First Online Class At Grand Canyon University

I am in the final week of my first class at GCU. I have so many thoughts on this experience so far. I can't wait to tell you all about it. So far so good!

The first class they have you do is University Success (UNV-108). This is an introduction to the online platform. It gives a taste of what life will be like through out all of your courses. It also is taylored to your specific degree program which is amazing! This means you get to jump into your major right away!

There is more than one teacher who teaches this class. The Professor that I have is fantastic. She is so responsive to private messages. She is super engaged through out all the elements of the class. She gets grades back fast. That last one is my favorite because Lord knows I am crazy when it comes to grades.

The support behind the scenes from my Student Services Counselor, Field Experience Counselor, Library Staff and Enrollment Counselor has been great. This is another fantastic aspect of GCU. You are not in this alone. You have an entire graduation team who has your back from start to finish.

So far, everything has been very accessible with my screen reader on both my computer and my phone. I am currently using JAWS and Voiceover on my iPhone.

I am able to navigate all of the different areas of the online classroom with no problems at all. I tend to bounce between using two different browzers, Firefox and Google Crome. I use Google most often.

I am able to get my textbooks so far in PDF format. I download them onto my phone using the Voice Stream Reader ap that I purchased from the ap store for $14.99. This has been a fairly plainless process. I admit that I would rather have a real person reading than a computerized voice though. In some of my classes this will be possible because I am an ENglish major. I can't speak for what is available for other programs.

I took one quiz in this class and it was also totally accessible. I was worried because tests on online platforms are sometimes glitchy with screen readers. How refreshing it was to realize that I had nothing to worry about.

The library section of the school website is accessible for the most part. I will say that it does sometimes take longer to find exactly what i am looking for when I am searching for journal articles. Once I have found the one I want, click on it, and try to read... It takes a while to find exactly where to go. I wish there was some more fine tuned key-commands to navigate this. Honestly, there could be and I am just not aware of them yet. This is all so new to me.

Last week, we had to do a video submission assignment about our disposition to teach. I was really nervous about this. I have to admit though, it makes me want to get back into my YouTube channel again. Want to see how I did?

Watch Disposition To Teach Here
Overall, I am really happy with this decision to start GCU. I am proud to be a Lope! Stay tuned to follow me on this journey. Comment down below and let me know what videos you would like to see on the channel.

My First Week at Grand Canyon University

The first week of my online school experience is down in the record books. In fact, we are half way through the second week. This makes me expert enough to chat with you right?

Maybe not...

I'm going to do it anyway. I love my school so far guys! It so far has been a wonderful experience. If this is any indication of how the rest of my program is going to go, I have nothing to worry about.

Gran Canyon (GCU) has so many resources to set students up for success. The level of student support is outstanding. Haven't been to school in a few years??? That doesn't matter. They have tutorials and webinars to help you with everything.

They have a dozen librarians on staff to help you utilize their large library to best meet your needs. Have no idea how to format a paper in APA or MLA format??? That doesn't matter... They have a tutorial and a template for you. Not sure if your Reference List is on point? Send it to a librarian for some advice.

I'm telling you, this University is amazing!

One of the best parts is, the accessibility. GCU uses an online platform called Loud Cloud. I was worried about this going in. There is no ap like there is with Canvas. I had never heard of it before. It was possible based on this, I was making a huge mistake right?

Wrong!

Up to this point, I have not experienced any issues at all with accessibility. Has there been a few minor hiccups? Sure, of course there has. Honestly though, that is to be expected with anything.

The faculty has been more than willing to help with anything I need. My teacher automatically offered to send me any class documents if I had issues finding something. She is very quick to respond to any questions I have about navigating the platform.

Grading...

It's still early, but this process has been fantastic. I have had experiences where you are waiting practically until the end of the quarter to receive a grade on a single assignment. This has not been like that at all. Don't quote me on this, but I believe GCU has a policy in place that gives teachers a four business day turn around on grading. This is a game-changer for me. I'm not going to lie. I get so stressed waiting for a final grade on an assignment some times.

