[NFB-Braille-Discussion] Looking for some Input on Teaching Braille to a Low Vision Student

[Humberto Avila]

    Hello All,


I hope all is well for you. Happy Thursday.


I am reaching out to see if anyone can offer some input and assistance.


I am recently teaching a student in my local school where I work at. She 
is learning uncontradicted Braille. In fact, she has mastered the whole 
uncontradicted Braille and we're moving on to contracted. She has low 
vision and is very new to blindness and vision loss.

She does enjoy learning about the Braille code, however, more recently, 
she has been becoming more and more resistant to learning. I work 
closely with another TVI and we've determined that this resistance may 
be stemming from her struggles with losing her vision, which is quite 
apparent when she says things like not wanting to learn to navigate with 
a cane or other blindness skills because she thinks she will not use 
them ever. I knew she was struggling, but I also know she really likes 
her class period where she is with me learning Braille. She in 
particularly likes Braille art, and I have tried to incorporate this 
type of art / concept as much as possible in my lessons. She also likes 
watching motivational videos about successful blind people.

It is more recently that she has begun doubting the skills that we have 
bee teaching her, and going out of her way to boldly and 
unapologetically say so. We have tried referring her to a counselor or 
therapy, but the student's belief system does not encourage her to go 
that rout. I, as a successful Blind person myself, have tried countless 
and numerous times to model the high expectation for her, with my use of 
my Braille display, and embossing the Braille lesson to read along with 
her, as well as traveling through the school proudly with my white cane. 
I even labeled the classroom number(s) and stuck the labels on classroom 
doors, because the school I currently work at was built pre-ADA and 
sadly, has no Braille.

It is her recent struggles with mounting resisting to learn the 
alternative skills of blindness and the Braille that perplexes me and I 
am new to this, perhaps due to the lack of relativity with me being 
legally blind since birth and never experiencing sightedness, and her 
being fully sighted for the 14 bright years of her life and losing her 
vision. And, while she does enjoy inspiration videos of all sorts, I can 
not simply just flash out and shove NFB philosophy and blind culture in 
general without overwhelming her even more.


I am therefore looking for suggestions. In what ways can I ground her 
interests and create expectations without making her say she utterly 
dislikes Braille? What other strategies have proved useful to you, 
specifically for those who are either totally blind or legally blind 
since birth, and encountering this situation? How can I further relate 
to and understand her perspective of this person losing their vision and 
struggling in this way, while I have not had such an experience as a 
blind person? I'm not sure if i"m making sense here. But, anyways, your 
input is valuable and immeasurably appreciated. I think my student has a 
lot going for her and a lot she still has to live through. And I need to 
be able to supplant her with the seeds she needs to be a blind person 
because even though it sounds kind of hard and sad, this will now be her 
new life. So any way that I can say these things without really saying 
them in a realist, tough, or in a more positive and optimistic fashion 
will be appreciated as well.


Thank you! Have a blessed day!

- Humberto