The Characteristics of an NFB Orientation Center

The Characteristics of an NFB Orientation Center

The Braille Monitor
April
2005
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The
Characteristics of an NFB Orientation Center
by James H. Omvig

James
Omvig

From
the Editor: For some time now we have needed a fairly concise statement of what
constitutes an NFB training center and why it does the most effective job of
rehabilitating blind people. Dr. Jernigan addressed this question from time
to time, and Peggy Elliott described the NFB approach to training blind adults
in a speech she delivered in Milan, Italy, in October of 2002 (see the December
2002 issue of the Braille Monitor for the full text of this speech).
But in the article that follows, James Omvig, a recognized authority on effective
rehabilitation and author of Freedom for the Blind: The Secret Is Empowerment,
distills his thinking into a few pages of explanation. Here it is:
The
National Federation of the Blind's concept of what a cutting-edge residential
orientation and adjustment center for the blind can and should be is an idea
whose time has come round at last. The concept is sweeping across America, and
more and more centers--both public and private--are capturing the vision of the
NFB's civil rights-based programs. This, of course, is a very good thing since
our NFB centers offer real hope and inspiration for rank-and-file blind people,
freedom and true empowerment for the blind students who choose to attend them
and are willing to work hard enough to take advantage of what is offered.
However,
some confusion is creeping into this otherwise encouraging movement: Some say,
"We want to do what you do, but we'll just call it something else." Or they
say something like, "The results you achieve are undeniably terrific, and we
want to do exactly the same thing and get the same successful outcomes you do,
so we'll use your model, but we'll just leave the NFB--its philosophy, its literature,
its people, and its meetings--out." This is delusional and wrong-headed thinking,
and it is pure nonsense. Precisely because the NFB--in all its aspects--is at
the very heart of our centers, we achieve the dramatic results we do. There
can be no substitute.
Let
me offer a word about the kind of success a high-quality residential center
should have. It is not at all difficult to make a fair and valid assessment
about whether any program is a success. Just look at the graduates of the program
in question. Are they content with their blindness? Are they empowered? Are
they free? Are they happy and fully integrated into their communities? Are they
performing the kind of work and family and community activities for which they
are suited? In other words, are they the best they can be? If they are, then
the program is successful, no matter who is running it or whose model is being
used.
Because
our NFB training model is becoming so popular across the country, I have decided
to comment briefly upon the issue to set the record straight on what an NFB
orientation and adjustment center really is and of course what it is not. First,
however, let me offer a bit of history. By the mid 1950's the NFB had developed
its basic philosophy about blindness, and we had also become critical of the
traditional, medically-based training systems and methods. Our criticism was
not nihilistic but constructive--we did not wish to destroy, but to reform and
to offer viable alternatives. The medical model was not working, and we believed
that, if we were to introduce the truth about blindness into the adjustment-to-blindness
process, our alternative might make a real difference.
The
first attempt at infusing NFB philosophy into an orientation center occurred
in California in 1951 when the new California Orientation Center for the Adult
Blind was established and several NFB members became part of the staff. Our
own Kenneth Jernigan taught in that California center from 1953 to 1958.
However,
the first true NFB center was established in Iowa when Dr. Jernigan moved to
that state from California in the spring of 1958 to become administrator of
Iowa's failed Commission for the Blind. He had gone to Iowa with the express
intention of proving the soundness of the NFB's philosophy by integrating it
into every aspect of the programs of the Iowa Commission for the Blind. He inaugurated
an adjustment-to-blindness program with five students on
November
2, 1959, even though the Commission was still operating out of the shabby basement
rooms of a condemned high school building it had been occupying when he arrived
in Iowa. He moved the Commission's programs into the seven-story building many
of us know in downtown Des Moines on February 1, 1960. He knew that the traditional
medical model didn't work, and his new program was based upon an understanding
that blindness is a social problem and a civil rights issue. The success of
this program is world-renowned, and it has served as the model for countless
others. The program was, of course, state-operated.
