Melbourne schoolgirl Holly Bligh, aged 9, has albinism which is a genetic condition that affects not only the pigment in her skin, hair and eyes, but also her vision. Normally for Holly to read, she would require a hefty magnifying glass, and work sheets given out by her teachers would have to be magnified when photocopied specially for her. Well now thanks to the iPad, it seems that most of her reading problems have been solved, as all she would have to do is swipe and pinch to flip through pages and to enlarge text. Her attention span reportedly has also increased and her “visual fatigue” now apparently takes twice as long before it sets in.
Just to point it out, this could have easily be achieved on an Android tablet, or any other tablet too for that matter, it just so happens that Holly and her parents decided to go for Apple’s iPad instead.
Apparently Holly’s mother was so grateful for what the iPad has done for her daughter, that she sent an email to Steve Jobs, thanking him for “completely changing” her daughter’s life. She was not expecting a reply, but he did. We guess it’s kind of Steve Jobs’ M.O. to surprise. He replied her email saying, “Thanks for sharing your experience with me. Do you mind if I read your email to a group of our top 100 leaders at Apple?” He then proceeded to sign off with “Thanks, Steve” and asked for a photo of Holly with her iPad. We guess this is probably a use of the iPad that maybe Steve Jobs did not foresee.
Research has also shown that school students with a range of physical and mental challenges, including autism and deaf-blindness, show an average of 20 percent improvement in communication abilities from using devices like the iPad.
Filed in . Read more about Apple Inc, Australia, iPad 2 and Tablet.