[nabs-l] WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS?

[Dezman Jackson]

    I thought it was a surprisingly good article.  One of the best from the 
mainstream media I've read.

Dezman
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Katie Wang" <bunnykatie6 at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS?


> Hi, Andy,
>  I agree with dennis. I think this article portrays the woman as a
> great blind role model, who utilizes various nonvisual techniques to
> perform successfully in a very competitive work environment. The
> article has a positive rather than patronizing tone, and it focuses on
> what this chef can accomplish, not what she lost as a result of
> blindness. I think it's safe to say that most sighted people  would be
> very impressed by her achievements and feel much more confident about
> what blind people can do after reading this article. I'm not sure what
> causes your anger, but it is my opinion that this article contributes
> to the positive image of blind people.
>   Katie
>
> On 9/23/10, Dennis Clark <dennisgclark at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> Hello Andy,
>> I thought it was excellent.  I kept waiting for it to go South but in my
>> opinion it didn't.  I do not think any of us who are totally blind are 
>> ever
>> going to impress sighted people more than this woman has done.  Blindness 
>> is
>> a disability, even though many blind people argue that it isn't.  When I
>> hear that argument being made, it  is always clear to me that its 
>> proponent
>> is trying to convince him or her self of its truth.  No sighted person is
>> ever going to buy it.  This woman is at the top of her game, and for 
>> those
>> not familiar with Chicago, this restaurant is extremely exclusive, and 
>> this
>> article will do a lot to help us as a group be perceived as having the
>> ability to be competent despite blindness.  Most sighted people know that
>> this blind woman is outperforming them, because they themselves could 
>> never
>> get a job as a chef at a restaurant like this one.
>> Happy cooking,
>> Dennis
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Andi" <adrianne.dempsey at gmail.com>
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 3:16 PM
>> Subject: [nabs-l] WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS?
>>
>>
>>>i   read this article, and was excited about this womans success but was
>>>angry about how the writer of the article portrayed her!  I have also 
>>>been
>>>rongly portrayed in newspaper articals as I am sure many of you have.  I
>>>find news papers like to make a spectical of any one with a "disability"
>>>that does anything remotely normal and even more of a side show of 
>>>someone
>>>who does something most "able bodied" people would have trouble doing.
>>>This makes me angry because they take a positive advancement for the 
>>>blind
>>>and turn it in to a condescension of the blind.  How do you all feel 
>>>about
>>>this and other articals like it.  Do you have any sugjestions on how to
>>>redirect it back to a positive to the world?
>>>
>>>
>>> Blind chef gains national acclaim
>>> local/article_9884f76e-5023-11df-a9be-001cc4c03286 frame
>>> local/article_9884f76e-5023-11df-a9be-001cc4c03286 frame end
>>> the quad-city times
>>>
>>> FORMER MOLINE RESIDENT COOKS AT GOURMET RESTAURANT IN CHICAGO
>>>
>>> Blind chef gains national acclaim
>>>
>>> Kay Luna | Posted: Sunday, April 25, 2010 2:15 am
>>>
>>> Laura Martinez reaches out her hands, delicately running her fingers 
>>> atop
>>> the kitchen counter and across several sharp knives and a vegetable
>>> grater.
>>>
>>> She isn't afraid of getting cut.
>>>
>>> She never does, Martinez says.
>>>
>>> Picking up a very large knife, she feels the top of the blade.
>>>
>>> "This one is for vegetables," the 25-year-old former resident of Moline
>>> softly says. "It has ridges."
>>>
>>> The other knife is even longer and heavier. She picks it up, explaining
>>> that this one is called a chef's knife and she uses it to cut meat.
>>>
>>> But right now, Martinez needs to dice some fresh parsley. So, she feels
>>> around on the counter again for the cutting board, using her sense of
>>> touch to make
>>> sure the parsley is lined up just right.
>>>
>>> Then, without an ounce of fear, she begins chopping up the parsley with
>>> the fast-moving technique employed by professional chefs - because she 
>>> is
>>> one.
>>>
>>> Martinez works as a chef in the kitchen of Charlie Trotter's, an 
>>> exclusive
>>>
>>> gourmet restaurant in Chicago.
>>>
>>> She also happens to be blind.
>>>
>>> Fast learner gets inspiration
>>>
>>> When Martinez was little, she did not realize she was different from
>>> anyone else. She thought everyone lived in darkness. She adapted to it.
>>>
>>> She wanted to become a surgeon someday.
>>>
>>> "I always liked knives," she said with a smile.
