[nabs-l] A Typical Day at an Nfb training center

[Tamika Williams]

Well said Ben, you didn't miss a beat. Everything I was thinking to
reply with you said it and explained it well.

I second this description,
Tamika Williams

On 7/24/13, Benjamin Vercellone <benvercellone at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello roanna.
> 	This is Ben Vercellone. I received your email to NABS, and thought I would
> respond. I have written a lot, especially for an email. For example, I wrote
> more about my personal center experience than simply a short summary of any
> day. I'm just warning the reader! I am definitely passionate about blind
> people's independence, and this passion has contributed to my writing. I
> wrote more concerning your first question than the second, but I tried to
> answer both. I hope you gain something from my response. I'm sure that many
> people from NABS have attended NFB training centers and could also provide
> much valuable information.
> 	I attended the Louisiana Center for the Blind from late November of 2007 to
> early August of 2008. I desired to attend this training center because I
> felt that many of my skills were lacking, and because I heard very positive
> testimonies from a couple graduates of LCB. Working with the New Jersey
> commission for the Blind to receive help with funding took several months. I
> think it took about six months of work with the Commission before I was able
> to leave for LCB. As for my family's attitude, expectations, conduct, etc.,
> they were very optimistic and supportive. I understand that this is my own
> personal experience, and that many blind people's families may have contrary
> feelings such as great nervousness, pessimism, and whatever else. Neither my
> parents nor I knew what to expect, and we definitely had some degree of
> nervousness. But the attitude was generally positive.
> 	Probably like many people reading this, I received some degree of training
> throughout my childhood including in O&M, home management skills, and,
> fortunately for me, even Braille. But to be honest, I felt that much of this
> training was quite limited. Perhaps the best example of this concerned
> orientation and mobility. I received some valuable training to be sure, but
> it was not on a day to day basis. As I went on to middle school and high
> school, the frequency of my training with cane travel decreased greatly . I
> was only getting two cane travel lessons per month on a good month, and it
> was only for forty-five minutes each time. How much can a student expect to
> improve with their skills in Orientation and Mobility, among other blindness
> skills, with such limitations? My Braille training, on the other hand, was
> fairly good, and any complaining I do regarding my personal Braille story
> should really be about my lack of interest in it as a younger person. I
> can't complain much about the Braille training I received, especially when
> compared to the 90 percent of blind people who received no training. I am
> much more enthusiastic about Braille now, and I enjoy practicing a lot
> nowadays. I am extremely thankful to know Braille.
> 	When I went to the Louisiana Center for the Blind, it was definitely like
> jumping into the deep end of the pool right away! My first few weeks and
> months were the hardest part for me emotionally, but this can probably be
> expected for most students. It is a necessary stage in independence
> training. I was somewhat home sick, and it took me some time to feel at home
> in Louisiana. Though it never felt as much like home to me as New Jersey, I
> definitely did change after a few months, and began to feel really
> comfortable at LCB. I guess they always say, "there's no place like home."
> But the people in the area generally seemed supportive, and especially the
> people at the Center.
> 	Though my challenges just described seemed to decrease, the every-day
> challenges of LCB training only increased over time. This was definitely a
> good thing.
> 	Every day, students including myself attended five classes, if you want to
> call them classes. The order of the classes for me was:
> 	Orientation and Mobility from just after the 8:00 AM announcements to 10:00
> AM, Industrial Arts from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Braille from 1:00 PM to 2:00
> PM, Computer Skills from 2:00 PM to about 3:00 PM, and Home Ec from 3:00 PM
> to 5:00 PM. Students had different personal schedules
> 	Lunch was obviously from noon to 1:00 PM.
> 	I have absolutely no vision, so this next part isn't exactly relevant to
> me. But everyone with any degree of vision at this training center, and at
> any NFB training center, has to wear sleep shades so that they will be
> forced to learn non-visual techniques. Students at LCB are required to wear
> them from 8:00 AM to noon and from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. They are free to take
> them off for lunch if they desire, and are free to live without wearing them
> while at the LCB apartments. However, anyone who keeps the sleep shades on
> for more time is likely to experience increased improvement with their
> independence skills.
