The Regional Teacher of the Blind and Visually Impaired is unable to afford the needed equipment for teaching students in five different school districts how to read and write braille. The braille equipment on the market costs $25 each and a set would cost $250 per school. That would be $1,250 total for all schools. On top of the basic cost of the market equipment, the pegs are often lost and cost around $10 each to replace. The other issue with the on the market equipment is that it is not easy to see for the visually impaired and the pegs were too small for one of the students with motor skill issues.
We are using Fusion 360 and our Bambu Lab 3D printer to create and print Braille Cells and easily grasped pegs.
The critical thinking of this project is that we are having to create braille cells that attach together and create pegs that fit in the wholes of the braille cells that the student with grasping issues can grab. We also had to select bright contrasting colors for the students that are low vision because the none bright colors were hard for them to see.
The advancing of the project is that we had to learn how braille is taught in order to create and accommodate student needs. We also had to learn Fusion 360.
This is a real project because it will change the life of the student who has the motor skill issues, because now she can grasp the pegs unlike the ones on the market.
The teamwork involved is that we are having to work with the Regional Teacher for the Blind and Visually Impaired as well as with the students she teaches on this project.
This is a unique project not just because we are able to change the lives of visually impaired students, and students that are visually impaired/blind with motor skill issues, but also because we were able to lower the costs of the equipment to being $1.41 each. This lowered the overall cost for the regional teacher of the blind and visually impaired from $1,250 to $70.50.