>>>
>>> When she got older, she learned that she had been diagnosed with retinal
>>> blastoma, a type of cancer of the eyes, as a very young child. That is
>>> what caused
>>> her blindness.
>>>
>>> Doctors removed one eye. Then the chemotherapy and radiation used to 
>>> treat
>>>
>>> the cancer ultimately ruined the vision in her other eye.
>>>
>>> Martinez cannot see anything. She cannot even detect light.
>>>
>>> In fact, she cannot remember ever seeing anything at all. She uses her
>>> active imagination instead.
>>>
>>> She is also a fast learner, which came in handy after spending her early
>>> childhood in a Mexican town that did not have a school for the blind or
>>> special
>>> education classes. The closest school she could have attended was a
>>> three-hour car ride away.
>>>
>>> So, she stayed home and never learned to read or write in Spanish, 
>>> English
>>>
>>> or Braille until the family moved to Moline. She began her formal
>>> education at the
>>> age of 10.
>>>
>>> Martinez caught up eventually, blossoming even more when she reached
>>> Moline High School and met her one-on-one education aide, Pam McDermott.
>>> The two spent
>>> every school day together, starting when Martinez was 15, and they 
>>> remain
>>> very close.
>>>
>>> McDermott spent a lot of time talking to Martinez, describing situations
>>> and reading her books about the blind-and-deaf pioneer Helen Keller and
>>> other people
>>> who overcame life's challenges.
>>>
>>> Martinez's mother does not speak English. Neither did her late father.
>>>
>>> McDermott found herself explaining so many unexpected things to the 
>>> quiet,
>>>
>>> shy teenager - such as what flirting is and how some people have 
>>> different
>>>
>>> skin
>>> colors. She hated to be the one to tell her, but the subject came up at
>>> school.
>>>
>>> Martinez began to dream about her future, but she faced people who told
>>> her, "You can't do that. You're blind. There's no way," she said.
>>>
>>> "Kids would not come near me," Martinez said. "I was afraid to talk or 
>>> do
>>> anything. But I don't give up."
>>>
>>> McDermott's influence helped open a whole new world of possibilities for
>>> her, Martinez said.
>>>
>>> She learned to play piano. She moved away to take life-skills classes 
>>> for
>>> the blind. She took community college classes.
>>>
>>> She dreamed about becoming a psychologist.
>>>
>>> Eventually her interest turned to cooking. She figured it might be a
>>> little like surgery. Why not give it a try?
>>>
>>> Martinez knew she would have to work harder than most to
>>>
>>> convince people that she could work as a chef. And she was up to the
>>> challenge.
>>>
>>> "I don't give up," she said.
>>>
>>> Culinary school brings challenges
>>>
>>> Martinez applied to the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Chicago, an
>>> open-enrollment institution where most people are accepted as students 
>>> but
>>>
>>> not everyone
>>> graduates from the program, said Marshall Shafkowitz, the school's vice
>>> president of academic affairs and student services. The curriculum is
>>> tough.
>>>
>>> So was Shafkowitz, who admits he was "the biggest skeptic" when it came 
>>> to
>>>
>>> considering how a blind student could succeed at Le Cordon Bleu. The
>>> school had
>>> never enrolled a visually impaired student before Martinez, he said.
>>>
>>> Initially, he was concerned how her presence in the classroom might 
>>> impact
>>>
>>> the other students' learning. Then he worried about how the teachers 
>>> could
>>>
>>> present
>>> the same curriculum, without lowering their standards, but do so in a 
>>> way
>>> that would accommodate her.
>>>
>>> He did not know whether she could handle the fast-paced environment of
>>> working in a commercial kitchen, which is so much different than cooking
>>> at home.
>>>
>>> "It's a faster pace, with bigger knives and a lot more fire," he said.
>>>
>>> After watching Martinez at school and witnessing her "drive and desire" 
>>> to
>>>
>>> become a chef, Shafkowitz said he was amazed. He said her heightened 
>>> focus
>>>
>>> via
>>> the other senses, in the absence of sight, is her "superpower."
>>>
>>> "Her sense of touch is amazing," he said. "The only way I can describe 
>>> it
>>> is the touch that a surgeon has when they're working on your organs. She
>>> just
>>> has that delicate way with a knife."
>>>
>>> "She's not going to let anything hold her back," he added. "I think 
>>> that's
>>>
>>> 90 percent of who Laura is. Nobody's going to tell her no."
>>>
>>> The school hired an aide to help her get around. She labeled things in
>>> Braille.