> 	Our apartments were about eight blocks from the Center, if I remember
> correctly. That's more or less the number anyway. It was about six tenths of
> a mile I think. Anyone at LCB without mobility impairments is  required to
> walk both to the Center in the morning and back to the apartments after the
> day at the center. On rare occasions, like maybe after a big LCB
> accomplishment or when physically exhausted or weak for some reason, a ride
> is given to a student who normally does not need one. I think we received
> these rides sometimes when we needed to quickly go back to the apartments to
> prepare for inspections. Yes, we had to keep our places clean, a really
> important skill. This discipline definitely helped me afterword when I
> attended college.
> 	Twice a week at the center we had seminar, where we carried out discussions
> on blindness. It lasted almost two hours each time. We discussed the NFB
> philosophy of blindness at length. We often listened to media in seminar,
> like when we watched the movie At First Sight. This was helpful because it
> raised discussion concerning the interaction of blind and sighted people and
> especially concerning attitudes which many sighted people have toward
> blindness. I think seminar was 10 to noon on Tuesday and 1 to 3 on Thursday
> when I was there. Before seminar on Tuesday, each student met with his/her
> counselor to discuss progress being made. A student's counselor was one of
> the staff members, and I believe each staff member often had more than one
> student assigned. Forgive me if counselor is not the correct noun. But you
> get the picture.
> 	Now on to the actual classes. My first class was Orientation and Mobility
> (O&M). When I first arrived at LCB, my O&M skills were not very good. I
> especially had trouble with my orientation. I had trouble making mental maps
> of some of the streets surrounding the center, and this lead to some
> confusion on my part. Arlene Hill, my O&M instructor at LCB, showed me a
> representation of some of the nearby streets using some pad on to which she
> stuck plastic pieces. Most of the pieces were lines, and the connection
> between them and the pad was a type of Velcro. Many people may be familiar
> with this basic tool. The use of this tool for just a short time helped me
> to overcome my initially poor sense of orientation.
> 	At first, I was told to walk pretty much to the southern end of the block
> which the center was on, and then to the northern end. This was in order to
> make sure I was using my cane properly. There may have been other basic
> reasons too. After this, I began crossing streets. The number of streets I
> was told to cross increased week after week. I do not remember the exact
> sequence of the concepts I was taught. But one important concept which I was
> taught concerned finding addresses.
> 	I learned the basic methodology behind many cities concerning their layout
> and the assignment of addresses. With this conceptual knowledge, it became
> much easier to travel to the assigned addresses. I could at least usually
> find the block that each assigned address was on without much difficulty.
> Finding the exact address was sometimes a trial and error experience. One
> thing we had to become comfortable with was interacting with sighted people.
> We were not to ask them to guide us or do anything of that nature, and we
> had to become more and more independent as our training progressed. But we
> could definitely ask questions concerning the present location for much of
> our training. For example, I could go into a building and ask a person at
> the counter what location this was. I could find out the name of the
> business and the address by asking very simple questions.
> 	I was a bit timid when I first went to the Center, as I imagine some other
> students were and are. So asking questions definitely helped. My assignments
> helped me to improve my mental mapping and route planning abilities, all
> without the use of GPS. I use GPS frequently now as a graduate of LCB, but I
> learned that the most important skills cannot be achieved via technology.
> Technology is definitely helpful, but there are many instances of people who
> perform poorly when they try to use technology such as GPS without having
> good O&M skills. This is definitely a concern at LCB. What's more, the
> batteries on my skills do not die! Sometimes I was assigned to find an
> address, and then bring back a business card from that location, thus
> proving my success. I had many tasks involving addresses.
> 	As my time at LCB increased and neared its end, I had to complete some
> graduation requirements for every class. For O&M, there were several
> important requirements. One involved coming up with a route to perform with
> public transportation. I needed to learn how to independently travel on a
> bus. Another assignment involved walking according to a Brailled list of
> directions. The distance of this assignment was 5.6 miles! People could
> complete it in more than one day if they had to. Perhaps the most
> significant graduation requirement for O&M was what they called the drop
> routs. The student would be driven by a sighted staff member to an unknown
> location, and then dropped off there. The staff member would take many
> turns, and as far as I know, pretty much no one could track the movement
> well enough to know where he or she was dropped. I certainly could not.
