visually impaired Archives

Back to School with Bookshare: Tips from the Teaching Trenches (Part 2)

Back to school written on a notebook surrounded by pencils, ruler, scissors

Published August 30, 2017

Back to School with Bookshare: Tips from the Teaching Trenches (Part 2)

Equal access means equal opportunity for students with disabilities Welcome to the second blog in our Back to School with Bookshare series. These blogs help teachers get a strong start to the school year so they can help their students be successful. The first blog featured Special Education Resource Teacher Diane Lurye and the ways she uses Bookshare to encourage reading independence. “Technology is the equalizer for students with disabilities,” says Deirdre Watkins, an Itinerant Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments in the Dekalb County School District in Georgia. She serves sixteen students in pre-K through 12th grade across six…

For Jonathan Perry, Life Had Other Plans

Unexpected blindness prompted life and career reinvention It is not uncommon for adults in mid-life to reinvent themselves for another career. Some just want to pursue a new field or industry. Others are forced to make a career change due to a layoff or an evolving marketplace. For Jonathan Perry, resident of Athens, Georgia, and a successful pharmacist for over twenty-five years, his life screeched to a halt one day in April, 2012. After celebrating his son’s wedding, a bout of endocarditis – a bacterial infection of the heart valve – sent endotoxins into his body, brain, and retinas. The…

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Published April 27, 2016

#SVGives: 10 for 10 Brings Bookshare to More Readers

UPDATE: Thank you to the generous donors who helped us reach our goal of $10K to bring Bookshare to more readers! Small gifts, big impact. Last year, in just one day, over $8 million dollars was raised for Bay Area nonprofits through Silicon Valley Gives, a community-wide day of giving hosted by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Benetech is one of hundreds of nonprofits in Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Benito, and San Francisco counties who are joining together to lift up and empower communities in need. Every contribution has an impact. No gift is too small. That’s why…

Benetech Receives Google Impact Challenge Award to Expand Bookshare’s Global Reach

Benetech is pleased to announce that it has been selected by Google.org as one of twenty-nine nonprofits to receive funding to increase access to opportunity and independence for hundreds of millions living with disabilities around the world. Launched in May of 2015, the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities put $20 million in Google.org grants behind nonprofits using emerging technologies to increase independence for people living with disabilities. This program aims to scale impact through technology and extends funding to “entrepreneurial nonprofits to bring innovative tech ideas to life and test their potential for scale.” “The Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities set out…

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Published January 4, 2016

Get On Board with Unified English Braille

Braille, the ingenious system of six dots invented by Louis Braille almost 200 years ago in France, has meant literacy to millions of blind and visually-impaired individuals around the world. Since braille represents living languages, periodic modifications are necessary to reflect changes in languages and to keep braille vital and contemporary. In the United States, English Braille, American Edition (EBAE) has been the predominant braille code. To keep U.S. braille consistent and up to date with the braille code used for international English, Unified English Braille (UEB) has been adopted as the official U.S. braille code. UEB is being implemented…

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Tag: visually impaired

Back to School with Bookshare: Tips from the Teaching Trenches (Part 2)

For Jonathan Perry, Life Had Other Plans

#SVGives: 10 for 10 Brings Bookshare to More Readers

Benetech Receives Google Impact Challenge Award to Expand Bookshare’s Global Reach

Get On Board with Unified English Braille