[blindkid] NFB Training Centers and those with multiple disabilities

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Bo,

I'm very disappointed by your daughter's story, especially as a member
of the NFB of Colorado. I'm surprised, too, as I thought I remembered
there being at least one student with additional disabilities in one
of their summer programs. I do know Brent and Julie, so if you send me
a letter of complaint that you wrote, I can send it to them after the
program ends in August and at least make sure they get it and give it
a fair read.
I do know that many group summer programs have requirements for basic
things that students should know before they attend, such as being
able to bathe and dress themselves. However, such requirements should
have been communicated to you before you made a decision. Also, from
my experience attending a teen summer program (not NFB), I think it is
hard to get real individualized instruction in a group setting. The
program I attended had us practice skills we already knew more than
they actually taught us new things. While practice can be valuable,
too, I think the group programs can be hard for students who are
either very advanced or have a lot of individualized needs. However, I
think the adult programs at the NFB centers do a much better job of
providing the kind of individualized instruction you are looking for.
I can only speak for LCB, since that is where I went. But I do know
that LCB has had students graduate from their adult program with a
variety of disabilities including CP, autism, hearing impairments,
chronic health problems and intellectual disabilities. I attended LCB
along with several of these folks and all were able to graduate and
were appropriately  challenged in the program without struggling.
Sometimes graduation assignments were modified to accommodate the
disabilities, or travel routes were shortened for those who had
difficulty walking long distances etc. but all were welcomed and LCB
did a great job of meeting these students where they were and helping
them to identify strengths and interests. I can't speak for LCB's
summer program, just the adult program, but I think their adult
program might be a good fit for your daughter after she graduates from
high school (I  don't recall if she has graduated or will graduate
next spring)?
Finally, while I sympathize with you and your daughter's situation, I
want to address one statement you made in your message, which was that
without sighted staff, the summer program couldn't measure your
daughter's progress. As a blind adult I don't think this statement is
accurate. Good blind instructors have a variety of tools they use to
monitor students' progress without vision. For example, a blind travel
instructor walks behind a student to monitor where they are going and
to provide feedback if the student becomes disoriented. A blind
counselor can teach cooking by providing step-by-step instructions to
students, touching foods the student cut up to determine whether the
food is cut evenly, tasting foods the  student cooked, etc. And a
blind instructor can teach laundry skills by giving verbal
instructions and then checking the clean clothes for wrinkles. These
are just examples of the many ways that blind teachers instruct
students in the use of blindness skills and other living skills. Of
course, sighted or blind, there are counselors that aren't good
teachers or who don't give the task enough attention, and this could
have been part of the problem at CCB. If the CCB summer program had
inattentive or ineffective staff, that doesn't mean all blind staff
have the same problems.

Best of luck to you and your daughter,
Arielle