(Courtesy of Daily Telegraph Wednesday 7 November 2007)
By Maralyn Parker
Spare a thought for the children and their teachers who are completely under the radar for this election.
I know there are as many stories as there are children with disabilities.
The struggle for a fair go lasts a lifetime. But here is a story that shows we do not even come close to looking after the children who need the most help.
A company that develops and markets technology for people who have a print disability, Quantum Technology, wanted to give a blind school beginner a modern Mountbatten Brailler as part of a technology scholarship.
It was discovered through the applications submitted Australia-wide that many blind children are still using Perkins Braillers at school. These machines have been around since the 1950s. They were new when Helen Keller was alive.
Many little children can’t even use the old Perkins Braillers because they need too much pressure to make the keys work. And often children who are blind are small because they were born prematurely. Managing Director of Quantum, Tim Connell, said some of these small children are just not capable physically of using the old machines until they are seven or eight.
The hardware and software is out there to make learning to read and write much easier for blind children - much of it developed in Australia by Quantum and other Australian technology companies - but apparently Australian governments cannot afford to supply it to their own schools.
As there are fewer than 3000 Australian school children registered with Vision Australia and the Royal Society for the Blind, we are talking about a very small number who may need help.
The Mountbatten Braillers cost about $5000. Not every child with vision impairment would use one, some children with partial sight would use other vision enhancing technologies.
But even if a school is lucky enough to have one, it is usually shared by several pupils.
Think of it this way - how successful do you think your child would be in learning to read and write if they had to share their pencil every day at school with several other children?
And to continue the analogy - what if that was the only pencil they could use, there was not one at home for them to practise and play with?
Three-year-old Trinity Sippel, who was born totally blind, is the lucky winner of the Quantum scholarship. Her mother Anna said Trinity is already aware of how much braille will mean to her.
She said her daughter loves “reading” her tactile books and tracing the Braille, even though she does not yet know how to read and write it. Quantam is supplying support materials to everyone involved in Trinity’s education.
Even if you forget the educational and social benefits of helping children like Trinity, the economic rationalist argument to support them should win.
A recent survey by Vision Australia found that 63 per cent of people who are vision impaired, and who are quite capable of being part of the workforce, are unemployed.
It will cost the taxpayer less in the long-term to educate vision impaired children properly.
Is any politician out there listening?