[il-talk] With articles such as this, it's no wonder people fear and dred blindness.

Fri Aug 3 19:06:13 UTC 2012

I agree with Denise.

-----Original Message-----
From: il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Cathy Randall
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 12:55 PM
To: NFB of Illinois Mailing List
Subject: Re: [il-talk] With articles such as this, it's no wonder people
fear and dred blindness.

Hello Federation Family,
  Thanks to the CCB and to many of you, I am a much better traveler than
when I first joined the NFBI in 1982.  I still have a long way to go with
travel and I know it.
  I will never forget walking around the Illinois Visually Handicapped
Institute, former name of ICRE, block.  Un-be-known to me, my best friend in
the program quietly followed me around the block and could see me well
enough to later tell me that I visibly shook all the way around that block.
  If we can reach out to Jim, featured in the article, and encourage him to
attend our State Convention, it will be the greatest life-changing
experience we can bring to him.

    Cathy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Denise Avant" <dravant at ameritech.net>
To: "Jemal Powell" <derek2872 at yahoo.com>; "NFB of Illinois Mailing List" 
<il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 8:01 PM
Subject: Re: [il-talk] With articles such as this,it's no wonder people fear
and dred blindness.

> Hello all,
> I have a similar reaction to Jemal. The gentlemen in the article is 60 
> years old, approaching senior citizen status. Does he need more 
> training and encouragement? Of course he does. But at least he 
> recognized at age 60 that he should not just sit around letting his 
> wife and other family members do everything for him.  His reaction to 
> sight loss is a typical one. He is afraid, but yet he must believe he 
> can do something.  Otherwise he would not have found his way to ICRE 
> AND HE WOULDN'T BE ATTEMPTING TO WALK OUTSIDE ON his own using the 
> long white cane. And so however much fear he has, and  with however 
> much hesitation  he is taking his steps, he is doing so. I hope he 
> pushes beyond the minimum and excels in his training.
> We as federationist know it is the proper training that gives us our 
> independence and confidence. We  understand that with proper training, 
> we can do the things that sighted people can do. We have to keep 
> putting that message out.
> And if any of us should ever be at ICRE and have a chance meeting with 
> the gentlemen, we should give him the encouragement and knowledge he 
> so desparately needs.
>
>
>
> Denise Avant
> dravant at ameritech.net
>
> P.S.  Please give to the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois 
> Annual Appeal by sending your tax deductible donation to NFBI c/o 
> Glenn Moore III, Treasurer P.O. Box 1065 Elgin, IL 60121.
>
> On Jul 31, 2012, at 6:44 PM, Jemal Powell <derek2872 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> I have mixed reviews about this article.  This article shows that 
>> ICRE'S program is too short, and needs to be longer. I feel, with all 
>> due respect to my fellow Federationists, that there is a bit of an 
>> over-reaction here.  Let's remember that people react to sudden 
>> vision loss differently.  Some react in a more positive and proactive
manner
>> than others.   So it is understandable that the  gentleman in this 
>> article had the reaction he had, since he did say that he had little 
>> experience with blindness before his vision loss.  As for  the 
>> gentleman's comment about Diabetes, he did say that he did not take 
>> care of himself.  I understand and respect where Jenny is coming from 
>> when it concerns her husband's situation, but remember every individual's
>> siutuation is different.   The bottom line, this is why our work in the 
>> NFB is so important, to promote positive  attitudes about blindness. 
>> Anyone that knows this man should try to reach out to him.
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Bill Reif <billreif at ameritech.net>
>> To: NFB of Illinois Mailing List <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 7:36 PM
>> Subject: [il-talk] With articles such as this, it's no wonder people 
>> fear and dred blindness.
