google Drive. The Guitar Pro website is an excellent place to start. You can also use Google to search for the song's name and "GP3."

The app displays four directional navigation buttons. The Left and Right buttons move focus one note or chord at a time through the measure. The Up and Down buttons advance the display forward and backward to the next and previous measure.

At any time you can instruct the app to sound the individual measure. You can also adjust the length of the measure of music that is displayed and played in increments from a single bar to the entire work.

Strife reports he has taught many blind students. He offers all of his course materials in accessible formats, and teaches both directly via Skype or FaceTime, or via back-and-forth recordings of lessons and assignments.

One of the most heart-wrenching misconceptions still all too present in our collective consciousness is the notion that loss of vision equates loss of independence. With tools, techniques, and a dose of imagination blended with persistence, there have always been solutions to performing ordinary tasks without the benefit of 20/20 vision. Today, in the year 2020, that is more true than it has ever been. What follows is a round-up of some favorite low-tech and no-tech solutions aimed at guiding older people losing vision down the path of continued independence. Most range in price from free to $100, and the few that cost more than that definitely warrant inclusion.

A few decades ago, people with visual impairments could not have dreamed of the abundant access to up-to-the-minute news information available to us today, whether we can read conventional print or not. The hardest part, in fact, may well be choosing which methods to use and not losing yourself in a 24/7 news immersion!

Access is free for anyone who is blind, low vision, or otherwise has a print-related disability. Contact your regional network library of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled or call NFB-NEWSLINE at 866-504-7300 to apply.

Communicating with yourself is a challenge when you can no longer read your own handwriting. You can use Alexa to remind you to do something or keep a list, but a much more convenient method is a personal recording device. The Micro-Speak talking digital voice recorder from A T Guys is a perfect no-frills, reliable device. Turn it on and immediately hear an onboard recorded user's guide. Six buttons, easily identified by sight or touch, make recording, pausing, and playing back messages a snap. Audible beeps confirm that the desired buttons have been pressed. Files are recorded in .wav format, but the device can play both .wav and mp3 files. Connect the device to a computer and it acts as a mass storage device, enabling you to store recordings you have made on your computer and load files from other sources onto the Micro-Speak. The rechargeable battery lasts up to 20 hours. A headphone jack allows for private listening. For those who also have hearing difficulties, the Micro-Speak has plenty of volume! Available for $59.95 from the A T Guys or call 269-216-4798.

With or without normal vision, most seniors are happy to simplify their cooking styles. You want to eat tasty, healthy meals, but anything that makes it easier to prepare them independently is welcome.

Amazon has also released a small microwave oven that is Alexa-controlled. Again, you need to have an Amazon Echo to enable the Alexa feature. The Amazon Basics Microwave ($60) has a 0.7 cubic feet chamber and operates at a lower 700 watts. To learn more, see the AccessWorld review.

Setting up either an Instant Pot or microwave with the Amazon Echo may require sighted assistance for the initial pairing. Once paired, however, Alexa will continue to see" the other device, thus enabling you to set cook times and more without pressing buttons.

3a8082e126