OSSB Panther News

March 2022

• 14 Little NC Goalball Competition, 3:30 pm OSSB Gym
• 15 and 17 Goal Ball Tryouts and Practice
• 15 Optional Virtual Signs of Suicide Program for Parents
• 15-18 State Testing - English Language Arts
• 16 Little NC Swim Competition, 3:30 pm OSSB Pool
• 17 OSSB Marching Band/Columbus St. Patrick's Day Parade 11:30 am Downtown Columbus
• 17 Little NC Basketball and Cheerleading, 3:30 pm OSSB Gym
• 21 Varsity Goalball Practice
• 23 OSSB Annual Stakeholder's Meeting - All families are Invited 9:00 am - 10:30 am Click on this Zoom Link on March 23rd.
• 24 Little NC's End of Season Celebration, lunch
• 24 Pep Band Practice, 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

• 28 thru April 1 - Spring Break/No School

April 2022

• 4 OSSB classes resume
• 14 Dismissal at 2:30
• 15 No School
• 18 No School
• 29-30 Varsity Goalball travels to ISVI for NCASB Championships
  

May 2022

• 12 Dismissal at Noon
• 13 No School
• 20 Dismissal at 2:30 pm
  
• 30 Memorial Day/No School

The OSSB Marching Band will be marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 17th in downtown Columbus. The parade steps off at 11:30 a.m. near COSI, goes east on West Broad Street before turning north on North High Street and ending at the Convention Center. Photo shows the OSSBMB marching in the Outback Bowl Parade in December 2019.

Mrs. Erica Bardon, Technology Teacher at OSSB shares a few photos of students from Mrs. Riggs class last week. Kassidy works on her Voice Over skills with an iPad game on the Objective Ed app. She matches an owl with its sound by dragging her finger along the screen.

In the second photo, Tim uses a braille display to explore his outlook email app on his iPad. He just finished writing and sending an email to a teacher!

JAWS is a screen reader developed by Vispero (formerly Freedom Scientific). It is one of the most popular screen reader software products on the market, and here at OSSB, we use JAWS frequently to complete many of our daily tasks. In this article, I will be comparing it to other popular options. Some of JAWS's best features include a desktop shortcut, automatic startup, and support for many popular apps and websites. The popular screen reader outperforms Apple's VoiceOver in many of the popular productivity apps, including Microsoft Word and Google Docs. JAWS is also a solid performer on the web, especially while using Google Chrome.

JAWS significantly outperforms Apple's VoiceOver when working with Microsoft Word files. In Microsoft Word, Apple's VoiceOver screen reader (pre-installed on Macs) requires that the document be exported to Pages or set to web view to be accessible to the software. In JAWS and NVDA, this is not the case, as these products support these files natively without the need to change settings or switch apps.

JAWS also outperforms VoiceOver on Google Docs, another commonly used platform at OSSB. While Google Docs is still difficult to navigate with JAWS, in VoiceOver, navigation may take more time. Oftentimes, VoiceOver behaves inconsistently while attempting to find the document's contents. In some cases, the document is not found, leading to frustration for some users. In JAWS, the user is more likely to find the document's contents and its associated menu bars. This is due to JAWS's greater consistency in regards to first-letter navigation. Though JAWS is able to find the document and navigate through it efficiently, I would like to note that navigating backward within a document may still be a challenge.

While I am on the topic of online work, I would like to mention that JAWS is a solid performer on many online applications and websites. On the four most popular web browsers, JAWS performed decently with most of them, with the only exception being Microsoft Edge, which generally has a difficult interface to navigate. Of all the web browsers tested, I would like to recommend Google Chrome, as its exceptional accessibility and easy sign-in features make it a perfect candidate for use with JAWS and other screen readers. Since many are concerned with the current investigation into Google's behavior, I would like to recommend Firefox for those who are more conscious of their personal data. Though Firefox is slower to run, its interface is easy to navigate, and its privacy features give you all the information you need in an accessible and easy-to-use format.

In this article, I have barely scratched the surface of all the features JAWS has to offer. In the next articles, I will compare JAWS to three other screen readers. These will be NVDA, Narrator, and of course, VoiceOver on macOS. In these articles, I will compare these screen readers to JAWS in the categories mentioned above and touch on new topics, including third-party applications. To conclude this article, I would like to note that teachers and students throughout OSSB use JAWS for many of their everyday tasks, including creating and submitting assignments, sending and receiving email, and of course, editing documents with common productivity apps. All in all, JAWS is a solid and reliable screen reader that you can count on and trust when there is important work to be done.

March 8th was the first day of Girls on the Run practice after school! We will be meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3:30 pm and have activities until we dismiss at 4:45 pm.

Girls will continue running and/or walking this spring with volunteer Running Buddies on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the season will finish with a 5K celebration on Sunday, May 22nd!

Questions? Please get in touch with Mrs. Sunny Kallstrom.

If attending events Today or Thursday, please park on the side parking lots then please sign in at the front desk no earlier than 3:30pm. Busing will be taking place starting at 3:15pm, please drive slowly and safely.

