[nabs-l] VR thoughts/what do you all think?

Wed Mar 27 04:16:40 UTC 2013

Hi all,

First off, I'll respond to something Mike said just to put things into
perspective.  From my description I totally get why Mike would come to
the conclusion that Ohio has a general rehab system, and they do as
they serve a lot of different populations.  However, there is a sub
group called the Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired which is
supposed to specifically oversee those cases for blind and visually
impaired people.  I also know in my city that the two places blind
people go to see their councelors are the two centers for the blind we
have, so it sounds like these voc rehab councelors specialize in
working for BSVI and aren't dealing with people from other
populations.  The structure for special attention to the needs of
blind people is there, it's just shockingly not very good, as it would
appear.  At our Ohio State NFB convention we had someone speak about
how they were working to improve the system and appreciated the
feedback from NFB members so they could address the serious issues,
however since basic principles of independence have not been addressed
I don't really know how that is working out or what has changed since
our convention in early November.

I do have friends who would help me learn campus; actually, my
instructor only had to show me two classrooms and the rest pertained
more to locating the bus stops around campus as I'd like to start
exploring the city more and be able to travel off campus some times,
even if my friends and their cars aren't always available to go with
me.  One of my friends did show me a lot of my classes that were in
buildings I already knew fairly well, and even has showed me a few
things I didn't know were on campus.  (She happens to have a blind
grandmother who is pretty independent herself, so my friend already
knows that all I need is a little showing and I'm usually good from
then on).  As I have this friend and another who have already shown me
where our apartment will be next year, and how to get from the
apartment building to the new music building we will be moving to, I
don't think I'll need to use the O&M services.  Even learning the
interior of the new music building will be easy on my own because I
know the music stuff is only on 2 floors of the building, and all my
classes there will be with these friends of mine so they can easily
walk with me to class on the first day and I'll just pick up the route
as we go.  My mom is also great about O&M, and she actually helped me
learn a lot of campus just by spending extra time after campus tours
walking around and pointing out things to me herself.

The DS office here does not have connections to an O&M or a lot of the
things I'm supposed to get through VR.  Although my disabilities
office does a really good job of accomodating me and making everything
accessible they don't have the wealth of resources specific to
blindness that some other schools do.  (Our sister school in our city
has tons of blind students and many of them also have other
disabilities.  My disability coordinator teaches a class there and she
put it this way, "I have two blind students in my 30-student class
there, here we have 2 blind students on the entire 11,000 student
campus").  As I understand it the disabilities office here has this
rule that they're not supposed to provide personal services or
equipment to you outside of what you need for testing because they
understand that that is what VR is supposed to be used for.  They are
right; and I do think that VR was right to get me things like my
laptop or BrailleSense and it wouldn't necessarily be the DS office's
responsibility, but it doesn't put them in a position to help much.

I guess the most frustrating thing is exactly what Mike pointed out;
I'm trying to be clear and articulate, and feel like I am doing so.
But, as I've pointed out what is articulate to me is probably a bunch
of gobbledegook to my councelor who doesn't know what it means, so the
challenge for me seems like it will be to figure out how to put things
we would consider as already basic into lamen's terms.  The other
challenge, which is not really in my control at all, is making sure my
councelor reads the information and gets it, as when she doesn't
respond I don't really know what she's doing with the information.

I agree with Arielle; I don't mess with VR much, but by the same token
I can't really just go through my DS office for everything because of
their policies related to VR and the student accessing all available
resources, and because there are a few things I really do need from
them.  Most importantly, the tuition assistance is something worth
sticking on the system for.  I realize as well that because I do
receive some equipment and tuition assistance from them, that as
frustrating it may be, that I'm probably just going to have to suck it
up and do the paperwork and there will be no way of getting around
that.  However, I am really concerned by the manner in which they want
the paperwork to be repetitively done, their low expectations of
consumers, and the lack of knowledge those in charge seem to have
about the people they're working to help.  The way the system is set
up now does not make sense.

On 3/26/13, Joshua Lester <JLester8462 at pccua.edu> wrote:
> Mike:
> I have a friend in Minnisota, who is originally from Ohio.
> She left Ohio, and moved to MN, because they have better services!
> I'm thinking about moving up north as well, because our services in Arkansas
> are pretty lame!
> Blessings, Joshua
> ________________________________________
> From: nabs-l [nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Mike Freeman
> [k7uij at panix.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 3:26 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] VR thoughts/what do you all think?
>
> kaiti:
> First, it is obvious that you live in a state that has a general rehab
> agency rather than one dealing specifically with blindness. This is
> unfortunate as you have discovered. However, knowing what you need and want
> and being able to cogently articulate your needs will go a long way toward
> fulfilling them. You've seem this in the case of the Perkins braillewriter.
> Second, why do you need an O&M specialist to show you around campus? Could
> not a friend or family member do the job? When you graduate and enter the
> world of work, you won't have O&M instructors at your beck and call. It is
> definitely helpful to develop the skill of learning new routes and places
> with minimal assistance. This is the essence of structured discovery
> learning. Could your DSS office help? This way, you wouldn't have to worry
> about rehab at all.
>
> Mike Freeman
> sent from my iPhone
>
> On Mar 26, 2013, at 12:49, Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Okay, so I'll confess that part of the reason I'm writing this email
>> is to vent about my current circumstances, but more importantly than
>> that I am interested in seeing how other states or parts of the
>> country run their voc rehab services.  I apologize if this email
>> sounds venty, as in order to explain what I'm talking about I'll need
>> to give specific examples, but I am really interested in hearing your
>> thoughts on the matter based on your own experiences.
>>
>> The thing that makes me the most uncomfortable with the voc rehab
>> system in my state is that the councelors don't necessarily know much
>> about blindness, let alone what a blind student truly needs to be
>> successful.  My councelor fills her job capacity in terms of knowing
>> how to do the paperwork, but my own mother has told me that when they
>> chat as I'm signing papers and my mom brings up something relatively
>> fundamental like a conversation about navigating campus or something,
>> she'll notice that what she says goes over my councelor's head.  This
>> has caused a few concerning events in terms of the authorizations that
>> have been made for me.  In December for example I requested
>> orientation and mobility training so I could go through my second
>> semester schedule, as there were a few buildings I would need to use
>> that I had not been to yet.  I got in touch with my O&M guy and we
>> planned to set up a time in January.  I emailed my councelor and told
>> her this, but then my O&M specialist emailed me back and asked if I
>> would be on campus after the first semester ended in December, because
>> that was when training was authorized.  I had to email my councelor
>> and tell her that the reason for going with January was that campus
>> closed the last day of finals week, and a few days prior to the start
>> of the second term I would be back on campus and most of the academic
>> buildings would be reopened.  Another time for this same semester I
>> requested a Perkins Brailler, specifically specifying that the
>> traditional braillers were much sturdier and more reliable than the
>> plastic ones and justifying my request.  When I got a call from my
>> vendor she first informed me that the braillers were out of stock
>> until February, half way through my semester, and then asked me what
>> color I wanted.  I told her that the new brailler was not what I
>> thought I was getting and she got in touch with the councelor.  I
>> ended up getting a traditional anyway on the grounds that although the
>> new generations were out of stock, there were plenty traditionals
>
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-- 
Kaiti