LINC offers a workshop geared for teachers of the visually impaired to instruct students on using a talking computer. Teaching students with visual impairment to use Microsoft Windows and word processing programs with a screen reading program such as JAWS for Windows has become more common place in the last few years and LINC has become the place to send your Vision Teachers to learn about teaching these skills. LINC has worked with faculty, staff, and students in Prince George’s County, Harford County, Baltimore City, and MD School for the Blind. The workshop is taught in a “hands-on” format with each participant having a state of the art computer terminal with the latest software installed. The class size is kept small, no more than 5 with at least 2 instructors present for each class.
LINC has created a flexible curriculum schedule to meet the needs of you and your staff. The basics can be covered in a half-day. This is especially useful as a refresher course, or for those with some prior experience with JAWS for Windows. The full curriculum can be covered in 20 hours. A few school systems have opted for 10 hours of hands-on training and 10 hours of on-site assistance and technical services from LINC.
The training covers topics such as reading machines like Kurzweil or Arkenstone, and troubleshooting technical difficulties or conflicts with specialized software. Some skills that will be taught in the workshops:. Working with the "Desktop", "Taskbar", "Start Button" and "Start Menu" of Microsoft Windows Basic screen reading commands for controlling computer speech with JFW. (i.e. reading documents) Windows features such as selecting text, Cut, Copy and Paste for word processing (and other writing skills) File Management skills including moving, copying and renaming files New features in the latest version of JFW including the "run JAWS from task tray feature” and “program specific help.”
The rate for hands-on workshop training is $800 per day, $500 per half day, payable 30 days after the training is complete. For more information on the JAWS training workshops, please call Fred Carter at 410-659-5462.