My Capstone project was to create a sort of guide on how to help and support a visually impaired student for teachers. This guide is really for the middle to high school student range and only focuses on academic needs and support. The final product would be a booklet that contained my own experiences as a visually impaired student at SLA, a list of tools and materials visually impaired students could potentially be using and a description of how it works and how it's meant to be used, and then the actual listings of how teachers in each academic course could support the student if they should need it. The third section will be split into the three categories of visual impairment being low/near vision, visually impaired, and braille/legally blind.  As for my process, admittingly, I took more of a simpler route in doing this project by just researching online for all the technical parts, and remembering my own experiences when I could have done a lot more by interviewing teachers to get their opinions or interviewing past year visually impaired students, etc. So really, all I’ve been really doing was research online, recollect, type, and communicating with my mentor.

I do not currently have the final product made yet, but I do have the information that will be on the final product. This is the lnk to the doc. (Note: I can't seem to paste a picture on here).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C--cXUS2S3_neBM31TLDGxcNnJWonX8C55QdH_M2ljo/edit

"Material Adaptations for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired." Teaching Students with Visual Impairments. By: Carmen Willings teaching visually impaired.com. Accessed January 27, 2019.

https://www.teachingvisuallyimpaired.com/material-adaptations.html.

This website contains several methods to help visually impaired students participate in class. The have a section for large font papers, sensory learning, braille, accessible education materials, and much more. Some of the pages contain pros and cons about that particular method as well as when it can or should be used.  However, all the pages contain information about it which will give me a lot of solutions to potential problems visually impaired students would have in the classroom.

McLaughlin, Rhonda. "Interview with Ms. Rhonda." Interview by Jason Lam. February 8, 2019.

This is an interview of my own visual impairment counselor, Ms. Rhonda. She is a counselor that works with many visually impaired students across the Philadelphia area. Each student of hers is different has different needs to complete school, and have different resources as well. This interview will help me find out and understand what other blind students need to complete a day of school as well as the resources they have access to to accommodate them.

Sprinkle, Kristi. "Home." Impact Of Visual Impairment On Development. By Sharon Nichols Accessed January 27, 2019. https://www.tsbvi.edu/general-technology-items/1074-overview-of-technology-for-visually-impaired-and-blind-students.

This website contains more methods of participating in class for visually impaired students. It includes zoom in features for computer or laptop use in class, and it also has information on machines that can help the blind student such as a CCTV. For both of these features, it lists multiple types of each thing so if one does not suit the student as comfortably, they aren’t limited to just that one kind. This information will be helpful for possible solutions to potential problems in class for blind students.

"Welcome." Sage Vision Technology - Low Vision Product Supplier. Accessed April 29, 2019. https://sagevisiontech.com/.

This is the website of the largest supplier of visual impairment electronics in Pennsylvania. They have many different types of tools visually impaired people use. This will help me create the list of technology that visually impaired students use at school and how they work.

Wyatt, Allen. "Booklet Printing in Word." Tips.net. Accessed April 30, 2019. https://word.tips.net/T003927_Booklet_Printing_in_Word.html.

“Mark! Mark! Wake up!”

He groaned as he was shaken by his colleague and  friend, Alex. He finally sat up on his bed, fed up with the saking and asked,

“What is it? What’s so important that you had to wake me up at-” He looked at the clock. “-Four thirty in the morning?”

“I woke you up because there is something you need to see. It’s not exactly an emergency, but you need to see it before it’s too late!”

“What is it?” he replied in a more interested voice.

“You need to see it for yourself, but I can understand if you’re too tired to come to the observatory!” he said in a sarcastic tone.

“Alright, fine. Let me get dressed first and then we’ll head to the observatory. Okay?”

His friend smiled, and left the bedroom with a chuckle. Mark undressed himself and replaced his pajamas with a pair of khaki pants, a tee, and a lab coat. He put on his boots and went to refresh himself in the bathroom. Ten minutes later, they were on their way to the observatory to see what Alex wanted to show Mark, and let’s just say, it was strange.

When they reached the observatory, they got out of the car and went inside.

“I haven’t moved the telescope ever since I found it.”

“Is it really necessary to do a guessing game Alex? Just tell me what in the world you found, alright?”

“Ding Ding Ding! You guessed it! I found another world, or a planet, rather.”

He received a disappointed and annoyed look from Mark.

“That’s it? I thought this was going to be bigger than that! We find exoplanets all the time. What’s so special about this one? Is it another hot jupiter, or another water world, or perhaps even a diamond world?

“How about a rainbow world?”

Mark looked p at him in surprise. “What? Did you say rainbow world?

