Parents and Professionals

Parents and Professionals

Future Reflections Convention 1990, Vol. 9 No. 4
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PARENTS AND PROFESSIONALS
A REPORT ON THE 1990
PARENTS OF BUND CHILDREN
NATIONAL SEMINAR
[PICTURE] Brenda Allen brought daughter Leslie and fourteen other
family members-mother, brothers, sister, in-laws,
neices, and nephews~to the NFB parents seminar.
"You can't live with 'em, and you can't live
without 'em!" Husbands say this about their wives.
Wives say it about their husbands. And, in general,
members of one sex say it about the opposite sex.
Sometimes parents even say it about their children.
We have all felt the frustration of being in a relationship
fraught with conflicts and knowing that the
only thing worse that could happen would be not to
have the relationship at all.
That's often how parents of blind children feel
about professionals. The medical doctors, the special
education teachers, the Orientation and
Mobility specialist, the librarian or media specialist,
the program administrator--they all seem necessary,
but dealing with them can sometimes be intimidating
and disheartening--especially if a person
is not certain what one should reasonably expect
from the professional.
Learning who the professionals are and what
one should expect from them was the theme of the
1990 National Parents Seminar sponsored by the
Parents of Blind Children of the National Federation
of the Blind. The agenda of the Who are the Professionals
and What Should They Do? seminar
began with a panel of blind teens who had been
attending a dynamic summer program at the
Louisiana Center for the Blind. The focus of this
program wasn't just on alternative techniques-- cooking, traveling independently, learning social
skills, etc.--it was also on learning confidence and
positive attitudes about blindness from their blind
counselors, most of whom were college students.
Here is what Angela Howard, age thirteen, had to
say, in part, about her experience in the program: "I
never really saw a blind person before in my life. I
just thought what everybody else thought, that they
were kind of weird--standing on the corner selling
pencils, with one red sock and one blue sock.. .But
after I met Ernie and Zack and all of them, they were
kind of normal--well, they are not normal, but
they're not weird, [laughter] I mean, they're not like
I thought that blind people were; they were different.
And I thought that I could still be that way."
After this inspiring panel the teens scooted off
on a trip to Six Flags, and the agenda moved on to
two excellent presentations from representatives of
the medical professions. Dr. John Redwine, a family
practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa, and Eileen
Rivera, Director, Vision Research and Rehabilitation
Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in
Maryland, were both able to combine a medical
perspective with a personal, consumer perspective.
Dr. Redwine is the father of a blind child and Eileen
Rivera is legally blind and a former Federation
Scholarship winner.
Fred Schroeder, Director of the New Mexico
Commission for the Blind, and Mary Sonksen, Principal
of the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind
(a residential school), discussed the role of schools.
Dr. Charles Hallenbeck, Professor of Psychology at
the University of Kansas, then shared with us his
refreshing, sensible views about the role of technology.
The text of his remarks appears elsewhere in
this issue.
The "Independent Travel" panel, conducted by
cane travel instructor Sharon Duffy and the president
of the National Association of Dog Guide
Users, Robert Eschbach, inspired considerable discussion
and questions from the audience. Clearly
independent travel is an important issue to parents
of blind children.
A large panel of various educational specialists
was also well received. Ruby Ryles, Doris Willoughby,
Ruth Van Ettinger, and Kim Bosshart
represented the viewpoints of itinerant and resource
room teachers of the blind and visually impaired.
Judy Cawliey of Texas added to the panel her
perspective as an elementary classroom teacher who
had a blind student in her class.
Next came presentations from an often
neglected area: library services to blind and visually
impaired children. Cheryl McCaslin, a blind
librarian, spoke of her job as a local school district
media coordinator serving blind children in Dallas,
Texas. Judy Dixon then described the services of the
National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
Finally,
the day ended on an emotional high
note with a panel of parents and blind adults. Important
as the professionals are, this panel made it clear
that there is no substitute for informed parents and
good blind role models. Sharon Maneki, blind adult,
former school teacher, and president of the NFB of
Maryland, was the moderator. Parent Brenda Allen
started the panel off with a straight-from-the-heart,
no-punches-pulled, account of her experiences with
blindness and the Federation. She confessed that at
her first NFB convention,"When I saw nearly two
thousand blind adults and children and canes and
dogs,.. .1 was absolutely devastated... .1 had no idea
my blind child was going to grow up and be a blind
adult. It had never dawned on me. I had never seen
a blind adult, and I certainly had never seen that
many canes and dogs in one place." However, Brenda
continued, "My daughter [Leslie] was with me,
though, and she was having a great time. She had
never seen any blind people either. She thought it
was neat." With the understanding and help of other
parents Brenda not only got through that convention
(well, at least part of it), but went back the following
year, and the year after. Next, Debra Smith contributed
her unique perspective. She is a parent of a
blind child, and was once a blind child herself. Zach
Shore, a blind college student, wrapped up the panel
and the day as he talked of his triumphant struggle
to come to grips with blindness. Zach's stirring
speech left us all hopeful and optimistic about the
future for our blind sons and daughters.
Although the seminar had ended, the day wasn't
complete until children who had gone on the special
activities were reunited with their parents. The
younger children showed off purchases made at the
mall and talked of the special clown who had entertained
them. Older youth returned from their excursion
to the Six Flags Amusement Park suitably
happy, exhausted, and sunburned. All agreed that
the day had been a fine start to the 1990 convention
of the National Federation of the Blind.
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