>>>
>>> Mostly, though, she learned by using her hands to feel everything -
>>> especially the food she was preparing and cooking. She uses her sense of
>>> smell to figure
>>> out which spices to use. She uses both senses to determine whether meat
>>> and other dishes are done.
>>>
>>> Her favorite culinary class was the one in which she learned how to 
>>> debone
>>>
>>> chicken and take the fat off beef before cutting it into chunks and
>>> feeding it
>>> into a grinder. The teacher asked everyone to close their eyes and feel
>>> the joints and bones, the meat and the fat. That's how they learned 
>>> where
>>> and what
>>> to cut, Martinez said.
>>>
>>> "Fat feels different. It feels slippery, kind of like Jell-O," she said.
>>> "I focus on the smell, sound and the feel."
>>>
>>> An article about the school's first blind student was published in the
>>> Chicago Tribune during December, which inspired the "CBS Evening News" 
>>> to
>>> feature
>>> her on national television. During the filming of that segment, CBS
>>> brought along internationally famous chef Charlie Trotter.
>>>
>>> They hoped he would observe Martinez in the kitchen and maybe give her
>>> some advice.
>>>
>>> What he ended up giving her was a job offer: to work as a chef at his
>>> exclusive Charlie Trotter's restaurant in Chicago. No one expected that,
>>> least of
>>> all Martinez.
>>>
>>> "It's a big honor for me," she said. "It's very exclusive."
>>>
>>> Rochelle Smith Trotter, a spokeswoman for the Charlie Trotter Corp., 
>>> said
>>> Chef Trotter was very taken by Martinez's
>>>
>>> passion for food and her strong determination - "two attributes which he
>>> utilizes to evaluate any potential team member," she said.
>>>
>>> Martinez graduated Feb. 11 from Le Cordon Bleu. A week later, she began
>>> working at Trotter's, where she is familiarizing herself with the 
>>> kitchen
>>> and the
>>> restaurant's French-contemporary gourmet cuisine.
>>>
>>> "We use very expensive herbs from all over the world," she said, 
>>> sniffing
>>> assorted spices in plastic containers at her childhood home in Moline.
>>>
>>> She kept picking up the spices and putting them down, hunting for just 
>>> the
>>>
>>> right one to season the sauce for her lasagna.
>>>
>>> "Where's the salt?" she asked.
>>>
>>> Still dreaming
>>>
>>> Reaching her arms out in front of her, feeling for walls or other
>>> obstacles she might bump into, Martinez moves around the kitchen in
>>> Moline. She is lost
>>> because her family recently remodeled.
>>>
>>> "Where is the trash can?" she asks.
>>>
>>> She feels around until she finds the sink to wash her hands, which she
>>> does repeatedly. She needs to stay cleaner than a sighted person, she
>>> says, for food
>>> safety and sanitation reasons. That is because she touches the food that
>>> she cooks a lot.
>>>
>>> Sometimes she browses cookbooks written in Braille or recorded on CD, 
>>> but
>>> she likes to make up her own dishes or give her own special twist to an
>>> old favorite.
>>> For example, she added grated jalapeno pepper to her lasagna, just to 
>>> give
>>>
>>> it some kick, she said.
>>>
>>> She imagines herself someday opening a restaurant in Miami, offering a 
>>> mix
>>>
>>> of French, Italian, Mexican and Asian cuisines. She would call the place
>>> La Diosa,
>>> which, she said, is Spanish for "The Goddess."
>>>
>>> To those who might scoff at the idea, she says, "I'm not giving up."
>>>
>>> Skeptics don't discourage her. They just "give me the energy to fight,"
>>> she added.
>>>
>>> "I just say, 'I have to work harder to show you that I can.' "
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>> From: "Jewel S." <herekittykat2 at gmail.com>
>>> Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 1:42 PM
>>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] canes and increasing sensation of blindness
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I use my cane while holding someone's arm all the time. However, I do
>>>> not consider it "sighted guide" so much as keeping with my friend who
>>>> knows the way...especially since the person who usually does this with
>>>> me is my legally blind boyfriend. I hold his arm for balance
>>>> primarily, and to keep track of where he is, as I have no peripheral
>>>> vision. As we walk, he might point things out to me that I would miss
>>>> with my cane no matter what (the mailboxes that stick out at
>>>> head-height, the wet branches in front of my face, etcetra). I use my
>>>> cane so he can concentrate on where we are going and things in front
>>>> of us. I find the curbs and steps on my own, and sometimes if the
>>>> light is too low, I find curbs and such for the both of us, as he is
>>>> not as good with the cane (lack of practice!).
