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Northern Illinois University

NIU Office of Public Affairs


News Release

Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472

June 23, 2005

Hinckley Lions Club donates $5,400
to NIU's Programs in Vision for equipment

DeKalb — Northern Illinois University professor Gaylen Kapperman's presence at a winter “zone meeting” of area Lions Club chapters has turned into a gift of $5,355 to the College of Education's Programs in Vision.

Kapperman believes the money could help change the way math is taught to children with visual impairments.

Al Haseman, president of the Hinckley Lions Club, and three of his members liked what they heard at the zone assembly. They invited Kapperman, coordinator of the Programs in Vision in the Department of Teaching and Learning, to their February meeting.

“We thought it was a good way to help out the university – somebody close by. We let him talk for 45 minutes or so. He said that's the most any club has ever let him talk. We enjoyed listening to him. He had a lot of interesting stories,” Haseman said. “One hundred percent of the 17 people who were at the meeting that night were in favor of donating money. If we can help somebody else teach blind people, then that's something the Lions Club is all about.”

Founded in Chicago in 1917, the International Association of Lions Club is the world's largest service organization, with more than 1.4 million members covering 182 countries and geographic areas.

NIU has one of the country's best and largest programs in blindness and visual impairment, preparing students to become teachers of visually impaired children, rehabilitation specialists for newly blinded adults and instructors of orientation and mobility.

The program offers extensive training in assistive technology – software and hardware that augment and support learning, communication and mobility. The Hinckley Lions Club's donation purchased two Braille displays for the Visual Disabilities Lab.

A Braille display is a tactile device consisting of a row of special ‘soft' cells, each of which has six or eight pins made of metal or nylon. These pins are controlled electronically to move up and down to display Braille characters as they appear on the display of the source system, usually a computer screen or a Braille note-taker.

As an individual types on the computer keyboard, brings up documents or surfs the Internet, the pins form Braille characters reflecting the text on the screen. Visually impaired individuals then can read the text with their fingertips. The most up-to-date Braille displays also have audio features, which read the display aloud to the user.

“When teachers know how to use this kind of technology, they can in turn teach their students how to use it effectively to enhance their educational experiences and their lives,” Kapperman said.

“As a result of this gift, I am also working with two of NIU's computer science professors to develop software to teach math to the visually impaired using Braille displays. This is a very complex undertaking, but I am convinced that we will be successful,” he added. “And, when we are, it will benefit thousands of blind youngsters across the nation, significantly changing and improving the way math is taught to blind children.”

Learning math is notoriously difficult for the visually impaired, Kapperman said.

“There is a tremendous need for better tools in this area,” he said. “The Hinckley Lions Club's gift is making this project possible. If they had not been so generous, we would not have had the equipment to get this project off the ground. Their gift will, indeed, have very far-reaching benefits.”

NIU bought Braille displays from two different manufacturers, Optelec (Braille Voyager 44) and Freedom Scientific (Focus Braille 80). Each has a plaque affixed that reads – in Braille – “Gift of Hinckley Lions Club, March 2005.”

“It is important to have these two Braille displays, as they are configured slightly differently and also offer different tactile experiences,” said Deborah Fransen, the College of Education's development officer. “Some visually impaired people will prefer one style or ‘feel' over the other, and it is important for our students and future teachers to be able to ascertain which type might be most beneficial for a particular student.”

Unfortunately, the need for such devices and for Kapperman's graduates is growing while funding is tight.

Researchers project that the number of blind and visually impaired children and adults in the United States will climb in coming years as the Baby Boomers age and many of the congenital defects and diseases that result in vision impairment or loss remain incurable.

“This is one of the largest single-item gifts we've ever given,” Haseman said. “Everybody felt it was going for a good cause.”

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