The generosity of Region 6 knows no bounds when it comes to Willis ISD's visually impaired students.

Over the years, Region 6 has graciously donated several devices to WISD to be used by students at the elementary, middle, and high school level with varying degrees of visual impairments. Their timely response and commitment to student success have greatly influenced teacher of the visually impaired, Kathryn Neighbors' program.

“At the beginning of the year, we had a student move into our district that needed a hand-held magnification device called the Ruby. I called Dr. Michael Munro from Region 6 just to see if someone had one I could borrow until we could purchase one. Dr. Munro stated he had one (brand new) that we could have. He delivered it the next day. That is how awesome he and Region 6 are!” Neighbors said.

Region 6 donated other devices before the Ruby, such as the Acrobat and the OrCam. Now, a new embosser device joins the ranks in assisting Willis students.

This new device, assembled by Christal Vision, can produce massive amounts of braille in a quarter of the time that it takes to create the braille by hand. Not only that, but it also only requires working knowledge of braille to operate, while creating braille by hand requires a comprehensive knowledge of the subject. The embosser was accompanied by a printer, copier, and scanner- all which will help cut down the time it takes to create an entire document or worksheet.

Ms. Neighbors and SPED paraprofessional, Dawson Asher, would like to extend a special thank you to Dr. Michael Munro, Karl Brunig, and Mark Mathews for their vigilance in providing these students with the best tools available. She would also like to thank Mrs. Kameron Wilder, Principal of Lagway Elementary.

“We appreciate the space and the room provided to conduct braille instruction and to produce braille - especially with space in schools being in such demand,” Neighbors said.