[humanser] Awareness and advocacy in our professions

[Elif Emir Öksüz]

Hello Kaiti and all,
I think you have just started an excellent topic here. Professional conferences
Are almost a requirement of my Ph.D. education. So we can think these
are an extension of my education. Furthermore, continuing education is
mandatory in counseling for the professionals. I am underlining this
requirement and mandatory parts, because we can include conference’s
and continuing educations in our accessibility battle.
My last counseling national conference was a big disappointment. I
went to Montreal in last April. I presented on counseling blind people
from a multicultural counseling perspective. There were no
accommodations. Everybody was asking during NFB convention this year
“is it overwhelming?” No NFB was definitely perfect. My ACA conference
was overwhelming. It was bigger than NFB; More than 3000 counselors
were there. Program app was partially accessible. I set down every
night to put together my own agenda for the following day. It was kind
of OK, but why that app was not totally accessible?
Navigating in the conference center was a huge problem. I easily
learnt how to go there from my own hotel. Yes, the conference center
did not have a hotel connected to it. It was the easiest part to go
there. In the facility, there was no Braille door signs and no verbal
description was provided. I went to the conference center website to
read some descriptions. I learnt that there are 11 different sets of
escalators and 9 elevators on each Flore. I realized that it would be
horrible. I was not wrong. Yes it was really bad.
The first day we went to there with my “lovely” roommate. She was a
masters student who was just 1 month away from working as a counselor
in the field. We were heading to the keynote speech. We met her
classmates on our way. She said she would go and register before the
speech. I said “I can go with her as well to the registration desk”
She replied to me exactly “I think it would be better for you if you
go with them to the speech”
I was so angry. Since she was just sighted she was seeing herself
superior than me and thought that she has a right to tell me what to
do. Of course, I was not planning to stick to her throughout the whole
conference. I had my own agenda, plus I am an independent person. I
was hoping to find registration desk to register and ask for
assistance for navigating.
I went to the speech. I set together with her friends, who are also
our masters students. She came and find us. At the end, four of us
took the elevator to go up for the next session. As soon as we left
the elevator two of them just disappeared. Only one of them asked me
where I need to go.
\I told this story to underline that classmates are not even an
option. Also one of those masters students was my supervisee. We had a
role confusion in this situation. I was teaching her how to counsel,
then just because of lacking accommodations, I was in a helpless role.
All the people around are counseling professionals. I don’t enjoy
asking for help from them. They are my potential employers, or
colleagues. I don’t like reinforcing the idea that I am helpless as a
blind person.
Finally, ACA assigned me a volunteer for that day, but the following
days I had to call to the volunteer room to ask for somebody when I
need. Yes, it is something but I had to tell my story from beginning
all the time to the person on the phone. They did not have a person
available all the time. I had to wait for so long. This effected my
decisions about which sessions I want to go. Finally I met other
Turkish students in the conference. Four of them did start a whatsup
group. I was just saying which room I am in. The closest one was
responding to meet me in front of the room to take me to the next room
I need to be. Those four brilliant students did a better job than
50.000-member ACA.
If you have another visible identity, a second disability, accent,
race or ethnicity, you may be even discriminated further.
Giving presentations is a good way, I agree. However be prepared you
may have very low attendance. I observed this in many sessions as an
audience and presenter. When I was explaining my area of study many
people in ACA expressed very low interest. Many of them probably
thinking that I need to be with the rehab counselors. Why they need to
learn about people with disabilities they are not rehabilitation
professions? This huge wrong perception marginalize us even more.
I am planning to put together a letter for ACA for the next
conference. They need to change this. This is so unacceptable. We
definitely need to work on these issues as this division and whole NFB
together.


2016-07-18 16:02 GMT-04:00, roanna bacchus via Humanser <humanser at nfbnet.org>:
> Hi Kaiti I agree with your message.  I am pursuing an internship
> at the tv station that is operated by the university where I also
> attend classes.  I have not had any problems getting the
> necessary accommodations to get the job done.  I use my
> BrailleNote to complete the transcripts before sending them to
> the other person who assists with closed captioning duties to be
> time coded into the videos.
>
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