I've done a lot of things in my professional life, including teaching math; teaching French, Spanish, and English to foreign speakers; and helping newly-blinded adults adjust to their vision loss. Now I'm also on staff part-time with the DO-IT program, doing Internet training, finding Internet Resources for the Gopher server, and compiling and maintaining resource guides.
As a Mentor, I try to help people enjoy the net and find what they want there. The net has information and enjoyment for everybody, and I try to explain it in ways people can understand. I'm also happy to discuss life, computer access, the universe, and almost everything with no vision!
My name is Ben and I would like to write about how the DO-IT program has changed my view on life.
For years I haven't been able to walk or lift my arms. So I let my fingers shine and played video games. But whenever the word "computer" came into conversation I couldn't relate because I couldn't hold my arms up to type. One of the worst feelings I had was when I watched someone else's enjoyment using a computer because I couldn't.
I know how each of us felt. We got mad, asking why God gave us this disease or for being different from everybody else. Sometimes we couldn't take it anymore and felt like the only person in the world.
But when we entered the DO-IT program that all changed. We all felt so triumphant now that we could use a computer. From the very first e-mail, to cruising the Internet the only thing we have on our minds is, "What can we not do?" We are all going to succeed, we all are smart enough and now that we have the power of a computer the gold that was always just out of reach can now be grasped.
** To send a message to all DO-IT Scholars or Mentors, send electronic mail to doitkids@u.washington.edu or mentors@u.washington.edu, respectively. **