From
The Republican. In the picture, Katelyn M. Kress, seated, a blind student from Stillwater, Minn., learns to take computer software and make it speak to her at a biology lab at Western New England College in Springfield. Surrounding her are Michael V. Lombardi, curriculum development specialist for Independence Science; professor Robert H. Holdsworth, WNEC biology teacher, and Cary A. Supalo, developer of the software.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Sometimes the blind really can lead the blind.
That is something 18-year-old Katlyn M. Kress, a first-year student at Western New England College, is learning.
Kress, who has been blind since the age of 3, recently got a lesson in adaptive equipment developed by another blind person.
That person is Cary A. Supalo, a 30-something with a doctorate in chemistry from Penn State. He recently helped her check out some software he helped develop that will enable her to take a more hands-on approach to learning science.
Kress, who lost her sight to eye cancer, hopes to major in biology with the goal of becoming a pediatric oncologist.
Although lots of people have told her she will never be able to take a biology course because it involves laboratory work, Kress is hopeful Supalo’s software will help her overcome that challenge.
“I feel like it could be possible,” said Kress, who comes from Stillwater, Minn. “I’m looking forward to trying it out.”
Working with the Independent Laboratory Access for the Blind program at Penn State, Supalo developed software that links probes that can send digital images of the view through a microscope to a tactile image enhancer. That is a device that generates a raised surface image like Braille on a piece of paper the blind can use to “see” something.
“She can actually feel what everybody else is seeing,” Bonni M. Alpert, the college’s assistant dean of student disability services, said during a recent demonstration of the equipment. “She can be an active participant in the process, and that’s what the big deal is here.”
Alpert said Western New England College, which has a population of about 2,500 undergraduates and approximately 1,200 graduate students, has about 175 disabled students. She said five are blind, and the rest have such disabilities as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
While most colleges meet the legal requirements for accommodating students with disabilities, Alpert said she believes Western New England College goes further in meeting the spirit of the law by purchasing such software.
Supalo is marketing his software as the sole proprietor and owner of Independence Science. Blind since the age of 7, Supalo earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in chemistry in 10 years, a process most people complete in 5 to 7 years.
The software project formed the basis of his Ph.D. dissertation.
“It always has its challenges,” Supalo said of being blind.
The resident of Bolingbroke, Ill., said he is marketing his software to increase the number of blind people majoring in such subjects as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
From The Republican. In the picture, Katelyn M. Kress, seated, a blind student from Stillwater, Minn., learns to take computer software and make it speak to her at a biology lab at Western New England College in Springfield. Surrounding her are Michael V. Lombardi, curriculum development specialist for Independence Science; professor Robert H. Holdsworth, WNEC biology teacher, and Cary A. Supalo, developer of the software.
