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

Tue Oct 7 11:52:59 UTC 2014

Dear Kaiti, 

What a great post. This is exactly what higher education should be about. You will do great in Jamaka, though your first exposure to developing world poverty will be upsetting to you. At least it was to me.

Keep up the good work, and don’t forget the Kernel Book stories!
Barbara
Barbara Pierce
President Emerita
National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
bpierce at oberlin.net
440-774-8077

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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