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[Nfb Utah]

I am a proud member of the NFB of Utah now for 7 years I have learned a lot
from many people. When I first started dating Brian I was scared a little
how I was going to cope with Blindness. After we were married for a month
Brian invited me to come with him to a chapter meeting then on to a
convention for the state of Utah and then to a national convention. I was
so overwhelmed and so excited to start a new life with Brian. I have never
met such excellent  group of people. I have made life long friends all over
the country and hope to continue too. I want to thanks a amazing husband
Brian Dulude for all the accomplishments that he has done. Not a day goes
by that he is not worried about someone in the NFB. This is a bitter sweet
email that Brian, Allyson and I have to say good bye of being treasure of
the NFB of Utah. We have a new journey a head of us at Blind inc. in
Minnesota. We will continue to strive hard being members of the NFB and
will always be members of the NFB of Utah. This is a article that Brian got
published in the Braille Monitor and we would like to pass it on to
everyone to read.

*Reflecting the Flame in Utah Rehabilitation for the Blind*

*by Brian Dulude*

*[image: Brian Dulude]*
*From the Editor: Dr. Brian Dulude is a longtime member of the National
Federation of the Blind who currently serves as the treasurer of the
National Federation of the Blind of Utah. He can boast of a number of
educational accomplishments including a PhD, CRC, LVRC, and NOMC. Before
leaving Utah to work as the assistant director for BLIND Inc. he worked as
the vocational rehabilitation coordinator for the Division of Services for
the Blind and Visually Impaired in Utah. Here is what he says about trying
to improve the state agency and the efforts of other like-minded men and
women, many of whom are a part of the NFB: *

In 1991 Dr. Marc Maurer gave a banquet speech entitled “Reflecting the
Flame.” In this speech, Dr. Maurer pointed out that three things are needed
for an idea to move forward and not die: it requires an idea, a leader to
promote that idea and defend it, and it finally requires others with the
same idea to reflect the flame so that it continues to burn. I listened to
this speech recently, and I felt I needed to tell my story of working in
blind rehabilitation here in the state of Utah and how the blind of our
state have endeavored to reflect the flame.

Our blind rehabilitation program is a combined agency under the Utah State
Office of Rehabilitation. Our title is the Division of Services for the
Blind and Visually Impaired. We have a blindness training center, low
vision services, deaf/blind services, an older blind program, vision
screening for young children, and, until recently, vocational
rehabilitation services.

I started working for the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually
Impaired (DSBVI) in May of 2010 in the blindness training center as a cane
travel instructor. I had previously worked for the Louisiana Center for the
Blind in Ruston for over five years. Ray Martin is a long-time
Federationist and had the dream of developing a training center that had
the same philosophy as the NFB training centers. This philosophy centered
around teaching the structured discovery method of training.

As director, Ray experienced strong staff resistance to training under
sleep shades, using the long white cane, and using the word blind. As
director of the center, however, he hired many qualified blind instructors
who had the same philosophy and dream that he had.

When I started working at DSBVI, Ray had already hired Deja Powell as a
cane travel instructor. He experienced staff criticism and hostility for
hiring a person who is blind to teach cane travel. He also hired Brook
Sexton as a cane travel instructor. Brook is a longtime Federationist, and
she, as well as Deja, had been trained at Louisiana Tech University’s
master’s degree program. Previously Brook had been working in Hawaii in the
training center there and had seen a training center change its philosophy
of blindness.

Fellow Federationist Everette Bacon was an employee in Assistive Technology
Services. At that time he was chapter president of the Salt Lake Chapter of
the National Federation of the Blind of Utah. Later he became president of
the affiliate. Adam Rushforth was also working in the training center when
I started. Adam was chapter president of the Utah Valley Chapter. He was
also treasurer of the affiliate and director of our Project Strive program.

So, as you can see, Ray had a dream of developing an effective training
center that would change the lives of the blind of the state. He was a
leader who promoted that dream along with Everette Bacon, me, and others
that I have mentioned and many whom I have not mentioned.

I feel it is important that I point out here that I have not mentioned the
division director at the time as one of the leaders who held the same dream
as Ray. The director at the time was Bill Gibson. Ray received no support
from Mr. Gibson. In fact, he went so far as to remove Ray from being
director for a period of four months in the later part of 2010. It was only
the intervention of the National Federation of the Blind to the state
administrators that made them reverse their decision.

As I stated earlier, Ray and those of us who believed in structured
discovery training were resisted at almost every turn from staff who did
not believe in sleep shades, using the long white cane, or using the word
blind. We would develop policies regarding these topics but were never
fully supported by Bill or his supervisor, Don Uchita.

