Duration: 2:13
Matt is a Year 13 student at Wairarapa College. In this video Matt, who has low vision, describes how, with technology and the help of friends, he accesses and participates in the curriculum alongside his peers.
So obviously at school sometimes technology isn’t enough. There might be something up on the whiteboard that I’m not aware about or something like that. That’s where my classmates, like I have a good mate, who is also called Matt, and he helped me out in classes that we’ve been in together.
I’ve sort of got to know Matt Bubb [for] three years now - started in Year 11 science. They were asking for help so I thought oh yeah, I’ll go sit next to him and just help him with things. Then from there I figured out where he keeps all his equipment and stuff. I thought I’d just go by and give him a hand, carry things to class every now and again.
It’s a lot easier getting information dictated to me so I can type on the laptop rather than having to switch between my CCTV and my laptop and reading and typing and back and forth. In my classes Matt helps me by reading out what’s on the board so I can get my work done in time.
So with his CCTV and things I’ll sit there and like read it through with him using the TV and if there’s something up on the board with his camera, I’ll help him out with it and say oh, there’s something up on the board there.
I can sort of be able to use my distance camera to see the whiteboard but unless I know there’s something on the whiteboard I don’t look at it, you know, so what’s the point? And he also helps me with the CCTV. I think it weighs something like nine or ten kilos and I’m obviously a small guy so he helps me to carry, move it round the college which is actually quite open and big and there’s a few staircases that we need to navigate so he helps me with that sort of thing as well.