[blindkid] Why Do You Want to Make that Child Blind?

[Doreen Franklin]

Carol and others,
I have printed your speech and may use it with our district. Unfortunately, we are one of the ones in limbo because the district does not feel our daughter needs cane or braille. I will be teaching her Braille, but the big argument now is O&M services; she "can't" even get protective techniques because O&M is not indicated for her -- this is per the district!   We just had an independent eval thru the district (IEE) and the evaluator saw many things my hubby and I have been seeing ... now the fight will be to get the district to "see" things according to the eval! And that will not be easy here! I just cannot think of another 13 yrs of arguing for services for our daughter! (She is going into kindergarten and I am very afraid she will have to flunk first to get further services). Even something as simple as changing a yellow crayon for a different one is an argument that is now being considered by our district! (She can't see yellow and advocates
 for a different color and she gets "try your best" ... how is that even on the same level as her sighted peers???? I have carried the not being able to see without contrast and without depth perception to walking down bus stairs .... what happens when she is "encouraged" by teacher to walk down the stairs and falls and breaks something - the fear she will have is just freaking me out! But this is what we have to deal with in our district! 

And just as an fyi .... when I mention to other parents of sighted children that our daughter cannot have Braille or cane, they look at me like I have 5 heads -- and ask WHY? I have no reason except that our district is totally screwed up and does not know what they are doing! They are going by the outlook of the TVI/O&M who is legally blind himself who does not use his cane and struggles with a monocular! Since he is the "expert" our children in our district have to abide by what HIS decision is that is passed to the district .... it is ridiculous and our kids are suffering because of it! And then we've heard the excuse "the PROFESSIONALS" don't see the need .... if you would open your head to at least "consider" a cane and Braille for our kids, you might just see what us "PROFESSIONAL PARENTS" are seeing at home with our kids! 

Sorry to rant .... my blood boils because of all of this! Carol's presentation in Detroit was awesome ... and my mouth just fell to the floor as I know there are tons of parents in the same position as she describes!

Have a great day!
 Doreen
http://www.raceforindependence.org/goto/TorrieF 




________________________________
From: Carol Castellano <blindchildren at verizon.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Mon, March 22, 2010 7:44:13 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Why Do You Want to Make that Child Blind?

Hi Marie (yes, you may call me Carol!),

Thanks for the kind words.  I feel really strongly about the subject--as do many Federation members--as I truly get call after call from parents whose children are kept from learning the very skills that would enable them to lead independent lives.  Just a few days ago, there was another such situation.  The child is being taught braille now--after "flunkiing" kindergarten--but the parents have been told no, he doesn't need a cane.  You can predict what is going to happen.  He is already using his foot as a feeler on stairs and when it is bright or dark in a room or outside.  He will reach the age that most kids learn to cross streets and that will be delayed.  He will become a pre-adolescent and will not be able to go out at night with friends--he'll be embarrassed because he can't walk at night independently and believe me, a bunch of boys will not want a guy holding onto them all evening.  And then someone will say, gee, maybe he ought to have
 a cane.  He'll be thirteen or fourteen or fifteen and guess what, shocking, he won't want to have anything to do with one.    then the "experts" will tell us, nope, kids just don't like canes.

Ugh.

Carol

Carol Castellano, President
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.nfb.org/nopbc

At 11:30 AM 3/21/2010, you wrote:
> Carol (may I call you Carol?) I loved your article "Why do you want to make that child blind?" It says so much and spoke to my own wondering about how much to emphasize Jack's legal blindness. I am going to get my husband to read it too. I would also like to copy it and distribute it to every member of our IEP team. I'll talk to my husband after he reads it and see what he thinks.
> Moms and Dads out there go read the article. It's a fresh perspective and likely not the way provided to you by most people you know.
> In fact, Carol, is there an online link to this article someplace? I'd love to point my blog readers to it as well.
> Marie (mother of Jack, 4 years old with Apert Syndrome)
> http://allaccesspasstojack.blogspot.com
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
> 
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