Running head: BLUEGRASS COUNCIL OF THE BLIND
Bluegrass Council of the Blind Christopher Roe University of Kentucky
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Abstract This paper is meant to share my experience at the Bluegrass Council of the Blind with as many people as possible. The main point in this paper is the assistance provided by the Bluegrass Council of the Blind to anyone who suffers from vision impairment. Not all those who work at the Bluegrass Council of the Blind are actually blind, and not all those who seek their assistance are blind either. There are also many technical products they help people in need to acquire as well as offering services for political matters. These services will also be addressed though not as in depth. I will also share my experience with one of the people who was currently seeking their assistance during my time there. Keep in mind when reading this paper, that most of the people I came across were very kind, but they don't want to be pitied because of their condition. In fact, most visually impaired people that I spoke to had the same attitude. They didn't want my sympathy, they didn't want my help, they wanted me to get out of their way.
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I am sitting in my room typing this paper, and all I can think of is how I would write this paper if I were visually impaired. The visually impaired can type an essay, but they need additional equipment in order to do it on a computer. There is a place they can go to find out what is available to them. That place is the Bluegrass Council of the Blind. Interestingly, many of the people who work there are legally blind as well as their clientele. They offer a wide range of services from emotional support groups to trying to make the city safer for people with disabilities. The Bluegrass Council of the Blind (Below) is a place that visually impaired people can go to receive assistance with almost any problem they are having.
Bluegrass Council of the Blind building. Photo taken by Christopher Roe.
What do you imagine when you think about what it must be like to be blind? Personally, I imagine blackness. I imagine it this way because when I can't see anything, all I see is darkness. When a blind person describes seeing nothing, it's much different. A fully blind person would describe it as a lack of vision; there is no blackness, there is nothing. Even after having it explained to me, it is still difficult to imagine. This is one of the main reasons why the
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visually impaired seek assistance from people with a similar disability. Even if other people wanted to help them, it would be hard for anyone without a vision impairment to understand what they go through. I didn't spend an enormous amount of time at the Bluegrass Council of the Blind. Mainly because it's hard for me to feel completely accepted there. That is not a community that you can just walk into and become a part of. I did learn a lot in my time there though. For instance, visually impaired people don't want to be treated like they have a disability. They do have special needs in certain situations, but they don't want that pointed out to them every time they go somewhere. I saw a man leaving the Bluegrass Council of the Blind my first time going there. When asked him where he was going, he instructed me that he was heading to his car where his wife was waiting for him. Without thinking, I grabbed his arm in an attempt to offer my assistance. He immediately yanked his arm away from me and told me that he was fine. I later learned that when you are leading a blind person, it is more appropriate to offer your arm and let them grab ahold of you. Inside of the building, everyone was friendly as would be expected. After all, they had no way of knowing my level of sight until I told them. Even after my conversation with what seemed to be the receptionist, they were still more than happy to allow me to wonder the facilities. I was asked several times to stay on the right side of the hallway though. I was never specifically told why, but I was able to infer that the people with extreme visual impairment tend to always walk on the right side of the hall. It amazed me how many people were just sitting around talking to each other. Because the staff is also visually impaired, it was quite often impossible to discern whether they were talking to other visitors or the staff itself. However, I
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did learn that the staff encourages people to take to whomever they feel comfortable with, even if that person was also there seeking counseling services. I was able to interview one of the people seeking this service during my third visit to the facility. Her name was Brittany Waugh, pictured on the right. She is blind in one eye, but her other is fine with the assistance of corrective lenses. Fortunately for me, her partial vision actually made it easier to
Brittany Waugh. Photo taken by Brittany Waugh.