I will leave this post here. I will explain more another day. If you are considering going back to school and you don't know where to go... I would absolutely encourage you to check out Grand Canyon University. They are a private school. There tuition is not much different than that of an in-state school. Check out some of their videos online, visit there website, or chat with an enrollment counselor. What have you got to lose? Nothing! That's what. You do have everything to gain. I promis you that.

Until next time friends

Volunteering At A Blind School

As most of you know, I was not born blind. Since I didn't go blind until basically adulthood, I have zero experience with blind children. I figured I should probably take care of that since I plan to get a teaching credential to be able to teach visually impaired students.

Where is the best place to do this you ask? Well my friends, let me tell you. I decided to start volunteering at a blind school. Great idea right?

So far, it has been a wonderful experience. I am loving it! I am learning so much and having so much fun in the process. All the staff are fantastic too.

It has been so interesting seeing how this works. I love watching the kids learn on an equal playing field. They don't have to fight to understand. The material is accessible and put in their hands in a way that best fits their needs. Accomodations are a part of every day life and totally normal. Technology is at their finger tips. The staff go above and beyond to give their students the best learning opportunities possible. It is beautiful.

I really love it here. Sometimes I wish I could volunteer more often. It is a great place to be.

I'm still not sure if I want to teach in a general ed school or a blind school, but I'm loving the process of sorting it all out.

New Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard

I recently got a new keboard from Apple. It is a Logitech Easy Switch Bluetooth Keboard .It was a gift I received because of some issues I had over the holidays with them.

Please don't misunderstand... Apple didn't actually do anything wrong. The problem I was having was a technical probelm that was beyond their control. They did an amazing job handling it however, and stuck with me until the problem was resolved.

So far this keyboard is amazing. I am still learning how to use it though, so I am not ready to do a full review or demo on it yet.

Do any of you have one of these baby's? They are all kinds of cool just saying.

Long story short, I think this will help with some of the complications I have been having with my computer. Having this will allow me to do some of my writing on my Ipad. Thus, I'll be able to keep up more frequently here on Playing the Blind Card.

I plan to be incorporating many new things to the site. I am hoping to find someone to assist me with some new visual characteristics at some point. Most importantly, I plan on changing up the content.

There will be new segments added... Some that are possibly in the works...

Book Buzz: This is where I will review books that I am reading. This could also be a possible opportunity for readers to contribute to the blog as well.

Interviews: I am still very interested in interviewing other blind and visually impaired people for the page. I want to talk to you about many topics that could include day to day life, parenting, jobs, travel, and any thing else under the sun that comes up. I think it is important to show seers as well as blindy's that there is life beyond the cane so to speak.

Author Updates: Of course there will be this section. As new things come up with my books, you my lovely readers will be the first to know..

Did That Really Just Happen: I realize I have fallen very behind with this segment. It is much loved and much requested amongst readers. Never fear, it will be back. Very soon in fact. Something very recent just happened that I think you will all get a kick out of that happened between two different blindy's.

Tech Talk: There will be more reviews and how to type posts about different products, applications, games and other technology. I would love to eventually increase this section. I am still researching how to get my hands on different demo materials to show you guys.

Parenting: A huge debate I have noticed in Facebook groups lately, and also in questions I get in real life, is about blind parenting. In can be a touchy subject for some people. Personally I think that is a bit silly because a blind or visually impaired person can parent just as affectively as a seer. In some cases, they can do it better. So this section will explore this tipic. There will also be some advice sections and opportunities for readers to contribute posts and or questions they want answered.

Randomness: As always, I promise to have as much random as possible. Again, thanks to my new keyboard, I think I will be able to bring you more material more frequently.

Did I mention that so far I love this keyboard? Well if I haven't, let me just say... I love this keyboard.

The only thing I have a problem with so far is that when using it with my Ipad, I do not know how to select and icon. Also, on my Iphone, it doesn't want to seem to allow me to type in areas such as text messages and notes. For the second problem, I think the problem is simply that I need to change a seeting on my phone. I just don't know what. As far as the first, I have no idea what I need to do. I am at a complete loss. If anyone has any tips, I would be very very excited.

