LIFE-CHANGING TECHNOLOGY

Some students who wear glasses can make do with a desk near the front of the classroom. That wasn’t the case for Kasandra Romero. When she started her freshman year at Montpelier High School last fall, she had to stand in front of the board to see if her teachers wrote anything of importance. Kasandra is a young blind girl. Her vision is so poor that she can’t even recognize the face of someone sitting beside her. However, the future is looking bright, or rather, clear, for Kasandra these days. The 16-year-old sophomore is part of a growing client list for eSight. eSight is a set of electronic glasses that uses camera magnification to help those for whom a prescription is not enough. It’s one of the numerous tools designed for visually impaired people. Kasandra started using hers in February, and it has been a life-changing step for her. “I’ve been able to actually sit at my desk instead of having to get up and look at the board. Because I can easily zoom in, I can read what I have to do and get it done,” she said. “It’s still overwhelming now,” she continued, “I see new things every day.” Advances in assistive technology mean that the experiences of a visually impaired youth like Kasandra can be very different from those who grew up before the rise of smartphones and digital cameras. However, the device is not without challenges, either. It limits the people who use it with a two to six-hour battery life. If the wearer keeps the device on for the duration of that battery life, the continual refocusing of the camera can sometimes cause dizziness, disorientation or headaches.