I Had No Chance

My daughter's school got a Mantis refreshable braille display for my daughter.  I had gotten some information about the Mantis and I knew it was the latest and greatest thing out there.   This also means it was very expensive.   I have no idea how they got one purchased for her since they're having problems getting approval for three-ring binders, but however it happened, I have it here at the house. 

I plugged it in this morning and saw on the braille readout it was charging,   While this device is high technology, it is for blind people and it has no screen.   I had to read the braille on the single line of the display to know what was going on. 

I wanted to get my daughter interested in it and had downloaded the user manual.   She came downstairs and I let her touch it.   She started navigating through it and I couldn't keep up with her.   She found Bookshare and saw she could download books.  I hadn't realized there was Bookshare (a library service for the visually impaired) integration. 

My daughter asked me how to log in and I gave her her user id and password information (something she's never known about before now as I always download for her here.)  It told her there was no Internet connection so she suggested going to the settings.   

While I tried to find the location in the manual, she got to the WiFi area and started paging down through WiFi networks around us until she found ours.   I gave her the password and it connected successfully she read.   Then she went back to Bookshare. 

She figured out how to log in and then she started browsing book titles and picked two books to download—without my help, only confirmation when she was in the right locations.  

I tried to show her how the buttons worked, but she wasn't interested because she'd already figured it out by trial and error.   She was about to go into one of the books and do some reading but the next thing she got to was a message about a required software update so she decided to come back later. 

I'm going to have to write more about this exciting new reading development for my daughter.   I think it's going to change a lot of things reading-wise as well as accessibility-wise.

The Big Boy Update:  This is what's happening here right now: my son is doing his Spanish homework on his computer after just arriving home.  Interestingly enough, he wanted to do it as opposed to fighting us later after avoiding it until it got late at the end of the day.  My son is having the app speak out the questions and answers in Spanish.   However...he is asking Blake and me what things mean and when we don't know, he's saying we should have that App that translates it via pictures like his father has.   He says Spanish is a lot easier with his father. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was so excited Blake was coming to stay with us that this morning she prepared a "Boo" bag as a welcoming gift for him.   She put Halloween things in there such as Halloween stickers and candy but then general other things like a pencil, a seashell, and some bubblegum balls.   She couldn't wait for 10:00 for Blake to arrive.