> 	This assignment required us to use knowledge which we had gained throughout
> our training, in order to find our way back to the center. Success came most
> easily when students could combine multiple concepts. For example, I knew
> that if the sun was on my right, I was pretty much facing north, since my
> O&M class was in the morning. One time I was dropped somewhere, and I heard
> busy traffic near by. I don't remember all the details, but when I travelled
> toward the busy traffic, I heard a sound that the tires of the cars made as
> they passed over the street. I remembered that this sound was special to
> Alabama Street. I remembered that Alabama Street went east and west. I
> remembered that it was a two way street, and sure enough, I heard traffic
> going both ways. I don't remember all the details of this drop route, but
> let's just say I tried walking east on Alabama Street. I would have done
> this by making sure the sun was at my face. If I wanted to go on the south
> side of Alabama if I wasn't already, I might have travelled east to the next
> intersection, and crossed to the south side. I imagine I probably desired
> the south side of this street, as it would have been closer to the center.
> 	It would have been totally possible for me to have been dropped off near
> Alabama Street somewhere east of Trenton Street, the north/south street
> where LCB is located. But let's just say I tried going east first, examining
> the possibility that I had been dropped off somewhere in the western
> direction. I think that is what actually happened. I would have searched for
> north/south streets with familiar characteristics. If I was traveling in the
> right direction in this example, I would have eventually come to an
> intersection, where the perpendicular traffic in front of me would only be
> heading from my left to my right. I would know, based on my knowledge of
> ruston, that this was Trenton Street, where the traffic only travels south.
> In this case, if I remember correctly, I would be on the south-west corner
> of this intersection. I'm guessing I crossed to the east side of Trenton,
> and then turned right to travel south a couple blocks to the Center at 101
> South Trenton Street.
> 	Sorry if my description was very long. But I feel that my experience at LCB
> regarding O&M lead to a huge boost in my overall confidence. I desire to
> teach other blind students the skills of O&M, and will be attending
> Louisiana Tech University this fall to pursue a Master's degree with the
> concentration in Orientation and Mobility.
> 	Next, in Industrial Arts, or as I think we called it Shop or Wood shop,
> students increased in their confidence by learning how to operate power
> tools and follow detailed instructions to complete various tasks. If they
> could finish work related to 2 stages of construction, students would go on
> to build a final project which involved a great deal of planning and work.
> For me, this was a cedar chest. The first two assignments may have been
> called the grid block and the Braille block if I remember correctly. I'm
> much more confident in my memory of the second one's name. For the first
> assignment, we had to cut a piece of wood into a rectangle with exact
> dimensions. This involved the use of a power saw known as a radial arm saw.
> Then, we had to learn to scrape precise lines into the wood using an awl,
> and the lines had to be a fixed distance apart. I think the distance was
> three fourths of and inch. There would be parallel lines going in both
> directions, with four long ones and six short ones I think. We had to Use a
> tool to make sure our lines were all straight, and to insure that all the
> intersections would be 90 degree ones. I enjoyed this a lot, but believe me
> when I say it took some practice. Then we had to use the drill press to
> drill holes into the wood precisely in the intersections of the lines. I
> forgot the diameter of the holes, but it was something like three eighths of
> an inch.
> 	I also forgot to say that all of the tools we used in Shop except for one
> had one thing in common. They were not at all specially adapted for the
> blind. The only tool which was specially designed was the measuring device
> which was called the Click rule. With it, we could easily measure to the
> sixteenth of an inch. As J.D. taught me, I could use it to measure down to
> the thirty-second of an inch too. This was more than enough accuracy. The
> goal was not to discourage us from using any other kinds of adaptive shop
> equipment, but to encourage us to realize our full potential. A great deal
> of tools, including power tools, are accessible out of the box.
> 	In any case, now that the holes were in the grid block, I could go on to
> the next step, assuming I didn't drill through the bottom of the piece of
> wood, in which case I'd have to start all over again. The next step was to
> cut a dowel which had the same diameter as that of the holes just drilled.
> The student had to cut the dowel using another power saw called the band
> saw. After cutting the dowel to get the correct number of short cylinders,
> each with the correct length, the cylinders were placed into the holes in
> the grid block.