“Yeah I dd. When I first saw the planet, it showed a red tint and glow in it’s atmosphere. Thinking it was another rogue planet, I moved on. However, hours later, I decided to take another look at the planet since I wasn’t finding anything else and the planet glowed a blue color, and it was bigger.”

“Wait, so the planet changed color and it got bigger?”

“Yes, but I figured out that it was getting bigger was because it was coming towards us.”

“Mark swung his head  to face his friend. “Is it going to hit us?

“I can’t tell. My calculations show that the way that this planet is moving is completely erratic. Why don’t you take a look for yourself.”

He climbed up the steps to the telescope and peered into it. Dots of twinkling lights were everywhere the eye could see. Mark looked through the telescope for a solid ten minutes until he finally stepped down and said, “I can’t find the planet you’re talking about.”

Alex stared and laughed. “You’re joking right?”

“I think I should be the one asking you that. Mark crossed his arms in front of his chest, waiting for an explanation.

“I swear, I saw the planet.”

“Well, if you did, it’s not there anymore.”

“Let me take a look, but I don’t see how it’s possible to miss it.”

Alex climbed up the stairs and stared into the telescope. “It’s right there!”

“What?!” Mark quickly climbed up the stair again and pushed Alex out of the way to see through the telescope. Again, he stared into the telescope for a long time, but still couldn’t see any sign of the planemo. “I still don’t see it Alex. Are you sure you see a planet?

“I’m being serious with you. How can you not see that. It’s glowing yellow now!

Jason Lam

Ms. Pahomov

English 3

5 January 2018

I like to think of myself as bright, smart, funny, a video gamer, a procrastinator, friendly, optimistic, resourceful, curious, accident prone, slow, organized, and independent. Being independent in life without the support or help of others is a big stepping stone for me. As a visually impaired person, I need help and support from my family, teachers, and supervisors. Of course now that I’m now a lot older than I was when I first became visually impaired, I am more capable of doing things and doing them by myself, but I’m lagging behind where I really should be on my independency. I was very lucky to grow up in a pretty big family where the adults did everything from mopping the floor, laundry, to cooking, and cleaning the bathroom. My brother and I didn’t really do any type of chore during our early childhood so we weren’t all that experienced in everyday chores. I’m not saying we didn’t do any chore or helped at all, but we weren’t really required to do them. Since I’ve been lucky to have others doing things for me, it was a hard transition from having people doing everything for me to being independent and doing things myself. One thing that comes with being independent is trust, specifically parent trust. My parents are not the most outgoing parents. They are caring and supportive to me. They are also very protective, maybe overprotective. One thing I wanted to change this year, for school, was transportation.

(Our conversation was in Chinese, so here is what it basically translates too)

“Mommy?” I asked.

She was looking at her ipad, and sitting on the floor. She replied, “Hmmm?”

I looked at her and said,“Why can’t I go on the subway to school?”

“There is no why.” she plainly said. She still kept looking at her ipad.

I grew annoyed with her reply. She always says this whenever I ask her why questions on a subject she doesn’t want to argue about or go into because she thinks it’s a waste of her breath. Tonight’s subject was about my change in transportation I made with my braille teacher/supervisor.

So I said, “Yes why!” “Why don’t you want me to go to school by myself?”

She finally looked up and said in a pretty calm yet bold voice, “We’ve had this conversation already. I don’t want you to take the subway to school because no one can watch you. Besides, when it gets cold in winter, there will be snow and ice that you will have to pull your school bag through, and you can slip and fall on the ice. Also, you have to wake up earlier to catch the subway, and it is more convenient and better for you to take the taxi to school.”

Even though she did make some good arguments, I still argued back with her. “But I can handle the cold, and I haven’t slipped on ice once in my entire life yet.”

“That doesn’t mean it won’t happen.” she rebuttled.

I looked at her with growing anger. I’ve always hated that I never got to do what I wanted to do. Yeah, sure, some people might consider a taxi as a luxury to a walk or SEPTA ride to and from school, but it’s really not.  

I said ”But the taxi is really terrible! The driver speeds, calls on the phone while he’s driving, curses and shouts at drivers that drive too slow for him, crosses red lights, and when it picks me up from school, it’s late.

I remember the time during my freshman year when I was waiting for the taxi, but it was late for some pathetic reason. I had waited for over 40 minutes for it when I decided to leave and head to my mother’s salon which was nearby. Boy was everyone annoyed with me.

“How come?” she questioned.

“I don’t like it when I hate to wait for the taxi because they’re late. They even lie about why they’re late too!” Unbelievably, the driver does lie about why he’s late. Once, I overheard him talking to a client on the phone about why he was late to pick them up.

