Empowered Parent
Kids: Andrew, age 14
Works: Writer, co-owner, Assistive Resources, regular contributor to The Morning Blend
What I like best about being a mom: Showing Andrew the world, teaching him to dream big and watching him grow into a good human being. I still get a thrill from hearing the daily, “I love you Mom.”
Least favorite part of being a mom: Not enough time in the day to “do it all” and watching the years and childhood roll by way too fast!
Famous for: Rolling with it – Raising a child with a disability can be like a roller coaster ride – highs and lows and times when your stomach feels like it's in your chest. During those dips, if I am productive and positive, I know that soon there is another ride to the top.
Is Kindle 2 the answer for people with vision disabilities?
By Linda Mulholland
Friday, Feb 13 2009, 02:57 PM
Amazon has introduced the new Kindle 2, available on February 24th, which is a wireless reading device that can download books, newspapers or blogs in less than 60 seconds. This could be a very big deal for the disability community and for my son. The new Kindle has text to speech technology and the capacity to enlarge text which could be a huge help for people with vision or reading disabilities as well as for seniors. This could be the answer for students who need their textbooks on CD or scanned into a computer software program such as Kurtzweil so that they can access their textbooks. We just ordered Kurtzweil and Dragon Naturally Speaking text to speech software for Andrew's laptop. This software will allow us to scan textbooks and Andrew will be able to produce his own schoolwork without a scribe. As he is heading into high school, this will do wonders for his independence next year. The downside is that we (parents and school staff) will have to spend hours scanning textbooks and other texts with the Kurtzweil program. It may well be worth the $350.00 investment to instead download textbooks and newspapers on the Kindle 2 within a minute. It could be a dream come true and a freedom from some of the academic barriers that we have experienced because of Andrew's vision disability. We will have to wait and see when the Kindle 2 becomes available if is in fact the answer that we have been looking for.