The
first program actually to be designated publicly as an NFB Center was established
in Ruston, Louisiana, by Joanne Wilson in 1985 when Joanne and the NFB of Louisiana
created a private program called the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Before
long Diane McGeorge and the NFB of Colorado established the Colorado Center
for the Blind in Denver, and in Minneota Joyce Scanlan and the NFB started Blindness:
Learning in New Dimensions in Minneapolis. Each of these centers has built an
enviable track record, and countless blind people have been the fortunate beneficiaries
of their innovative work. Through the years other public and private agencies
have moved toward the NFB model.
So
what are NFB centers? How will you know one when you see it? Before we turn
to the five specific NFB center characteristics, some general statements about
blindness are in order. We in the NFB understand that blind people are told
in one way or another from infancy that they are inferior--blindness means inferiority.
In other words, we are a minority group in every negative sense of that term.
Therefore the problems associated with blindness are not unlike those experienced
by members of other minorities. Our problems are social and attitudinal, and
they are wrapped up in civil rights issues.
We
recognize clearly that services for the blind--no matter what they are--must teach
the blind students a new and constructive set of attitudes about blindness based
upon an awareness that prevailing views are wrong and harmful. The rank-and-file
blind person has involuntarily assimilated society's mistaken attitudes and
assumptions about blindness and will set expectations for himself or herself
at extremely low levels based on this incorrect information. The rehabilitation
system--if it is to be of real benefit--must do what it can to replace these myths
and superstitions with the truth. As Dr. Jernigan has put it, "A high-quality
orientation and adjustment center must be an attitude factory."
Just
what is this truth about blindness? It is quite straightforward too. Blind people
are nothing more than normal people who cannot see, and blindness is a normal
human characteristic like all of the others which, taken together, mold each
of us into a unique person. We are a cross-section of humankind with the same
strengths and weaknesses, the same hopes and desires, and the same human frailties
as everyone else. As Dr. tenBroek was fond of saying, "We are normal human beings,
or, at least, as normal as human beings are." The quality service program for
the blind must get the customer or student to embrace and internalize these
truths. The real problem of blindness is not our blindness at all; it is to
be found in the misunderstandings, myths, misconceptions, and superstitions
that exist about it.
Two
more general observations must be made. First, NFB centers are primarily intended
to be prevocational. That is, their principal purpose is to teach people how
to be blind. We believe that--after satisfactory acceptance and adjustment have
occurred--blind people generally should pursue their vocational or professional
training where sighted people get theirs. In fact blind people should be integrated
into programs with sighted when it comes to preparation for work as a precursor
to ultimate, complete integration into the broader society.
Second,
NFB centers teach their students or customers that they have the right to take
control of their lives and to make choices. Far too many of us have been taught
that our role is to let others do for us or even speak for us. We have generally
been taught that we don't have the right even to ask for things that we might
find interesting or valuable.
Having
made these general observations, let me turn specifically to those five characteristics
of any cutting-edge program and the backbone of our centers:
(1)
The NFB center helps the student to come emotionally, not just intellectually,
to understand that he or she truly can be independent and self-sufficient and
can compete with others on terms of complete equality;
(2)
The NFB center helps the student master, not merely be introduced to, the blindness
skills essential for him or her truly to be independent and self-sufficient;
(3)
The NFB center teaches the student to learn to cope comfortably with public
attitudes about blindness, that is, to cope unemotionally with the strange,
unusual, or demeaning things other people will do or say because of their lack
of accurate information on the topic;
(4)
The NFB center helps the student learn to give back by becoming an active and
contributing member of the organized blind movement; and
(5)
The NFB center helps the student learn to blend in to the broader society by
becoming acceptable to those around him or her--particularly to employers.
I
will not take the time or space in this article to elaborate on each of these
essential ingredients, but a brief explanation of each may be helpful to those
unfamiliar with the civil rights-based empowerment-model of orientation and
adjustment center developed and honed by the NFB.
1.
Emotional adjustment to blindness: Helping the student come to understand and
feel at the gut level, not just intellectually, that true freedom, independence,
and normality are possible for him or her is the most difficult and time-consuming
part of the entire adjustment-to-blindness process. It is achieved at the NFB
center over a six-to-nine-month period by seeing that the student learns to
accept the fact that he or she is blind and to learn that the word "blind" is
respectable by meeting difficult challenges in woodworking shop; on travel lessons;
by rock climbing, water skiing, and the like; by using sleepshades during training
when appropriate; by facing routine life experiences; by consistently using
the long white cane (which cannot be folded up and hidden); by engaging in frank
discussions about blindness; by being exposed to good blind role models; and
by being willing to invest the time it takes to get it.
