[Oabs] Braille Monitor article

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi all,

Pasted below is a very good Braille Monitor article from this month's
issue.  I thought it important enough to send over the list, and it is
also written by a friend of mine who I've know for quite a while as a
dedicated Federationist and music student in the Missouri affiliate.
To access this article and others from the January 2015 issue, as well
as past issues dating back to the 50s, you can visit www.nfb.org and
search for "braille monitor."  Deborah Kendrick has an article in this
month's issue as well on braille, which I would highly recommend
reading.


Attitudes and Expectations in Education

by Julie McGinnity

>From the Editor: Julie McGinnity is a graduate student in music and
performance at the University of Missouri, Columbia. She is by any
measure a successful student, having been a national scholarship
winner and a tenBroek Fellow. In the following piece she wrestles with
the questions that face all of us as we go about living our lives: to
what extent is it the job of blind people to educate the educators,
educate our employers, educate our public officials, and all before we
can take advantage of what others take for granted? When does this
need to educate those around us retard our progress and when does it
strengthen us and teach assertiveness and out-of-the-box thinking that
serves many of us well in this constantly evolving world? The answers
are not easy, and Julie makes no pretense that they are. Here is what
she says about education, what it offers, what it promises, and how
often it falls short of what it can and should be for blind students:

Julie McGinnity hugs Bill the guide dogWe are amazing. That's what
they say. When we walk into their classrooms, they look at our
Braille, the talking technology, and the canes and dogs we use to
navigate the world, and they are in awe. "How can you do that?" "You
are an inspiration." These statements become familiar songs in the
soundtracks of our lives.

Some of the instructors and professors we meet ask questions, and many
make promises to accommodate. The world of education seems to be a
place of endless possibility. We are positive that learning will
occur, and it certainly does, but at what cost?

Many of the professors who promise to send documents to us, keep us
aware of projects and activities in the classroom, and prepare
materials ahead of time soon begin to display their human frailty by
forgetting their promises and good intentions and causing us to be
left out. We do not blame them, and we shouldn't. Many of them
genuinely want to accommodate us, but do they understand what it's
like to be unable to participate? Have they ever been there? Have they
felt that wave of dread when a new activity is announced, and we are
consigned to the sidelines with the hope that we will be consoled by
their heartfelt apology? No, they haven't experienced this, and I
sincerely hope they never do.

The experience of being overlooked in class preparation by instructors
and professors requires that we learn to think on our feet, determine
how a new activity can be made accessible, and have the confidence to
implement our ideas on the spur of the moment. We have to be clever
enough to anticipate, use our memories and listening skills to glean
bits of the print documents that the other students have in their
hands, and in many cases learn quickly enough to compete with and be a
part of the class.

Let's step outside this mindset for a minute. What would life be like
if we didn't have to do all these things? What if we had the burden
only of learning from what was presented? Perhaps it may seem
unrealistic, but what if the teachers were so committed to our
learning that they took the necessary steps to see that we could
participate in every activity, had the class materials at the same
time they were available to other students, and ensured there was a
way for us to answer questions and make comments that was as easy for
us as for other students?

If we actually found ourselves in this situation, we would probably be
confused. We wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. Willingly or
not, we have accepted the double standard by which we operate as blind
people. It begins with that fateful contradiction disguised as a
compliment: "You are amazing." Once that idea has been put into our
heads, we are condemned to live up to that belief and to be set apart
from others. Many of us either feel as if we need to live up to this
standard, or feel as though we need to succeed in spite of it. We
reject the idea that we are amazing, but we work hard to be amazing.
We embrace the idea that we are normal human beings, while
simultaneously working harder than our colleagues to prove to them and
ourselves that we are. We detest the unequal treatment that makes life
harder, while thriving on the challenge it presents and quietly and
secretly complimenting ourselves on being so resourceful.

Our lives are as conflicted and filled with contradictions as those of
our fellow travelers on this earth. We try to reconcile the love and
protection of God with an understanding of the terrible things that
happen in the world He oversees. We all struggle with the
contradiction inherent in believing that we all have an opportunity to
succeed in our country, while realizing that we are far from equal in
where we start and what we have to work with in our lives.

Perhaps we must distinguish between challenges and barriers, realizing
that they may be different for each of us. Which of the challenges we
face cause us unnecessary stress, which retard our progress, which
cause us anxiety and self-doubt, and which prevent us from doing what
we might to enjoy our lives to the fullest? These we must seek to
eradicate from our lives and use all of our efforts to see that other
blind people do not find them stumbling blocks. Should it be okay for
blind students to be without Braille or materials in the classroom
simply because we often surmount this inconvenience? Why are they
allowing us into schools and universities and then condemning us to
sitting on the sidelines or playing second chair to our colleagues? I
ask you: what is the point? On the flip side, which of the challenges
we face every day have served to shape us into more resourceful human
beings, caused us to be less rigid in our thinking, pushed us to be
more accepting of the weaknesses of others, and forced us to have
greater respect for the diversity found in the world?

We need to reevaluate how we treat blindness in education. It is easy
to say that classrooms must be accessible and instructors need to
treat their disabled students as equals. The reality is more difficult
to swallow. Many teachers have different expectations of blind
students that stem from their attitudes about blindness and people
with disabilities. If this is the problem, it is truly our job to
educate our educators as we seek to learn ourselves. Yes we really do
get used to teaching the ones who are teaching us, but I wonder if
this reality is a benefit to us in our endeavors as students. Can we
truly learn at our best if we are constantly living in a world of
caution and uncertainty because of the multitude of differing
attitudes we find throughout our educational journeys?

I am not here to convince you that the educational world is hopeless.
Teachers are out there who understand--whole groups of them in fact.
They can be found, and this realization, more than anything else,
gives me hope. We need to identify those who see potential rather than
inspiration in us so that we can finally be on an equal footing with
our peers.

You are not engaged in this struggle alone to find and educate
understanding teachers. I am here, standing alongside you in our
efforts to gain equality in the classroom, and seeking solutions to
our challenges as blind students, and I am grateful to realize that we
have an organization that is dedicated to educating these educators
with us. It is time that we recognize this support and stop feeling as
if we were carrying so much of the weight of these disadvantages
alone. The truth is that the real problems of the blind student do not
lie in our inability to see; they stem from the attitudes of those who
teach us and provide our accommodations. Once we realize this, we are
one step closer to using our God-given potential to succeed in
whatever field we choose.

Clearly there is no single path in navigating the road to education as
a blind person, but at the very least we should network, strategize,
and improve the maps as we continue to demand equality. We must make
the best of the situations in which we find ourselves, but we must
also find the energy and optimism to expect acceptance and equality.



-- 
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton 2016.
Music Therapy, Psychology, Philosophy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma