Transcript of Eyes On Success #2627: Enriching the Accessible Classroom Using 3D Printers
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Nancy: Hello, and welcome to show number 2627 of Eyes on Success, a weekly program empowering the visually impaired with expert advice, personal stories, and the latest in technology and accessibility. I'm Nancy Goodman Torpey.

Pete: And I'm Pete Torpey.

Steven Bateman: Thank you guys so much. You really have been a huge inspiration, and I promise I will continue to keep listening to all the podcasts.

Nancy: Thank you.

Pete: It's comments like that that make us feel very good about continuing to do this show for the past 15 years. So thanks to all of our listeners.

Nancy: And our guests. This week on Eyes on Success, we'll be talking about enriching the accessible classroom using 3D printers with Braille transcriber and paraeducator Stephen Bateman, who launched Voyagers Creations to produce affordable tactile tools for his blind students. We'll talk with him about his custom designs, including the Perkins Brailler key extensions to make typing easier, crayon holders labeled in Braille and text, 3D maps, and other 3D printed high contrast and/or tactile models. But first for our tip of the week. This week's tip comes from Steven Bateman.

Steven Bateman: My tip of the week would be, which whoever you have in your life is going through something, just be there to listen. If you can't solve their problem, the best you can do is just be there and listen and hope to guide them in a way that makes them feel heard. And yeah.

Pete: And from the work you do, it sounds like you not only listen, but you actually come up with solutions for some of people's issues.

Steven Bateman: Yes, I do my best.

Nancy: And at some point in our lives, every single one of us will be on both sides of that discussion. So it's very important advice. Thank you. 

Samantha (over theme music): You are listening to Eyes On Success. Success. Success. Success. Success. Success. 

Pete: Today's guest is a first-time guest on Eyes on Success and has some fun items to talk about. So Stephen, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Steven Bateman: Hello, my name is Stephen Bateman. I currently work at a Monterey County Office of Education as a Braille transcriber paraeducator. And on my off time, I have started my business, Voyagers Creations, to really focus on accessibility tools that I can get into the hands of students for cheap, for cheaper than they are currently accessible now.

Nancy: So you say you're a paraeducator. Does that include children with lots of different special needs?

Steven Bateman: Yes, so it can vary. I started As a paraeducator working with 16- to 17-year-olds who had, say, severe disabilities, they needed to be fed, diapers changed, things like that. From there, I was able to find the visual impairment program where I was able to then specialize working with kids that could have those same range of disabilities as well as some sort of visual impairment where they needed someone with them full-time. to get materials transcribed or make sure that the teachers kind of understand what they need to do or adjust to make sure that student gets the same level of attention that the other students do.

Pete: That's a pretty special skill, learning to transcribe Braille. How did you get into that?

Steven Bateman: So that was actually something that they pushed me to do. I didn't know anything about Braille. They said, Hey, we think that you'd be great for this position, but we do need you to learn grade one Braille before we can take you on. So I, for about a month, just hit the books and I studied and there was YouTube videos and I did everything I could to learn my A through Z, 1 through 10, grade one Braille. And then I was able to take a test and I was thankfully passed the test. So I got in and working with them and that was two years now.

Pete: So these days, there are a number of software Braille transcription programs. Can you use any of those in what you do, or is it all done by hand?

Steven Bateman: Oh, I would love to say that we can do that. We are working in updating the office and getting an embosser with those programs because we do have students that require lots of transcriptions. We've even set up embossers at school sites so the Braille transcriber can go in and they will just transcribe, transcribe, transcribe with those software. But unfortunately, we don't have the resources to do that for every student. So a lot of us are out there with our Perkins Braillers.

Pete: Oh, so you do this all by hand. You can't even type it into the computer on a regular keyboard and pump it out to an embosser.

Steven Bateman: No, not the ones that I've worked with. Like I said, we do have some students that they are fortunate enough that they are able to have an embosser on site because they're embossing and transcribing a ton of textbooks. But yeah, it's all done by hand. It's just that one school that has it.

Pete: Well, that's understandable. They can be expensive machines.

Steven Bateman: Yes, they are.

Nancy: So you mentioned that you've combined your work with a 3D printer with your work with these students who need special aids, and then you actually made some and sent us samples so that we could really get our hands on them. Can you talk about this set of tools kind of overall, and then we'll deep dive into a couple of the specific ones?

