[nabs-l] is there any place for schools for the blind?

[Sami Osborne]

Hi Jorge and all,

I also attend NYISE and find shall to be a very good school.  I 
know exactly what you're talking ab; a few years ago I actually 
went to Albany to protest against the proposed budget cut to 
close the schools for people with disabilities in New York.

In my opinion, going to a school for the blind can really help 
your education a lot, as everybody there knows about your 
blindness and truly believe that you can be successful in life.  
I think they do a really good job of helping us with that.

 Unlike other schools where they might focus mainly on the 
blindness and not see the person behind the disability that you 
truly are.
 I know this from my personal experience.  I went to regular 
public school for elementary school and the beginning of sixth 
grade.  I think that elementary school was ok and the people 
there understood about my blindness, but when I started middle 
school, my TVI stopped working with me and I got a new one, but I 
don't think she actually knows Braille, as she had to send a note 
home with me every day to ask my mom to transcribe my schoolwork 
and homework into Braille.  Not only did my mom get tired of 
doing this, but I felt that she shouldn't have had to do this, 
and that it was my TVI's job to get my materials in Braille, not 
my mom's.
 I also felt that in regular middle school, I was being 
discriminated against my classmates and friends, as my teachers 
would constantly tell me to do things I felt I shouldn't have to 
do, such as raising my hand to ask the teacher what he or she 
wrote on the board.  I thought that one in particular was 
extremely pointless, as why couldn't my teachers such describe 
orally what we were studying in the lesson.
Finally, my parents got smart and decided to send me to a school 
for the blind.  So then I started going to the NYISE (which is 
the school that Jorge talked about) when I was in 7th grade and 
began to like it a lot.  I felt that at that school, the teachers 
were very understanding and accomodating of my blindness, I got 
really good grades, and met and made friends with people who are 
blind like me.  Before I attended the Institute for Special 
Education, I have only known sighted kids, and now, I know many 
blind students who live in New York.
Without the Institute, I don't know how I would have done these 
things and become so successful.

So, my overall opinion on this question is, yes, schools for the 
blind are still necessary, as if you don't have a really positive 
experience with regular public schools, going to a school for the 
blind is probably your best choice.

I think that we should give credit to schools for the blind (even 
if you don't attend one) for all their hard work, effort and 
comitment into helping us (the blind) strive for success and 
independence.

Thanks,

Sami.

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Jorge Paez via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 10:38:22 -0800
Subject: [nabs-l] is there any place for schools for the blind?

Hi everyone.
So, today I was thinking about a rather interesting question 
which
came to my mind, and which I've thought about numerous times 
before,
that being, the place for schools for the blind in today's 
society.
A few years ago, there was a huge news story that broke in New 
York
about protesters going to Lavel and NYISE (New York Institute for
Special Ed) to speak out in support of the 2 schools, which then
Governor Quomo I believe it was wanted to cut from the state 
budget
and close.
And that left me wondering,
as someone who spent most of his elementary years at the NYISE, 
and
the rest of my term in regular public school, finishing 4th and 
5th
grade at a local school and going on to do my entire 
post-secondary
education in public schools, what exactly did I think?
And to be honest, I don't quite have an answer myself.
I started 4th grade with the Braille Lite and APH's Braille & 
Speak,
so obviously this is quite a while back.
But I remember in those early years I was shocked at all this 
tech
that I just was not allowed to use in the school for the blind.
Yet the lite had its problems, as anyone who's used one probably
knows.  For one thing, mine kept crashing every 4 to 7 weeks on a
constant schedule and promptly deleting my entire file system.  
Not
good, to say the least.
But technology has obviously progressed a lot since then, wih the
Braille Note Apex being extremely stable and solid.  I've never 
had a
Braille Note crash, at least never as badly as what used to 
happen
with the braille lites.
And now with the advance of technology some argue, and I share 
this
point, that within a few years all we'll really need are braille
displays.
I mean we have JAWS, System Access, Window Eyes, NVDA, Dolfin, 
and
Super Nova for Windows--Winow Eyes and NVDA are both now free, 
System
Access now extremely affordable, for about $250 with a package 
that
gives you way more then just a screenreader, and most if not all 
have
braille display support built in.
And with VoiceOver on the Mac and accessible versions of other
platforms such as Linux there is no system that is not 
accessible, and
if there is such a system, there are now ways which are widely 
known
to make them accessible.
Granted we still have the applications within those systems 
(Google
apps for example) which can still present challenges but that's 
just a
piece of what has become a mostly accessible digital ecosystem.
So, where do you think, if anywhere, do schools for the blind 
fit?
Note that this isn't a chriticism of schools for the blind--I 
studied
at one, like I said, and they did have their advantages at the 
time
and perhaps still have in certain circumstances,
but given that they were chiefly in existence to provide an 
education
to the blind, an education that is now for the most part 
accessible to
us outside of those limits, do we need schools for the blind 
anymore?
I myself don't have a position one way or another, so I'm very
interested in hearing your thoughts on this topic.



--
Jorge A.  Paez

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgeapaez11994

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