[Home-on-the-range] SRS expands access to services for Kansans who are blind or visually impaired

[Andrew Chapman]

I'm not sure I agree with Dick. I'm not sure they'd get it right even then.

I'd personally love to see the NFB of Kansas providing IL services in
a fashion similar to the way the NFB training centers are run. (In
fact the CCB has a senior support group to help teach braille and
independent living skills to seniors.)

Services for blind seniors have been ignored for a long tgime. We've
got VR services going in the right direction with the training c enter
contracts, however IL is still pretty worthless.

I'm not sure that covering the whole state is really possible, at
least not if we want meaningful IL services. Having an ineffective IL
center in every town is like having a restaurant chain that doesn't
serve food. A lot of nothing is still nothing.

I'm also afraid that they will try to use these contractors to avoid
paying for real out of state rehab for working age individuals.

I just don't see how it is that the state can provide real services
throughout the state.

Perhaps we (the Federation) could create a Senior Independent Living
Corps that traveled around around the state and work with seniors in
their home communities for days at a time as opposed to making the
client go to a provider for a few hours of training. Somethingells me
that SRS wouldn't contract such a service even if we got it off the
ground.

On 11/4/10, James H. "Jim" Canaday M.A. N6YR <n6yr at sunflower.com> wrote:
> well,
> that assumes that there's a meter that will measure such a low level
> of services, lol.
> jc
>
> At 06:16 AM 11/4/2010, you wrote:
>>Hi Everyone,
>>
>>Dick Edlund always said that Services to the Blind in Kansas with
>>have to be down to nothing before our situation could be improved
>>and we could start over. I think we are about there.
>>
>>Susie
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org
>>[mailto:home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Susan Tabor
>>Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 10:04 PM
>>To: 'NFB of Kansas Internet Mailing List'
>>Subject: Re: [Home-on-the-range] SRS expands access to services for
>>Kansans who are blind or visually impaired
>>
>>Hi, Andrew:
>>
>>Your points concerning selling seniors to the lowest bidder and closing
>>KRCBVI to save money with no noble goal of providing services are
>>well-taken. Another piece that I find troubling is that I see no guidelines
>>or direction for these agencies concerning best practices in services to
>>provide and in delivering those services. I also fear that there will be
>>many rural parts of the state that will not be served because of "gravel
>>cost" or that good old catch-all "lack of resources."
>>
>>So as you can see, I'm not overly optimistic. And I think it will get
>> worse,
>>unfortunately.
>>Best Regards,
>>Susan
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org
>>[mailto:home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Chapman
>>Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 9:30 PM
>>To: NFB of Kansas Internet Mailing List
>>Subject: Re: [Home-on-the-range] SRS expands access to services for Kansans
>>who are blind or visually impaired
>>
>>I can't speak to all of these agencies, but the fact that they've
>>awarded a contract to Envision is not encouraging.
>>
>>This is actually very troub ling as these awarded contracts have a
>>certain "Seal of Approval" effect.
>>
>>Furthermore, it is my understanding that this is the intended
>>direction for transition/working age rehab training as well. I take
>>issue with this based on the simple observation that the once-a-week
>>in-your-hometown training just doesn't produce the results required
>>for a working age blind person to be fully functioning with society,
>>specifically holding a job. (That is VR's #1 concern, after all.)
>>
>>It looks to me like the state just auctioned off the well-being of
>>it's blind seniors to the lowest bidder.
>>
>>Remember they shut down KRCBVI because it saved some money. They
>>didn't do it with some noble goal of providing better services for the
>>Blind.
>>
>>It's also worth noting that some of us recieved our training from
>>private entities. The NFB training centers provide such great service
>>this way.
>>
>>To be fair though, we haven't done a good job of countering the
>>Envision propaganda machine. And we really don't have much of an
>>alternative to offer.
>>
>>I'm afraid that if we want quality services, we may have to provide
>>some of them ourselves.
>>
>>Have I gone off the deep end yet> Is their a peice of the puzzle that
>>I'm missing?
>>
>>On 11/2/10, Stanzel, Susan - Kansas City, MO <susan.stanzel at kcc.usda.gov>
>>wrote:
>> > Hi Everyone,
>> >
>> > I sent a resolution about this to Jim. It was passed in Iowa. I don't
>> > know
>> > if it is something we should pass or not since we cannot say that
>> > Services
>> > to the Blind does such a great job. I was thinking maybe we should talk
>> > about the money earned going back to serve more blind people.
>> >
>> > Susie
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org
>> > [mailto:home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Cindy Ray
>> > Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 9:37 AM
>> > To: NFB of Kansas Internet Mailing List
>> > Subject: Re: [Home-on-the-range] SRS expands access to services for
>>Kansans
>> > who are blind or visually impaired
>> >
>> > I don't know what kind of reputation these agencies have in Kansas. It
>> > has
>> > been too long since I was gone. However, for the sake of playing
>> > "devil's
>> > advocate" let's assume there were no corporate bonuses. (I am assuming
>>here
>> > that you mean giving bonuses to employees.) If you are, and if these
>> > folks
>> > had no show of appreciation for what they do, assuming they were
>> > actually
>> > doing a good job and that the services were being efficiently handled
>> > and
>> > people were benefitting from them, would no such bonuses not mean that
>> > you
>> > would have a lower quality of employee working to improve the lives of
>> > Kansans who are blind? At the same time, though, the lion's share of
>> > such
>> > monies should truly be used for the purpose for which it was intended.
>>This
>> > could be naivety speaking here.
>> > Cindy Lou
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> >
>>
>>
>>--
>>Andrew Chapman
>>
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-- 
Andrew Chapman