[nfb-db] My thoughts on training centers blind, and deaf blind.

Wed Nov 6 10:41:16 UTC 2013

Hi marsha.
There are no real reliable solutions on the market right now which
allow one to set an alarm independently who can't see them which also
require a bed shaker. The Quartz braille clocks tends to break very
easily, from what several people I know have said. But HKNC will
provide you with an alarm clock if you request it. I didn't ask for a
vibracall system when I was here as a student, and have not read the
handbook in years, though I did do some editing on a much older
version of it.
I want to level with you guys based on my experiences attempting to
learn sign and also based on what other professionals and people who
have visual impairments have told me. First, you will not be a fluent
signer in a year, though if you get highly involved with patient
people, you can certainly come a long way. Second, it seems that
people who are congenitally blind (meaning since birth) tend to
struggle a lot more than those who have had vision in the past. This
is because of the facial expressions Randy eluded to earlier, but also
because the language is very special in nature. At least for myself
and from what  other blind people who have later lost their hearing
have told me, is a common problem. It doesn't mean you should give up,
but these are just some things to be aware of. I have been getting
some sign classes off and on for the past year and a half, and I still
struggle because using it on a daily basis isn't so easy. I've found
that many Deaf people do not want to take the time and slow down to
work with me. The only reliable way I have to communicate with those
who are totally deaf directly is through texting or the Rochester
Method. And the Rochester Method apparently is too slow, so a lot of
the Deaf people I've encountered don't seem to want to bother. Maybe
I've just met the wrong ones, I don't know...