“I’m sorry, traffic is just so bad.”

He said this as he was driving through an empty street! He wasn’t late because of traffic, he was late because he wasbiting off more than he could chew! He had so many clients that he couldn’t keep up with his schedule and just blames innocent traffic for his lateness. That’s why I don’t believe a word he says about why he’s late, he’s taking more clients than he can handle.

“That was just an honest mistake. Besides, you need to be more patient, son.” she said.

Be more patient? Is she kidding me? Would anyone wait for a taxi that is almost an hour late? Tell me if that is being impatient! I waited over 40 minutes before I decided to leave.

“He’s also driving me to school late now.”

“ Did you tell the office that you were late because it was the taxi?”

“I did, but I can’t keep on saying that!”

“Why not? If you’re late because of the taxi, then you got to tell them it was the taxi’s fault you were late and not you. “

“Ugh. I don’t think my teachers will keep on doing this for me every single day.”

She looked up at me and just gave me an expression that said all too clearly that she wasn’t going to change her mind no matter what excuse I told her.

So that was an unpleasant conversation I had with my mother a while back.

Still up to this day, I have SEPTA as my transportation to and from school and not the taxi. I’m not regretting my choice to switch even though it is pretty frigid and slippery outside, but sometimes and definitely before I switched, I did vacillate whether I made the right choice. Being independent is a hard thing for me even though I’m older now. Always having help and support at my fingertips was as regular as it could be. Of course, I’m not saying I’m ungrateful, in fact I’m actually happy that I had an easier childhood than most other kids in a responsibility sense. But on the downside to becoming an adult, I became really dependent on others helping me. I guess it’s never bad to ask for a lot of help, but is there a such thing as asking for too much help? Sometimes I do feel that way. I feel that sometimes when I ask questions or for help too much. It makes me feel guilty inside. It is a goal for me to be capable and confident of myself to do things that would otherwise require me to seek help.

YES, I know, it’s never a bad thing to ask for help, but it’s also never bad to do things yourself!

Hola. Mi nombre es Jason. Vivo en Filadelfia del Sur con mi familia. Tengo siempre vivió en Sur de Filadelfia por todas mi vida. Mi barrio es muy tranquil por la mayoría del tiempo, así que no pasa nada en el lugar donde vivo.

Pintaría mi mural en una pared en blanco en Reed Street  y Broad Street, a través de el mural de Mario Lanza. Lo estoy poniendo aquí porque sólamente la pared en blanco que conozco alrededor de mi casa y está al lado de un mural de una persona famosa del Sur de Filadelfia, Mario Lanza. Mi investigación me mostró que Filadelfia del Sur es un lugar muy diverso con muchas personas diferentes. Con muchas familias de Italiano, Irlandesas, Mexicanos, Africanos, Hispanos, Asiáticos, Griegos, y judíos. Es muy diverso.

Mi mural tendrá muchos colores representando la diversidad cultural de las muchas familias que viven en el sur de Filadelfia. Eso será abstracto con algunos patrones. La palabra diversa estará oculto en todos los colores.

El mensaje es  si ves este mural, estás en una comunidad que es muy diversa.  Sur de Filadelfia ha tenido un grande diverse población desde el 1900s y todavía tiene una comunidad diverse hoy. Mi mural  estará lleno colores eso mezclara  y estará abstracto. La variedad de colores representa la variedad de las familias en Filadelfia del Sur.  Este mural es creado para expresar la familia y la diversidad cultural del sur de Filadelfia. Voy a incorporar la palabra diverse porque de eso se trata el mural. Sin embargo, la palabra diverse estará oculto dentro de todos los colores.

Mi nombre es Jason Lam

Me familia viene de Vietnam

Tengo catorce años

Me encanta jugar videojuegos, ver televisión, y dormir

Soy ciego, no puedo ver,

Pero yo siempre me trato mejor

Veo la sonrisa de mi prima bebé

Saboreo la tarta de manzana de mi prima

Huelo la cocina de mi abuela

Oigo la música de mi Dan Tranh

Toco abrazos de mi madre

Duermo en la música relajante de un  Dan tranh

Juegos con las lenguas que hablo

Leo el libro de la guerra y inmigración

Me siento en un lugar que se siente como un hogar para mí

Somos la gente de nuestro país

Somos de Vietnam

Vivimos en America

Vivimos en ellos, y viven en nosotros

Hablamos Vietnamita, Chino , y inglés.

Mi madre, hermano menor, y me rezan a Buddha

Celebramos fiestas no de nuestro país de origen

Somos lo que somos.