today I taught a young student in a college, who has until now, had a sighted helper do everything for them in Logic. this is not out of laziness, it's out of not knowing how to use MacOS, VoiceOver and Logic without sighted assistance.
This was their fourth lesson and just being able to see their progression is one of the most rewarding feelings in the world.
The helper was in the room and looking/listening to what I was showing the student, but not participating. Showing people that so many things can be done without a mouse and purely with a keyboard is eye-opening for them (no pun intended) and I always really enjoy getting to show the world that although we're blind, we are in fact, capable.
At the end of the lesson I said to the student that 'This is the road to you being not just a back-seat driver, but one who drives the car where it needs to go. Only you can fully realise your ideas, telling others how you want your music played is never the same thing.'
I hope it works.
James Scholes
in reply to Andre Louis • • •Excellent. Here's a similar story.
Where my partner grew up, there isn't exactly an abundance of money, education for disabled people, positive attitudes about it, and so on. She had a student who had gone blind very late in life, and all their family could afford was a cheap Chromebook.
Now: You and I know that ChromeVox is an objectively bad screen reader in many ways, and would struggle to use ChromeOS as a daily driver. Nevertheless, within a very short period of time, he was keeping up with the news, streaming music, and listening to audiobooks. The joy when he would turn up for a lesson and say something like, "I want to show you this piece of music or video I found," rather than "I couldn't do X this week," was quite infectious.
He's now consistently scaring the crap out of all the ableist folks in the town by refusing to stay at home, walking everywhere, and generally not giving a fuck.
Not sure if this counts as #NoonScrolling given that I wrote it, but it is only 4 PM.