by Penny Reeder
I met Kyle Conley’s mother, Cindy, on the retinopathy of prematurity e-mail listserv. When I first heard about Kyle’s upcoming trip to Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students, I wrote to Cindy and asked if Kyle would be willing to share his journal with readers of “The Braille Forum.” Cindy and Kyle graciously agreed to share the journal which he planned to complete as a class assignment for his fifth-grade teacher.
When I was 10 years old, I would have been absolutely thrilled to go to space camp (if such a thing had even existed in that pre-Sputnik era!). The experience was very liberating for 10-year-old Kyle. It was the kind of “growth experience” for Cindy that most parents must endure as kids grow older and the apron strings become ever more frayed! Both agree that space camp was the best experience a mainstreamed 10-year-old, who hasn’t had much contact with other children with visual impairments, could have had!
Kyle was a 23-week preemie; he weighed only one pound and 12 ounces at birth. His visual impairment seems to be the only disability-related ramification of his premature birth. He has only some light perception.
Kyle is in many ways a typical 10-year-old kid, with a big brother and a dog. He attends fully integrated classes in his local public school. Kyle is also a very talented musician, who sings in the Cincinnati Boychoir, where he made the tour choir last summer. He will be traveling with the choir to California in May to sing at the Crystal Cathedral and Disneyland. According to Cindy, “Kyle won his trip to space camp through an essay contest held by Clovernook Center for the Blind in Cincinnati. Kyle has attended a summer day camp there the past two summers. Clovernook got scholarships for six kids. They provided the transportation. All we needed was money for his food on the trip and spending money at the camp.”
“Kyle would love to go back again next year,” Cindy continued. “But unless we can get a scholarship, it will not be possible.”
As for future ambitions, Kyle says that he would like to become an elevator operator! Could it be that those experiences on the MMU are addictive?
About SCI-VIS
Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students is a week-long camping experience that takes place at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. Space Camp for the visually impaired is just like space camp for kids who do not have visual impairments, except that the week’s activities are coordinated by teachers of the visually impaired from across the country. Students live in a simulated space station called Habitat 1. They have the opportunity to practice their leadership and teamwork abilities as they prepare for two space shuttle missions. Students learn about the history of manned space flight, shuttle and space station basics, and water survival. Simultaneously, they experience lunar gravity (1/6 Earth gravity), the 5DF (degrees of freedom) chair, and the Zero G wall. The students collaborate to build a lunar colony, and they also build and fly their own rockets.
Special adaptations for visually impaired campers include braille, large print, speech output on selected computers, CCTVs, visually impaired speakers and support help from certified vision teachers. Sighted friends and siblings of visually impaired campers are encouraged to attend the camp along with their visually impaired peers.
According to Dan Oates, who has been administering the program since 1994, next year’s Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students, grades 4 through 12, will be held in Huntsville, AL, from September 22-27, 2001. Tuition for space camp is $540. There are a limited number of scholarships, which are provided by the Delta Gamma Foundation. The deadline for scholarship applications is June 1, 2001. The forms may be downloaded from the Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students web site at http://www.tsbvi.edu/space. Scholarship winners will be notified by June 15.
Oates says, “We are expecting a large group of students this year. Last fall, we had 185 students, and we estimate over 200 students will be in attendance in September 2001. At this time three students from the Czech Republic are planning to attend in addition to students from Australia, Canada, Mexico, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Ireland.”
Adults with visual impairments can also attend space camp, during the long weekend immediately following the week of space camp for kids (September 28-October 1, 2001). The three-day weekend, which tries to cram in as many experiences for adult space junkies as the kid-friendly camp, is open to any adult who has long had a fascination with space and space travel, whether or not he or she is visually impaired. The unique feature of this particular weekend at the end of September is that the adaptations which allow visually impaired kids to participate so fully in all the space camp activities are still available over the weekend.
For an overview of space camp, call (800) 637-7223 to request a brochure. To make a donation to SCI-VIS, or for more information about Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students, contact Dan Oates, SCI-VIS Coordinator, P.O. Box 1034, Romney, WV 26757; phone (304) 822-4883; e-mail: scivis@raven-villages.net. You may also visit the SCI-VIS web site at http://www.tsbvi.edu/space.