Steven Bateman: Okay, cool. Yeah. So actually, I have you guys to thank for this. Your episode with Judy Dixon and how she was using OpenSCAD to make her husband a button. And listening to that episode, that's what's kind of sparked it in my brain that, hey, I can get a 3D printer and I can actually, I think, apply a lot of this stuff that we're trying to make for the kids and use it for other things, accessibility stuff. So like the first one that kind of popped into my brain was there's the Perkins key extensions, there's crayon toppers, the Kwik Stix grips I sent you guys. I have since then made a colored pencil topper as well. Now I was really that episode with Judy Dixon that just kind of sparked the idea in my head and I got my first bamboo 3D printer and that opened up a world that I didn't even know existed until then.

Nancy: That show that Stephen just mentioned with Judy Dixon talking about 3D printing was from about six months ago, number 2603, and we will have a link to that in the show notes for this show. Judy talked about being able to find kind of templates online that if you wanted to make something common, so she has, I don't know, outlet plates and some of them have shelves built in, that you can find the code for that. But these objects that you're making, they're pretty specific and specialized. I would imagine you could not find the code for them online.

Steven Bateman: Yes, so my research, the key extensions for sure, I couldn't find anything like that. There are some colored crayons and colored pencil toppers that you can find. Sometimes they're not always in English, sometimes they're in different languages, so you kind of have to work around those barriers. But actually, yes, and just having access to all these pre-made files has also helped my students a lot because I actually have a bucket sitting next to me right now that just has a bunch of things that I didn't design, but would be so amazing if we can just get these in the hands of students. We can get the counties and the schools making it.

Pete: I take it you've had some experience with 3D printing before you got into this venture?

Steven Bateman: Actually, no. This was a all-in. I knew about 3D printing. I'd heard about it. I kind of understood what it was about, but this was my first time ever actually owning a 3D printer for myself and really diving into the ecosystem.

Pete: So this was all Judy Dixon, eh?

Steven Bateman: She was a very, very big part. She really sparked that idea in my head that said, Hey, I think I can really use this with my current students. And the value of it is so much, especially when 3D printers are just getting cheaper to own, cheaper to maintain, the filament's cheap-ish. And it's just you can make these so many things and hopefully do it less and get it out there to these kids who really need it.

Pete: You know, it's always fun for us to hear that the show actually has an impact like that on people. coming up with ideas and doing new things. So thanks for the feedback.

Steven Bateman: No, of course, you guys are really, you know, impacting the world. I love it.

Pete: So let's talk specifically about some of these tools that you're making available. You talked about the Braille keys. Tell us what exactly those are. That was interesting.

Steven Bateman: This was part of the market research I was looking into. It was spring break because I work as an educator. I am fortunate to have a lot of the educator vacations. So I had spring break two weeks off where my daughter still went to school for a week and I just hunkered down and I found that there really wasn't any key extensions out there that were easy to put on and off. The only one I was able to find, you have to like unbolt the top of the key and then you have to bolt this one through and it's cumbersome and someone who is visually impaired, that would be very difficult if they didn't have any help. So what I really try to go for is I wanted to go ease of use and really target maybe the younger audience or someone who doesn't have the hand strength to really manipulate and do these things, but still wants to use their Perkins Brailler. So yeah, so they just slide right on and they have the reference numbers in Braille on them. So just in case you forget which one, two, three, four, five, six are space, they're all right there for you. And I would say it makes it about 50% lighter, even on the light touch that I have here in my workshop. It really made a huge difference being able to press those keys down and just really not have to put a lot of effort into and to get that good, nice, clean Braille dot.

Nancy: Let me just expand on your description. So I'm sitting here, I'm holding the space bar extension. It's a bright, bright yellow. And each of the number key extensions is black with the Braille. in white, so that's very high contrast. Any teacher looking over the student's shoulder can see it easily. Maybe if the kid has a little bit of sight, they can stand a chance of seeing it. And then there's a depression in each where the finger goes.

Steven Bateman: Yes.

Nancy: So my question is, why does somebody need extenders on their Perkins Braille keys?