>>
>> Today's Chicago Tribune's news section actually has three articles 
>> about blindness. While two of them are factual and harmless enough, 
>> the below combines all the worst stereotypes imaginable. It makes 
>> those who lose sight late in life seem fragile emotional wrecks, the 
>> process of mobility a tortuous ordeal, and the effectiveness of 
>> programs to help us only marginal. The article includes one 
>> interesting admission -- that most people who complete the training 
>> program must return immediately before independence is possible. My 
>> heart goes out to this man, who must be embarrassed by such a 
>> description of him. I hope he yet discovers that so much more is 
>> possible than to spend the rest of his life warning people of the 
>> danger of becoming who he believes he is now. Meanwhile, Barbara 
>> Brotman and the Tribune would do the blind a tremendous service if 
>> she would more accurately describe the possibility of a decent way 
>> forward, as made more likely through participation in a training 
>> program with higher expectations -- one that does more in several 
>> months than teach someone how to pour coffee and complete a two-block 
>> rehearsed walk.Bill
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: Article from Chicago Tribune News 2012 07 29
>> Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2012 19:24:06 -0400 (EDT)
>> From: NFB-NEWSLINE Online mailto:nfbnewsline at nfb.org
>> To: William B. Reif mailto:billreif at ameritech.net Learning to live 
>> once again after late-in-life blindness. Barbara Brotman, Tribune
reporter.
>> Jim Juchcinski stopped at the front desk. . You heading out, Mr. 
>> Juchcinski? the security guard asked. Outside, where there were no 
>> walls to hold on to? Where there were cracked sidewalks, cars 
>> swerving into parking lots, harried pedestrians rushing by? Outside, 
>> with no arm to grasp, no teacher's voice to follow, alone on a walk 
>> for the first time in two years? Yes," he said. I'm going to take a
stroll. Close your eyes.
>> Now take a step forward. How far can you get before fear and 
>> disorientation grind you to a halt? Ten steps? Fifteen, before you 
>> open your eyes? Juchcinski doesn't have that option. The Oak Lawn man 
>> is among
>> 29,000 adults in Illinois who are completely blind, and must walk -- 
>> and cook, read, work and go about life -- in the dark. It is a 
>> learned process. And if you have seen someone with a long white cane 
>> walking alongside a sighted person, you may have spotted a lesson in 
>> progress. Juchcinski never thought about blindness. If he had, he 
>> might not have ignored his diabetes for more than 20 years. Instead, 
>> the disease raged out of control, and diabetic retinopathy began 
>> stalking his vision. Blood vessels in his eyes hemorrhaged faster 
>> than surgeries could stem the damage. On May 25, 2010, Juchcinski 
>> awoke from surgery to darkness. He never saw again. Juchcinski, 60, 
>> had worked for 35 years as a pipe insulator. He worked under contract 
>> at all of Commonwealth Edison's nuclear power plants and several 
>> fossil power plants, often as general foreman or superintendent. Now 
>> he needed his wife to pour his coffee. His mood darkened; his world 
>> shrank. He went out rarely, and then only on the arm of his wife, 
>> Kathy. At least every other day, I started my day with a cry," he 
>> said. Which gave him a lot in common with those who come to the 
>> Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education, known as ICRE-Wood, 
>> to learn how to manage life without sight. Everyone cries when they 
>> lose their sight, Derrick Phillips, the center's superintendent, told 
>> students at the first meeting of the session Juchcinski would join. 
>> Phillips is blind, and he had cried too, he told them. But one day at 
>> ICRE-Wood, a couple of other students led him out of the building and 
>> down the street -- three blind men, walking on their own to a 
>> convenience store. Phillips cried again -- only this time, because he 
>> saw the possibilities. ICRE-Wood is the only state-run vocational
training program for blind adults in Illinois.
>> People come from across the state, some staying in its dormitory 
>> rooms, for its 13-week intensive program in computer skills, Braille, 
>> cooking, cleaning and mobility -- how to travel independently using a 
>> cane. It is a kind of boot camp for the blind. We deal with people in 
>> crisis, people who just lost their sight," Phillips said. They don't 
>> come right away. It often takes months or even years for people to 
>> acknowledge that they are visually impaired enough to need help, or 
>> to learn that there is help available at ICRE-Wood or agencies like 
>> the Chicago Lighthouse or Second Sense (formerly the Guild for the 
>> Blind). Two years after he lost his sight, Juchcinski sat in the 
>> office of Mae Michels, his orientation and mobility teacher, his 
>> solid frame squeezed into a chair. His T-shirt, which he had had 
>> made, hinted at the joker behind the dark glasses: "Blind Man 
>> Walking," it read. Michels, a diminutive and sprightly 22-year 
>> veteran of teaching mobility to the blind, listened as Juchcinski 
>> told her his goal. I want to walk down the street," he said. I want 
>> to walk my dog. He wasn't sure how he was going to do it. Just 
>> walking around his Oak Lawn condo, he bumped into walls so many times 
>> that he knocked down some of the framed art. He joked with Kathy that 
>> she didn't have to worry about him dying of diabetes; he was going to die
of a head injury.
