[Blindtlk] NFB training centers

[T. Joseph Carter]

Funny thing about that, the law says that you can in fact go anywhere you 
wish.  That said, if you have managed to convince them to any of our 
centers, I wouldn't pass it up.

I am an alum of the Colorado Center, like many on this list.  I can tell 
you honestly that the CCB did not teach me all of the things I learned 
while I was in Colorado, but the experience put me in the right places at 
the right times to leave the center a far stronger individual than I 
arrived.

When I first went to the CCB, I was a cluttered, disorganized "high 
partial" who depended extensively upon my vision (which I already had 
accepted as mostly useless).  I had accepted the label of blind, and I 
used a cane, though not well.  I couldn't cook, didn't really clean up 
after myself, and was afraid to cross streets in sunlight.  Busy streets 
made me nervous even at night when I can see better.  I didn't know 
Braille, and I had never really used tools other than for fixing computers 
before.

I came back from the CCB still cluttered and disorganized (it'll take more 
than eight months to change that in my case!), but I now know how to clean 
up after myself.  I can cook well enough to feed myself, and the food I 
make is good, if simple.  I can do and have done basic home repairs on my 
own, and I know that I can use the tools in a shop safely.

While I never got near the record for Braille speed, I did set the record 
for fastest Braille reader who had never known Braille as an adult--165 
words per minute.  Closer to 250 if I can predict the words as on a warm 
read or a Homerian epic or something.  (How many times would I have to 
read "wine dark sea" before I began to read the phrase automatically?)  I 
can say with certainty that I've since lost almost all of that speed 
because I have not had the opportunity to practice in three month 
stretches over the course of graduate school.  But you know, I can still 
feel the dots, if more slowly now, and I know my contractions--I can get 
it back, any time I am ready.

And then there are travel skills.  I've got some of the best you'll find 
anywhere.  Some blind people wield their canes with big, heavy-handed, 
clumsy movements.  I use very light, highly controlled movements in a 
style that is uniquely my own, developed because the way taught by Brent 
and Eric hurt my hand at first.  Eric Woods showed me how to attend to 
distant sounds and track information available from sometimes several 
blocks away.  I had a natural talent for direction-tracking, and very 
sharp ears once I began learning what to listen for, but the rest was 
learned.  Combined with problem-solving skills I learned years ago and a 
few basic tips, it's not really a boast that I'm one of the best travelers 
to come out of any training center.

Just about everything I did is achievable by any blind person who really 
wants it badly enough.  There's nothing really that special about me.  It 
is a testament to the NFB that a guy who is pretty clever can go from 
virtually no skills to mastery level performance in just eight months.  
Most state-run centers would have told me 40 words per minute was all an 
adult Braille learner could do or that there were just some intersections 
that aren't safe to cross or that one thing or another just wasn't 
practical.

At the CCB, the usual answer to the impractical thing was, "Okay.  That's 
gonna be hard, but okay.  How much are you willing to invest to make it 
happen?"  My answer was whatever it took.  I won't lie to you, it took a 
lot.  But I put the effort in, and look what I got for it!

I believe that what a person will get out of the Colorado Center for the 
Blind is a function of what they put in to it.  The thing is, you'll 
always get more out than you put in.

Just my $2.  It used to be just my two cents, but with inflation and the 
state of the financial markets, you know...

Joseph

On Fri, Nov 07, 2008 at 02:59:44PM -0600, Gary Wunder wrote:
> I can't give you any information about which of the three training 
> centers is the best, but I think one of the things you need to check out 
> initially is whether your state has a policy about students attending an 
> NFB training center, and if so, whether it is equally open to any of the 
> three. In Missouri we have tried to get the state agency to allow 
> complete freedom of choice, but they have elected to contract with only 
> one NFB training center, that being the Colorado Center for the Blind. We 
> had an independent hearing appealing the decision to contract with only 
> one NFB Center, but we lost. The logic of the agency seems to be that 
> there would be a real denial of choice if a student didn't have an NFB 
> Center as an option, but that there is no need for any of their consumers 
> to have more than one and that it is unreasonable for consumers to expect 
> that they can simply go anywhere they wish. 
>
>
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