[nabs-l] What is independence?

[Lillie Pennington]

Hi Darian and all,
You pose an interesting point, and one that I had been thinking about
recently. 
Personally, independence to me seems like being in control of your blindness
and life. No, not everything is perfect necessarily, but you have a balance
within your mind. For example, I make jewelry, and I have my mother or
someone sited help me shop for the different beads. I will describe what I
want, and she will help me find what I want. I then use the beads to
independently make the jewelry. I am accomplishing a task independently, and
my mother is just acting as a pair of eyes. 
Another example. I was attempting to do an online modual for my personal
finance class. It had to get done, and my teacher and I knew it would most
likely be inaccessible because it was flash based. My TVI was in theory
supposed to describe the pictures after the modual would talk about the
concept and click on any buttons if I needed to. However, this did not
happen as I had hoped. For example, the modual would talk about the rule of
72. After it had finished talking, my TVI would summarize what the modual
said. I attempted to politely and calmly explain that although it was very
nice that he was giving summaries, that I did not need this interpretation
and to please only read the question and answer choices on the screen. He
refused to do this and said he wanted to make sure I understand the
information before I selected the answer. He did this for every screen. This
at least doubled the time I needed to spend on this module. 
An example of how this works well. I have homework options in my Spanish
class and the easiest one that I see is an online site where it is a
matching game between Spanish and English vocabulary. My dad will read the
Spanish words on the screen and I will tell him which English equivalent to
match them with. He is not helping me in any way with the assignment. 
While I readily admit that I am not most likely completely independent, I
think I have gone a long way towards embracing this philosophy. Our society,
even for sited people relies on relying on others. Blind people should have
this prevelige as well.. Independence is knowing the easiest way for you to
do something, and knowing when to ask for help while still challenging
yourself.
This brings up another topic as well, asking for help. There was a
discussion on this list yesterday about TVI help in a math class. My reply
was that that perhaps the TVI was teaching the student to help herself. What
I meant was a general use of problem solving skills. In my school when I was
little, sited students, including me in the general classroom, were taught
to use problem solving situations to figure out problems. Basically, not to
just shy away from a problem but to attempt to figure out how to solve it.
For example, lets say that I am working on algebraic math homework such as
factoring where there are many different types. Lets say that although the
homework focuses on general trinomial factoring, there is a problem about
difference of squares factoring. And lets say that in the notes or book
there is an example of this type of factoring, or that there is an answer to
the problem in the back of the book. I would simply look at the example
and/or the answer to attempt to figure it out, or maybe google it. If I
could not understand the what was given to me, or if there was nothing of
the sort, then I would ask my teacher or another classmate. 
I believe this is not a problem of refusing to asking for help. In a
conversation about an English paper a few weeks ago, my TVI told me that he
knew about the assignment and could help with it. He then said that he spoke
to my teacher and told her that any questions about the assignment I could
just ask him, and told me that I had problems in refusing help (I don't
think that's the case.) Fortunately for me, I have a good relationship with
that teacher and my dads a magazine editor, so I had a built in editor in my
house. He'd also been suspicious that a previous essay I had written was not
necessarily my work, so I didn't want to go down that route. I thanked him
for his offer and said I would consider it, and that I planned to deal a lot
with my teacher in this, but thanks anyway. I ignored the comment about the
helping. 
I am working with a student currently who is going to enter high school in
the fall. I was asked to prepare a list of tips for entering high school. I
plan to include tips such as working directly with teachers, so hopefully I
can extend this branch of thought somewhat. 

All in all I am trying to say that if the task is done mostly by you, and
that if it is something that at the end you can feel proud of that you have
truly done it, then that is probably a true sign of independence. If I am
making a bracelet and I ask someone how the color choices of the beads look
next to each other, I am still doing the work, I am just getting a
perspective on the placement of a factor that I cannot see, and it is a
piece of work that I can be truly proud to wear. 

Thank you to anyone who has read this.

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Darian Smith
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 5:08 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [nabs-l] What is independence?

Hi all,

  It seems to me that a word  that  we use a lot  in the Federation is
independence. 
  Obviously, we go about it differently which would suggest  differing
definitions for each individual. As you read this message, I wonder what the
word independence means to you?
  Best,
  Darian       
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