Park City student credits Utah School for the Deaf and Blind outreach for classroom supports

Charlie Sims, an outreach student with the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind who attends Park City High School, said the school's outreach services provided extended test time, large-print materials and audiobooks that helped him manage congenital nystagmus.

Sims described his vision condition and how it affects daily schoolwork. "My vision impairment is congenital nystagmus, which is where my eyes shake uncontrollably, and it affects me, so I have really poor and depth perception and hand eye coordination is just like non existent. And like my vision, I can't really see distances fully, like veil at distances I can't see, and I also can't read at all because my eyes shake and mix up the layers and stuff," Charlie Sims said.

Charlie and his mother, Heather Sims, said an outreach teacher from the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind evaluated him when he transitioned to a school with multiple teachers. "So with Charlie's nystagmus, when he's in elementary school, he had 1 teacher, and I knew that going to middle school lehi was going to have multiple teachers. And so I reached out to the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind to, figure out how we can help him, with multiple teachers. And so he had an outreach worker come out and, evaluate him," Heather Sims said. Charlie Sims described specific accommodations: "My outreach teacher, gives helps me by, like, getting me more time on tests, larger print. They connected me with audio books."

Heather Sims also described Charlie's activities and how supports enabled participation: "Charlie is, full force. He's embraced everything that he can possibly embrace. He's, he mountain bikes, he skis, he snowboards, and he really hasn't had the nystagmus affect him too much." The family referenced the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind's website with the address "Www.usdb.org."

The transcript indicates the student has received outreach services for about seven years and that the outreach evaluation was used to address the shift from a single-teacher setting to multiple teachers. The meeting transcript does not record any formal vote or policy action; it records personal testimony about services and accommodations. Funding sources, program budget and any administrative follow-up were not specified in the transcript.