Blind students benefit from new equipment

By Rose Ann Pearce

Posted: November 22, 2009 at 2:21 a.m.

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FAYETTEVILLE — Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Sheeler likes all kinds of art and enjoys sewing and knitting. Algebra is one of her favorite subjects. She makes As and Bs as an eighth-grade student at Woodland Junior High School.

Elizabeth’s sister, Aundrea, is a straight-A student at Fayetteville High School who loves to take pictures and is a staff photographer on the school newspaper. She is enrolled in Advanced Placement English and advanced algebra-trigonometry as a junior at the high school.

However, the girls are not the normal teenagers they appear to be. Both girls suffer from aniridia, a congenital eye disease that leaves them both legally blind, unable to drive, with no night vision and no depth perception. Both girls wear dark prescription glasses when outside to protect their retinas. Aundrea also has developed glaucoma.

But the girls still tackle their classwork like any other student, and now they’re getting some help from the Fayetteville Public Education Foundation. The foundation helped vision teacher Debbye Elledge to get an $11,500 grant from the Conklin Charitable Foundation to help the Sheeler sisters “see” in the classroom.

An electronic Braille writer was also purchased by Elledge for the vision classroom at Holcomb Elementary School. That machine, called a Mountbatten, has made a world of difference for 7-year-old Jarod Murphy, a first-grader who is blind. Unlike the Sheeler sisters, he has no vision in his bright blue eyes.

The Mountbatten, for example, was used to develop a Braille version of a first-grade book so Jarod could read along with the students in his regular classroom.

“I like everything about the Mountbatten,” Jarod said. “I like it when it talks. Talking Braillers are better because I know the letters.”

As he types a letter, the Mountbatten announces the letter Jarod has typed.

“It creates all kinds of independence for him and has speeded up his learning,” Elledge said.

Like the old manual Braille writer, which is still in Elledge’s classroom as a backup, the Mountbatten features six keys which can form any word Jarod or other students want to make.

Elizabeth and Aundrea each have state-of-the-art closed-circuit television systems — a flat screen with an arm on top to which a camera is mounted. The camera can be moved in any direction to capture words on a page, or what the teacher may be doing on the blackboard or white board in the classroom. With a zoom feature, Elizabeth can read what is on sticky notes attached to the blackboard.

The new equipment allows the girls to sit anywhere in the classroom, even the back row. They used to have to sit on the front row and ask teachers to provide whatever was written on the blackboard on paper and with large print.

“It opens up the world to participate in real time along with everyone else,” Elledge said, noting there are about 18 blind students attending Fayetteville schools. Elementary-age students are assigned to Holcomb through fifth grade.

“Blind students can do anything except drive a car and fly a plane,” Elledge said. “They have to want to and have a good foundation.”

Aundrea also has a Victor Stream, another piece of equipment purchased with the grant, that allows her to download books from the Internet and play them back.

Their eye condition is hereditary, passed to the sisters by their mother, Terry. An older sister, Ana, is scheduled to graduate from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor’s degree in business management, and also suffers from aniridia.

“We all have some vision but are legally blind,” said Terry Sheeler.

As a youngster, Terry Sheeler didn’t have the adaptations her daughters have with portable equipment that allows them to “see” in the classroom. The older equipment, similar to the closed-circuit television system, was heavier and bulkier and had to be moved on a cart.

The newer equipment the sisters use this year can be packed in a traveling case on wheels — very similar in size and look to a overnight case a traveler might take on an airplane. The girls can take the equipment from class to class and set it up in a matter of minutes.

“The only thing I had was that I wore glasses and had a large magnifying glass,” Terry Sheeler recalled.

The sisters read large print books and a laptop computer carried by Elizabeth is also equipped with a large-print program.

Aundrea said the television system helps in all her classes, especially when teachers can’t provide copies of the lesson being studied in advance. The machine also enables her to save what her history teacher writes on the board. In biology, she can do all the laboratory work to keep up with the class.

“The teacher thought that was the coolest,” Aundrea said. “This does things you can’t do on a photocopier.”

Both plan to attend a college or university; Elizabeth wants to study art and Aundrea is leaning toward a career in broadcast journalism, with some emphasis on photography.

“They can do anything they want if they try hard enough,” their mom said.

What is aniridia?

Aniridia is a genetic condition that affects people at birth. The term "aniridia" means “without iris.” The iris is the colored part of the eye. A person who has aniridia is born without this part. The iris controls the amount of light that goes into the eye. Without the iris, bright light can be very uncomfortable. Actually, the lack of the iris is the least of the problems associated with aniridia. Other conditions can include glaucoma, cataracts, diabetes or glucose intolerance and mental retardation. Most people with aniridia have at least one of these associated conditions.

Source: Vision for Tomorrow Web site, http://www.visionfortomorrow.org/aniridia/

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