> 	This whole exercise became much easier with time, but the next one, the
> Braille block, was harder. It was called the Braille Bloc because it would
> have 6 of the cylinders in it rather than the higher number that were in the
> grid block. The Braille Block was thicker than the grid block, but was
> shorter and narrower. In addition to all of the steps described for the grid
> block, there were several additional ones for the Braille block. We had to
> use the router to round out all 12 edges of the block. This was a challenge,
> but a fun one I thought. Another thing we had to do for the Braille block
> was to use an electric sander to smooth the ends of the dowels that were
> exposed. Let me finish up about these first two assignments by saying that
> they helped us not only to learn to use tools and become confident with
> them, but also to improve our accuracy and precision. All of the little
> cylinders coming out of the grid blocks and Braille blocks had to be the
> correct length. This was just one of the many aspects of these projects
> which was examined each time we thought we were finished. By the time J.D.
> said a student had succeeded and was ready to move on, he or she had
> definitely come a long way. I loved Shop, and also had an awesome time
> working with James, the other Shop instructor, on my cedar chest. As with
> O&M, my general confidence improved from this class.
> 	Next was lunch. People could prepare meals at their apartments and store
> them in a refrigerator at the center until lunch, or they could walk to a
> nearby restaurant to eat. Sleep shades were not required, but the use of
> them expedited learning for those with any vision.
> 	My next class was Braille. Though I received fairly good Braille training
> before I attended LCB. Mr. Whittle still taught me extremely valuable
> lessons. One thing which he stressed a lot is the importance of reading
> Braille with both hands. I find that I can read with much greater speed and
> steadiness this way. The two-handed method is a really good piece of advice
> which I gained from Braille class at LCB. Also, the encouragement to read a
> lot of Braille in my free time is really important, as I will not improve my
> speed otherwise. It is really important to practice a lot when it comes to
> Braille. It is the only thing we can do to improve reading speed, and is a
> lot better than complaining or lamenting!
> 	Many students who attend NFB training centers such as LCB have no knowledge
> of Braille on arrival. It is awesome to see how such people can graduate the
> center after less than a year, reading 45 words a minute or maybe more.
> Students can increase their speeds much more after graduation if they keep
> reading. Those who already knew Braille, such as myself, increased in our
> reading speeds while at the Center, partly because of practice, and partly
> because of improved reading methods like the 2-handed reading. Students also
> received training in the use of the slate and stylus. This class is
> extremely valuable, as are the others.
> 	I personally am outraged at how many blind and low vision children, as well
> as people in other age groups, are discouraged from learning Braille. They
> are being discouraged from being literate. This is a crime, though the law
> books wouldn't tell you so. I hope they will in the near future. I'm sure
> that there would be an uproar if some sighted children were encouraged to
> just listen to text-to-speech and/or recordings of human speakers, rather
> than also learning print. Furthermore, if this hideous practice was at all
> commonplace, print instruction would practically be forced on the deprived
> sighted people by the knowledgeable literate at the soonest opportunity. Why
> in the world is the psychology any different for those who cannot read print
> but who can benefit equally from knowing Braille? The answer "It should be
> no different" is the correct answer, and any other answer is wrong. This is
> obvious. Thank God there is still good Braille instruction being taught by
> some people and in some places such as NFB training centers. I'm also quite
> thankful that the push for Braille seems to generally be on the rise right
> now, especially by members of the NFB. I would say that if there is a
> greater sense of urgency by the general public and the general blind
> population concerning Braille literacy, it is at least partly due to the
> NFB's efforts. I look forward to the prices of Braille technology going
> down. But even so, today is no time to be saying that Braille is obsolete.
> One good thing about LCB is that we used Braille in very many aspects of our
> training, and not just in Braille Class. We were encouraged to use many of
> our free hours to practice Braille.
> 	Next, in computer skills, we learned to use computers to accomplish tasks
> that involved researching and writing. Anyone going to college or searching
> for a job after the Center could benefit from these skills. When I was
> there, we worked with Windows with JAWS, and used the internet and Microsoft
> Word. There are a ton of features in Microsoft Office products which are
> valuable to learn, and there are also many important skills for getting
> information from the internet. We had a graduation requirement in this class
> which was basically a short research assignment. We had to research a topic
> of choice and write about it, and were required to include some information
> from the internet in our paper. Our paper had to not only be healthy in its
> length and content, but also neat and professional-looking. One challenge
> for me personally had to do with document formatting, which is very
> important if we want sighted people to take our work seriously.
