Duration: 1:42
Matt is a Year 13 student at Wairarapa College. He has low vision and in this video describes how he makes school work for him. He reflects on his use of technology, effective partnerships with teachers, and the need for self-advocacy skills and a sense of humour.
Obviously here at school we have many different teachers. I take five different subjects and obviously it changes every year and the teachers will change and some are different to others. Some, if they see my technology - my CCTV, my laptop, my Braille display - they can sort of get really flustered about that. Sometimes [they] go overboard with trying to help me when I don’t need it or the opposite, they don’t know what to do so they don’t do anything. However there are some really good teachers. A good example is my biology teacher at the moment, Miss Houliston who is pretty technology savvy. If we’re starting a new topic she’ll come up and she’ll say we’re doing this, this, and this, I’ve got it electronically do you want me to put it on your laptop? A teacher like that just makes it so much easier to access information and stuff that I need. But also, the teachers that aren’t as good it’s sort of up to me to tell them what I need and when I need it and that sort of thing as well. I help them to help me.