[nabs-l] Sample letter of justiifcation

Sun Apr 11 01:42:50 UTC 2010

Lavar,

I'm copying here a sample letter Arielle sent to the list several
weeks ago.  Here's what she had to say about it:

As an addendum to our listserv discussion and conference call about
getting justification to attend NFB training centers, Jim Omvig shared
with us a sample justification letter that you can use to guide you
when writing your letter justifying your choice to attend an NFB
training center. We felt it would be beneficial to many blind students
on this list, so I am attaching it here. Please note that this is just
a sample, and can serve as the basic framework for your letter, but to
write a strong and personal letter, you should feel free to insert
examples of how you personally will benefit from the particular
training center that you have chosen to attend. Talk about specific
skills that you need training in, how those skills are relevant to
your vocational goal, and give examples of activities at the center
you have chosen that teach these skills through challenge and
discovery. I also think the best-crafted letter will come after
conversations with other center students, as we discussed earlier.

Below is the letter itself:

Dear (VR Counselor):

The purpose of this letter is to notify you that, pursuant to the
federal rights which are mine under the Rehabilitation Act and the
Rehabilitation Services Administration's (RSA) Policy Directive
PD-01-03,  I wish to exercise my right to choose both my own "service
provider" for my adjustment to blindness training and the "setting" in
which this training will take place.  Therefore, I hereby choose to
attend (insert specific name of NFB Center) for a period of from six
to nine months.

In case there is any confusion about the federal rights I have
concerning "Informed Choice," following for your convenience is the VR
policy as stated in 2001 in RSA PD-01-03:

      POLICY STATEMENT:  The State VR program must provide applicants
and individuals eligible for VR services with opportunities to
exercise informed choice throughout the VR process, including making
decisions about the employment goal, VR services, service providers,
settings for employment and service provision, and methods for
procuring services.  To enable an individual to make such decisions,
the State VR agency must provide information, support and assistance
needed by the individual.  The VR agency has the responsibility to
implement policies, procedures, and practices, and to develop
resources that enable applicants and individuals eligible for VR
services to exercise informed choice throughout the entire VR process;
these policies, procedures, and practices must be consistent with
Federal statutory and regulatory requirements.

In preparing to exercise my right to choose, I have learned that I
must first become informed about the various kinds of residential
orientation and adjustment centers for the blind before I can choose
wisely.  In becoming informed, I have learned that the blind students
who attend NFB centers are generally more independent, more
self-confident, more able to take control of their lives, and more
empowered than the blind people who attend traditional training
centers.  Therefore, I am choosing an NFB center because I want to
learn to be just as independent and self-confident and able to take
charge of my own life as these former students are.

As I have spoken with other blind people, I have learned that these
NFB centers have two significant components that are quite different
from typical training centers.  First, they have Core curriculums for
all students who attend them.  These have been tried and tested, and
they work.

Second, these centers teach what they call a "defined philosophy"
about blindness to all of the students who attend them, instead of
leaving a student's beliefs about blindness to chance.  I have learned
that most typical centers don't even talk about their ideas about
blindness.  It's like they don't really have any beliefs.

I have also learned that most of the staff members in NFB centers are
blind.  They have learned to handle their own blindness in their daily
lives.  Therefore, they will be in an excellent position to help me
handle mine and to encourage me when doing things without sight seems
too hard.

Also, I have learned that the training does not last long enough in
most of the traditional centers.  Sometimes students come back several
times to get the training they actually need because they really
didn't get fully trained the first time.  On the other hand, the
students who attend the NFB centers usually take training for from six
to nine months.  This length of time makes it possible for the
students truly to master the skills of blindness and to adjust their
own attitudes about themselves so that they can learn to look at
themselves simply as normal people who cannot see and also learn to do
the things other normal people do.  I want to be able to come to this
kind of peace concerning my own blindness.  Therefore, I can get the
training I really want and need by attending an NFB center.

Further, by living at the center apartments during my several months
of training, I can be practicing and perfecting the training I have
had each day by cooking, cleaning, washing my own clothes, etc.  I can
also gain practical, valuable mobility experience every day by
traveling back and forth from the center to my apartment.

(optional for the partially blind)  Finally, I have learned that I
must come to deal with my remaining vision in a healthy way.  I must
have training using sleepshades to learn the skills of blindness
adequately, to learn that I can function perfectly well using no
vision at all, to eliminate the fear of future vision loss, and to
equip me fully concerning a different kind of choice:  Since I have
very limited vision, I must learn to choose on a case-by-case basis
each day whether to use my limited vision or a non-visual technique to
perform a given task efficiently and competently.  I can never have
that kind of choice if I don't learn the blind techniques well using
sleepshades.

For all of these and other reasons, I choose to attend the (blank)
center for from six to nine months.  To provide you with more detailed
information about the (blank) center, I am also giving you a document
which it has prepared to explain its programs more fully.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

(Jane Doe.)

Hope this helps,

Courtney Stover

On 4/9/10, Lavar.phillips at hotmail.com <Lavar.phillips at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hello to all
> Can someone send me a sample letter of justification? It would be greatly
> appreciated
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