[Trainer-Talk] Interesting Facebook Post

[Brian Vogel]

All I can say is that it's my opinion that the individual who posted this
has not only "nailed it" but taken the time to clearly articulate a
compelling case for his or her position and give clear rationales for
change.

I am sighted, and have never made a secret of that face, but I face a lot,
and I do mean a lot, of pushback on a great many blind and low-vision
centric groups when my expectations about what members can and will do
independently are considered "too high."  There are the constant demands
that "I be treated like anyone else," which is precisely what I am doing,
yet, the response is very frequently that I'm asking too much.  Even worse,
when tutorials are created in response to someone saying, "I don't know
how," very often it's clear that no effort to work through those to develop
the needed skills is occurring.

One thing I know I am guilty of as a tutor is trying to make things "too
easy" by setting things up to avoid difficulty and mistakes.  I've learned
over time that this is one of the biggest mistakes I've made, and sometimes
continue making (and it comes down to a combination of my convenience and
need for speed when limited hours are available).  But the best possible
thing I think we can do is allow every blessed natural consequence occur
during the learning process, and when they do, walking our students through
the actual process of "diagnosis and correction" based on what they've
encountered.  That's the thing I think very often doesn't happen, and we
leave our students with excellent skills for anything and everything we've
taught directly, but when they encounter the next issue, they've never been
taught the actual process for working those through.  That's what makes you
independent (whether employability is a factor or not).

There often also seem to be two extremes in the community as I've observed
them:  Absolute resistance to seeking out assistance (sighted or otherwise)
and immediate tendency to want someone to do it for you.  Either extreme is
equally damaging, and both are considered anathema in the workplace.  When
you get stuck in the workplace, and suspect it's some simple issue it's
expected that you will, "Yell over the cubicle," to see if someone knows
what's up and how to work around it.  You don't want to spend hours and
hours seeking a fix, alone, when such already exists and could be found,
with coworker assistance, in a very short time.  But nor do you want to be
"yelling over the cubicle wall" every 5 seconds.  There is a happy medium
to be found.

Brian