[stylist] New THOUGHT PROVOKER #150- Virtual Blindness, Training The Trainers

[Pat Harmon]

Each individual comes to vision loss and blindness with the skills and 
knowledge acquired in his or her lifetime; others are newly mastered out of 
necessity.  Rehabilitation workers must always remember that.  Reteaching is 
unnecessary.  Most of us can figure out a way to do what we have always 
done, even if vision loss is new.

People continually ask me about cooking and dressing, skills I had mastered 
before the age of 25.  As a blind adult, I still cooked and dressed--and 
still do.  However, as a teenage driver, I lacked good driving skills. 
Sometimes I believe the cane travel skills resemble my former driving 
techniques.  That sense of direction always required practice.

And an additional technique I added to my attack skills as a blind woman was 
humor.  I am funnier as a blind person than I ever was as a sighted 
individual.  Humor saves me in awkward situations.  Stories about situations 
help me ease out of awkward moments.  They can also assist if I am meeting 
new people.  Social situations can be tough, and humor becomes my friend.

I mention this because humor can get out of hand in training sessions where 
sighted people "play" blind for certain periods of time.  These trainings 
demand instructors who can achieve balance.  Laughter might become 
roadblocks to the goals for the program.  Fears are real for those facing 
blindness.  Experiences are never identical.  Humor, too, is an honest 
emotion.

A combination of practical experiences for workers can only add to their 
comprehension of challenges facing their clients.  Expectations must be 
high, but the client must never feel inferior or "stupid" for making 
mistakes.  That is why these kinds of sessions are occasionally called 
"sensitivity" training.  Humor must be handled with special consideration.

I believe blindness caused me to become more of an extrovert.  Social 
situations demand conversation.  Trainees might observe that change in 
themselves while under the blindfold.  Questions and conversation are needed 
for good instruction and practice.  Experiences teach.


I am happy to be thinking about training workers in the blindness field! 
Robert, it's a pleasure to be thinking with you.  ----- Original 
Message ----- 
From: "Robert Newman" <newmanrl at cox.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 12:31 PM
Subject: [stylist] New THOUGHT PROVOKER #150- Virtual Blindness,Training The 
Trainers


> Fellow writers
> RE:  Virtual Blindness, Training The trainers
>
> Here is my #150th THOUGHT PROVOKER. It asks the question, is there a 
> benefit
> to have sighted professionals in the field of blindness to go through
> sleep-shade training? If you have not read the PROVOKER, it follows. 
> Recall
> that I collect responses and post them upon my web site for all the WWW to
> read and learn from and that URL is- Http://thoughtprovoker.info
> <http://thoughtprovoker.info/>   If you wish to receive THOUGHT PROVOKERS
> sent directly to you, just write me and ask, at-  newmanrl at cox.net
>
>
> THOUGHT PROVOKER 150
> Virtual Blindness, Training The trainers
>
> The stress lines on the man's face visible beyond where the dark cloth of
> the sleep-shade covered, told the story of his first travel lesson with 
> the
> long white cane. Probing, tapping, he strove to interpret the information
> provided by the cane. "Is this a drop-off --- and this metal thing ---  
> could
> be the upright for a handrail?"
>
> The nearby instructor, cane standing vertical at his side, responded, 
> "What
> do you think?"
>
> "I got it!" The woman's finger read the Braille label on the brightly
> colored tube in her hand. "F, M --- face moisturizer. Wahoo! I made and 
> read
> my own label." The woman was one of four sleep-shaded adults working at a
> round table. In the center of the table, were Braille slates, 
> sticky-backed
> labels and other materials. In front of each student were bottles, tubes 
> and
> other personal items.
>
> "I'm not getting this as fast as you, Marilyn." Spoke up one of her table
> mates. "And, you guys, I'm going to need to take my meds, so how else can 
> I
> tell them apart, until I get Braille?"
>
> "What do you think you might do?" A third woman responded. "That is what I
> think the instructor would say. I know you'll figure out something for 
> today
> and you'll get your alphabet tomorrow."
>
> The only man at the table held a green pair of pants over his lap, tying 
> the
> finishing knot to a sewing project. "There we go." Finger reading the 
> small
> plastic tag he had just sewn into the waist band. "G, R --- green. I like
> these tags. And who would ever think you could thread a needle, blind."
>
> Carrying their canes, all 30 sleep-shaded students met at lunch. 
> "Attention
> please. This is your first meal you will handle being virtually blind. It
> will be a learning time --- think, experiment, discover and if necessary 
> ask
> for instruction. When you look back at the end of two weeks, it will be
> interesting to see the contrast between now and then. So line up, get your
> own tray, utensils, go through the line, then find your place at table."
>
> "Ah--- need to cut this piece smaller." Spoke up the first person at the
> table of six.
>
> "Yeah, cutting takes some concentration, but hey ---" responded a 
> tablemate,
> "I suppose I struggled with it back when I was five with my vision and got
> it then, so I'll get it now."
>
> A third person said, "I came into this knowing the first part of this
> training was going to be stressful. But I know it will smooth out."
>
> A fourth tablemate volunteered, "Giving up your sight for a full two 
> weeks,
> from wakeup to lights-out, no peeking, and proving to myself that I can
> function non-visually, is going to give me some insights that I'd never 
> have
> without this opportunity."
>
> "You know," contributed a fifth tablemate, "I tried talking my rehab 
> agency
> into requiring new staff go through 3 to 6 months of sleep-shade training
> like some services for the blind do, but to no avail. And so when I heard 
> of
> this two-week training for rehab professionals, I jumped on it."
>
> "It's the method of training, the structuring of the learning situation 
> and
> the insistence on self-discovery, making you work and work at it until you
> make it yours, that is the part I'm soaking up. These instructors are 
> tough
> on it --- but hey, guess the results will be in the expectations." 
> concluded
> the sixth.
>
> On screen the leader of the workshop spoke to a camera team from a local
> television station. "We have 30 professionals in the field of blindness
> participating in this first Virtual Blindness Training in our Train the
> Trainers series. They are evenly divided between rehabilitation teachers 
> and
> vocational counselors, all working with adult blind persons in their jobs.
> The purpose of this training is to provide the student with an experience 
> of
> virtual blindness, of being newly blind, needing to learn basic survival
> skills. It is 24-7, for 2 weeks. And I underscore: it is not to experience
> the reality of what it is to be blind, nor will the blindness skills being
> learned be fully perfected. However, the participant will come out of here
> knowing that in his guts, with true conviction, and not just 
> intellectually,
> that  he or she and others can function competently non-visually. Finally,
> we are using the most effective teaching method for this type of learning,
> the Structured Discovery Method."
>
>
> Robert Leslie Newman
> Email- newmanrl at cox.net
> THOUGHT PROVOKER Website-
> Http://www.thoughtprovoker.info
>
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