All right, I have to weigh in on this. Other than Jeff Altman, I'm probably the only other person on this list who might have had a chance to watch Nora Shirley travel under a blindfold. On one hand, people might think that she should know better because she went through the specialized weekend training course that DARS tried to use to bring Texas coms into the 21st-century. Truth is, she didn't get much out of The little jiffy course that Laura marine was running at the time. We were not set up for beginner came travelers. We were set up for teachers who had already graduated from college. Texas did a little bit of beginner work with The longer cane but we had a tendency to assume that they had actually seen a cane before. I think the question that Dr. Shirley needs to ask is what accommodations are made for sighted people who have no exposure to the blind upon entering the o and M courses. Dr. Bell can tell us that we have some pretty darn good accommodations. I'm sure that Derek Williamson and a few others can enlighten her. As for the training that a blind person needs to participate in blindfold training, wow, that sentence just sounds wrong.
This reminds me of the time when I was working at Criss Cole in a cross functional training activity with other staff. I had a student with very little vision, maybe light perception. The residential staff member was assigned to work with her on putting on make up. She put the mirror in front of the client who promptly began groping around on the table trying to find the mirror as instructed. I knew my client couldn't see the mirror much less use it. I try very hard to be delicate as I said that I thought we would be doing the training non-visually. My colleague rather cattily turned to me and said, how do you expect to put on mascara while wearing sleep shades?
Dr. Shirley's question about the accommodations one needs to provide for a blind student who proposes to teach blindness skills demonstrates that we just haven't come that far in 20 years. We still need to keep pushing further up the stairs.
from the world's smallest keyboard.
On Sep 5, 2017, at 3:42 PM, Altman, Jeff wrote:
It is interesting research, but of course, there is at least one question missing that should have been asked, ?How many of your former blind students are currently teaching O&M??
From: NOMC [mailto:nomc-bounces at lists.nbpcb.org] On Behalf Of Edward Bell
Sent: Tuesday, September 5, 2017 2:12 PM
To: NOMC List <nomc at lists.nbpcb.org>
Subject: [Nomc] FW: Survey of University Faculty Training Orientation and Mobility Specialists
Dear NOMC,
Not often do I have the pleasure of posting something to the list that is both timely and thought provoking.
Most of you may not qualify for the survey itself as you don?t work at a university, but the questions are quite interesting. If nothing else, please read the solicitation email below.
Dear Participant:
It is our pleasure to invite you to participate in our research called ?Survey of University Faculty Training Orientation and Mobility Specialists Concerning What Accommodations, Teaching Strategies, and Resources are Used for Students Who are Blind Taking Blindfold Cane Courses?. The purpose of the proposed study is to survey faculty of personnel preparation programs training O&M specialists concerning the identification of accommodations, teaching techniques and resources needed to teach students who are blind and enrolled in blindfold cane courses.
As a faculty member teaching blindfold cane courses, you are invited to participate in this research. If you have other O&M specialists teach your blindfold courses please distribute this survey URL to them. If you agree to participate, please go to the URL
https://educttu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4UaDwIYudYftheB
to complete an online survey. In this survey you will be asked to provide some basic demographic information (e.g., length of teaching, education). In addition, you are requested to provide information concerning the format of the cane class, the accommodations, teaching techniques and resources provided to students who are blind. This survey will take about 10-15 minutes of your time, and we will use the results for a research study. You can quit the survey any time simply by closing the survey window. We will not be able to identify you individually.
To show our appreciation for your participation, upon the completion of the online survey, you will be offered an opportunity to win a $50 gift certificate for Amazon in a random drawing. A total of two gift certificates will be given in this study.
For further information about this research, feel free to contact Dr. Nora Griffin-Shirley
(806-834-0225) at Texas Tech University's College of Education
n.griffin-shirley at ttu.edu
For information about the rights of research participants, you may also contact the Human Research Protection Program:
Office of the Vice President for Research,
Texas Tech University,
Lubbock, Texas 79409, or you can email your questions to www.hrpp at ttu.edu.or
Sincerely,
Nora
Nora Griffin-Shirley, Ph.D., Professor
Coordinator of O&M Program
Director
Virginia Murray Sowell Center for
Research and Education In Sensory Disabilities
Texas Tech University
Box 41071
Lubbock, TX 79409-1071
(806) 834-0225
(806) 742-2326 FAX
n.griffin-shirley at ttu.edu
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