Expanding the Choices

Expanding the Choices

Future Reflections Special Issue on Low Vision TRAINING
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Expanding the Choices
by Brent Batron and Dan Burke
From the Editor: Dan Burke is a public relations specialist at the Colorado Center for the Blind. Brent Batron is the center's director of youth services.
Why do we require sleepshades for students in training at the Colorado Center for the Blind? The answer is paradoxical--to give our students more choices.
The terms "residual" vision and "usable" vision can cover a wide range of acuity and periphery, of numerical values and variability in function. It is almost impossible for any of us, blind or sighted, parent or child, to avoid the constant effort of trying to maximize what can be seen, based on the assumption that any vision is better than no vision at all. It's not necessarily bad to think this way, but it can be unnecessarily limiting.
Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, past president of the National Federation of the Blind, was well aware of this all-too-human tendency when he assumed the directorship of the Iowa Training Center for the Blind in 1958. He set out to revolutionize blindness training by teaching nonvisual techniques to his students, including those who had some usable vision. He recognized that a student may feel confident that he or she can see the "Walk" and "Don't Walk" lights at an intersection when it is cloudy, but not on bright days. Meanwhile, a student with no vision may be able to cross day or night, rain or shine, using nonvisual travel techniques. A low vision student might feel very frustrated trying to take notes when the lights are dimmed for a PowerPoint presentation, while another student takes Braille notes uninhibited, using a slate and stylus. Dr. Jernigan delighted in stories of nonvisual techniques that proved superior to the visual techniques used by his sighted peers.
Following the example of Dr. Jernigan, NFB training centers teach nonvisual techniques, strategies, and skills. We don't teach the use of low vision or strategies for maximizing vision--there are plenty of opportunities for those approaches elsewhere. However, for students with some vision, there aren't many places besides an NFB training center that offer the opportunity to get solid training in nonvisual skills.
All of us, blind and sighted, are subject to misconceptions about blindness. Of course, the most damaging opinion about blindness is that blind people are less capable than people with sight. In the NFB, we know that this is not true. Many of the limitations we experience as blind people come from low expectations and the subsequent lack of opportunities. Our training centers in Colorado, Louisiana, and Minnesota are enhancing opportunities for blind and visually impaired teenagers. We set the expectations high by exposing these young people to positive blind role models, a positive philosophy, and the alternative techniques of blindness. We give them opportunities to experience the truth about blindness through age-appropriate activities. We do this by utilizing tools that can empower them. These tools include the cane, computer with speech output, and Braille--and they are taught under sleepshades to students with residual vision.
One of the common misconceptions about sleepshades is that we use them to level the playing field so that everyone is totally blind. This is not the case. We use sleepshades with people who have residual vision so they can begin to understand that their remaining vision is just a tool. Sometimes it can be helpful, and sometimes it is not. It is of the utmost importance for them to realize this and to understand that they have nonvisual options for traveling, reading, and completing daily tasks. Students who attend an NFB training center as teenagers can begin to understand this reality at an early age. They gain a better understanding of their own abilities with or without vision. We give them new tools that help them become safer, more effective, and even faster.
It is typical for school systems to encourage the use of large print rather than Braille, even if the student is a slow print reader or gets headaches when he reads. As a result, the student typically develops an aversion to reading. Perhaps, if the student had been presented with Braille as an option, he would find reading more enjoyable. He might even become an avid reader. This is not always the case, of course, but if young people have options, they can decide for themselves what reading method works best, as opposed to disliking the only option that they have been given.
The same holds true with technology. If a student struggles to see the screen, chances are that she will not enjoy the laborious task of using a computer. However, if she is presented with the option of using a screen reader with speech so she can quickly navigate websites, emails, and social media, she is more likely to become fluent with the computer. She will probably have greater success in school and the workplace.
Cane travel becomes easier and safer when the user knows how to use all of his senses effectively and does not rely exclusively upon vision. It is easier and quicker to develop the other senses by using sleepshades. The student comes to understand textural differences; processes auditory information, including traffic patterns; and even learns to discern the position of the sun to retain line of direction. If a student has residual vision, he can better understand how, when, or if his vision is helpful. This knowledge provides him with the widest possible range of options. He learns to be safer, faster, and more effective as a traveler.
Christina was a student in our middle school program last summer. When she began the program, she was somewhat shy. She had a fair amount of residual vision and was a very perceptive young lady. Due to her vision she had not been exposed to very much Braille, but she knew that she struggled to read print, even large print, for any length of time. She was inefficient completing homework assignments. She had to choose between spending an inordinate amount of time on homework or accepting the accommodation of assignments lighter than those expected of her classmates. Intelligent and motivated, she decided to put in the time and effort it took for her to complete all tasks.
After her three-week middle school program at the Colorado Center last summer, Christina went back to school. In her quiet but determined way, she told the professionals at her IEP meeting that she needed to use Braille. She now loves to read. In fact, she participated in "Read Across America Day" this past March to celebrate Braille literacy. (Read Across America Day is a national event that encourages reading to and by children, whether visual or tactile.) Christina's confidence, ability, independence, and self expectations all were raised through her experience at an NFB training program. And sleepshades were a major part of her success.
The choices alluded to at the outset of this article come when a student such as Christina takes off the sleepshades and goes home and back to school. Now the student can choose between techniques and strategies based on which is more effective for her. She knows how to listen for parallel traffic, take notes in Braille, and make uniform slices of a tomato using her sense of touch.
And then there's the intangible--confidence. Time and time again, students arrive at the center feeling anxious and sensitive about how little they can see, all the while protesting how much they can see. They feel empowered when they realize that under sleepshades they can do tasks that once were difficult and stressful. Believe it--the world can become a much bigger place for a child who has gone through an NFB training program under sleepshades!

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