>> But Michels nodded. She would teach him to walk down the street. She 
>> would take him step by step, starting with walks down the hallways at 
>> ICRE-Wood. The crucial tool would be his cane, which he had been 
>> given but never really taught how to use. You really need to listen 
>> to the cane," she told him. The cane acts as a hand, helping the user 
>> feel the difference between surfaces like tile floor, pavement and 
>> grass. It delivers audible clues, making a different sound when it 
>> hits a brick wall instead of a wood door. He would also learn to use 
>> his senses of hearing, smell and touch. And his memory: He would have 
>> to count doorways and remember how many he needed to pass before 
>> reaching, say, the washroom. Two weeks into the program, he stood at 
>> the front desk in the main lobby. His path to a walk outside began 
>> with learning how to find his way around the building. Hesitantly, 
>> under Michels' watchful eye, he walked along the edge of the desk 
>> toward the elevator, his cane finding the edge where the desk met the 
>> floor. Scrape, tap. Scrape, tap. Scrape, tap. He got stuck in the 
>> small cubby with the pay phone. He faced the wall for a few moments, 
>> tapping, before finding his way out. He navigated the long halls by 
>> memory, counting doorways to locate classrooms, and by senses. Every 
>> sound was a clue. The echo of Michels' voice outside the wide 
>> stairwell upstairs. The change in his own voice as he got closer to a 
>> wall. The pounding music from the gym. The cane's metallic echo 
>> against a baseboard radiator. Even the air held information. Sighted 
>> people might never notice, but in the space where one hallway 
>> intersects another, there is a slight breeze. Afterward, back in 
>> Michels' office, Juchcinski was drained. It's like going back to high 
>> school," he said. It's a lot to absorb. A few days later, he got lost 
>> in a storeroom. The door had been left open by mistake. For 25 
>> minutes he tried to find his way out, bumping into desks and chairs, 
>> searching for the door. By the time a maintenance man came in and 
>> found him, he was sweating from nerves and fear. He was so angry he 
>> wanted to quit. But he didn't. Six weeks before the session's end, he
ventured outside for the first time with Michels.
>> She taught him how to make his way through the front entrance, with 
>> its two automatic doors that had to be activated by standing on a 
>> carpet square. He practiced repeatedly, at one point nearly losing 
>> his balance on the raised lip between the foyer and the sidewalk. 
>> Whoa, that sure wakes you up," he muttered. On Chicago's Wood Street, he
took Michels'
>> arm. She described the route as they walked it, in detail, down to 
>> the texture of the grass in the parkway. The week before his classes 
>> were to end, Juchcinski began a day in a funk. I was having a bad 
>> morning," he told Michels. I said, 'I'm frickin' tired of being 
>> blind.' " But the morning got better. With Michels at his side, 
>> Juchcinski walked the entire route that would be his solo -- this 
>> time, heading north on Wood Street. He gripped a new cane with an 
>> easy-rolling ball for a tip to "shoreline" the edge of the sidewalk, 
>> using it as his guide, as he walked to the parking lot up the block. 