Steven Bateman: That's a great question. So what I've come to know and observe, just from working with the students I have, that some of them have trouble keeping their fingers on the Brailler, pushing the keys down hard enough to actually punch a good dot every once in a while. You know, you don't punch it quite hard enough, that dot does not punch through the paper very well. And then with a high contrast, we have had students who, you know, they start with vision and then they slowly lose their vision as they grow up. So having that very high contrast and utilizing the vision that they have before they lose it really helps them, their teachers, really be able to learn and get comfortable with the Brailler keys before that happens.

Nancy: So these extenders give them extra leverage.

Steven Bateman: Yes, exactly.

Pete: Yeah, people don't realize how hard it is to press down those braille keys. If you have normal dexterity and strength, it's not too hard. But if you don't, it can be problematic in pushing it down all the way. It's not like typing with a typewriter.

Steven Bateman: Yes, exactly. And you really need to make sure you're-- because then if you get inconsistent thought heights, and then you're trying to reread what you've just typed, and then you can't read it, and then you have to start all over again. And then it can get mentally struggling as well, just to be like, oh, I can't do this because it's my things I'm doing, you're not coming out right. Things like that.

Nancy: So the next thing you sent us was a little box of crayons with some colored plastic objects. You want to describe that?

Steven Bateman: Yes. So they are a tubular rectangular object that slides on the tips of normal sized Crayola crayons. And they are, I try to color code them the best I can to the actual color, but they have Braille on one side and then they have an imprinted print version on the other. So you can know, so when I have a lot of students that love to color, even if they can't see at all what they're coloring, they just love to color. And it can be a struggle sometimes because they're always asking, well, what color is this, what color is this, what color is this? And so I loved the idea of giving him that independence of, hey, I want the purple color. Where's purple? And then they can just go through their crayons and then quickly just read, okay, yep, this one's purple. I got it. And then they can do it and then color however they want to color. Giving kids that independence is huge. And that's what, like, one of the biggest things that I aim for when making these products.

Nancy: So another factor that's enabling with these crayon holders is if you've never seen a Crayola crayon, the wrapper, for example, on the orange crayon is orange, but it's not printed with the best inks. It's kind of muted. But worse than that, there's all sorts of black decorations and text on it. And if you've got just low vision, what you're going to see is some kind of muddy brown color. You're not going to see the orange. But you put this bright orange stick on it, and now all of a sudden, if you can just see this stick, which is the size of my finger, if you can tell it's there, you can tell it's orange.

Steven Bateman: Yes, yes, exactly. So yes, having that high contrast, it really gets rid of, like you said, the muddy colors and just really makes the crayon pop.

Nancy: And I assume that because they're thicker and they're not round, they're easier for a child to control.

Steven Bateman: Yes. So I found that if they were round and they would set the crayon down, it would just roll-- even with the braille, it would still just kind of roll away if it wasn't on an even surface. So I really wanted to leave it that rectangular side so it stays solid, doesn't move around. You put the crayon down, the crayon is exactly where you left it. I know like consistency and knowing where things are left are like very, very huge in the visually impaired community. So it's like, I just want to make sure everything was thought of that I could possibly think of to make it easier for the end user.

Pete: Even for sighted kids, that sounds like a great idea. How many times have you found crayons that just rolled onto the floor?

Steven Bateman: Yes, exactly. And speaking of sighted kids, I actually think these would work well for like a kindergarten, you know, pre-TK kindergarten, first grade classes because they get to have some awareness about braille. They get to kind of learn what it's about. And then there's also the printed side of it as well. So then they can learn to read. This is purple, orange. It gives them that nice big printed text for them to learn as well.

Nancy: And then the third thing you sent us, It's kind of like a cross between a can of paint and a tube of lipstick with a holder.

Steven Bateman: Yes. So the Kwik Stix. This was a special request. So when I first started, I was going on Facebook groups and asking kind of what accessibility things are you guys like lacking in your educator community? Like what do you need? And this was one that it was very early, it was early on, right after I made the crayon toppers. and she had requested a grip for the Kwik Stix. So technically, it wasn't solely derived out of the visual impairment community, but it was an accessibility need that needed to be met. And it was actually a pretty, I would say it was a pretty quick and easy creation. So I loved it. I haven't sold a single one, but it's a part of the, you know, the starter story of Voyagers Creations.

Pete: So I had never seen those before, but tell me what the function is and how they work so other people can understand what they really are.

