Skills Center News
Fall 2006

MEET RIA BAYLEN
My name is Ria Baylen, and I have Usher’s Syndrome Type II, which is a combination of Retinitis Pigmentosa and a hearing loss. I lost my hearing at a very young age and discovered my visual impairment at the age of eighteen. For the first couple of years after the discovery of my vision loss, I did not know Braille, Mobility, or Adaptive Technology. I wanted to prepare myself and to be aware of what I should do if I lose all of my vision. I know that I cannot always depend on family members or friends to do things for me. So I joined the Living Skills Center, and it was a great opportunity for me to learn independence.
I enjoyed learning everything that LSC had to teach and every single lesson was very helpful. Learning contracted Braille was very helpful because when I was growing up, I used to read lots of books for fun and I missed reading. Now that I know Braille, I can read again! The quality of instruction that I received at LSC was excellent, and everything was worth learning; not only Braille, but also how to use public transportation, adaptive technology, and cooking. The field trips and social activities that we did were also very fun and enjoyable! I'm the type of person who enjoys outdoor activities and socializing. All the activities were great and are something that I will never forget. The kayak trip to Angel Island was an exciting experience because I've never kayaked before and I loved it! The ski trip was great too, it was fun skiing down the hill and falling on my bottom! I also loved the walk in San Francisco near Christmas time, Thanksgiving dinner, Fourth of July, the music nights, walking in the rain, the trip to Alcatraz and many others.
The challenges and success I experienced at LSC came about by my getting involved in all the activities, and I learned how to be independent, gained social skills, strength, and courage. Without the Living Skills Center, I don't think I would have had the confidence to be independent and do things on my own!

Note: Since graduating from the Living Skills Center, Ria has had a cochlear implant and hears much better. She is working part-time at the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind teaching Braille and sign language.

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

It is with great joy that I write to announce that the LSC has officially expanded to accept its first student into the new National Program! While we have dreamed for many years of being able to offer our services to deserving clients beyond California's borders, it was only a little over a year ago that we drove a stake into the ground to make this dream a reality by the Fall of 2006. And it is actually happening!
Through our extensive nationwide marketing plan, we have made contact with Departments of Rehabilitation, teachers of the visually impaired, and blind youth and their families all over the country. Now we are starting to get referrals and applications and have welcomed our very first out-of-state student. And more are on the way. We are proud to say we have stepped onto the national stage and ushered in a new era for the LSC. In addition, the expansion program also allows California Rehabilitation Counselors more access to our program and will accommodate many more students on our burgeoning California waitlist.
Of course we could never have achieved this goal alone. The "Vision of Love" gala event that celebrated the 25th anniversary of our friend Paula's catering company, Paula LeDuc Fine Catering, benefited the Living Skills Center and has been instrumental in funding our national marketing strategy. The phenomenal success of this fund-raising event, the growing membership of the Paula LeDuc Leadership Society, and each and every one of our loyal supporters at every level of giving have helped us reach our goal. I hope each of you sees our growth as evidence of a return on the investment you have made in the LSC; as a direct result of your contribution, a greater number of deserving individuals will now be getting the services they need to improve their quality of life and move towards true independence. On behalf of Paula, our Board of Directors, staff and students, I want to extend our deeply felt appreciation to all of you for making our dream come true.
--Patricia C. Williams

STUDENT JOSH EUBANK HAILS FROM THE STATE OF VIRGINIA
Our first student from out-of-state, Josh Eubank, had barely been here a week when he joined the fun for a tour of Alcatraz Island. How ironic that Josh's new-found freedom would lead him to visit an old prison! Josh enjoyed the ferry ride in San Francisco Bay and the field trip, however, and has settled in quickly at the Living Skills Center. Josh reports that he hasn't been very homesick, and he is enjoying his lessons, meeting new friends, and the wonders of the Bay Area. Next on the agenda: An overnight ocean kayak trip to Angel Island!

STAFF NEWS

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
The LSC has long needed a Development Department, and we are thrilled to announce that Chris Runde has been hired half-time to help fill that vacuum. Since Chris worked as our full time office manager for several years and subsequently volunteered one day a week after he "left" the LSC to attend graduate school, he has an intimate knowledge of our mission, our dreams, and our needs. His excellent written and oral communication skills, his poise and confidence, and his dedication to the Living Skills Center are just what we need to start an effective Development Department. Chris’s efforts have already produced grants to buy two new vehicles, help support our recreation program and buy new equipment for the lab. We are so happy to keep him in the family.

NEW TEACHER
In order to serve the needs of the extra students we are admitting, we are proud to announce that we have hired Danette Davis as our new full time Orientation and Mobility/Living Skills instructor. Danette holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Graphic Communication from California Polytechnic State University and worked for seventeen years at The University of California Press in Berkeley as Senior Publications Coordinator and Senior Editor. In December of this year she will receive her MA in Orientation and Mobility from SFSU. Danette comes highly recommended as a dedicated worker and team player. She brings not only a great attitude to the job but also athletic talent (she owns her own kayak and is interested in helping staff members Meggie Rempe and Brandon Young start a tandem bicycle program for the students). Danette has a calm demeanor, a great sense of humor and is very flexible…great assets for working with our very active students. Welcome Danette!

