LEAWOOD, Kan. — For the visually impaired community, computers can sometimes be a challenge.
This summer, one Kansas City-area nonprofit is empowering visually impaired children to turn the computer into a tool for success.
With a few adjustments, laptops offered by Alphapointe will become tools for 12 visually impaired or blind children who attended the nonprofit's annual technology camp, which began June 9.
Alphapointe is headquartered in Kansas City. At HQ, Alphapoint produces plastics, micro-molding, office products, textiles and janitorial products.
But the nonprofit also offers rehabilitation services for those who are visually impaired or blind.
Alphapointe employs 400 employees nationwide, and over half are visually impaired or blind.
Laurie Due is one of those employees in the Kansas City area. She's Alphapointe's youth program manager.
In her position, Due helps run the annual camp, which she once attended.
"For me, it’s an opportunity for a generation of youth to completely skip the isolation, the hopelessness and the confusion of not having basic tools, and to launch right into the careers, the dreams that they have for themselves," she said.
This year's camp focused on cybersecurity technology.
"Blind and visually impaired youth not only can perform these jobs, but with adaptive technology and training, they can help fill these roles and find meaningful employment that helps them gain independence," according to an Alphapointe press release.
Leo DeSantis participated in the camp. He traveled to Leawood from Austin, Texas, for the opportunity.
"I don't have enough vision to read print, so I read Braille and I use a screen reader, which basically just reads what's on the cursor aloud," he said.
DeSantis said he's not sure what he wants to be when he grows up, but he thinks it will have to do with technology.
"What we find is vision impaired and blind population is able to do is just think outside the box," said Chuck Gardner, who led the camp with Enterprise KC. "I mean, they've been creative problem-solvers since the day they were born, most of these kids."
Due said she walked away from the camp with more than just an adapted laptop.
"When I walked away from camp, I knew how to do HTML coding, I knew how to work with a virtual machine," she said.
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KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Franklin and Douglas counties in Kansas. Share your story idea with Lily.