talk to her. I'm not sure if it was me being more comfortable talking to her, or her being more comfortable talking to me. We were able to share some laughs though, and she seemed really light-hearted about the whole conversation. She told me that she was there seeking support from other people who have trouble with routine tasks. The issue she is having is that she was cleared by the DMV to drive a motor vehicle, however, she is scared to do so due to her inability to see out of one of her eyes. When I asked her why it was scary for her, she stated "I don't have any depth perception because I can't see out of both of my eyes" (Waugh, Personal Interview, 2012). I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to drive without the use of one of my eyes. I would have attempted it, if I didn't feel like it was a dangerous thing to do. I imagine that I would be constantly worried about what I am missing or what is happening on that side of the car. In addition to the support that they offer on a continuous basis, they also have a group support session on the last Wednesday of every month. I was finally able to attend one of these meetings on November 28, 2012. I was actually quite surprised to see that everyone was having a great time playing Bingo prior to the actual meeting. I believe this was designed to lighten the mood and make people more comfortable with opening up. It did seem to work as there were
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quite a few people ready and willing to share their stories. One of which was very sad to hear because a man had just recently lost the guide dog that he relied on for many years. His dog had a problem with his hips that went unnoticed for some time. He is currently using a cane while he waits for a new guide dog to assist him. This type of support is only one of the many services they offer at the Bluegrass Council of the Blind. They were nice enough to show me some of the many technological advancements the blind have that allow them to perform certain tasks. The most interesting to me was a refreshable braille device (Left) Refreshable Braille Device. Photo taken by Russ Weakley.
(Maguire, 2009) that allows words on a computer to be
translated into braille via pins that elevate to form different words, and then reset as a new word needs to be formed. There are actually a great many devices and programs that allow the blind to use the internet. Screen reading programs such as JAWS, Window Eye, and Home Page Reader (Carl) are a few examples. The biggest problem is that the design of many websites makes it impossible for these programs to work. The Bluegrass Council of the Blind is assisting in trying to convince web developers to make web sites friendly for those with disabilities. Unfortunately, this is a problem much larger than the Bluegrass Council of the Blind can handle alone. Some of the newer technologies being made for the visually impaired are more in favor of the touch screen computing devices. One of these devices is the iPad. As an increasingly popular product by the Apple company, products are being designed to allow accessibility to a wider range of people, particularly those with vision impairments (Heyyitsali, 2012). Another
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design in the works is a program that is used in conjunction with computer tablets. This particular design utilizes vibrations and sounds on the tablet to instruct the visually impaired person of what their fingers are currently hovering over (New device puts vision impaired in the picture, 2011). This program was designed to allow the blind to be able to better visualize pictures and diagrams that they would not have even realized were there previously. Another serviced offered at the Bluegrass Council of the Blind is making the city a safer place for the visually impaired. This comes in a great variety of different disputes between the disabled and the city. One of which is the ability of blind people to cross the street at a crosswalk. Some of the crosswalks have a more than ample time allotment. However, on some of the signs, the walking man will pop up for no more than five seconds before turning back into a red hand. Other crosswalks don't have the added auditory feature that allows the visually impaired to know when it is safe to cross the street. This is just one example, but it's easy to see that even a small oversight like this would cause a dangerous situation for not only blind people, but a wide range of disabled people. The city can be a dangerous place for those that don't have all the same luxuries that most of us do. The Bluegrass Council of the Blind is there to help with situations like this, but ultimately a person without similar problems has to make the decision. Adding to the safety issue is the fact that many of the streets in Lexington do not have sidewalks. If you are not walking on a sidewalk, drivers in the city do not seem to pay any attention to you even though you are forced to walk right next to the moving vehicles on the road. This has got to be extremely dangerous to the visually impaired people. I am not sure if they are aware that there is no sidewalk, but I do know that if they had to walk on the street, there aren't that many drivers in Lexington that would courteously slow down when passing them. One thing that the Bluegrass Council of the Blind believes will help to prevent situations
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like this is public awareness. Personally, I have taken driver's education and I have been driving for almost ten years. In that time, no one has ever informed me that by law you have to yield to anyone carrying a white cane. White canes are only legally allowed to be used by the blind. It is my personal opinion that this should most definitely be a required question on a test to get your driver's license. I also learned that a lot of buildings, while having to be constructed based on certain standards, are actually designed to be as profitable as possible. What this means is that if a certain design has been shown to cause consumers to spend more money, then that is the design the owners will use. They do not take into consideration that this could potentially be dangerous for people without the luxury of sight. Let's look at a grocery store for example. In a grocery store, it is often more profitable to switch the location of the items in the store on a continuous basis. The reason for this is that if someone is going into the store looking for a specific item, they will be forced to look around the entire store when their item isn't located in the same spot any longer. When they are forced to scour the store in search of their item, they are more likely to find another item to buy that they weren't planning on buying in the first place. When it comes to visually impaired people, this can be highly frustrating because they have no idea that the stores moved the product that they are looking for. Most blind people will go to the same store over and over if they know the locations of the items they use most. Although I am not visually impaired, I can imagine that it would be quite frustrating to think you are getting a can of soup and not find out that you bought cheese sauce by accident. All of the information I had learned while I was at the Bluegrass Council of the Blind led me to one single thought, how would my life be different if my daughter was born blind? I decided to check out a book titled "Children with visual impairments: A parents' guide" by M.
