The people in that little program that I described, had been multiply
handicapped since birth. Some of them were mentally retarded, (yes, I still
think that word is an apt description), some of them had rather tenuous ties
with reality. One man had been kept in a back room in his house, isolated since
childhood. When I saw them in that program, they were young adults. It was
called a work/activities program. They did very simple assembly work with two
sighted people helping them and doing a good part of the work. They also had a
few recreational activities. I remember one young partially sighted man, living
in one of these foster homes for adults that were run by the Department of
Social Services, who spent a lot of time telling me how angry he was that the
world was preventing him from fulfilling his potential. He'd gotten material
from NFB regarding how sheltered workshops wer underpaying people. He had no
idea, and no one at the agency would tell him, that he could barely function
and that the work he was doing was actually costing everyone money, including
the federal government. And he would not have believed it if he'd been told. I
used to stand in the hall and watch the clients move around. Many of their
movements were strange. Some walked sideways. It really looked like a scene
from a fantasy world or from hell.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2017 1:57 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Blind Man in a Hotel Room
Miriam,
There is a lesson to be learned from the people who bravely step forward and
try, try, try the same old techniques that hadn't worked time and time again.
While I understand that this occurs because the "professionals" have no other
tools in their bag of magic, and I think I still believe they do this because
they really want the blind person to succeed. But looking at it from the blind
person's point of view, I would say that it is insulting. Why do we
"professionals" avoid telling folks the truth. "We are very sorry to tell you,
but we have no more techniques to try." When I first began working in the OTC,
I believed that I could "help" anyone who came to our Center. It's taken a
long time for me to understand that there are situations that simply cannot be
resolved. Imagine trying to teach a Penguin to fly.
I mean, all birds fly! But after trying over and over, we have to admit that
teaching that Penguin to fly is just not going to happen.
Then we realize that the Penguin does not need to meet our expectations in
order to be successful. He can walk to where he is going, or even better, he
can swim. But far too often the "Professionals" leave the blind person feeling
as if they have failed.
They have lost what self belief they might have had.
To my way of thinking, the mark of a real teacher is having the ability to know
what is real, and to be honest with the student. In addition, the true teacher
will leave the student feeling successful, and believing in themselves.
When I began teaching in the OTC, following the hard nosed methods of the NFB,
I am sad to say that I left some difficult students feeling defeated. And
those were the students who caused me to begin searching for a better teaching
technique.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/15/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I remember that when I worked at the little Helen Keller facility that
existed temporarily as a sheltered workplace for young blind people
who had additional disabilities, I would look through their case
records and read about years of repetitive services starting in
childhood, which seemed never to have worked. But many of these people
had neurological and/or psychiatric conditions, some diagnosed, some
not. The Commission and Helen Keller kept doing the same things for them
which hadn't worked in the first place.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2017 1:54 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Blind Man in a Hotel Room
Many graduates of the OTC returned after losing additional vision.
This raised some issues which were still unresolved at the time I
retired at the end of 1993. The straight forward cases were those
former students who had continued into schooling or employment and
later returned to the agency for help after they had lost either their
job or additional sight. The VRC's would refer them back to the OTC,
and we would review the case and tailor a refresher course designed to
meet the individual's needs. But we also were sent those former
students who had left the OTC, gone home and sat for several years,
went for a dog guide, worked in a training program at the Light House
for the Blind, washed out of the training and sought help from their
VRC's. With no other options, other than to let their client dangle,
the VRC's would send them back for "further training". I had several
students come through the OTC as many as 4 times. Without any noticeable
improvement.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/14/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But when they lost that bit of vision, why didn't they return for
further training? Or was that not permitted?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2017 2:07 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Blind Man in a Hotel Room
A great majority of the newly blind adults who entered the OTC,
during the years I worked there, believed that they were hopelessly
crippled if they became totally blind. Their natural instinct was to
use what remaining vision they had, even when such use got them in
trouble. A young woman training in the Business Enterprises
Program(BEP), filled a container with boiling hot water from the jacket of
the coffee urn.
She bent down with her nose almost in the container, trying to see
when it was close to the top. But the clear water in the silvery
container was difficult to tell how high the water had come. She
suddenly realized that it was running onto the floor, and she jerked
the container away, spilling boiling water up her arm as far as her
elbow, and across her stomach. In the BEP, we could only encourage
students to wear sleep shades while in their initial training. She
had chosen to not wear them. She told me that so long as she had any
sight at all, she would use it. Knowing this, I had walked her
through a couple of ways to be safe when drawing a container of
boiling water. She ignored my good efforts, and relied on her eyesight.
