Easter eggs prepared for visually impaired

• By STEVEN WARD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Apr 9, 2009 - Page: 1B

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Dwarfed by an immense black jacket to ward off the wind, Jodi Comeaux stood outside in the sunshine Wednesday, the place she likes most.

Comeaux, 14, has been blind since birth but said she can “see shadows and the sun.”

The occasion that allowed Comeaux to bask in her favorite place Wednesday was a special Easter egg hunt in the front yard of her school, the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired.

Comeaux was teamed up with a middle school student from the Avoyelles Public Charter School in Mansura.

Sarah Hukins is 12 and clutched Comeaux’s hand as they walked together looking for an Easter egg.

All 11 Easter eggs hidden in the front yard of the school were constructed and programmed by 20 or so middle school students from the Avoyelles school.

The eggs have been electronically programmed to emit a beeping noise for the visually impaired students.

Twenty-three students from the special education school, ages 8 to 14, participated in the egg hunt Wednesday.

Each egg had a written message in Braille attached to it, a keepsake for the students since the middle school students had to bring their eggs back to school to continue working on them.

The students who made and programmed the eggs did it in three days as part of a robotics and automation class taught by engineering teacher David Boe.

Before Comeaux and Hukins searched for her egg, Hukins gave the egg to Comeaux to let her feel it.

While Comeaux patted her fingers all around the egg, Hukins explained to her how they were made.

“It just felt like a bunch of gadgets hooked up together,” Comeaux said after the hunt.