>>>>
>>>> I find that if I take someone's arm, I am far less likely to learn the
>>>> route. I have done entire routes on someone's arm that, looking back,
>>>> I couldn't tell you the first thing. This is partly because of my poor
>>>> memory, but also because when I hold someone's arm, unless I'm in
>>>> charge of navigation (which does occur sometimes), I let that work go,
>>>> and concentrate more on balance, what my cane is finding, and sounds.
>>>> I can enjoy myself a bit better this way.
>>>>
>>>> Personally, I think holding someone's arm and using a cane at the same
>>>> time is perfectly fine. That's just my opinion, so feel free to shoot
>>>> me down, but that won't stop me from doing it myself! I don't like to
>>>> put all the responsibility on the other person, no matter how good a
>>>> guide they are...though there is one exception. My O&M instructor
>>>> would do sighted guide with me to get quickly to a location, and my
>>>> cane just got in his way, and he was very good at guiding (he better
>>>> be, since he teaches other people how to be sighted guides, too!), so
>>>> I allow my cane to remain at my side, ready to pull out if I should
>>>> need it, but I put my trust in him.
>>>>
>>>> ~Jewel
>>>>
>>>> On 5/3/10, clinton waterbury <clinton.waterbury at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> As far as the cane issue goes, when I was about three years of age, I
>>>>> started learning how to use the cane.
>>>>>
>>>>> The only problem was that I would flat out refuse to use it until the
>>>>> time I
>>>>> was about five.
>>>>>
>>>>> The travel instructor finally said "Ok, you don't want to use it? 
>>>>> I'll
>>>>> take
>>>>> it from you."
>>>>>
>>>>> At that point, I tried and faled miserably to walk around without it!
>>>>>
>>>>> At the day's end, I did get the cane back, and have been using it ever
>>>>> since.
>>>>> On May 2, 2010, at 4:49 PM, Gerardo Corripio wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi guys: I'm curious as to is it fine to use a cane while going 
>>>>>> sighted
>>>>>> guide with someone? for instance suppose the person whom I'm going 
>>>>>> with
>>>>>> has
>>>>>> never done sighted guide with a blind person, thus doesn't know to
>>>>>> alert
>>>>>> us
>>>>>> of steps and the like. So I was thinking that if this technique is 
>>>>>> fine
>>>>>>
>>>>>> to
>>>>>>
>>>>>> use it can serve two purposes:
>>>>>> 1.-Be able to go along sighted guide but at the same time being able 
>>>>>> to
>>>>>> oneself find and sort obstacles the sighted person might not have the
>>>>>> mind
>>>>>>
>>>>>> to let us know.
>>>>>> 2.-Be able to start mapping in our minds the route following, thus 
>>>>>> make
>>>>>>
>>>>>> it
>>>>>>
>>>>>> easier to get to know the route by ourselves.
>>>>>> Also I've got another subject on my mind, thus sending in the same
>>>>>> email:
>>>>>> Is
>>>>>> it normal that when using a cane I have conflict in using it? though 
>>>>>> I
>>>>>> know
>>>>>> the cane is how we get around by ourselves thanks to a bad experience
>>>>>> while
>>>>>> studying for a diploma in Humanistic Therapy some years ago in that
>>>>>> when I
>>>>>>
>>>>>> wanted to use the cane again after some years of having it dusting, I
>>>>>> held
>>>>>>
>>>>>> it in my hand but wasn't able to use it at ease because memories of 
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> experience came flooding back. fortunately I've been able to work 
>>>>>> them
>>>>>> out
>>>>>>
>>>>>> but am curious as to know if this has happened to you guys? It's a
>>>>>> conflict
>>>>>> because for one I'm aware that the cane makes us unique as blind 
>>>>>> people
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> lets us move around by ourselves but also because here in Mexico the
>>>>>> blind
>>>>>>
>>>>>> aren't viewed as equals in some respects, thus when using the cane
>>>>>> gives
>>>>>> me
>>>>>> the feeling that lets blindness show even more, making the sighted
>>>>>> people
>>>>>> feel ill at ease; speaking from experience in another country when I
>>>>>> know
>>>>>> in
>>>>>> the US you guys don't have to cope with these things because of how
>>>>>> advanced
>>>>>> you guys are in the work you've done all these years. some day I hope
>>>>>> to
>>>>>> be
>>>>>> able to be like you guys and really live by your standards, thus 
>>>>>> hoping
>>>>>> these questions bring on a good discussion from which more than one
>>>>>> might
>>>>>> learn something new and enrich the topic of appreciating our roots
>>>>>> brought
>>>>>>
>>>>>> on recently.
>>>>>> Gerardo
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
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