Freshman Misty Schmidt recently gave ASL students a whole new perspective on life.

Schmidt visited ASL teacher Tricia Walker’s fifth period class, March 22, presenting an “All About Me” PowerPoint and activities to show the students what it is like to be visually impaired.

“[It was]to personally show and demonstrate the struggles someone with a disability has,” ASL teacher Tricia Walker said. “To help students become more comfortable around her.”

Schmidt showed different activities such as Goalball, cooking and what school supplies she uses. Goalball is a game designed for blind athletes that is played with two teams playing against each other. To make the game fair all members are blindfolded. The teams are on each side of a 60×40 foot court, with a goal of rolling the three pound goalball past the other team without them stopping it. The goalball itself is a ball with bells inside of it, so each team member can hear where it is, blocking it at any expense.

“All the kids were really quiet before when I first came in,” Schmidt said. “After a while they were more open. My favorite part was talking to people, getting to know all of their names.”

Schmidt brought her Braille machine, which is a device that resembles a typewriter, although it has only five keys and takes special paper. Even though it has only five keys, different combinations including the space key mean different letters.

“It is important to demystify blindness. There is such a stereotype for being blind, yet it gives life a different dimension,” vision impaired teacher Laura Hillard said. “If people learn more about it will make them feel more comfortable.”

Schmidt also showed the class her math TAKS practice book filled with Braille writing. The students had the chance to feel the pages to understand what Schmidt feels to read Braille.

“Actually experiencing what blind people experience every day was really interesting,” junior Genevieve Gerulis said.

The experience was useful to both the ASL audience and Schmidt.

“It helped her (Misty) presentation skills,” Walker said. “So the students could understand what Helen Keller had to overcome, and maybe even to sign to the deaf.”

Schmidt is the first vision impaired student to attend RHS.

“The most exciting thing is seeing her become more self-confident and learn more about technology,” Hillard said. “She can offer more that others cannot.”