[Trainer-Talk] Interesting Facebook Post

[bboyer202 at gmail.com]

I cannot agree with you more. Setting up the student's environment so they don't fail is absolutely something I learned a long time ago. I am fortunate enough to work in a structured discovery center where this is the norm but I know we are very much in the minority of teaching styles and even looked down on by other schools of thought.


-----Original Message-----
From: Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Brian Vogel via Trainer-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2026 11:31 AM
To: List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Brian Vogel <britechguy at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Trainer-Talk] Interesting Facebook Post

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
_______________________________________________
Trainer-Talk mailing list
Trainer-Talk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/trainer-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Trainer-Talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/trainer-talk_nfbnet.org/bboyer202%40gmail.com