LIONS IN TOUCH WITH STUDENT'S BRAILLE NEEDS

BrailleNote Tutoring:Bob Disher, a technology teacher with the Oregon School for the Blind in Salem, shows Andrew Nantz how to use some of the advanced features of his upgraded BrailleNote mPower. (Photo/TRISH YERGES).

- Trish Yerges

- For The Observer

IMBLER — Throughout Andrew Nantz's school years, he has depended upon his brailler to keep up with his studies.

His first model was a heavy, desktop Perkins Brailler — what some might consider equivalent to a simple typewriter. Then five years ago, in fifth grade, Andrew upgraded to a computerized brailler manufactured by HumanWare.

As with any computer, even the best braillers do eventually crash and burn. That day arrived for the sophomore about three months ago.

"I was working on it doing assignments, and it just quit on me. It wasn't the battery, so I thought it was the hardware," he said.

His mother, Sherry Nantz, called HumanWare and told them the brailler wasn't working. The company requested to inspect it, so Sherry shipped it to them. In its absence, her son used a manual Perkins Brailler that he received two years earlier from Advocates for the Visually Impaired. It is unusual for a Perkins Brailler to be found anywhere except in a school classroom, but Andrew had one of his own, and it came in handy now.

Going back a generation in technology, though, was no fun. "It takes longer and has no editing function,'' Andrew said. He hoped that the repair of his broken brailler would not take too long.

That sounded like a good idea, except for one thing. The Nantzes didn't have the money.

Unsure what to do about this dilemma, Sherry spoke to a member of the Elgin Lions Club about it. The Lions Club discussed the problem at a meeting and subsequently contacted the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation to see if it could help. The foundation eventually granted Andrew $1,000 if the local Lions Club could come up with the remainder, Andrew said.

"The Elgin Lions Club came up with most of the money,'' said Al Smolkowski, president of the club. "The Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation donated $1,000, and we received smaller donations from the La Grande and Island City clubs."

Andrew is thrilled with his new BrailleNote mPower and as far as school goes, he's once again compatible with mainstream technology.

Jean MacConnachie, a vision specialist with the Eastern Oregon Regional Program, oversees Andrew's school needs.

"The manual Perkins Brailler was provided throughout Andrew's school years by the Eastern Oregon Regional Program,'' MacConnachie said. "The textbooks, paper for the Perkins and the abacus also came through EORP."

However, these are all predecessors to the BrailleNote. That's why MacConnachie was happy to see Andrew with his upgraded brailler.

"It's a note taker like a laptop with six keys for braille input. It has eight keys and a space bar instead of a QWERTY keyboard," she said. "It's basically a laptop with auditory feedback instead of a visual screen. But what excites Andrew most is that the BrailleNote has some useful and fun high-tech features.''

To show Andrew how to use his upgraded BrailleNote, Bob Disher, a technology teacher from the Oregon School for the Blind in Salem, traveled to the Nantz home Feb. 6. Like any teenager, Andrew had already checked out the media player and game features and didn't need to be shown how that worked. However, Disher did show him how to use the Zip drive, which enables Andrew to transfer input from the BrailleNote to the computer.

In addition to that, the BrailleNote also offers word processing, a web browser, e-mail, a daily planner, an address book, streaming audio, voice memos, a database manager, e-book reader, stopwatch, scientific calculator, real-time translation of visual displays, online help and a speech synthesizer.

"I can also download from the Internet and print off from my BrailleNote," Andrew said.

After receiving such a nice gift, Andrew and his mother appeared before the Lions Club Feb. 12 to thank the members for their generosity.

He gave a brief demonstration of some of its features after which Lions member Steve Oliver of Summerville teased him about getting good grades now.

Also present was Lions District Governor Gerald Hopkins of Summerville, who extended a special invitation to Andrew, saying, "Andrew, you're becoming rather well known among our clubs. I talk about you a lot. Some Lions would like to meet you, and I hope you will come to our Lions District Convention on March 10."

Andrew feels honored and privileged to be the recipient of such a high-tech brailler from the local Lions clubs and the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation. His BrailleNote will literally connect him to the outside world and help him achieve his academic goals. As he extended one last thank-you to the Lions, the members nodded and smiled with the kind of satisfaction that only giving provides.

Sherry Nantz summarized their experience. "When people support their local and state service groups, they aren't just helping that particular group,'' she said. "They are helping people within their own community to be successful. We feel very blessed to have received assistance from our local service groups and their affiliates as well as our school. We will be glad to give back as often as possible."