[blindkid] ECC- Social Skills

[Heather Field]

Hello Jessica,
If someone has an additional disability, such as autism, then this person is 
not specifically helped by requiring that they be taught skills as mandated 
by the ECC. This set of guidelines is designed for "blind students" 
specifically and does not take into account the additional needs of a 
student with autism spectrum disorders. The teacher of the blind is supposed 
to mysteriously know what every child who is blind with additional 
disabilities needs, despite almost nonexistent training in this area from 
teacher training programs. Of course, this isn't possible and many needs go 
unmet. The ECC doesn't tell teachers the how, it just says that they 
"should". For children who are functionally blind and have autism spectrum 
disorders, I would argue that a person trained in educating students with 
children with autism should be the primary educator with assistance from a 
teacher of the blind to advise on adapting techniques to suit a student with 
blindness.

Most teachers of the blind will tell you that they are so overloaded that 
they are currently unable to meet the basic academic needs of their students 
who are just blind. They are frustrated and sad at their inability to meet 
many of the needs of their blind students with additional conditions such as 
autism. A complicating factor is the reluctance of many teachers, with 
training in educating autistic students, to work with blind students. They, 
like most teachers, have not been exposed to the truth about blindness and 
were not given exposure to working with blind students in their teacher 
training programs. So, they feel unable to get involved. When I have seen a 
partnership between a teacher of the blind and a teacher of autistic 
students, the results have been outstanding. But, in my experience, such 
partnerships are the exception rather than the rule.

You have pointed out how the ECC is being expected to ensure that all blind 
children have their special needs met and how far short it falls from being 
able to do this. So, one more black mark against the ECC.

Regards,
Heather Field

-----Original Message----- 
From: Jessica Trask
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 1:05 PM
To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [blindkid] ECC- Social Skills

Hi Arielle,

I agree with you to a certain degree. Your not taking into account if
the child for instance has Asburgers Syndrome which makes social
interactions even harder then it would then for just a blind child. Or
just having any version of Autism.


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