Visually impaired students cooking up new skills in adaptive kitchen
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA new adaptive kitchen is helping students at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired get the ingredients they need for independence.
It’s the first of its kind in the state and features Amazon Alexa-enabled appliances, raised stickers and stick-on bump dots on stove top controls.
Sophomore Trevor Ross grew up spending time in the kitchen with his grandparents, baking zucchini bread, cookies and other treats. As he adds ingredients to a bowl during cooking class, he’s also serving up knowledge that will help him and the people around him.
“I think it’s building my confidence a little bit, but it’s also building the tools to be able to go home. When mom tries to tell me to do something [I can say], ‘Hey, this might be a better idea instead of doing this.’ I think it’s kind of given me the ability to speak for myself more and to know what to do,” Ross said. “It’s amazing to be able to come here, learn it and take it home and be like, ‘Hey, guess what I learned today?'”
When the school hallway isn’t filled with the sounds of a sizzling pan or students sharing a meal together, instructors are being asked when the next cooking class is. Building up confidence and life skills is a major focus.
“People who are blind and visually impaired are actually facing a 70% unemployment rate, and a lot of that factors into being able to maintain your home [and] being able to take care of yourself,” Assistant Director of Expanded Core Curriculum Nick Leon said. “We focus a lot on these skills so that our students can live fully, independent and successful lives after they leave here.”
Leon and others, like Indianapolis chef Tanorria Askew, are focused on empowering the students and changing the narrative.
“I had one student who was absolutely terrified of holding a knife, of chopping, of the hot skillet. We started out with a practice knife that was plastic. She got comfortable with that, graduated to a real knife with a heavy, nice, sharp blade, and she was actually commanding the stove top like she wanted to be there the whole time, doing most of the cooking,” Askew said. “They’re definitely engaged in what we’re doing.”
ChloeAnn Frazier, another student, says she’s also learned ways to make her home more adaptable after spending time in the kitchen.
“Especially since I went blind, it was a little harder for me to get back into cooking. But now I feel like my mom’s not going to worry that I’m going to burn down the house,” Frazier said. “I’m most excited just [to be] able to come back in here and just being able to experience and learn more recipes. I want to learn grilling type skills and how to adapt that on a normal oven or on a normal stove.”
Askew tells Inside INdiana Business she’s most excited that current and future students will have access to the space and to learn about cooking with quality ingredients.
“I actually had one student say, ‘I want to be on a cooking show, but I have to learn to cook first.’ I hope that this gives them some goals and confidence to dream big and aspire to work in a kitchen [or] be a chef,” Askew said. “They are humans who are amazing and talented and have opinions and have desires and goals just like the rest of us.
The school is currently at a temporary location while a campus, which will be shared with the Indiana School of the Deaf, is being built. It’s scheduled to open in 2028, and the kitchen was designed to be able to move with the students to the new location.