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Cay Holbrook. I learned in the book that roughly eighty percent of what children learn is accomplished through vision (Holbrook, 1996). It became clear to me that parents of visually impaired children have to spend a lot more time teaching their children as they are not able to make connections between most things like seeing children are able to. What I found interesting about what I learned was actually that I may have been forced to spend more time with my daughter had she been born with a vision impairment. It's a weird thought to have because you never want your child to be "different," but at the same time, I do wish that I had spent more time with my daughter as she was growing up. Also included in the book were some of the tests that can be done to see if your child is actually blind. Some of those tests include the visual acuity test, the visual field test, and the tonometry test. These are mainly performed by doctors, specifically an ophthalmologist (Holbrook, 1996). However, it highlights the fact that even after you know for sure if you child is visually impaired, there is not much literature informing you of what steps to take to ensure your child develops properly. The child will always have special needs (Holbrook, 1996), but that is just something that the parents have to make the child feel comfortable with. Making them feel comfortable with their disability is just the first step in raising a visually impaired child. It is also quite important that the parent learn the same things that the child will have to learn, such as how to read braille. It is very hard to teach something to someone if you cannot perform the task on your own. If you are having trouble relating to your child or teaching them something specific, the Bluegrass Council of the Blind will be more than happy to assist you in these matters as well. In fact, if you wanted to learn to make a sword, you would go to a blacksmith. In much the same way, going to the Bluegrass Council of the Blind to receive guidance on raising your child is
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much like going to an expert in the field for advice. Many of the people there have lived the majority of their lives (some even their entire lives) without their vision, and they are more than willing to help others learn to use the products that they had to learn to use as well. In many ways, the Bluegrass Council of the Blind is like a family, and they are happy to look out for one of their own. The Bluegrass Council of the Blind can assist the visually impaired with a wide variety of different problems they may be having. Their intent is clear; they are blind people assisting other blind people with any aspect of their life in which help is needed. I do believe there are certain things that we can help with though. Look around you next time you're out in the city. It surprised me to see just how dangerous the city would be if I couldn't see where I was going. Whenever you see a problem like this, please report it to the proper authority. You may not be visually impaired, but one day you will be old, and the elderly have a lot of the same safety issues that the visually impaired have.
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References
Carl, A. (n.d.). Web accessibility in mind. Retrieved from http://webaim.org/articles/visual/ Heyyitsali. (2012, April 05). ipad accessory for the blind. Retrieved from http://www.rnrassociates.com/wordpress/ipad-accessory-for-the-blindHolbrook, M. C. (1996). Children with visual impairments: A parents' guide. Bethesda, Md: Woodbine House. Maguire, B. (Performer). (2009). Bruce talks about refreshable braille. [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://dotsub.com/view/67deda65-a437-4c09-98f2-65a428ae19c5 New device puts vision impaired in the picture. (2011, April 28). Retrieved from http://phys.org/news/2011-04-device-vision-impaired-picture.html Waugh, B. (20 November 2012). Personal Interview. Bluegrass Council of the Blind.