[nabs-l] speech-language pathology or special ed

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Kelsey,

This would be a good question to ask on the NFB's human-services list.
My friend is totally blind and got her bachelor's degree in
speech/language and hearing sciences, though she is now a Braille
teacher funnily enough. Anyway, she obviously figured out enough to be
able to earn a degree in the field, so I'll ask her permission to give
you her email address. In general, though, I think you should go into
the field that you feel more attracted to and not base your decisions
on what sighted people think, even sighted people working in the field
you are interested in. The fact is that most sighted people mean well
but have no clue how a blind person does anything. They base their
judgments on how they do stuff and often assume that because they do
something with their eyes it is not possible for a blind person to do
the task at all. By that logic, though, we wouldn't be able to read or
write because sighted people use their eyes to do those things.
Obviously you can read and write, so if you can do that, then you can
find a way to do speech therapy or anything else using alternative
techniques, like touching the client's mouth as you suggest. That
said, some fields require more creative alternative techniques than
others, and that is where it is really good to talk with blind people
who have done it or at least tried. After talking with blind people,
and examining your own passions, you can make an informed decision
about which career path is rewarding enough to outweigh any challenges
involved.

Best,
Arielle

On 9/12/13, Kelsey Nicolay <piano.girl0299 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> I posted before that I am thinking about getting a masters degree
> in speech-language pathology.  However, I was talking to my
> former second grade teacher yesterday about it.  She said that
> she doesn't think I would be successful with this because of the
> high degree of visual tasks such as being able to see how someone
> is moving their mouth during speech or things like that.  I
> indicated that I could maybe do it by feel, but she still feels
> that this would be too visual.  This came from having talked to
> the speech therapist at the elementary school.  On the other
> hand, I have also considered the special education field.  I have
> been tutoring two students in Braille since June and really enjoy
> it.  My sister thinks that I'd make a good Braille teacher.  So I
> am wondering which field would be better suited for a totally
> blind student.  I want to make sure my money is being well spent.
> In other words, I don't want to go through the speech-language
> pathology program only to find out that I cannot do it.  Any
> opinions on this would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks in advance,
> Kelsey Nicolay
>
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