In the OTC, I had the authority to insist upon sleep shades as part
of the training. However, I did make many exceptions. People who
had serious vertigo were not required to wear them during Shop Class
or when on Mobility Training. And over the years several students
were so immobilized to the point that they suffered major panic
attacks, were not required to wear the shades. In every such case
the students failed to achieve the level of self reliance they needed
to succeed on the job. Over the years I have run into many of them
at our state conventions. Many of those who live alone are on SSDI
and have in-home care givers. Some have sighted spouses who guide
them everywhere, doing even the most basic of tasks for them. I
should mention that these are the students who trained without sleep
shades, and later lost all or most of their sight.
Male students often gave me the assurance that they would never need
to know home making skills. They had wives to do that. And many
women came to me asking to be allowed to skip wood shop, because they
would never use such skills.
Over and over I would explain that these classes were a central part
of the training. The end result of the OTC experience was the
establishment of self confidence, self belief, and of self worth.
Sleep shades were not used to teach students to "be blind", as so
many believed.
I remember one time a fellow came back to the OTC after several years
working at the Lighthouse. He told me that he had cheated and did
not wear his sleep shades whenever he could get away with it, even
sweet talking a couple of his instructors into not making him wear them.
"And look," he informed me, "I'm successful. I have a steady job, a
wife and two children. I made it without needing those sleep shades".
After he left my office, about half an hour later, I headed down the
hall to grab a cup of coffee. There was my former student, standing
in the hall, backed up against the wall. He was waiting for his wife
to come and fetch him and guide him to the parking lot. Now that he
could see only shadows, he had developed a serious lack of confidence
in his ability to travel independently.
After saying all that, I have arrived at a place in my life where I
believe that if people are satisfied with where they are in life,
that is all that matters. Even in those cases where I believe they
could have done so much more, the choice is theirs, and so are the
consequences.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/13/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well yes, there will always be that gulf between blind and sighted,
and some partial vision won't eliminate that. But I don't think that
that fact is relevant in terms of helping people learn to function
optimally. If we're just talking about skills and not about social
acceptance, I can't understand why using whatever tiny bit of
residual sight is left, isn't helpful, just so long as people
recognize precisely when that bit of sight is, and is not, helpful.
I don't understand why this would have changed in the past 50 years.
I have certainly had to make decisions over the years, particularly
in the past 9 years, about under which circumstances to depend on my
sight and under which circumstances, the small amount that is left
isn't useful. It is painfully clear when it is and when it isn't.
When it isn't, I either have to substitute another method for
accomplishing a task or, in some instances, reluctantly give up a
pleasure like watching an audio described episode of Nature on PBS
or looking at flowers or the pictures in my picture albums. And no,
touching a flowering bush is not as lovely as seeing it. However,
if I had ever learned to sew, (I never did), that is a skill that my
partial vision would have been useless for and it would have been
appropriate to tell me not to bother trying to see the stitches.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2017 8:16 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Blind Man in a Hotel Room
Hi Miriam and All,
Right. Initially I was heavily influenced by the NFB philosophy.
As time passed and I became convinced that the NFB's approach was
too heavily weighted toward teaching every student to behave as if
they were totally blind, I began to modify how our OTC incorporated
residual vision into the total training package. Our Commission
director, Ken Hopkins, and our OTC director, Don Brown, were both
mentored by Ken Jernigan. While I had been influenced initially by
Jacobus tenBroek's speeches in the collection, "The Man and the
Movement", I became fast friends with Hopkins, and while he was
Commission Director, I followed his lead.
Ken Hopkins was, and still is, a keen mind. Both he and I have come
some distance from that old hard nosed party line. But after saying
that, I hasten to remind you that societal conditions are some
different today for blind people than they were fifty and more years
ago. Nonetheless, my position continues to be that eyesight is such
a dominant sense that if we don't initially remove it, and its
temptations, we will have a significant reduction in assisting low
vision people to become as independent and competent as they need to
become in order to compete with the sighted population.
But in discussing this with prospective students, I would stress
that the end result must include all of our senses. I do believe
that in the long run the NFB's focus on teaching "Blindness Skills",
and ignoring how to incorporate all of our senses, was a road block
to large numbers of low vision people who could have had a far more
successful experience. Still, I feel some need to remind you that
the hard nosed approach was appropriate under the conditions in the
30's, 40's, 50's, and even through the 70's.
