Seeing is believing

Seeing is believing. And to watch Ginger Shepardson is to believe that sight isn’t the only way to get your way down the hall. Ginger Shepardson is blind, and the only clue is her white cane. Ginger is a sophomore at Wasilla High School, and knows her way through the halls better than anyone else.

When Shepardson was only five years old, her vision started to wither and everything became blurry. She would run into walls and other objects. She eventually got glasses and was able to see normally again. During that same year, her vision became blurred again. Shepardson and her parents went to the doctor’s office and discovered, it was not her eyes, but behind them.

Doctors came to discover that Shepardson had a tumor the size of a golf ball eating away at her optic nerves, causing her vision to blur. The doctor also explained that the tumor was so bad that he expected her to only live a week. But Ginger received the proper treatment immediately which kept her alive.

Around Halloween after having the tumor removed, Ginger decided to celebrate by creating a scarecrow. Ginger could feel its button eyes as she placed down the scarecrows bowtie, then as if a switch was hit, she could see those button eyes and bowtie.

Extremely excited about the event, Ginger visited the doctor. The doctor explained to her that she could see 10% out of her right eye, but 0% out of her left. This became extremely helpful because she could now see blobs of color.

For Ginger, going through life was simple, but going through school proved a challenge. In first grade, Ginger learned to read Braille alongside the alphabet, and later learned to write sentences.

“It was surprisingly easy to learn the letters, but it was harder to learn the punctuation.” Ginger said.

Braille was invented by Louis Braille in 1829. Braille was told that Captain Charles Barbier created a new form of communication called “night writing” made for the French Army to communicate without speaking or needing light to read. This inspired Braille to make a system of communication of his own for the blind.

Ginger does well in the classroom, performing just as any other student. The only difference is that she must use her Brailler, a typewriter like device, to type out her work and use as a calculator. During class, Ginger quietly unzips her backpack and gets out her blue Brailler while everyone else unzips their book bags and dig out a notebook and pencil.

“She does [work] like any other kid,” said sophomore Trinity Barton. “We always work a way so she can do it with us and she always gets good ideas that make it easier for her and us.”

Ginger is the only student using Braille at Wasilla High at the moment. Sometimes that makes it difficult to relate to other students when she is the only one using Braille.

“Someone will just bump into me a little and start freaking out, like, ‘Oh my gosh are you okay?!’” Ginger explained. “And it’s kind of weird, because I’m just like everyone else, I just can’t see as well as they can.”

Ginger’s teachers see Ginger as any other student. She works and takes tests as any other student. Ginger can even walk from the school to McDonald’s all by herself. The teachers of the Visually Impaired, housed in Portable E2, see Ginger during one period every day and teach her things just like any other teacher.

Her teachers love working with her, and enjoy adapting to her needs. They tell Ginger to always say yes when a teacher asks if she can do something, and they later figure out how to make it work.

“Oh, I know she does,” Jacinda Danner, Ginger’s orientation and mobility teacher said when asked if Ginger performs like any other student. “She is very independent.”

And just as any other student, Ginger receives worksheet after worksheet after test in her classes at WHS. What you don’t see, though, is all the work put into one worksheet just in portable E2.

Whenever a teacher has an assignment for Ginger, they either e-mail or personally give Ginger’s teachers of the visually impaired the worksheet Ginger must complete. For your average worksheet, it can take from 30 to 60 minutes to transcribe into braille. For an entire math or science test, it can take a whole day.

It can take so long because those simple printed pictures you see on your tests in science or math need to be transcribed into tactile graphics. Tactile graphics are pictures or drawings that have raised surfaces so someone who is visually impaired can feel them to understand their shapes. They are made with tactile machines, and they use heat to raise the images.

For her actual braille worksheets to be made, they first must take the worksheet from Ginger’s teachers and put it through one or more braille softwares. After this, they must go through and check to make sure there are no mistakes in the worksheets because a wrong word in the question could lead to Ginger giving a wrong answer. When they are done word checking, they print it all off through their braille embosser. These worksheets are then given to Ginger before the worksheets due date.

“It’s a fun challenge cause [you’re] adapting things so that they are easy for her to do and navigate,” shared Suzette Black, one of Ginger’s teachers of the visually impaired.

Peter Kamilos, Ginger’s world history teacher, decided to take some of Ginger’s old worksheets in braille for his 6th hour. He then added them to a test for the class. He chose to make and distribute this test to spread awareness about people with visual impairments. Ginger found it incredibly funny while the rest of the class panicked for their grade.

It did raise awareness to Kamilos’ 6th hour though. His 6th hour is currently awaiting WHS’ teachers of the visually impaired to join their class and teach them basic braille.

“Ginger’s pretty independent with her cane,” visual specialist Jacinda Danner shared on why awareness is important. “You know, how do you help someone? What is helping too much? ...And a lot of people are curious about braille, and they don’t want to seem rude or intrusive to [Ginger] or hurt her feelings.”

Ginger currently gained contact with the State Department of Transportation to get the cross walk intersecting E Bogard Rd and N Crusey St to be audible so it is safer for Ginger and other people with visual impairments. This will help increase Ginger’s independence and level of mobility, and should be installed sometime in February.

Ginger’s work to try to make crossing the street safer is like how she does everything. She puts her mind to anything and everything. Like any other student, she has goals and dreams. The difference is how she goes about achieving those dreams differently than other WHS students. Seeing is believing. But, you don’t need to see to believe Ginger Shepardson is a hardworking student and achieving amazing things.

Aspen Bakner is a sophomore and Journalism I student at WHS.