[nabs-l] Personal aides and other services in school

[Jedi]

I was mainstreamed in the public schools with access to other blind 
students through my state's school for the blind and their summer programs.

During my preschool and kindergarten years, my family didn't know much 
about Braille or the white cane, let alone any blindness skills. At 
that point, we knew that I had "a visual impairment," but we didn't 
know to what extent or how it would affect me. I wore thick glasses and 
tried to see. Effectively, I was a sighted child with poor eyesight 
rather than a blind child. Back then, I read large print written in 
black ink (which most kids do at that age), but I had to rest my eyes 
quite a lot because I was especially prone to headaches. I also had a 
desk clipboard that held my papers at a slant so I could see them 
batter; these papers were held directly in front of my face rather than 
flat on the desk. I learned colors and letters like all the other kids, 
but it was understood that it might take me longer or that I'd need 
special help from time to time. As for special services, I was sent to 
an occupational therapist (I don't really know why except perhaps they 
might have thought me physically challenged as well as blind). I think 
I knew instinctively that none of these services were helpful to the 
fullest extent possible, and I think my mother also knew it.

By my first grade year, my mom had made contact with Dr. Ruby Ryles 
(who now teaches at Louisiana Tech). At the time, Ruby was teaching 
Braille in the Bellingham School District, the closes district that 
offered blindness services to my small county township. In the first 
through third grades, I worked with her instructional assistants who 
were quite qualified in Braille to teach it to me. I was in transition 
from print to Braille at that time (which was quite frustrating as I 
wanted to be independent of any print-related assistance, but I didn't 
know enough braille to have that independence). Once in a while, a 
paraprofessional would come in and write things from the board onto a 
piece of paper in highlighter, and I'd trace them in black ink over the 
yellow highlighted letters. Fortunately, this practice stopped as soon 
as I knew enough Braille to keep up with my peers. Other than that, I 
didn't receive much specialized assistance save for the usual Braille 
and cane travel lessons (daily for Braille, at most tweice weekly for 
cane travel). I should add here that I ditched the O.T. and the glasses.

From time to time, I'd have a special assistant with me during 
elementary school field trips. Usually, this was my Braille teacher or 
someone else hired by the school to help and look after me. I didn't so 
much mind my Braille teacher as she stayed out of the way. She was also 
like a grandmother, so it felt more like having a parent volunteer in 
the classroom rather than a special helper. As for the others the 
school hired, they knew nothing about blindness, so I felt isolated 
from my peers. In one journal entry, I remember writing that I felt 
like a dog on a leash. It was horrible and didn't do much for my self 
esteem, my sense of self efficacy, nor my social development.

Fast forward to middle school. I would occasionally work with a reader 
when tests weren't Brailled, but that was about it. Throughout most of 
my school career, I found no difficulties in getting any special help I 
required from other students and teachers. I'm glad it worked out that 
way. that is to say, I'm glad I was able to get help from teachers and 
peers because I now know how to get help from others in the general 
public without special mediation by some other individual.

Fast forward to high school. I had this teacher in high school who 
was... well... horrible! She was a special educator who specialized in 
learning disabilities. In each of the high schools, special education 
students usually took one period of a class called "Learning 
Strategies" or "Study Skills." The class is designed to serve as a 
study hall, a course on managing tests and organizational tasks, a 
place where people could get help in classes they struggled with, and 
the school's way of fulfilling their requirement to provide at least 
some specialized assistance to those with IEPs. For me, the class 
served as both a hinderance and a help: I didn't need the class as I 
had no problem with tests and organizational tasks (I have no learning 
difficulties); the class was a help in that it gave me an opportunity 
for Braille and cane instruction without interfering with my general 
education schedule. More than anything, the teachers of this particular 
class were annoying and had a sense of self-importance that made me 
gag; they'd stick their nose in everything concerning my life: I had no 
ability to do anything that other kids do (including the stupid things) 
without having at least six adults to answer to no matter my "crime." I 
felt isolated, scrutinized, and plainly miserable.

I did experience a lot of social isolation in school. I definitely 
think blindness had a lot to do with it in the early years, especially 
in elementary and middle school. As for high school, the teachers posed 
a greater challenge to me socially for reasons I've already explained. 
More than that, they seemed to think that it was their duty to correct 
my social skills even though they honestly had none themselves; the 
general education teachers sometimes talked to them about whatever 
issues they had with me rather than to me directly like they would with 
other kids. As a result, I often got exaggerated messages from special 
education teachers about my behavior in school rather than more 
accurate ones from those who mattered. Again, that messed with my sense 
of self efficacy. I could have done without that. I think my misery in 
high school separated me from sighted kids more than my blindness did. 
Like I said, I could have done without that.