With more understanding teachers, students are not measured by how
much sight they have.
Techniques are much more insightful. Honesty is the best policy,
and those teachers understanding that are developing some amazing
students. As far as I am concerned, there will still be great
chasms between the Blind and the Sighted Worlds, but there continues
to be an ever growing understanding toward those of us who do not conform.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/13/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sounds like the NFB line. But when you have a bit of vision,
setting it aside during a period of the day for training purposes
is, I think, artificial because the natural response is to use
vision when you have it and that's what you'll do for the remainder of the
day.
So I would hel people use their tiny bit of vision to its great
advantage while, at the same time, providing all the other skills
as enhancements and backup. When the time comes that your vision
doesn't do the job, you turn to those other skills and sharpen them.
I never would have been motivated to learn braille until I really
needed it to make reading books and writing notes to myself, easier.
I remember being in Spearfish South Dakota at that University's VIP
Program for two weeks one summer in the early 90's. It was like a
blind version of the Elder Hostel Program. Anyway, there were
people there with partial vision equivalent to mine, and some whose
vision was better than mine. And what was shocking to me was that
they had never been encouraged to use the vision they had. They
functioned as if they had much less, or none at all. I remember a
social worker, much younger than I. We were at an American Indian
Center, and a sacred mountain was being described to us where
people went to worship. It was right outside a huge picture window
where we were standing. This social worker, a member of our group,
was turned somewhat away from the window. I knew she had some
vision, enough to see that mountain so I asked her if she wanted
to see the mountain that was being described. "Oh yes", she said.
Could I see it? I just told her to turn around and where to look and she
was so delighted.
But had I not told her where to look, she wouldn't have tried. That
sort of thing kept happening throughout that two weeks. The staff,
just lovely faculty from the University, always acted as if none of
us could see anything.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2017 3:48 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Blind Man in a Hotel Room
Vision loss is a very personal thing. Each of us come with
different personalities, different sorts of vision loss, different
points in our lives when it occurs, different expectations,
different support...or lack of support, different health concerns,
different skills, and very different abilities to adapt to
blindness or severe vision loss.
For many folk, when they first lose vision, it is important to them
to tell everyone exactly what is going on in their eyes. When I
taught an Attitude Class in the orientation and training center, at
some point early on, I would suggest that we go around the room and
tell the class whatever we wanted to share regarding our eyes and
how we felt it impacted our lives.
When we were finally finished, I would say something like, "Okay,
you can see how we are quite different in how much we see, and how
we feel about it.
But one thing we do have in common. We have lost enough vision
that the world will look upon us as Blind. And since the world,
the sighted world, is not informed enough to understand just what
we can do, and not do, it falls upon us to be their teachers." I
would continue...as is my long winded habit, and tell the students,
"You may have the flu, or a diabetic reaction, and I might excuse
you from class or some specific task, but never, never, never use
your vision loss as an excuse. Since most blind people have some
usable sight, be thankful for what you are able to see.
But we are going to set aside your remaining sight and learn to
trust your other senses. Especially those senses that are still
fully up and running.
Today you are all depending upon eyesight that is iffy at best, and
could get you into a real jam. But by sharpening your remaining
senses, learning to rely on them, you will find that at the end of
this program you will use whatever sight you have, as an enhancement."
Without training, without positive direction, suddenly going from
decent vision to drastically altered vision can be immobilizing.
Reminding them that anything worth having is worth working for,
these new students roll up their sleeves and begin upon a journey
of hard work, lasting from 6 to 9 months.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/13/17, Bonnie L. Sherrell <blslarner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have been seeing better in my left eye than my right eye for
years, and often what I see with my right eye simply gets totally
overwritten by what's seen by the left one.
If Mr. Keillor has deteriorating vision in the eye that didn't get
operated upon, then I find myself wondering if they didn't operate
on the proper eye!
By the way--am going to collect my new glasses prescription today.
Was told the glasses would be ready next Monday, so the optician
must have worked his behind off to get these done to return to
Costco yesterday afternoon! I'll see how well I see out of my
right eye now, although the prescription is becoming so strong
what I see through the right lens tends to make things look VERY
small anymore.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even
the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
We gave the Goblin King control of our nation!