Well that's it for now guys. As always, thanks for reading. Remember... Keep your head up... you can't see the ground anyway :)

Review of Apple TV Using Voiceover

Entertainment is a priority for everyone right? Well this fact shouldn't change just because you can't see what's entertaining you. Today we will be discussing the functionality of Apple TV with voiceover activated.

Don't worry seers... there is good stuff in here for you too, so do not... I repeat... Do NOT hit your back button!!

As many of you probably already know, Apple is an amazing company by normal standards. To the blind community, it is outstanding. It brings the wide world of technology into our hands without adding a lot of excess. This is huge!

Back in the day, in order for us to have technology, we would have to spend an outragious ammount of money and probably break our backs carrying the monstrosities. Now however, for the most part, we are only spending the outragious ammounts of money that a seer would pay and are carrying around devices that are the same size as them too.

Thank you Apple for helping us blindy's be followers!... Ok just kidding :)

But seriously, Apple has taken huge strides in making their products usable by the blind, and other disabled communities. This is truly much appreciated by most.

Getting to the point, today I am going to talk to you about the Apple TV. This for those of you who don't know, is a media streeming box that hooks up to your television.

This product is a tiny little box that packs a big punch. It does a lot and isn't terribly expensive in comparison to other Apple devices. It retails for right around a hundred dollars.

The only thing extra you will need to purchase besides the Apple TV device, is an HDMI cord and a converter if you are not running a High Definition TV.

One flaw right out of the box, once hooked up, in order to turn on voiceover, you will need a seer. This can be frustrating for someone (like me) who wants to play with the device right away and can't.

Once this pesky problem is taken care of, it's pretty much smooth sailing from here. You will need to of course sign in with your Apple sign in information. This will allow to to acess any content you have boughten from Itunes such as movies, music and TV shows. You will also be able to get your Itunes radeo stations here as well.

If you have a Netflix account, or Hoo Loo Plus (probably spelled wrong), you are in luck because those are available on here as well. You can also get content from other things such as Disney Channel, PBS, ESPN and much more. Just so you know however, in order to watch certain items you will need to have a cable or dish subscription.

Before you even ask I will provide the side note: Yes, Netflix and what not is usable by us blindy's. More on that to come in another post.

You can also utilize the wonderful world of You Tube from you amazing Apple TV.

Parental controls are also functional. However, might I offer a small tip mom and dad? Be sure to send the kids out of the room before entering your passcode... hello... it talks... they can hear it and see it. This may pose a problem for some of you. There are ways around this thought. The restriction section will also allow you to make it to where a passcode has to be entered to make a purchase. You can also choose ratings that you do or don't want your little ones watching. Don't worry, if needed, this can be bypassed with your passcode.

Furthermore, in the Main menu section of settings, you can tell your Apple TV what you want shown on your home screen. It will give you such options as "Show, HIde, or Ask" The first two are self explanatory. The ask option just means that if the item is clicked, it will ask the user to enter the passcode. For instance, if you don't want your child using You Tube without permsion, you would set that to "Ask" in the main menu section of settings.

All in all, the Apple TV is a great product. I would give it a four out of five rating. I honestly use it more now than my regular cable TV. There isn't anything on it that I can't do. The only improvement I would like to see is the inconvenient way to put it into sleep mode. This can be annoying at times. If you love movies, TV and music, you will love the Apple TV.

Stay tuned for a demonstration on the You Tube channel.

Thanks for reading guys and as always... Keep your head up... you can't see the ground anyway :)

A Little About My New Project And A Little About Clandestine

I just got back from camping today and it’s been a very productive writing day. My kids have been absorbed in activities that they haven’t been able to do much in the last week or so which has allowed me to be very efficient with my latest project.

I am super excited about it because the main character of this one is a totally blind person. It isn’t as easy as you would think to write a character like that. Sure I can’t see so I can easily get into the person’s head to write them that’s true. But a reader (especially a sighted reader) wants description. A blind reader wants description too but for a different reason. I live by the saying that an audio book is a blind person’s television. This is because you don’t miss anything when you read like you do when you listen to your favorite show or movie.

Anyway as always I’m veering off track. In order to make a blind main character work affectively I have decided to make her someone who became blind rather than someone who was born that way. She has only been blind for a year so she is still in the stage where she is pretty much a Debbie Downer on the subject. It hasn’t dawned on her yet in the book that blindness isn’t the end of the world.