>> A quick lesson in how to cross it -- listen for cars, check for the 
>> slant in the sidewalk down to the street -- and Juchcinski was ready 
>> to take his first solo walk. So ready, in fact, that he decided to 
>> add another first. Not only would he walk outside by himself, but he 
>> also would keep walking past the route he had practiced and go all 
>> the way to the intersection with Taylor Street. On a blazing hot 
>> morning in mid-July, the last day of his session, Juchcinski stood at 
>> ICRE-Wood's front desk, three months of training behind him and his 
>> first solo walk ahead of him. I'm ready to rock 'n' roll," he said. Happy
trails,"
>> Michels said, smiling. Take your time," the security guard called 
>> out. I have no choice," Juchcinski said. He went out the door. Down 
>> the edge of the sidewalk. Down the ramp. North on Wood Street. Early 
>> morning commuters rushed past. The Pink Line rumbled. Sirens wailed. 
>> And then, halfway to the parking lot along ICRE-Wood's chain-link 
>> fence, tears slipped out from behind his dark glasses. He was crying 
>> with pride. He was walking by himself -- slowly, but with confidence. 
>> After sniffling a few times and murmuring, "I'll man up," he kept 
>> walking. But he had lost concentration. He veered to the other side 
>> of the walk. When his cane touched grass, he knew something was 
>> wrong. I think I went too far to the left," he murmured. He stepped 
>> into the grass and nearly lost his balance. He righted himself, 
>> crossed back over the sidewalk again and got to the rubber domes 
>> marking the parking lot entrance. He waited and listened. Then he 
>> started crossing the parking lot entrance. But he veered right, and 
>> walked into the lot. His cane touched a parked car. He turned around, 
>> but the cane got stuck in the wrought-iron fence. Michels tells 
>> students to ask bystanders for help if they need it. Juchcinski did 
>> and within a moment was out of the parking lot. It was time to cross 
>> uncharted territory. He stepped forward on the unfamiliar sidewalk. 
>> Methodically, he swept the cane from the center of the sidewalk to 
>> where it met dirt at its right edge. Step after step, he followed 
>> that shoreline until his cane reached something that felt different 
>> -- the raised domes marking the end of the sidewalk. He was at the 
>> corner of Wood and Taylor streets, and he was grinning. He kept grinning
even after he collided with a fellow student while walking back.
>> And after he stumbled into a tree and landscaping rocks next to the 
>> front door. In 29 minutes, he had traveled 0.12 miles, and a long way 
>> toward independence. Like 80 percent of students, Juchcinski will go 
>> on to a second 13-week session at ICRE-Wood.
>> He is learning more than mobility; he has been pouring his own coffee 
>> for months. After graduation, he has another goal: to become a 
>> motivational speaker for people with diabetes, offering his blindness 
>> as a powerful warning. He walked into the lobby, where Michels was 
>> waiting with a smile and congratulations. Students are required to 
>> check back in at the front desk. Juchcinski stood in front of the 
>> security guard. I'm just coming back," he said, "from a walk." 
>> ---------- blbbrotman at tribune.com chicagotribune.com/blindness See a 
>> video of Jim Juchcinski learning to become independent again. ct12 0011
120729 N S 0000000000 00005490.
>> ILLUSTRATION: Photo(s) Graphic(s). Photo: Jim Juchcinski, 60, of Oak 
>> Lawn, with mobility instructor Mae Michels, steps toward independence 
>> outside a Chicago center. HEATHER CHARLES/TRIBUNE PHOTO Photo: Jim 
>> Juchcinski, who lost his sight in 2010 because of diabetic 
>> retinopathy, learns to walk independently again, guided by mobility 
>> teacher Mae Michels. HEATHER CHARLES/TRIBUNE PHOTOS Photo: With 
>> Michels' help, Juchcinski has learned to use his sense of touch and a 
>> cane to detect differences in surfaces -- such as tile floor, 
>> pavement and grass -- while walking. Graphic: Vision loss from 
>> diabetes Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in 
>> U.S. adults ages 20 to 74. The disease involves damage to the blood
vessels of the retina.
>> PREVALENCE AMONG DIABETICS In the U.S. Diabetics with retinopathy: 
>> 28.5% Retinopathy occurs more often in male diabetics Men: 31.6% 
>> Women: 25.7%
>> 899,000 Americans with vision threatening diabetic retinopathy SOURCE: 
>> Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/TRIBUNE\ - See microfilm 
>> for complete 
>> graphic._______________________________________________il-talk
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