Steven Bateman: Yeah, so the Kwik Stix, from what I could tell, they're like a pastel paint. They're about the size of a normal glue stick. The holder that I made for it allows it to slide on, friction grips onto it, and it allows the user who maybe doesn't have that pinch strength to be able to hold them with just like two or three fingers. It gives them that accessibility option. So, you know, I'm just going to grab it with my whole fist, and then I can still paint and use these pastel colors.

Nancy: When I think about the way any preschooler holds onto an object, they don't hold pencils and crayons the way adults do. They just grab it with their whole fist. I should think this would be useful for all of them.

Steven Bateman: Totally, 100%, yes.

Nancy: And then you don't have to just make a bigger paint stick. You can reuse the holder as you use up the various colors.

Steven Bateman: Exactly, right, yes.

Pete: So then you set up a business to distribute these things around the country. How did that all work out? And where'd you come up with that name?

Steven Bateman: Oh my gosh, so that was a very long and enduring process. I didn't realize how many nuances and things there are to actually starting a business. getting your fictitious business name set up and everything that kind of goes along with that, getting insurance. But yeah, so Voyagers Creations stems from an old, oh my gosh. So a few years before I started a graphic design business, and that was called Voyagers Mind, which was created from my nickname that was Odyssey. It's this whole interlapping, long, of where the name comes from. But what it means is when you're in Voyager Creations today is it's designed by voyagers made for voyagers who are just trying to get through this world with everything that they have and do it confidently and yeah, so that's kind of where the name stems from.

Nancy: That's a very positive message.

Steven Bateman: Thank you. Yeah, no, that's been my driving force behind starting all of this is just I want to give everyone the tools that they need so they can feel confident in themselves and know that no matter what life, no matter what hardships life throws at them, they will have the tools or the confidence to get through it.

Pete: Now, I understand you started this venture reasonably recently, and you're just starting to develop some products that you find useful for the kids you work with. Have people been clamoring for different kinds of accessibility tools and other items that you can make now that they know the magic you can create with 3D printers?

Steven Bateman: Yes, so I've had some special requests as well. I've had, I don't know if you guys are familiar with Tactile Town. It's very popular in our educated space 'cause it's very easy to set up a route or It's basically a, you know, you have roads, streets, bridges that you can assemble on this felt board. And I've had a lot of requests to actually have like extensions to it to make more like crossings, railroad signs or different types of buildings that can represent courthouses or malls or, you know, even their own house. I'm experimenting with. some programs that I can actually get the real design of the building from a satellite view and then be able to turn that into a 3D printed object. So then they can actually have the real life building as they're building on their tactile town. So there's things like that.

Pete: So this is like making an imaginary town, or are they trying to represent the community in which they live so they can get a better idea of how the geography is laid out?

Steven Bateman: Yes, the latter, representing where they are, what they need to learn. If they maybe move to a new part of town or they want to learn how to get to the library from their house, they'll build like a representation of a map on the tactile town felt board. Then they can practice the route with the O&M instructor. before they even step outside their house so the person can have an idea of once I cross these two streets and then I make a right and then I know I need to go down two more streets and then there's the library or there's the store I'm trying to learn to get to.

Pete: Oh, that can be a quite a helpful tool. I know when I first moved to Rochester after I got out of graduate school, most of the streets were pretty rectangular and everything was laid out in the grid. That was pretty easy. But once you move to the suburbs or someplace else, you know, and all these windy streets connecting at different angles and who knows how far they go, it can get a little confusing. It's hard to put it all into your head. And.

Steven Bateman: Then especially with a lot of these suburb streets, they don't have all the accessibility features that maybe a busier town might have in those. in the gridded streets. So that's also something you need to learn as well.

Nancy: Oh, don't get me started on that. Every time some town tries to improve accessibility by putting in curb cuts, makes it harder for the blind people.

Steven Bateman: Oh, no. They want to help, but it's just making it worse.

Pete: We have so many of the curb cuts here in Golden that come off on the diagonal, as if you were going to cross the street diagonally, which isn't very helpful for a blind person.

Steven Bateman: No, 100%, yes. Actually, just my student this last year, he had those exact kind of curb cuts down from his apartment and we had some, not to say trouble, but we had to come up with some creative solutions.

