Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, October 10, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Starting high school can be a scary thing for any Grade 9 student: big crowds, unknown hallways, intimidating older students.

It's even tougher if you can't see.

Entirely blind since birth, Alex Kenny started Grade 9 this year at St. Patrick high school.

Alex Kenny and Hailey Roberts both started Grade 9 this year at St. Patrick high school. Both are visually impaired but have kept up with their peers throughout their school years thanks to the latest technology. - Christine Grimard/NNSL photo

"The first few days I had a lot of trouble getting around with all the crowds," said Kenny. "But now I'm getting used to it."

While Kenny may have to use a cane to find his way through the halls, he has yet to fall behind in any of his classes.

The latest technology for the visually impaired students - featured Oct. 4 at the high school as part of Literacy Week activities - uses computers and different codes of braille to keep Kenny up to date in his classes.

Not being able to read assignments, Kenny uses his PAC Mate to read what he needs to do. His teachers transfer assignments using a special program onto a USB key he plugs into the keyboard. Two rows of pins on the keyboard translate the assignments into braille so that Kenny can read it.

Kenny also learned to type on a computer a few years ago, and uses a program called JAWS that reads the screen out to him.

Kenny started learning braille in kindergarten at the same time other students were learning to read.

"When the kids were learning certain words, we were teaching him the same thing, just in braille," said Donna Nash, a classroom assistant who has been working with Kenny since he started. Nash has learned to read and write Braille herself to help guide Kenny throughout the years.

"It's not that much harder," said Kenny about learning Braille.

Although he has never known any other forms of reading, he said he has yet to fall behind in his studies. Only math is a little trickier as it uses a different Braille code - Nemeth code - that he has to learn on top of mathematical equations.

Hailey Roberts, who is partially visually impaired, also started school this year at St. Patrick high school. While she is just starting to learn braille, she has other tricks that help her keep up with her classmates.

Since she sees everything smaller, she has a pocket viewer that enlarges everything she reads.

"It's like a fancy magnifying glass," said Roberts, showing off the instrument.

Roberts hasn't missed that much in school so far. Her impairment has, however, kept her back from sports. While she used to play volleyball, basketball and soccer, a few incidents where she couldn't see the ball coming and was subsequently hit on the head, has kept her on the sidelines for now.

"Especially since it's high school people, they tend to kick harder," said Roberts.