I finished my doctorate in rehabilitation education from the University of
Arkansas in 2011. I was certified as a rehabilitation counselor in the fall
of that year. In 2012 DSBVI had an opening for a transition vocational
rehabilitation counselor. I applied for the job and was hired. Later that
year the vocational rehabilitation coordinator resigned, and I was asked to
fill the position. I directed vocational rehabilitation for the blind for
four years.

During this time Ray still had the dream and continued to hire qualified
employees who had the right philosophy of blindness. Some of these included
Marla Palmer, a longtime Federationist in the Parents of Blind Children
Division for the state of Utah. Amber and Chase Holiday were hired from
Louisiana. Mike Harvey and Jim Reed were also hired.

For the first two years as rehabilitation coordinator I had the privilege
of being part of a management team alongside Ray, and I listened to him and
supported his dreams for an effective training center. One of Ray’s
triumphs was incorporating cross-training or immersion training for newly
hired employees of the training center. This was met with resistance by
Bill and Don, but we were allowed to train our staff for those in the
training center. Ray was permitted to have his staff trained for over three
months. New vocational rehabilitation counselors and low vision specialists
could train for only six weeks, and support staff could train for only two
weeks.

For those two years we battled regularly with staff who did not share our
philosophy. Everette Bacon became a member of the management team near the
end of that two-year period. Ray Martin retired at the end of my second
year as supervisor. He felt he had fought the good fight, and he passed the
torch to Everette and me to continue the dream. He had hope that we would
receive more support from his supervisor than he had received.

What did Ray accomplish in his tenure at the training center as director?
He had hired enough staff with the right philosophy that the dream would
not die with his retirement. Adam Rushforth was hired as the new blindness
training center director. We now had three members of the management
committee who had a good philosophy of blindness. We continued to try to be
the leaders that Ray was and continued to hire counselors and training
center staff who had the proper philosophy. These staff were reflecting the
flame to their students.

Jennifer Kennedy from Virginia was hired as a cane travel instructor. She
is a former national scholarship winner and another graduate of Louisiana
Tech. We also hired Barbara Elliott as home management instructor. When she
was a blind homemaker, she was elected as chapter president of our Weber
Davis chapter.

Although Everette, Adam, and I were on the management team and could
express our opinions on critical hiring and administrative policy, we were
never fully supported by Bill Gibson or his supervisors. In November of
2014 the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation (USOR) realized that they had
mismanaged the budget and needed to make drastic changes. One significant
change was for vocational rehabilitation to go on an order of selection.
This included vocational rehabilitation for the blind as well.

Federation membership and leadership represented themselves well in public
meetings that were held by USOR. Although it was pointed out that DSBVI was
not the cause of the shortfall, because we are a combined agency, we were
lumped together with the general agency. The director of USOR resigned
during the legislative session in which USOR had to ask for six million
dollars to cover the shortfall. Bill Gibson retired in the middle of that
year.

During the first six months of the implementation of the order of selection
no clients were removed from the waiting list. Word spread among the
blindness community that there was an order of selection, and applications
for services declined. As a result, caseloads for the blind declined. As
part of conditions from the legislature for the six-million-dollar bailout
the legislature required USOR to be audited. DSBVI was specially targeted
for this audit based on reports from angry clients or staff who left
messages on a recently developed hotline for the agency where individuals
could report fraud, misuse, and abuse of public funds. Many of the targeted
client files which were audited for DSBVI were found to be out of
compliance with USOR policy. In nearly every instance Bill Gibson was
involved in the rehabilitation decisions that were out of compliance or an
exception to policy. Some were due to counselor error, for which I take
responsibility.

Based on the results of the audit, USOR decided to consolidate blind
vocational rehabilitation into general rehabilitation. Vocational
rehabilitation counselors who were under the supervision of DSBVI would now
be supervised by a general rehabilitation supervisor in their geographic
area. I was reassigned from being a supervisor to working as a
rehabilitation counselor for a general caseload.

Public meetings were held at DSBVI explaining the decision. Members and
leaders of the NFB of Utah gave public comment expressing their displeasure
over the decision and the effect this would have on blind services. They
also wrote a resolution which was passed by its state convention.

Ray Martin had the dream of good rehabilitation for the blind of Utah. As a
leader he hired us to reflect that flame. Although Ray has retired, I have
been reassigned, and vocational rehabilitation for the blind has been
consolidated into general rehabilitation, we who have the right philosophy
will continue to reflect the flame. As members of the National Federation
of the Blind, we can do nothing less. Rehabilitation for the blind here in
Utah has had some setbacks, but there are still many employees who will
continue to reflect that flame and change the lives of the blind of Utah.