[Ohio-talk] Thoughts about meet the blind month, independent travel, and more

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi all,

A lot of really cool things are happening in my life right now, and
they're even having an impact on my personal view of blindness, and
what other people think of blindness.

On a smaller scale, my fraternity just formally acknowledged that we
will be initiating 4 new girls later in the semester.  Whenever a
member is pledged to the fraternity, they become a "little" and
receive a "big" to act as their mentor.  This semester, I was up for a
little, and all week I've been excited to let her know.  This girl has
been to my house a fair amount, as she is in color gard with two of my
roommates, and she knew who I was vaguely from marching band last
year.  I was really happy that she was excited when she figured out
who her big was, because blindness played no role in it at all for
her.  The same happened for a mentee I have in Music Therapy Club;
perhaps the fact that I'm around future music educators and
musictherapists a lot, or that musicians are generally pretty
accepting people, but I've never had any problems with my blindness
among the music students, my fraternity sisters, etc.  They actually
have shown interest in how I do things on a number of occasions, from
asking about my notetaker when they see me read it around the house,
to asking how braille works and if they can touch it when I'm reading
braille hard copies of the fraternity ritual books and song books.
Even in the ceremony tonight, which required bigs to acknowledge their
little, we accommodated pretty easily for the fact that I wouldn't see
which little was being addressed when so I could claim her.  One of
the girls who was behind me just said, before I could even think of
the issue, that she could tap me on the back to let me know when my
little was being addressed.  The ceremony was uninterrupted, and it
was a very easy fix that allowed me to participate just like everyone
else.

On a larger scale, a few of you know that I've applied to study abroad
for 10 days in Jamaica this summer.  I should receive confirmation
within the next few days, but if accepted into the program I will
spend my time learning about West Indies music and culture while
working in various music therapy clinics.  Sites I would visit if
accepted include Schools of Hope, which are schools set up around
Jamaica specifically for children with special needs, a hospital on
the jeriatric and psychiatric wards, and a homeless shelter.  I'll
also get to explore rain forests, waterfalls, live in a treehouse, and
the director of the program mentioned that we will take surf lessons
from the locals at one point.  My professors were concerned that I
would not be able to participate, but the director has been
wonderfully accommodating and encouraging.  He is willing to give me
early access to the online course I will take starting in December to
prepare for the trip, and has said he doesn't think I'll have any
difficulty participating.  I also talked to a student from my school
who went to Jamaica with this program this past summer, and when I
asked about what she thought I might need to do differently she had no
other suggestions aside from contacting the director early about the
course materials.  My professors are also giving me their full
support.  To have all these people think that I'm capable of going to
Jamaica for 10 days on my own, and doing some service work there in my
profession, is really encouraging and feels amazing.  They don't know
that I have never taken an international flight before, or that my
first flight at all was just last summer to the convention in Orlando,
but they think I can do it.  The director also seemed fine with it, as
one of the questions on the application was about past international
travel.  His response was not fear about me flying unaccompanied, or
finding baggage claim, but, "Well, this will be a great first trip
then."

I think I'm extremely lucky to be where I am, and in a profession
where disabilities in general are commonplace and things to make
modifications for.  I sometimes forget that I am educating people just
by doing my class work.  I guess we all do it in small ways every day,
but those seem to have less of an impact on us than the presentations
we give on blindness, or talking about the NFB.  I know I see it so
much more when I present on blindness to the Intro to Music Therapy
class, but my peers in class apre probably the most knowledgeable in
the department, because they've learned to intuitively accommodate,
like in the SAI ceremony tonight.

These are just my ramblings, I hope they're amusing to some of you.



-- 
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton 2016.
Music Therapy, Psychology, Philosophy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma