[nagdu] mobility-the deciding factor?

Tue Mar 30 06:24:48 UTC 2010

Julie,

Huh...  Well, I am finally, at long last a braille reader.  But trust me,
you are a speed racer compared to me, I'm sure.  /smile/  By biggest
frustration was that I was nearly a braille reader when I went to the living
skills center to learn braille only to end up with completely numb hands
because of the hands-on teaching and communication styles of some of the
staffers...  Like you, I see braille reading as key to true independence
because without it I don't have the skills to get back to my career (which I
also had pre-Voc Rehab, even though I was already too blind to read) in any
competitive or even meaningful way with out.  So I am working on it!  At
least I've reached the point where working on it means reading Harry Potter,
so it's actually fun to study grin.  /smile/

If it makes you feel any better, I have been advised to go to an NFB center
to learn braille when I mentioned my problem with braille reading.  I don't
know how said NFB center was to solve the problem of my not being able to
feel the dots.  "Go to an NFB center," was still the solution when I asked
that question. Yup, I suck as a blind person!

Sometimes I get the feeling -- at least when I'm with the local crowd --
that the amount of O&M instruction you've had is more a measure of status
than how well you actually travel.  The mind boggles, since often those who
take proud in their status as instructees don't seem to be particularly
confident or independent travelers, to me anyway.  The mavericks and cowboys
like me who have had some instruction and done a lot of just getting out and
traveling to learn the rest seem to have more general freedom in it.  Then
again, maybe it's just because I look at things the same way as the people
who travel sans lengthy, intensive instruction.

Which I would have loved to have had, BTW.  I would love to have more if it
were available on terms that work for me.  Meanwhile, I go hither and yon
and here and there and learn new techniques from my blind friends and
associates and ask questions and make mistakes and learn that way.

Meanwhile, because I'm still not competent enough in braille and seem not to
be getting the adaptive tools I need to go out and start making some money,
at least, I have mad travel skills and no money to go anywhere.  Sigh.  Can
you say bouncing off the walls?  /grin/  I sure ain't independent!

I don't know about the chicken issues.  /smile/  I think that before I moved
in with DD I simply avoided the risk of screwing up with chicken by just not
buying it.  Too scary!  I planned to learn, but have lost motivation what
with the Super Chef around.  He, BTW, scores with chicken!  /lol/

Anyway, I don't know that that really answers any of your questions.  Most
of my regular associates don't seem to concerned about who is the better
blind person, so we compare notes on how we accomplish tasks or what we
learned from instruction without competing over it all.  When the
competition is present, with that ucky twist of who is inferior to whom, I
can't get to worked up about it because it bores me.  If you want to feel
your so much better than me because I just suck, then you're welcome to feel
that way.  /grin/  So I don't play and just let people tell me in that
superior fashion how much better they are than me without even bothering to
offer my qualifications for placement on the superiority scale.  I've always
kind of been that way, at least in comparing myself favorably or unfavorably
to others on some sort of deep personal level, even when it's in an office
where the competition is also for rank and pay...  I just cannot make myself
care enough to play.  So I get ahead, because I'm off accomplishing things
while everyone else is sitting around beating their chests.  So it all works
for me.  /grin/

On the travel skills basis, since I like to go around with people who like
to go around, I guess I don't experience it much, except for catching whiffs
of it here and there other places.  I do not that every now and then,
though, I will be discussing the need for adaptive equipment and training or
learning materials, only to end up being lectured about how I need to get
good cane travels skills before anything else, then I will need to be taught
how to use my guide dog...  Since I clearly used one or the other to get to
where the discussion is happening, and since I clearly did so all by my
little old self and have even traveled a long, complicated and unfamiliar or
somewhat unfamiliar route, I just don't get where that comes from, either.
If it's a casual discussion, I just scratch my head and decide to live with
not getting it.  If it's a discussion about how I am to get my hands on the
tools I need to use my existing travel skills to go some where to earn
income, then I get pretty furious.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Julie J
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 1:27 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] mobility-the deciding factor?

Some of the recent discussion got me to thinking about how we, as blind
people, perceive independence or who is more capable than who.   It seems
that we always use travel to judge who has better skills than who.  I know
we have discussed this before, but I still have no clue why we don't use
Braille or cooking or something else to base our judgments on.  I'm guilty
of it too.  I've caught myself thinking if not actually saying that so and
so isn't as well adjusted as they could be because they are always needing
help to get places.

I happen to be a very good traveler with cane or dog.  But you know what?  I
read Braille at about 40 wpm.  By any measure that's slow, like incredibly,
snails pace slow.  But no one has ever said to me, "You know, you should
really attend a center where you could get better Braille skills so you
could be more independent."  

Then there is the kitchen...I really like to cook.  Generally I'm okay in
the kitchen.  I cook most meals from scratch.  But, getting the meat,
especially the chicken, thoroughly cooked is a constant stress for me.  I'm
frequently freaked out about whether or not there is any pink in the meat.
I know the skills.  I know how to check nonvisually, but I totally and
completely lack chicken confidence.

Am I crazy?  or don't you think that blind people always judge other blind
people on the basis of travel skills and virtually nothing else?  

thoughts?
Julie
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