I went through a lot of mixed emotions when I lost my sight. I have also had gobs of people ask what that was like and how it felt. I thought it would be a good element to add to the story of such a multi faceted character.

The book is still in the beginning stages so I don’t want to give away much but I will tell you that I’m only at chapter 4 and I’m already falling in love with it. Don’t get me wrong I love Clandestine too but in an entirely different way. The Bound In Blood series is fun to write and I have put a lot into it. But with this project I’ve really delved into my soul and put a piece of my soul into it.

I hope you adore this story as much as I do. I am unsure yet if it will be a series but can definitely see the potential for one with the plot that is unraveling.

I promise to keep you up to date on that and also with the second book in the Bound In Blood series Divinity whenever possible. I know I have been neglecting my blogs lately and for that I’m sorry, I truly am. But its summer time so both kids are home full time, we’ve been camping a bunch and also been devoted to the new books I’m working on coupled with getting Clandestine out for your viewing pleasure.

There have been a lot of questions about whether or not Clandestine will be made into an audio book. When it is released it will only be available in print and EBook. BUT I promise that an audio version will be made available as soon as that is possible. Unfortunately, the production of an audio book is very expensive. I looked into hiring a narrator but the cheapest I have found is five hundred dollars and right now that is just not an option for me. That is definitely one down side to self publishing, accessible formats take a while if they come at all.

I have been looking into finding someone I know read it for me but that isn’t as easy as it looks either. I have to be sure the person has the right quality and tone to their voice to portray Emily as well as the rest of the slayer gang. It will be done I promise. I’m just not sure when.

I will write again soon and let you know how things are going. PS… I will be posting this same post on both my blogs so all of you will be equally informed.

What It's Like To Be Blind

Greetings Everyone! You would be absolutely amazed at how many times in my life I have been asked what it’s like to be blind. It’s happened so many times in fact that I’ve decided to blog about it. It’s not that it’s a dumb question because it’s not. The only question that is dumb is the one you didn’t ask. I actually encourage people to ask me anything they want to as long as they are respectful about it. Half the battle is getting the knowledge out there and if people don’t ask the knowledge is lost. Maybe if people asked more questions I would get stared at less and approached more. But that is a topic for another post. So as I was saying this particular post is to answer the above mentioned question to the best of my ability. It’s only my personal opinion and of course doesn’t in any way reflect the opinions of any other blind person. I’m going to answer this question in two ways because if you asked my answer would depend on the day.

On A Good Day: Normally being blind really isn’t a big deal. I’m not generally very negative about it because it’s just a fact of life. I’m blind so what? Being blind does not in any way define who I am. Blindness is just one small part of me. I don’t consider it a character trait or flaw.

I love my life and not missing much. I can still hear, feel and taste the world around me. I can still cook my girl’s dinner and clean my house. The only difference between me and a sighted person is the way I do things. Unfortunately, my vision does sometimes make an activity take longer to complete but I’ve gotten used to that so I don’t consider it a problem. One example of a simple task that sighted people can take for Granted is vacuuming. Most sighted people simply plug it in, turn it on and start moving around the house easily avoiding obstacles and not missing anything. For me it’s a bit different. When I go to plug something in I have to feel the wall in the facinity that I know the outlet is located. Next I feel the holes of the outlet to help me get my alignment right (PS… make sure your fingers are completely out of the way before putting the prongs in the outlet. I’ll explain later). Once the vacuum is plugged in I make sure the cord is out of the way so I don’t run it over. Oh I almost forgot. I vacuum completely bare foot. I do it this way because while I’m vacuuming I can feel with my feet as I walk things that I may have missed. In the areas of my house that I know are fairly open I can move at a decent pace. However, instead of gliding in one particular place say one or two times I do it four or five times to ensure it’s clean. I’m careful to move in strips and move to the next strip as straight as possible so again I don’t miss as much. In the areas that I know have the furniture I move slower and more carefully so not to slam the vacuum into them. I have to do it all in sections to be the most productive. When I’m done I try and walk through without the vacuum to feel for anything that was missed. If I know a particular area had crumbs spilled because of my wonderful slob children (just kidding… kinda) then I might even get on my knees and feel that spot with my hands. That’s a pretty good example of most tasks. I just take a little more time with them to at least attempt to ensure they are done properly. I also have a wonderful family support system that assists me with anything extra I need.

