A Sense of Texas

Disney's Moana Jr

Every spring, The Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired puts on a play production that brings joy, and maybe a little stress, to the lives of students and staff from across our campus. This year we presented Disney's Moana Jr. Please join us as staff share the process and the positive impact it has on our students.

The Capitol Experience

One of our main goals as a school for blind, low vision, and deafblind students is to expose students to as many experiences they can learn from as possible. Recently our host Emily Coleman helped to teach our Capitol Experience class, which gave the class a trip to the capitol to help advocate for their chosen causes to state representatives and their staff. This trip also gave them the chance to meet with Ron Lucey, the Executive Director of the Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities to learn about his job and how they can improve government for themselves. 

Etiologies

Understanding why an individual is blind, deafblind, or has low vision is key to understanding how to get them the support and services they need, especially for students. We're so happy to have TSBVI Outreach consultants Kathi Garza and Rachel Collins join us to discuss 5 etiologies (and one bonus one!) and how recognizing these conditions can help improve outcomes across our student population. 

Curriculum at TSBVI

Angela Wolf joins us to share updates to TSBVI's Curriculum and her experiences in education. TSBVI sells resources all over the world and to share an out-of-state perspective we share additional insight from Adam Wilton in Canada and Beth Peters in Iowa. You can check out resources mentioned at TSBVI's online store and in our Instructional Resource Library. 

 

https://www.tsbvi.edu/store

 

https://www.tsbvi.edu/statewide-resources/instructional-resource-library

Waymo

Public transportation has always been key to increasing mobility for blind and visually impaired people and new technology is advancing public transport to a whole new level. So we were delighted to have Waymo visit our campus last October to get a look at fully autonomous vehicles being tested in Austin. Waymo was kind enough to gift our campus with some codes to use the Waymo app during their testing phase and we have been able to share those with blind users and tech lovers across campus. With these codes we were able to take some newbies out for a few test rides to get their thoughts on this new technology and later we welcomed Amanda Ventura from Waymo to answer some of our questions. Be sure to visit https://waymo.com/ to find out more about Waymo in Austin and beyond. 

Blind Soccer

Learn more about this amazing sport with insights from its coaches and even top athletes! We will dive into what Blind Soccer is all about, why it means so much to its players and surrounding communities, and how it can help develop key skills like coordination, spatial awareness, teamwork and much more.

APH Annual Meeting 2024

The American Printing House for the Blind brings educators together yearly for their Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY. This year, President Craig Meador shared information about their latest, game-changing product, the Monarch. To highlight the importance of this technology, you'll hear from the state at APH and experts like Paul Schroeder and Karen Anderson.

 

For more information on the Monarch and all the other great APH products visit their website at www.aph.org.

TSBVI Cemetery Plot

A lot of interesting things happen at TSBVI and it has a lot of assets you wouldn't imagine would be acquired by a school for the blind. But even we were surprised to hear from Ryan Dees at the City of Austin. He informed us that TSBVI purchased a cemetery lot in East Austin's Oakwood Cemetery in the 1870's that had fallen into disrepair. So come help us ring in the spooky season to learn more about this lot and how it came to be. 

To take a walking tour of Austin cemeteries be sure to attend one of the 18th Annual Murder, Mayhem and Misadventure tours on Saturday October 26th.

 

 

New Admin

Welcome back for another new season! TSBVI is a national and international leader in the education of students who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision. When we make leadership changes it doesn’t just impact our students on campus, but it impacts the 11,000 students around the state of Texas and even outside of our state lines. Today we’re introducing you to our new Outreach Director, Erica Cairns, and our new Short-term/ Summer Program Principal, Dr. Eden Hagelman.

The Day to Day of a TSBVI Student

After a long and eventful school year some of us here at A Sense of Texas were seeking a much needed break. And just like every good superhero, the students participating in the Audio/Visual class here at TSBVI came to our rescue. To close out the school year the students have created an episode showing us what day-to-day life looks like for students, and how attending school here has helped them socially and academically. As a bonus we've also included some key moments from the recent TSBVI Graduation ceremony. Thanks so much for being a part of our podcast and we'll see you next school year!

Online Algebra

Solving for X is a pretty difficult challenge for most sighted students, so imagine learning algebra with a visual impairment? And add to that doing everything online? Well, lucky for our students in Texas we have TSBVI's very own John Rose here to save the day. John Rose and his students are joining us this week to discuss the TSBVI online algebra course and how it has helped them on their journey to becoming math experts. 

 

For more information on the algebra course and the other great offerings visit the TSBVI Short Term Programs website.

Accessibility and the Eclipse

On April 8th a solar eclipse will cross North America with totality being visible from Mazatlan to Montreal. Here in Austin we're lucky enough to be in the path of totality and this presents the unique challenge of making the eclipse accessible to our student population. We speak with Allyson Bieryla, an astronomer from Harvard University, along with students and staff at TSBVI to learn how technologies new and old are being utilized to make the eclipse accessible to the blind and visually impaired community. Special thanks to David Schechter and the folks from CBS News for speaking with us and putting a spotlight on accessibility to science for people who are blind and visually impaired. The CBS News story on accessibility and the eclipse is out now, be sure to check it out!

Click here to get more information on the LightSound Project and how you can bring eclipse accessibility to your community. 

TSBVI's EXIT Program

Pretty much everyone wants to do their best Peter Pan impersonation and never grow up, but unfortunately growing up is an inevitability for all of us, including our students here at TSBVI. Today we'll show you how Experiences in Transition (EXIT) helps our post-graduation students learn skills for everyday living as well as important job skills to help them contribute to society, and themselves, for years to come. 

Click the link for more information on the EXIT Program and be sure to check out Wealthy Bee on Spotify to hear the full versions of her songs included in this episode.

The BIG Show at TSBVI

As a school for students with a wide range of abilities, inclusion is standard practice here at TSBVI. But one event that goes above and beyond is The Big Show. The Big Show is held twice a year and any student enrolled in a music class at TSBVI is welcome, and encouraged, to participate. From piano recitals to jazz ensembles with a little bit of mariachi thrown in, the holiday Big Show has it all. This month we're going to pull back the curtain on The Big Show and speak with the musicians cheering up your holiday, and the teachers who help bring it all together. 

USABA Goalball Youth Nationals

One of our favorite events that we host on the TSBVI campus every other year is the USABA Goalball Youth Nationals tournament. This year was a banner year for us with a record 23 teams in attendance and the competition did not disappoint. With two gold medal games that went down to the wire, we were lucky to witness some top notch talent. The USABA national teams have a bright future ahead with athletes like these waiting in the wings.