RECENT CHANGES
In July, Orientation and Mobility Instructor Meggie Rempe went from half-time to full time, allowing Patti Maffei to devote full time to her new duties as Program Director. These transitions have gone very smoothly, allowing LSC to maintain its efficiency while making major changes.

STUDENT TEACHER
Mention should be made that Orientation and Mobility student teacher Tami Gomes from San Francisco State University not only learned a lot from her Master Teacher Carol Hepsley, but also helped our busy staff tremendously this past summer. Tami's Supervisor from San Francisco State, Linda Myers, wrote us: "Tami is a great salesman for your program. Thanks for giving her a wonderful experience." Thank YOU, Tami.

We deeply appreciate all of our hard-working, cooperative staff. You make the Living Skills Center shine.

LSC'S NEW RIDES

We have always been grateful for the fifteen-passenger Ford van that the San Pablo Rotary helped us to buy way back in 1984. It has allowed us to take all of our students to the mountains for cross country ski trips and expanded our horizons beyond the town of San Pablo in many other wonderful ways. However, for a very long time our teachers have wanted a wheelchair accessible van to accommodate our students who are not only visually impaired but also wheelchair users. Students like Julie Fuller also were vocal in encouraging us to seek a solution so that they could participate more fully in our program. The San Pablo Rotary once again gave us the all-important local support by stepping up to the plate and raising the first $5,000 of our "van fund" with their wonderful Big Board Raffle. Then our ex-office manager turned grad student Chris Runde, offered to volunteer one day a week to research, write, and submit a grant to several local foundations. We had almost forgotten about these grants when lo and behold, not one, but two acceptance letters appeared in the mail within two weeks of each other! One grant came from the Five Bridges Foundation and one from the Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation. Needless to say, we were all thrilled, grateful, and VERY PROUD of Chris. Not only were we able to buy a wheelchair accessible Chevrolet Uplander minivan with the Five Bridges Foundation grant, but also an eight-passenger Honda Odyssey minivan with the Lesher Foundation grant. The timing could not have been more perfect. Since the program is expanding from fourteen students at a time to eighteen, these vehicles are necessary to transport all of our students to our many activities.

TECH TALK

LSC in Japan
In November, Living Skills Center Technology Instructor, Ron Hideshima, will be traveling to Tokyo, Japan to participate in the Sight- world 2006 conference. This conference is being largely organized by KGS Corporation (a Japanese accessible tech company) and will feature over 50 vendors. Ron, who is fluent in both Japanese and English, has been invited to be a speaker on the last day of the conference. He is planning to address a number of topics, including current trends in accessible technology and the changing relationship between proprietary technology and off-the-shelf products. He will also be spending a significant amount of time talking about the Living Skills Center, introducing the program to an international audience. We are excited to be spreading the word about the LSC overseas!

What's New
A substantial grant has just arrived from Kraft Corporation that will help keep our cutting-edge lab up-to-date. The following new items will soon be added to Ron's repertoire of great software and hardware:

Multiple User Licenses: These licenses are for the Jaws screen reader software, as well as for Magic and Zoomtext screen magnification software. These programs allow blind and low vision users access to the same computer resources available to sighted people. However, in the past we had only a single copy of each software, meaning that only one student can be taught at a time. Now Ron will be able to teach group classes of up to four students simultaneously, which will free up some of his valuable time to help more students!

J-Say by T&T Consultancy: This new product allows Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software (a popular commercial product) to work in conjunction with the JAWS screen-reading program. The use of both of these powerful programs together facilitates an interaction between user and computer, done entirely through speech!

Easy Braille: This compact piece of hardware connects to a PC or laptop via USB and can display 40 cells (Braille letters) at a time. Cells are formed by small pins that move up and down to make the familiar Braille dots as well as changing as the user navigates through text on the computer screen.

Portable Barcode Reader: The I.D. Mate OMNI allows the user to scan a barcode and have a description of the item read aloud. For example, a visually impaired shopper could go into a grocery store and, along with the OMNI, be able to identify packaged items without assistance from a sighted person. The OMNI contains a database with information on over one million common consumer goods and includes not only basic descriptions of the products themselves, but also additional information, such as ingredient listings, warnings and nutritional data. Additionally, it allows the user to create customized barcode labels and record his/her own descriptions of items.

THANK YOU KRAFT CORPORATION

Techy Guests
Thanks to the following companies who have visited the Living Skills Center recently to demonstrate their products to our students:

Optelec USA
www.optelec.com 

InternetSpeech
www.internetspeech.com

HumanWare
www.humanware.com

THANKS TO PAULA LEDUC AND SAFEWAY

Truth be told, carving pumpkins can be difficult and dirty work, but our friend Paula LeDuc showed us an easier way. (Leave it to Paula, owner of Paula LeDuc Fine Catering, to think of a great way to decorate with food.) With donated pumpkins from our local Safeway in Pinole, students learned to make pumpkin faces with vegetable parts pinned on with toothpicks. How fun is that!

WE WISH ALL OF OUR MANY FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON