Center Helps Those Who Recently Lost Sight

Center Helps Those Who Recently Lost Sight

Braille Monitor

May 2004

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Center Helps Those Who

Recently Lost Sight

to

Relearn Life's Skills

by

Sam Tranum

From the Editor: The

following article appeared on January 15, 2004, in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

In a state as riddled with agencies accredited by the National Accreditation

Council for Agencies Serving People with Blindness or Visual Impairment (NAC)

as Florida is, it is not surprising that many blind people are frustrated at

the lack of effective skills training, particularly for older people who are

losing their sight.

Carolyn Lapp is president

of the Palm Beach Chapter of the NFB of Florida. In desperation at the complete

lack of effective services, she organized classes for seniors who needed help

to learn to live with vision loss. It is also no surprise that the reaction

of the NAC-accredited agency in the area would be to bad-mouth the effort and

to send the reporter to talk with a blind person who could be counted upon to

decry the notion of blind people teaching other blind people. Here is the story:

Two years ago John Trabulsi

had 20/20 vision. Today he is blind. Now that diabetes has taken his vision,

he must relearn how to make his way through the world. It takes some adjustments,

some new skills.

That's

why Trabulsi, sixty-two, goes to the Florida Outreach Center for the Blind's

classes. On Monday, after some practice reading Braille and a session on dealing

with stress, students worked on making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"I

don't know how much peanut butter I have on the knife," Trabulsi fretted.

"How am I supposed to figure it out? I like a lot of peanut butter."

Other

students and group leader Carolyn Lapp did their best to guide him. It was the

often-joked-about situation of the blind leading the blind.

That's

just the way Lapp, president of the Palm Beach County chapter of the advocacy

group National Federation of the Blind, likes it. That's part of the reason

she started the center about nine months ago. She says it's the only place in

Palm Beach County where blind instructors teach blind students independent-living

skills. The other part is that she simply didn't think there were adequate services

for blind people in the county.

Trabulsi

goes to four or five classes and groups in an effort to stay busy and avoid

sitting home alone. He says learning from blind teachers such as Lapp has advantages.

"There's

no doubt about it. When you have instruction from somebody who is blind, they

already know what you're going through," Trabulsi said. "The other

counselors who just go to school, they don't have that experience."

It

seemed to work pretty well Monday. The center still is hunting for a permanent

location, so classes are in the Piccadilly Cafeteria in West Palm Beach. About

twelve people, with varying amounts of vision, showed up. They sat in front

of cafeteria trays loaded with jars of peanut butter and jelly, butter knives,

plates, and slices of bread.

Lapp

suggested digging a little peanut butter out of the jar and starting to spread

it from the middle of the bread outward. Pretty soon everyone was done, and

many were munching on their work.

Lapp

has big plans for her new center. She envisions a Florida Outreach Center for

the Blind that hires blind people to help other blind people. To make it all

happen, she is searching for grant money and a 2,500-square-foot location.

Dawn

Clemons, a spokeswoman for the Lighthouse for the Blind of the Palm Beaches,

took exception to Lapp's claim that Palm Beach County didn't have adequate services

for the blind. She said the Lighthouse had been doing a very good job as the

primary nonprofit organization serving the nearly 43,000 blind and visually

impaired county residents.

Clemons

said having blind instructors is less important than having qualified instructors.

She said Lighthouse hires instructors certified to teach people with visual

disabilities.

Rosanna

Lippen, a spokeswoman for the Broward County chapter of the advocacy group Florida

Council of the Blind, also thinks sight doesn't prevent someone from being able

to teach blind people effectively. "A lot of times a blind teacher will

give a better perspective," said Lippen, who is blind. "But there

are times when you need a sighted person. If I was newly blind, and somebody

who is blind is going to show me how to get around, I would not have that trust."

Despite the disagreements

on philosophy, it's good that Lapp took the initiative to fill what she saw

as a gap in services, said Sam Atwood, a client advocate for the Florida Division

of Blind Services. "I think that the more people take responsibility for

their own progress, the better they will do," he said.

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