[humanser] Question about Process of Disclosure of Blindness with minors

[justin williams]

Interesting note you made about kids, and senior citizens.  
Huge space in the middle though.
Justin

-----Original Message-----
From: humanser [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ericka via
humanser
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2016 5:04 PM
To: Human Services Division Mailing List <humanser at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Ericka <dotwriter1 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [humanser] Question about Process of Disclosure of Blindness
with minors

I like your stories Carmela. I work with seniors and kids and your way works
very well. Afterwhile they kind of forget and just treat you like a human
being. For some reason kids and senior citizens understand and
employers/other adults seem to have a harder time getting it. Haven't quite
figured out why! I volunteer at a nearby school and I remember when I first
started. I gave the talk about blindness and my cane. The next week I had a
different cane with me and one of the school kids said to another "I wonder
why she has a different cane today? ". Mind you these were kindergartners!
It was so funny that they cared that much. 

Ericka Short
"What is right is not always popular; what is popular is not always right."

 from my iPhone

> On Mar 2, 2016, at 9:50 AM, Kaiti Shelton via humanser
<humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
>  Hi, Sarah,
> 
> My situation is slightly different, but in the past I have brought up 
> blindness as a practical matter with adults and others in the room in 
> the first few sessions.  I would say things like, "You'll have to tell 
> me what you're pointing at because I can't see it," etc so that the 
> client knew what they would need to do to communicate with me.  This 
> was also helpful because then if they forgot the adults could remind 
> them and fill in the gap.  E.G, the special educator I am working with 
> now could say, "E, remember to say you have a comment when you have 
> your hand up."
> 
> Other aspects of blindness I let come organically.  The other day one 
> of my students saw my cane propped in the corner and wanted to know if 
> it was a metal detector.  I explained how it works, passed it around 
> so they could all see it up close, and then put it back and continued 
> with the session.  Reinforcing it is sometimes necessary for me 
> because with Autism and other cognitive disabilities the clients don't 
> always understand it right away, such as this student who after seeing 
> it said he wanted to find money with it.  I just responded that I did 
> too.  My student last semester, who has Down Syndrome, would sometimes 
> joke with me to test how much I could see.  This wasn't in a mean or 
> rude way, but my supervisor thinks he was trying to figure out how 
> much vision I actually had.  He had quite a hilarious time discovering 
> what the cane was as well.  >
>> Carmella Broome EdS LPC LMFT
>> 
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