Scott

On 11/5/13, gene richburg <gene5402 at austin.rr.com> wrote:
> Hi Marsha, well I have either some time in Jan or Feb, but that hasn't been
> determined yet.  I still have to develop my iep plan with dars, the
> department of asistive rehabilitation services, HKNC can't give me a date
> with out that I e p plan, but I have to have a prep meeting  that will
> include my mom and everyone else.  We were gonna have it on the 24th of
> october, but Molly Rimer had a death in the family, her niece passed away
> that morning at age 22, or 23, I for get which, so hopefully things will
> work out on the 8th of this month, then after the prep meeting then we will
> be able to develop the actual I e p.  The reason I need a prep meeting, is
> so my mom can help me figure out what I will be able to expect from Dars,
> and what they will expect of me.  It's really frustrating, I was supposed to
> get in back in either august but couldn't because every one that was helping
> me with the application totally dropped the ball, and me and my mom finally
> had to step in and straighten everything out,.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marsha Drenth
> Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2013 4:19 PM
> To: NFB Deaf-Blind Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [nfb-db] My thoughts on training centers blind, and deaf blind.
>
> Jean, yes I did receive the student handbook. I got it from the admissions
> person at HK and see. I think I also read that they do provide the vibrant
> call alert system. I'm interested in seeing that. Do you have a start date?
>
> Marsha drenth
> Sent with my IPhone
>
>> On Nov 5, 2013, at 4:52 PM, "gene richburg" <gene5402 at austin.rr.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Marsha, did you receive the HKNC student handbook?  I don't know if
>> they provide consumers, or what ever they call people who come there, but
>> I think they provide some kind of vibra call system, but I didn't get that
>>
>> part very clearily, I'll have to go back and read that, perhaps Scott can
>> clear that up for sure.  But if you need the handbook, I can email you off
>>
>> list and atatch it to the message.
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From: Marsha Drenth
>> Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 8:26 PM
>> To: NFB Deaf-Blind Division Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [nfb-db] My thoughts on training centers blind, and deaf
>> blind.
>>
>> Maurice,
>> I think hands down that no one will argue with you that if someone is in
>> need of blindness skills training, and if they are just blind with no
>> additional disablity, then going to a NFB training center is the best.
>> With that said, I am not just blind, but severely hard of hearing. I have
>> chosen to go to HKNC because of two main reasons, I do not need blindness
>> skills. I was blind before I lost my hearing. But I do need the skills in
>> order to live as a deafblind person. I have traveled with a cane, with a
>> guide dog, read braille, and am able to use technology. The problem lays
>> in that I also can't hear. There is only one center in this country that
>> can train a person who is both blind and hard of hearing. With that said,
>> most persons who go to HKNC, are in need of a audiologist who has worked
>> with the dual sensory loss. An in house audiologist who understand the
>> needs of blind persons, visually impaired persons, and those who also who
>> are deaf, hard of hearing and or hearing impaired; is something that an
>> NFB center does not have. Just because I have made this desicion, doesn't
>> not mean that I am less of a person, less of an NFB member, or think less
>> of the philosophy.
>>
>> Its awesome that you had a successful experience at the CCB. And I am also
>>
>> not sure, of your hearing issues. But if I am reading your message
>> correctly, your saying those persons who go to an NFB center, are better.
>> This is the sort of attitude that divides a group. The NFB centers are no
>> less better than HK, nor is HK better than an NFB center. Its just
>> different, serves different disabilities, different needs.
>>
>> I have heard of both good and bad experiences at the HK center, jsut as I
>> have heard of persons going through an NFB center. I just know that for
>> me, with my hearing loss, it would not be successful to go to a NFB
>> center. For them to ask me to listen to traffic in order to indicate when
>> its safe to cross. I can't hear traffic. It would not be viable for me to
>> have an NFB center to tell me, listen for the water boiling, I can't hear
>> it boil. The techniques are different, similar but different.
>>
>> Granted I haven't been there yet to begin my training. My desicion was one
>>
>> I made for me. But with that said, I can understand why other deafblind
>> persons make the same desicion.
>>
>> Its unfair to say that HK is not what blind, or deafblind people should be
>>
>> going to for training, especially if you haven't been there yourself. I
>> would say that all blind persons should be tolerant of those of us who
>> have different needs, are in need of different skills than just those you
>> learn as a blind person.
>>
>>
>>
>> Marsha drenth
>> Sent with my IPhone
>>
>>> On Nov 4, 2013, at 6:19 PM, maurice mines <kd0iko at icloud.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Good afternoon, I have been thinking for quite some time as I’ve read
>>> emails on this list recently, that it might be of some benefit to talk
>>> about the benefits of attending an NFB training center. Of course the
>>> question that many on this list will ask why are you even discussing
>>> this? Because I’ve heard a lot recently a.k.a. read a lot recently that
>>> the feeling seems to be that HK in C is apparently be only game in town.
>>> But I believe that if my past experience at the Colorado Center for the
>>> blind is any indication of how and if the training centers handle death
>>> blindness, one need not have very much worry about. Remember that the
>>> training is very individualized. So what may work for you and what level
>>> of deaf blindness you have, it may not reflect how they deal with your
>>> neighbor at all. Also as far as I understand the training centers do
>>> reach out to resources to help that training happen appropriately. So
>>> you’re
>>> not going into the great void of the unknown. Also it is good to know
>>> that based on my experience we found alternative techniques not only to
>>> blindness but the issues surrounding the lack of hearing. And of course
>>> we discuss the options should one’s hearing get worse. I guess one
>>> getting at here is that if you are considering going to a training center
>>>
>>> I think that’s the first part, the second part is actually figuring out
>>> which one you should go to and the reasons why you want to go to it? I
>>> think that based on everything I’ve read and people I’ve talked to that
>>> all three of our centers can handle this well. I think a comment by a
>>> current staff member made when I was a student at the Colorado Center for
>>>
>>> the blind came out of it conversation regarding the disabilities that is
>>> neither deaf blindness were just great blindness. It surrounds my at that
>>>
>>> time anyway great fear of writing anything. The staff member said quote
>>> you can’t just not right. The translation that I took away from that and
>>> have come to realize in the years since I graduated from the Colorado
>>> Center for the blind, you can’t just not live life because you can’t hear
>>>
>>> ordered their blindness involved. And depending on what you have to do,
>>> in many respects you have to get out there and just plain live one’s
>>> life. Another thought of course comes to mind in many of the writings and
>>>
>>> things that are second national president Dr. Jernigan when he spoke
>>> about not throwing the nickel. I guess it kind of blows down to accept
>>> help when you need it and of course find ways of not accepting it if you
>>> don’t. And last but not least he believed in blind people and I extend
>>> this adept line people blending into society when in wherever it is
>>> possible. Just some food for thought on a rainy Monday afternoon. I’d
>>> certainly would like to read some of the thoughts that you all may add to
>>>
>>> this. But I’ll just leave it at this I have an abiding belief in all of
>>> the training centers and what they can do in the fact that the NFB
>>> difference is that they care not just there for a paycheck. But because
>>> they care and believe in turning out capable and competent people.
>>>
>>> Sincerely Maurice mines. Phone 360-524-0791, work/school email address,
>>> Maurice.mines at PCC.edu.
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> nfb-db at nfbnet.org
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org
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