Nancy: Yeah.

Pete: So we've talked with other people that also use 3D printing to make objects that a blind person may not be able to see at all, like some astronomical figures. What does a certain planet look like, or what does a certain object look like, or a molecule in chemistry? Have you thought about applications like that to extend this work a little?

Steven Bateman: Yes. Totally. So, and a part of, I kind of mentioned earlier, I had this box sitting next to me. So in this box are things that I put together to show my teachers for the visually impaired that I work with and other braille transcribers kind of the things that I can make. And right now I'm holding a manta ray that actually is movable and flexible. So this is like a very cool, like you can, say the student is they're having an aquatic lesson and they're learning about manta rays. Well, now this student can feel what the manta ray feels like. They can feel it move and it's articulated to the point where the tail moves and you can kind of show them, hey, this is how this works. I also have, you know, if we want to go up to more like high school, maybe level or middle school, an anatomical heart that actually is to scale and has all the, you know, right ventricle, left ventricle. It has everything that that a visual diagram would have for a visual learner student and for the visually impaired student. So then they're able to feel it and they can learn and they can go off of that. Yes, I have definitely been looking into the educator side of it all.

Nancy: So the possibilities are endless.

Steven Bateman: Yes, they really are.

Nancy: All you need is an imagination and a 3D printer and a whole lot of filament.

Steven Bateman: Yes, a whole lot of filament. That is, yes. That's an understatement.

Nancy: And what are your plans for the future?

Steven Bateman: My next year's assignment is I'm actually going to be the substitute for all the Braille transcribers in the county. So like someone's sick, I'm going to jump in and help with their student for that day. But that also means I'm going to be the materials creator. I've really pushed for that this year, and I'm hoping to get a 3D printer in the office for my work, and I'm really going to try and bring like all 3D printing to my current job.

Nancy: Oh, that's great.

Pete: That's pretty cool.

Nancy: And in the process, you'll be getting lots of feedback from real-life use cases.

Steven Bateman: Exactly. And I'll be getting ideas like, you know, things that they want. Like I've already helped one of my teachers. They wanted a little symbol of a guitar. They just wanted something really simple, like a disc with three lines printed on it so it can represent a guitar for the student. And I was able to design and print it in under 15 minutes because it was such a small, simple print. So I'm really hoping that I can keep kind of test casing all of these different things and then being able to use them and prove that we need a 3D printer for the office. And then I can barely get paid to design stuff that I could also turn around and then put on my store if it's something that I feel can really help other people.

Pete: That's super. That's really nice.

Nancy: Yeah, we wish you a lot of success. Yeah, good luck. Great service. I hope more people find out about it.

Steven Bateman: Thank you guys so much. Thank you. It really does mean a lot that you guys took the time. I really appreciate it.

Nancy: So if somebody wanted to procure some of your clever, helpful, adaptive tools, where would they go?

Steven Bateman: So I have a few websites. My main one is voyagerscreations.com. And I also have an Etsy, so it'd be voyagerscreations.etsy.com. That would be the best place to either find my products, but if you would like to e-mail me, if you have any ideas or you just want to get ahold of me about anything, my e-mail address is steven@voyagerscreations.com. So it's S-T-E-V-E-N at V-O-Y-A-G-E-R-S-C-R-E-A-T-I-O-N-S.com.

Nancy: Do you also have a social media presence?

Steven Bateman: I do. I am on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, all under VoyagersCreations.

Pete: And all of that information will be in the show notes for episode 2627. By the way, if you've been enjoying Eyes on Success and find it useful, others might too. Be sure to share it with a friend.

Nancy: That's it for today's show. Next week on Eyes on Success, we will be reprising a show about a different kind of tactile tool that people of all ages might find helpful. If you can't see what's happening on the field, it is difficult to fully enjoy live sports, even if it's being announced. But there is now another way. We'll talk with Jerred Mace, CEO and co-founder of OneCourt, about their unique technology that enables blind users to enjoy watching live sports using a tactile display either at home or at the event.

Pete: You've been listening to Eyes On Success, available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Nancy: For show notes, resources, and more information, visit our website at www.eyesonsuccess.net.

Pete: Thank you for being part of our community. Until next time, I'm Peter Torpey.

Nancy: And I'm Nancy Goodman Torpey. Thank you for listening.