2.
Mastering the alternative techniques: The civil rights-based NFB center does
not merely introduce students to the skills of blindness but helps them strive
to master those skills in order to achieve competence and competitiveness. The
student (using sleepshades to prevent use of residual vision) must master Braille
reading and writing; hone long white cane use to reflex perfection; develop
effective keyboard and computer skills; and acquire usable homemaking and personal
grooming habits. In addition the student must learn to devise alternative techniques
to use life-long in situations in which center training cannot foresee the need.
Finally, the student must master life-coping skills and respond effectively
to the ubiquitous how--how can a blind person do this?
3.
Coping with blindness: As a routine part of empowerment training at the NFB
center, the student must learn unemotionally to handle the strange and unusual
things other people do or say because of their misunderstandings and lack of
accurate information about blindness. The student must learn to handle routine
putdowns, treatment that goes beyond the bounds, and discrimination. He or she
must also learn how to become a role model that conveys a positive image of
blindness to improve conditions for other blind people.
4.
Paying back: NFB centers argue that, unless the student learns to pay back by
becoming actively involved in the organized blind movement, he or she is missing
out on a key part of effective rehabilitation. Students need to join together
with other blind people for many reasons. First, students need an authentic
way of gaining perspective on blindness and valuable services for the blind
rather than bad ones. They must spend time with effectively trained and successful
blind people, who can provide accurate information about what training is and
is not needed. The student must learn to experience the satisfaction of making
a valuable contribution and of giving back, which necessarily develops feelings
of worthiness. Finally, when the student leaves the orientation center, experience
shows that significant backsliding can occur if the graduate doesn't have ready
access to a support group, and the local NFB chapter offers the logical venue.
In my book on empowerment, Freedom for the Blind, I argued that the contact
achieved through participation in the organized blind movement completes the
process of personal empowerment, which serves to close the loop on the empowerment
circle.
5.
Blending in: As a final, routine part of training for personal empowerment,
the NFB center helps students learn to blend in and to be acceptable to those
around them. Students master such things as punctuality and reliability, common
courtesy, and appropriate dress for all occasions. They learn what things look
like and how to deal with so-called blindisms. They also learn that, since the
blind are a minority group, we are often judged by one another, which has much
to do with the way individuals conduct themselves in the broader society.
NFB
center staff members too must come to know and emotionally accept the truth
about blindness. Only by knowing the truth can they set appropriate expectations
for their students. If they do not understand this simple fact, their expectations
will be far too low, and the blind students will suffer accordingly.
Staff
members must also be passionate about what they do, and they must be willing
to give and give and then give some more. Such staff members also must have
the capacity to love their students even when their activities or behavior is
not particularly lovable.
In
summary, a quality orientation and adjustment center is the heart of any good
vocational rehabilitation program, and every VR counselor should work to make
each new customer aware of the enormous benefits to be gained through enrollment
and participation in such a program. The VR customer who has received personal
empowerment from a cutting edge NFB center has a markedly higher chance for
vocational success than the norm. He or she has the knowledge necessary to make
sound life choices and the power to make those choices stick. Given proper training,
the average blind person--not merely those some observers mistakenly perceive
as the superblind--can compete on terms of complete equality with his or her
sighted peers and can become a tax-payer rather than a tax user. Far from wanting
meekly to whimper, "I wonder what it would feel like to be free," the empowered
blind person can climb the highest mountain and shout, "I am free! I know what
it feels like to be free!"
These then are the
principal characteristics of what have come to be called NFB centers. We invite
all blindness professionals who truly have the best interests of the blind at
heart--that is, those who operate from the empowerment motive--to join with us
in the revolution of personal empowerment. But I encourage you to go all the
way if you wish to revolutionize your program and adopt the NFB model. Don't
try to adopt the model and then cut the very heart out of it. Don't try to bypass
the National Federation of the Blind. It won't work, and your blind customers
will be the worse for it!
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