[Ohio-talk] Fw: Blind 10 yr old near Cleveland needs Braille

[Everett Gavel]

Hi Carol, JW, and All,

Just before going to Louisiana in the Fall of '09, I was working with a TVI
here in the Akron area.  His name is Joe Green.  He works with various
agencies & school systems as well as with the RSC.  At that time, I believe
he had a daily gig with one particular young student living up on the east
side of Cleveland somewhere.  I'd recommend him, having worked with him for
several months.  I enjoyed working with him.  He's not (yet) sold on the
blindfolded travel technique, but he's not freakishly against the NFB,
either.  He's, well, logical, I guess you could say.  Anyway, I'd recommend
giving him a call and talking through some possibilities for this student. 

Last I knew, his info was as follows:
Joe Greene - O&M guy in Akron.  Also a Braille teacher. 
Cell: 330.414. 0988
E-mail: neo_vi_services at att.net

Actually, I'm going to copy him on this message, so he should be expecting
you.  ;-)


May God Bless Your Efforts! 
Everett


----- Original Message ----- 
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 10:30:01 -0500
From: "Dr. JW Smith" <jwsmithnfb at frontier.com>
To: "NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List"
	<ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>,	"Shelbi Hindle" <shelbiah at att.net>, "Colleen
Subject: [Ohio-talk] Fw: Blind 10 yr old near Cleveland needs Braille

Let's talk about this some on Saturday but in the mean time if anybody has
any other recommendations please don't hesitate to chime in here ok?

Read on.

jw

Dr. J. Webster Smith
President National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
P.O.BOX 458 Athens, Ohio, 45701-0458
Phone Number - 740-592-6326 
"Changing What it Means to be Blind"

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Carol Akers 
To: Dr. JW Smith 
Cc: eduffy 
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 9:35 PM
Subject: Blind 10 yr old near Cleveland needs Braille
         
I recieved a call from Lori Kaplan who is the parent mentor for OSSB.  She
also serves as a parent resource for the whole state.  She had a call from a
mom in Maple Heights whose son is 10 and she wants him to learn Braille but
the school is resistant.  His VI teacher feels he has vision and should
continue to use the stand magnifiers for his reading.  Mom feels his vision
will be decreasing and she wants to  be proactive by having him begin to
learn braille now.   The notes Lori had said he had 20/100 in one eye and
20/60 in the other, but since his IEP he has had eye surgery in late
December.  One of the diagnoses is Glaucoma, but I think there is more.
Lori was going to contact mom to see when he had an eval for media, etc and
what it detailed.  

Lori contacted me since she had recently recieved my mailing and thot
perhaps we could assist this mom and give her guidance.  Lori said she
realizes that NFB is a proactive organization and promotes Braille use.  She
also told mom that people who learn braille have better opportunities for
employment in the future and wondered if we had any data to back that up for
her.

I think this would be a good opportunity for the Ohio chapter to assist this
family and show ourselves as a resource parent/child advocate and educator
of the school system/VI teachers.  Our goodwill and participation or
involvement will be a positive mark for the NFB.  

Hopefully increase our visibility and cooperation with OSSB and the rest of
the state.  We aren't real visible like we were in the past when we sent
people to IEP's and assisted parents in advocating for the kids.

Since Debbie Baker is retired and a teacher of blind students, I think this
ia an opportunity I would like to share with her.  Perhaps she could work
with this mom, student and VI teacher to come up with a solution that works.
If possible, perhaps if she is willing, she could go meet with this family
in the Cleveland area.  What do you think?  I told Lori that we have our
board meeting this Sat and I would pick some brains on this topic and get
back with her.

Carol Akers