Technology Center

Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Arizona Diamondbacks (D-backs) have made a unique investment that will transform the way Arizona’s blind and visually-impaired students learn. As this summer’s 82nd All-Star Week events put a spotlight on Phoenix, MLB and the D-backs have left a lasting legacy for the local community and the state of Arizona. The support, to the tune of $1 million, has resulted in the development of a new center that will help accelerate the learning capabilities for children who are blind or visually-impaired.

The new lab and learning center, The MLB All-Star Arizona Diamondbacks Vision Center for Innovation, will provide resources to more than 2,000 Arizona children, including hundreds of rural children who do not have access to advanced assistive vision technology. The center will provide state-of-the-art vision technology, training on use of smartphone devices (iPhone, BlackBerry, etc.) as well as special Braille note takers, laptops, closed circuit television, magnifiers and translation software. Additionally, the donation will allow for service technology, upgrades when needed, evaluations and assessments of blind and visually-impaired students.

With the MLB All-Star Arizona Diamondbacks Vision Center for Innovation, chalk/white-boards, sentence diagramming, geometric equations, worksheets, etc. are all classroom tools that visually-impaired students will now be able to see. Students who are visually impaired will be able to keep up with their sighted peers in the classroom and receive their braille-transcribed classroom materials more quickly, reducing their reliance on others.