Student Profile: Zeeshan

Zeeshan M. is an 18-year old student at W. Ross Macdonald School in Brantford. Some people might think that Zeeshan should be the one being helped, but that's not how Zeeshan sees it. When the school started a "Voiceover Club" for students to learn how to use Apple's built-in screen reader, Zeeshan came to the organizing teacher asking if he could help. This is a great thing when any student offers to help others, but Zeeshan has something special.

It wasn't very long ago that Zeeshan, just a regular guy growing up in Pakistan, lost his vision. It wasn't long after his vision loss that he lost his hearing. When his family decided to move to Canada he faced the challenge of learning a new culture and a new language, ASL. Eventually Zeeshan received cochlear implants and he took on the challenge of learning English. Now, learning three languages is an impressive thing, but this was Zeeshan's sixth! Despite these obstacles Zeeshan is always upbeat and willing to lend a hand. It's not uncommon to see him in the library, working with students to help them out with their computer questions.

With a strong visual memory, Zeeshan understands the Mac Operating System on two levels. He understands how the operating system is set up visually as well as grasping it in the way we would assume a person who is blind would, auditory. It is not uncommon for Zeeshan to ask the organizing teacher of the Voiceover Club to put his finger on the screen where a certain function or application is located. In this way he can not only assist our screenreader-using students, but our student's with low-vision as well. Let's not forget, Zeeshan is equally proficient with JAWS and has been learning NVDA as well.

When asked why he wants to help out, Zeeshan stated "I love to help people and it makes me better with my own skills". Two fantastic reasons!

Want to hear more about this from the man himself?
Zeeshan Interview on Youtube