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

[Richard Payne]

That was great reading

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 7, 2014, at 12:16 AM, Kaiti Shelton via Ohio-talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 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
> 
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