I definitely echo the sentiments of most here who say that, for many 
blind people, Braille and cane training are necessary, but that a lot 
of the extra services we get stuck with aren't. I think much of that 
has more to do with misconceptions about blindness. There's a 
misconception out there that blind people automatically have social 
skill development issues because we're blind, that blind people are 
more likely to hurt themselves, and that blind people have no grasp of 
what's going on around them and can't get that grasp without special 
help. These same misconceptions (I believe) draw attention away from 
the real issues confronting us including inequality in the classroom, 
lack of appropriate materials, lack of appropriate compensatory skills 
training in a variety of areas (not just in Braille and travel), and 
the general feeling of frustration from not having much in the way of 
blind peers and adult role models available to us.

Respectfully,
Jedi

Original message:
> This is a good topic to discuss.  I attended school as a child growing 
> up in the late 80S and through the 90S when progressive computer 
> technology was in its infancy in this country.
> I came from a large school district on Long Island, NY where there were 
> TVI’S who traveled to each school in the local district.  They were 
> required to see there students on a one-to-one basis each day on a 
> specific schedule.  I was the only blind student in the schools I 
> attended so, I was given basic Braille instruction and O&M instruction. 
> I learned to use a cane when I was 10 years old since my school did not 
> want me to stand out or hurt anyone with it.  While I was in elementary 
> school, a Para was hired to be an escort and assist the teachers who 
> did not know how to deal with a blind student.  In most cases, I 
> navigated on my own or with other classmates.  My day-to-day social 
> interactions with other students were somewhat limited due to 
> administrations fears of personal injury and the good old words, 
> liability, insurance, etc do to blindness.
> Since the internet was unavailable in most of my life growing up, I did 
> not have any knowledge about the NFB or any advocacy organizations.  In 
> addition, as a result of this, adequate information and resources to 
> proper services were unavailable for my family and I to utilize. My 
> family and I believed that what was going on was OK.
>         When I was around middle-school age, I did receive training on 
> something called a Braillemait for note-taking purposes.  Later on, we 
> learned that this peace of equipment could only handle small tasks and 
> could not be used for creating large text files.  I was then instructed 
> on the use of a Dos PC for using WordPerfect for this task.  Once the 
> internet boom of the late 90S was upon us, I was able to begin using a 
> PC with Jaws, as well as a dos-based device for note-taking called an Aria
> When my district kept socially promoting me and denying me to take the 
> standardized tests for college as a result of a “learning disability”, 
> I required them to send me to Perkins School for the Blind, to fix the 
> inadequate education I received.  The false reports and inadequate 
> information lead the individuals at Perkins to first think that I had a 
> learning disability.  Unfortunately, funding was short so Perkins could 
> not pick up the slack for 12 years of improper education and fix it in 
> 2.  As a result, I started college with many struggles but was later 
> relieved to find out through extensive testing and remediation that I 
> never had a learning or cognitive disability.  I have become a 
> successful college graduate after all of this.  As a community, we are 
> responsible for our future generation.  In essence, I fell that we need 
> to go person by person, family, by family to insure that these problems 
> become diminished since all families in our
>  community do not have support and endurance for handling the 
> inadequate educators in this country.


> --- On Sat, 9/4/10, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:

>> From: Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Personal aides and other services in school
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Date: Saturday, September 4, 2010, 9:39 PM
>> Hi Arielle,
>> Great topic!  In elementary school and my last year of
>> high school I was at a public school with a vision resource
>> room.  They are rare in the country; its a room where a
>> few TVIs were stationed and several blind students from the
>> county went to this school although the majority were
>> mainstreamed from the beginning.  I spent a half day
>> with the TVI in the resource room if I remember correctly.

>> Then I was mainstreamed in my home school and saw the TVI
>> most days of the week for a short time.
>> At this point the TVI was itinerant and traveled to several
>> schools.
>> While mainstreamed I received accomodations including
>> alternative forms of handouts, alternative formats of
>> textbooks and extended time on tests.  I grew up
>> reading and writing braille from second grade; I started
>> reading print.

>> Growing up I did not have aides.  I think students
>> need O&M instruction, braille instruction and technology
>> instruction.  Beyond that other services such as Ot and
>> speech therapy are individualized and should be determined
>> in the IEP meeting.
>> In elementary school the only tech training was for typing
>> on an Apple computer.  All my assignments even
>> homework, were done by hand in large print or on the perkins
>> and my TVI transcribed them.  In fifth or sixth grade I
>> received a Braille n' speak which was my first
>> piece of technology I took to school and used in the
>> classroom.  I'm really glad to hear some students such
>> as
>> Julie had jaws and a scanning program.  I did not get
>> this instruction in school.  I learned about jaws and
>> Openbook in late high school years and in college through
>> someone from the Dept for the blind.

>> I also received mobility instruction but the quality could
>> have been better. O&M was given for an hour or two every
>> other week.  It helped me learn some basics of O&M
>> such as cane techniques, orientation to school, soliciting
>> assistance in stores and traveling on simple streets.
>> But we did not do anything complex nor did we cover public
>> transportation.
>> Overall I was fortunate to have good services in school and
>> feel sad to hear other students have to fight for something
>> like braille texts and handouts when I had them
>> automatically.

>> Good topic.

>> Ashley ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arielle
>> Silverman" <nabs.president at gmail.com>
>> To: <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2010 6:27 PM
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Personal aides and other services in
>> school


>>> Hi all,

>>> At this year's NFB convention, improving education of
>> blind children
>>> was an especially prominent theme, and for good
>> reason-we would all
>>> say that the ability for the blind to be fully
>> participating members
>>> of society starts with a quality education. I am on a
>> couple of
>>> listservs for parents of blind children (the NFB
>> parents of blind
>>> children list as well as another one that's not
>> affiliated with any
>>> organization), and discussions frequently come up
>> about the myriad of
>>> special services that parents often have to fight
>> school districts to
>>> get for their kids in public school. These special
>> services range from
>>> Braille instruction and provision of Braille learning
>> materials, to
>>> O&M, to technology instruction, to having a
>> teacher's aide assigned to
>>> help the blind student with visual tasks, to auxiliary
>> services like
>>> occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT),
>> speech, etc. When I
>>> take part in these discussions as someone who grew up
>> blind, I always
>>> wonder which of these services are absolutely critical
>> to helping
>>> blind students get a sound and effective education,
>> and which of them
>>> may be nice, but not necessary. For example, I think
>> it's clear that
>>> quality Braille instruction, cane travel teaching and
>> tech instruction
>>> are top priorities, but what about the other
>> services?

>>> I'm just curious to know what kinds of services those
>> of you who grew
>>> up blind received, and if you think these services
>> were adequate,
>>> inadequate, or superfluous. In particular, I'm curious
>> whether you
>>> guys had classroom aides (or someone besides your TVI)
>> help you with
>>> classroom activities or getting around and if you
>> think this kind of
>>> help was appropriate. When I started elementary school
>> (kindergarten
>>> in 1990), I had a classroom aide in kindergarten and
>> first grade and
>>> then the aide was discontinued in second grade and
>> thereafter. From
>>> what I remember (although I know memories from
>> kindergarten can be
>>> notoriously inaccurate), the aide basically served as
>> my sighted guide
>>> but didn't help me with classroom activities. In
>> hindsight I wonder if
>>> not having the aide would have forced the O&M to
>> teach me independent
>>> cane travel at an earlier age. But, more importantly,
>> I didn't have
>>> someone in the classroom describing things to me
>> except when the TVI
>>> was there, which I think was only one or two class
>> periods per day in
>>> the beginning and eventually she basically served as a
>> braillist. I'm
>>> therefore a little surprised to hear how common it is
>> for blind kids
>>> in this generation to have classroom aides working
>> with them, offering
>>> verbal descriptions of visual activities, etc. I feel
>> like my own
>>> education was relatively good, in part, because I
>> didn't have the
>>> luxury of getting so much information and I had to
>> learn how to follow
>>> what was being taught using nonvisual techniques, as
>> well as actively
>>> gathering information from others (like the teacher
>> and fellow
>>> classmates), skills that are critical for success in
>> college. But, I
>>> can also see the argument that having someone describe
>> goings-on in
>>> the classroom to a young child might give them an
>> advantage and help
>>> them gain a stronger understanding of visual concepts.
>> What do you
>>> think?

>>> Arielle

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