[Trainer-Talk] Philosophical discussion -- can you teach people to follow instructions?

[Deborah Armstrong]

If it's fear then what people need to be taught is not access technology per se, but how to handle fear when it's a barrier to success. I don't know how to teach that, only how to work on it on myself when I see it is starting to affect me! 

I had a blind student who would wait for someone to take her to the bathroom. I showed her where one was and she got comfortable visiting just that one. 

Finally I gave up trying to help her but realized that I would travel extra far to use a bathroom I knew. I had a better excuse: they were doing construction and some parts of our campus are fenced off or have radically changed, making the route tricky to travel without sight. I also at that time was healing from a knee injury and could not walk with the balance or speed I normally have.

So I worked on myself instead: I made it a goal on our 112 acre campus to find a new bathroom every week. It was great for both my O&M and physical therapy!

What was useful about this strategy is that now I know where every bathroom in nearly every building is. If my dog needs water, no problem. If I need to wash my face, no problem. And if I get lost, no problem; I at least know where the darned bathroom is!

Sometimes you just give up on them and work on yourself, because YOU, is all you can truly change!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Trainer-Talk [mailto:trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Julie Adkins via Trainer-Talk
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2016 9:42 AM
To: List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology
Cc: Julie Adkins
Subject: Re: [Trainer-Talk] Philosophical discussion -- can you teach people to follow instructions?

And same thing for the conversations I observe on email listservs. Why on earth don't people research things for themselves?  Why don't they get the books that people write?  Listen to podcasts?  For heaven's sake, at least Google it?!?  People ask other people how to do every single little thing on their iPhone with VoiceOver!!  

Julie Adkins


> On Sep 15, 2016, at 12:38 PM, Julie Adkins <assistivetechtrainer at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Most people I work with will not take charge of their own learning. I give them all kinds of resources for continued education and they won't bother. It feels like laziness to me. Or could it be fear?  Are people really so busy?  I know they are not. 
> 
> Julie Adkins
> 
> 
>> On Sep 15, 2016, at 12:07 PM, Deborah Armstrong via Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> My co-worker is able-bodied. He has several advanced college degrees. He is fit, and handsome and half my age.
>> 
>> His 16GB Galaxy 5 has no more room for storing data. This is a regular occurrence; he comes to me nearly every week in a panic about it. In desperation, he bought a 128GB SD card, which, when we looked through his storage this morning, has over 120G free still.
>> 
>> I have located many pages, Youtube videos and the like to assist him, but his phone is filled with private data, which I believe is why he asks me, the blind person to assist, because there is no worry that I will actually see any of it.
>> 
>> This page:
>>               
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__phandroid.com_exp
>> and-2Dgalaxy-2Ds5-2Dstorage_&d=CwICAg&c=xoYdONxMEGxjdvKj5bOdEOV28uaka
>> J20R4TjadGGZBc&r=gcvya4Pqy0A2EsMRyTgo_6FBoT7u3CEAfkJa0Ic8T-s&m=sm8U65
>> HzFsvNQvn2ilfE9rI5BWDoCb9m4hP-RlSUewU&s=STRfwEiZlWK6SK2XyQN2s5TxuguQZ
>> UM9T4TE6-M-Rvo&e= for example has clear and accessible instructions 
>> for solving all his issues. He doesn't need it to be accessible but I chose this page to show to the list.
>> 
>> Anyway, all my efforts have been for naught. Despite his P.H.D. in psychology, he seems psychologically incapable of following instructions.
>> 
>> I guess what I'm wondering here is what techniques do you all use to teach people how to take charge of their own learning? I work in a community college with disabled students who are often terribly dependent! This example of my co-worker is only the most dramatic because he's otherwise so competent.
>> 
>> --Debee
>> 
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