I can maneuver around my house completely without the use of my Cane. I prefer this because sometimes I need both my hands. Nevertheless, as well as I do this I still run into things sometimes really hard. Believe it or not I sometimes forget myself that I am blind. When this happens I usually walk through the house as though I can perfectly see any obstacle, corner, piece of furniture or toy that may be lingering on the floor. I do trip and fall on occasion because my speed doesn’t always reflect that I can’t see. I do admit that when this happens I often verbalize the use of expletives to make myself feel better or to at least if nothing else get my point across. When I’m at my parent’s house I don’t use my Cane either. When I run into an object there my fathers favorite comment to make is “we haven’t move the furniture recently.” Or, “That wall has always been there.” To this he generally receives an obscene gesture that shall remain nameless but I’m sure you get the point.

I’m used to “watching” TV as a blind person. For the most part it doesn’t bother me. The only time I get discouraged is when I’m “watching” a movie and the talking stops and transitions into a music sequence. Once it’s over I sometimes have a hard time catching up to what just happened. For this reason I like re-runs. Most of them have been showing for so long that I probably was able to actually see them for real in the past. I have a really good memory and can usually remember what’s happening with out being told. I do watch new shows and sometimes the blindness is helpful. My oldest daughter loves the show Hoarders. I honestly think if I could see half of what went on during that show I would be traumatized. PS… It’s never funny when a blind person says that they watched something for someone to say “really? How did you watch it?” Those statements get very old very quickly just sayin.

Cooking and travel are all the same as cleaning as well. They just take a little longer and I have to rely heavily on my other senses. I do admit my cooking abilities aren’t as strong as what they used to be. I sometimes get paranoid that I am not going to cook the meat right. They do make technology to aid with this but of course thanks to supply and demand it is pretty expensive. Traveling isn’t much of a problem. I’m lucky. As I mentioned before I have a family who is willing to help me with rides pretty much any where I need to go. I do live in a neighborhood that allows me to walk to some places. I like to walk as long as the whether is nice. As mentioned in past posts I’m not a fan of the rain. Also, my youngest daughter absolutely despises anything that spills water of any kind on her head so that adds another complication.  She tends to have a meltdown in the rain so I try to avoid it if at all possible.

I have a strong belief in God and the fact that everyone has a purpose. There is a reason I’m blind even if I haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe some day they will come up with a cure. If they do then that's wonderful. If they don’t then I’m not going to spend the rest of my life feeling sorry for myself. I have a life to live and I’m not going to let blindness or anything else stop me.

On A Bad Day: some days I can hardly get out of bed. I have pity party moments that make it hard to breathe. It’s hard for me to not see my girls. That is my one and only regret of my blindness. Sometimes when I listen to them play and acting silly, I have to swallow back the huge lump in my throat and blink back the tears even though I’m happy to at least hear them.

It’s unbearable to know that I won’t see them graduate. I won’t see them in their first formal dress for a dance posing next to their date. I won’t see their first terrible driver’s license picture. I won’t see the awkward puberty years when they start getting zits and their hair never seems to lay right. I won’t see them in their braces. I won’t see them in their wedding dress as they walk down the aisle.

If it wasn’t for these facts, I would be completely okay with my vision loss. Nevertheless, it’s because of my girls that I get up in the morning. It’s because of them that I strive to be a better person and set a good example for them. If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be who I am today. Please don’t feel sorry for me because I’m not. These bad days are very few and far between but they are there on occasion. I try to put them on the back burner and most of the time I’m successful. Life is too short to stress about ones short comings.

In all actuality in some ways my blindness is a blessing in terms of the girls. It helps to teach them patience, tolerance and the ability to know it’s okay to be different. If everyone was the same in life it would be incredibly boring. I don’t look at my blindness as a hurtle. It’s simply a jumping block to help me get to new places in life.