Aedan's Story
Aedan currently attends John Barsby Secondary in Nanaimo, British Columbia. He is in Grade Twelve. Aedan, who is blind, uses technology for school and leisure purposes. When asked how much time he spends on his computer, Aedan indicates it can be 24/7 if he has lots of homework to complete or is involved with the game Earth: 2025, his current favorite text based game.
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Grade Eleven: A Year To Remember - In September 2001, Aedan was chosen to participate in Smart Ask! Canada's national high school quiz show, hosted by CBC. The team representing John Barsby Secondary initially made it to the BC finals. Aedan recalls he scored 100% in the "geek speak" (technology) category, a just reward for all the time and energy he has spent on his technology pursuits. Qualifying out of BC earned the team a trip to the Canadian finals and a week to explore Toronto. The event was a great experience, and yes, an extremely competitive one. What fun they had! Aedan would especially like to thank CNIB who met him at the airport and provided 2 hours of O&M (orientation and mobility) instruction so he could explore Toronto on his own. Aedan has also been accepted to attend S.C.O.R.E. Camp 2002 in Ontario this summer. He is very excited about attending this camp with fellow British Columbian Daryl. Aedan and Daryl also plan to attend @ Vision Tech Camp, the CNIB/SET-BC Technology Camp. |
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Leisure - Again this year, Aedan was involved in blind skiing and for his 16th birthday he went bungee jumping. He is also well acquainted with the world of theatre productions in Vancouver, an activity he is involved with most summer holidays. Community - Aedan is an active member of his community. He and a friend work one night a week at the Crisis help line in Nanaimo. As well, Aedan was a Counsellor in Training at the CNIB adult summer camp 2002. Academic Opportunities - Aedan has been selected to attend a gifted writing program at his local College. He will attend class in the evening and receive a first year English credit. He looks forward to becoming acquainted with the campus layout and the vigor that College courses require while still in his grade twelve year. He wants to make a career of radio journalism and aspires to be the province's next Rafe Mair, a controversial talk show host on Vancouver's CKNW radio station. News Update - How was SCORE camp (Summer Computer Opportunities in Recreation and Education)? In July, Aedan attended SCORE camp in Ontario where won a $500 award for displaying the greatest creativity in adapting to new technology. When Aedan was presented with the award, he got to shake Walter Gretzky's hand. Aedan's Technology - Aedan uses a a Toshiba 1800 laptop with 128mg ram, a Power Braille 40 Refreshable Braille display, JAWS screen reading software, Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia and Duxbury Braille translation software. His school team also uses the Scientific Notebook software program - a great timesaver for translating math and science materials. Since Scientific Notebook is not independently accessible for blind users, Aedan benefits from the support of a Vision teacher and braillist teaching assistant to help him with this task. Scientific Notebook files are created and then opened in Duxbury braille translation software for translation and printing in Braille. Congratulations Aedan on a great year! |
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