Page 114 - The Exceptional Harley Fetterman

JUDY K JOHNSON

Figure 60: Texas School for the Blind &
Visually Impaired logo.

From the time Harley was eight years old, he would strive to attend
as many camps or trips with his parents as he could cleverly fit into
his summer vacation calendar. He sought out week long camps at
several different organizations offering fun learning activities such as
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) which
provided accommodations in a dorm at TSBVI equipped with a
kitchen, a TV room, and phones which he made use of every evening.
The residential summer camps provided opportunities to learn new
skills and develop confidence, independence, and social skills. TSBVI
activities offered skill training in such things as independent living,
shopping, kitchen chores, community transportation, physical fitness,
self-advocacy, problem solving, peer/adult interactions, and
recreation/leisure.
At the age of ten, he attended SCIVIS, an accessible Space Camp
for Interested Visually Impaired Students, held at US Space and
Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama endorsed by TSBVI and
coordinated by teachers of the visually impaired. Computers in the
Space Camp were adapted for speech and large print output; materials
and equipment used during space missions were available in Braille.
Harley, along with other campers, often shared similar opinions
that they wished they could spend a whole summer at SCIVIS,
strapped into the space or moon gravity simulators, making or
launching rockets, and earning or trading space badges. Just because
the campers couldn't see the stars, doesn't mean they couldn't reach
for them. Harley learned how the space shuttle worked and took part
in real-life simulations of a space mission as commander of the space

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