> 	Finally, in Home Ec class, students did a lot of baking and cooking, in
> addition to learning information such as food safety, sewing, hand writing,
> etc. We learned non-visual skills for working with cooking equipment, and
> improved at our skills in following the directions in a recipe. I am
> personally not a big fan of fire, and I get kind of squeamish around it. But
> my confidence rose in this class, and I began to enjoy preparing food. I
> love eating good food! So why not learn to prepare it too? Another really
> important part of this class involves cleaning. I definitely benefitted in
> this way after LCB, as I dislike letting my places become messy.
> 	We had 2 graduation requirements for this class if I remember correctly.
> There was the meal for 8 and the meal for 40. For the meal for 8, each
> student made a meal that was probably more complex than his/her meal for 40.
> The student had to invite 8 people from the center to the meal. He/she had
> to serve the meal, which was also a challenge. For the meal for 40, a
> student would prepare a meal which would be served buffet style. It was not
> always for exactly 40 people, but this was typically the approximate number
> of people at LCB at any time. The meal for 8 and the meal for 40 both had to
> have more than one course, including a dessert. There were other
> specifications too. They definitely were challenges, but good ones of
> course! Sometimes there's just nothing like making a nice home-cooked meal.
> It's nice when you and even others get to enjoy the result of your effort!
> And why not bust some myths of blindness while you're at it too?
> 	I know I wrote a whole lot of information. My apologies if it seemed
> excessive. However, the LCB experience was extremely beneficial for me and
> for hundreds of others. Writing this was enjoyable because it prompted me to
> remember many of the great things I learned and from which I grew. As I
> often say to people, I grew the most from LCB concerning my overall
> confidence. Being blind is definitely a challenge, and I have experienced
> challenges after graduating LCB which I had not experienced while at the
> Center. Nevertheless, my training helped me greatly. It filled in the gaps
> which were present which I described near the beginning, like with my
> inadequate skills in O&M.
> 	It did more than just fill in the gaps. LCB was a truly rich experience. I
> participated in several programs as a teenager prior to LCB, but my time at
> the Center was much more helpful to me. I think that this is mainly because
> it was intense, and not only on certain days. It was intense every day of
> training, and this intensity lasted eight months for me. We were fairly free
> to do what we wished on the weekends, as well as most non-Center hours. But
> the more we practiced our skills in these hours, the more we would truly
> learn. I had never been treated so much like an adult blind person prior to
> LCB, and this treatment greatly aided my growth.
> 	I believe I was more prepared for college after LCB. I spent five years
> attending Montclair State University in New Jersey, and I have received a
> Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, with a concentration in creative
> writing. College was a significant challenge for me, and I learned even more
> of the importance of discipline. However, I believe that many valuable seeds
> were planted throughout my experience at LCB. I am interested in teaching
> other blind people the skills of O&M, as my skills in this area have greatly
> assisted my overall confidence as a blind person.
> 	I would say that if you are considering a training center, this course of
> action is a very good idea. I recommend you look into one of the NFB
> training centers, or at least one that teaches with a similar philosophy. My
> family was supportive, but I understand that some students' families may not
> provide the same support. This is usually not from malice, but often from
> severe misunderstanding concerning blindness. Also, it is important to
> remember that although you may receive awesome training at a center, your
> parents or family or friends do not hear or see what is being taught to you.
> I say this because students need to realize that upon graduation, the
> sighted people you will inevitably interact with will need to be informed of
> your new-found skills, in addition to basic truths about blindness. Actions
> definitely speak louder than words.
> 	Practicing your skills after training is very important. They will not
> disappear immediately if you do not practice, but they can definitely rust
> over time. Also, a number of sighted people such as some employers and
> unfortunately, even some university professors, will be completely unaware
> and uninformed about your capabilities as a blind person. They will be
> all-too-ready to make decisions that they believe to be wise, when in
> reality such decisions are based in ignorance. Be prepared to practice your
> skills and to interact with a world that generally will not understand
> blindness. On the bright side, most people do seem willing to learn and
> improve their thinking. But like I said, demonstrating your increased
> ability as a blind person is the best thing to do.
> 	I hope all of this was helpful, and that the length was not an issue. LCB
> was one of the best stages of my life, and has even contributed to the
> shaping of my future plans!
> Sincerely,
> Ben
> On Jul 24, 2013, at 8:51 AM, Roanna Baccchus <rbacchus228 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear Nabs Members,
>>
>> I have a question for you.  I was wondering what a typical day is like at
>> an Nfb training center.  How did your families prepare to send you off to
>> one of them? I'm looking forward to hearing your responses.
>>
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