GARDEN GROVE : High-Tech Program Aids Sight-Impaired

Sixteen-year-old Matthew Brian Cox is a junior at Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove. He’s a crack participant in the high school’s Mock Trial Club, and the would-be barrister recently garnered an honorable-mention award in a countywide competition.

Matthew is also blind.

But he is able to find a legal advantage in his impairment. “I could read from my notes (in Braille),” Matthew said, “and keep looking in the direction of the judge.”

Matthew is one of nine students in Bolsa Grande’s program for visually handicapped students that serves the Garden Grove Unified School District and neighboring districts.

The district has recently added some high-tech equipment to help educate the program’s blind and partially sighted students.

“The students are able to make use of several different kinds of computers and other devices to help them in their work,” said Connie F. Silva, who runs the program.

Those devices range from the commonplace, such as tape recorders for playing back lectures or prerecorded audio versions of textbooks, to the futuristic.

“We have an Apple IIe computer with a speech synthesizer,” Silva said. “Most of the students have typing skills,” and as they touch a key, the computer “speaks” the letter in a mechanical tone, she explained.

In addition to the talking machines, the Bolsa Grande facilities include a machine that magnifies images on the computer screen, as well as the well-known Braille typewriter.

After spending most of their day in regular classrooms, the students return to the Braille classroom for one or two periods.

There, they can pick up Braille, large-print or taped copies of tests, handouts, texts and other materials, usually on the same day that sighted students receive them. Sometimes, if there’s not enough time to transcribe or translate, Silva or an aide will read the material aloud to the student.

But more than equipment is offered in the program. Students get encouragement, a sympathetic ear and individual help.

“I think it’s a great thing to have,” said Brandi Winemiller, 17, a junior in the program with 20/2200 vision. “I feel good about the fact that I can get the help here I need. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without it.”