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

[Sheri]

Katie,
I loved your reflections! Isn't it wonderful when people just "get you"? I'm
referring to the experience at you SAI ceremony. I really hope you are
accepted to the Jamaica program. See you at convention!
Sheri Albers

-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti
Shelton via Ohio-talk
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2014 12:16 AM
To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List
Subject: [Ohio-talk] Thoughts about meet the blind month, independent
travel, and more

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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