If attending swimming on Wednesday, please drive to the back of campus and park alongside the pool building or in the gravel parking lot behind the track. Be alert when driving, there will be teams using the track during that time.

• Monday March 14th: Goalball in gym, swim practice for those not in goalball
• Tuesday March 15th: basketball and cheer practice
• Wednesday March 16th: Swim meet (no goalball practice)
• Thursday March 17th: Basketball and Cheer presentation

Thursday March 24th we plan to have an end of season celebration during lunch. If interested in volunteering or sending items for the party please let me or coaches know.

On behalf of our wonderful coaches,

Alison Brewer

Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning

Photo shows Lyric at the South End of the gymnasium after school today, preparing to throw the goalball in hopes of a score. Teammate AJ sits by and listens. At the north end of the court we see Dhevon and Bryanna awaiting the goalball.

2022 Summer Camp registration is open until March 18, 2022, or until sessions are full.

If you have any questions, email OSSBsummercamp@ossb.oh.gov

OSSB Summer Offerings

Zoo Adventure Camp: June 6-June 10 (Grades 3rd-4th), STEM Camp I: June 6-June 10 (Grades 5th-7th), STEM Camp II: June 6-June 10 (Grades 8th-12th), Measuring Up with Math Camp: June 13-June 17 (Grades 3rd-7th), Theatre Camp: Making a Musical: June 13-June 17 (Grades 7th-12th), Eco Braille Camp: June 27-July 1 (Grades 3rd-7th), Sports Camp-Water Wars: July 10-July 15 (Grades 9-12th), ECC/ADL Camp: July 18-July 22 (Grades 7th-12th), Sports Camp-Water Wars: July 25-July 29 (Grades 6th-8th)

Band Camp: August 1-August 5 (Grades 7-12th)

*must have Band Director's permission if not an OSSB student*

Click Here for Registration Link

OSSB and OSD are proud to present an in-person event on April 23rd for families of infants and toddlers who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind. Families will enjoy a shared reading activity that can include ASL, story boxes, experience books and/or beginning braille. Make-it, Take-it participants will create sensory books to take home and explore with their infant/toddler. Finally, there will be hands-on fun with a live petting zoo, sensory exploration stations, and imaginary play with a farm theme. Activities will be provided for siblings too. For more information, contact Jenni Remeis, Statewide Coordinator Early Intervention Vision Services at Ohio State School for the Blind

Attention OSSB Families

The Ohio State School for the Blind has announced a collaboration to bring the Signs of Suicide Prevention Program to our school for students in grades 6 thru 12." Information will be presented to OSSB students in early April. Join the Virtual Parent Program this Wednesday provided by Nationwide Children's Hospital.

Virtual Parent Program

Wednesday, March 16th, 2022, from 5:30-6:30 pm

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 982 0882 6938, Passcode: 074953

One tap mobile +12532158782

Information shared courtesy of Nationwide Children's Hospital.

All OSSB students will receive training on the Safer Ohio School Tip Line by March 25th. Download the Word document below to see what that tipline offers.

The OSSC encourages reporting on:

· Bullying and cyberbullying incidents

· Self-harm or suicidal behaviors

· Withdrawn student behaviors

· Verbal or written threats observed toward students, staff, or the school itself

· Weapons/suspicious devices on or near school grounds

· Gang-related activities

· Illegal drug use

· Unusual or suspicious behavior of students or associates

Questions? Contact Mr. Jason Franklin, Director of Social Emotional Learning and Child Nutrition

Disclaimer: The following information is being provided for informational purposes only. Listed events are not sponsored or endorsed by the Ohio State School for the Blind. OSSB does not guarantee the accuracy of the information or data provided at these events.

Players, coaches, referees and anyone interested in learning more about one of the world’s most popular Paralympic sports are invited to join USABA for its Kickoff to Blind Soccer Town Hall on Wed., March 16, at 7 p.m. ET.

The discussion will be led by the USABA CEO and staff and will include grassroots initiatives, the IBSA classification process, 2022 schedule of USA Blind Soccer events, women’s team initiatives, community involvement and more.

Wednesday, March 16th 7pm ET

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82738093828?pwd=SXZvaHlnMi9NZXRWOWFmWHZjd3laQT09

Information courtesy of USABA

Application deadline: March 18, 2022

Thanks to several generous donations and a matching program from the NewCo Foundation, the next year of Book Club will have 300 free memberships available to qualified families! The goal is to make all subscriptions free over the course of five years.

The next phase of free Book Club memberships will start with the April 2022 book, and end after March 2023.

Eligibility:

• The CBBC-Free Program is available to blind children ages birth to 10 years old* or parents/legal guardians who are blind and have children ages birth to 10 years old*.
• Limit one Book Club membership per eligible child or household.
• The free program is only open to US residents.
• Enrollment is limited and will be based on eligibility/need criteria and on a first-come/first-served basis

Fill Out an Application Here

Michelle Wagner, Director of Teaching and Learning

5220 N. High Street

Columbus, Ohio 43214

614-752-1359

www.ossb.ohio.gov

Questions about this newsletter? Please contact Lauri Kaplan, Parent Mentor at 614-806-2651 or lkaplan@osdb.oh.gov