Using the Name: The Vision-Centered Approach
Aloha everyone, I?m writing today to ask a question about the names we use for the other major approach to providing services to blind people. Since they are the majority and the dominant group, they create, maintain, and are served by the dominant narratives about blindness. They have the privilege of practicing with the same kind of default nod or primacy effect that an incumbent candidate receives in an election for public office when only a few of the voters are aware that they could do better. Sometimes, we call it the ?traditional? approach or the ?conventional? approach. We often end up defining what we do by stating how we differ from the conventional approach, but this way of talking and thinking about our identity as Structured Discovery practitioners still centers the other approach. There are many people, including a few in my family, who are perfectly happy to default to whatever it is that they perceive to be the most mainstream. It occurs to me that these people in my family all moved to suburban communities, too, so maybe it has something to do with trying to blend into the dominant groups in society. Perhaps it comes from conflict avoidance, where they?ll be less likely to face conflict if they?re doing whatever the default already is. Perhaps they think they?ll be able to extract some of the crumbs of power if they attach themselves to those who already have the most power to potentially give. Perhaps it is because they do not trust their own ability to know any better and assume that the masses must know what they?re doing. It could be any or all of these things, or it could be something else. In recent years, before and after he became our President, Mark Riccobono has discussed another name for an approach to working with blind people, which he has called the ?vision-centered? approach. I love this term and how he has constructed it. I?ve found it as early as his speech from a research conference that was transcribed in the very first issue of the Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, and I?ve heard him use the term at national convention every year since about 2017. To me, it seems that this term also describes that other approach that we often reference. If we start framing the two opposing approaches as the Vision-Centered approach and the Structured Discovery approach, this does not inherently skew toward either approach. ?Vision-Centered? gives the other approach a name that more clearly explains what it is. I don?t know how we get the practitioners of the Vision-Centered approach to adopt this name for what they do, but maybe we don?t need to. Maybe we need to start by naming this model that has been maintaining the marginalization of blind people and the Vision Industrial Complex. Borrowing wisdom from some other minority groups, we cannot wait for the master to give us the tools to dismantle his own house; we must name our opponents and make it easier for people to choose a path. Once aspiring professionals see two options: Structured Discovery or Vision-Centered, they can make a choice between those two options. This may create less bias than telling aspiring professionals that they can choose the conventional approach or the Structured Discovery approach. Sometimes, we can sit and think about ideas that sound good to us, which I have been doing with this. That doesn?t mean that it sounds good to others. To figure that out, I?m sending it to all of you to see what you think. What do you think? Mahalo, Justin PS: In case you?re interested in reading the earliest naming I know of the vision-centered approach, check it out here: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/jbir/jbir10/jbir010103.html Justin MH Salisbury, MEd, NOMC, NCRTB English Pronouns: he/him/his Phone: 808.797.8606 Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu
Hi Justin, I do not have a stance on what we should start calling the traditional or conventional model. I guess each Paradigm should name itself. I did want to call your attention back to Richard Mettler who coined the traditional model the Vision Paradigm way back in 1995. Sometimes called the visual model or vision Paradigm. This is not to take anything away from President Riccobono's use of the phrase, but our body of knowledge made this thesis almost 30 years ago, so I want the current discussion to acknowledge the historical context. Also, Back in 1984 Allan Dodds, in using the term Structured Discovery to describe our model made the statement "The whole mobility experience was much more in the vein of structured discovery learning, rather than the receiving of sighted wisdom at second hand. PG2" In other words, conventional or traditional O&M being synonymous with sight or vision has a long history. So, just food for thought Edward C. Bell, Ph.D., CRC, NOMC, Director, Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness Louisiana Tech University 600 Mayfield Ave / 210 Woodard Hall PO Box 3158 Ruston LA 71272 Office: 318.257.4554????????????????????? Fax: 318.257.2259 ebell at latech.edu? www.pdrib.com ************* "I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of? Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal? talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -- Stephen Jay Gould -----Original Message----- From: NOMC <nomc-bounces at lists.nbpcb.org> On Behalf Of Justin Salisbury Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2023 3:47 PM To: NOMC List <nomc at lists.nbpcb.org> Subject: [Nomc] Using the Name: The Vision-Centered Approach Aloha everyone, I?m writing today to ask a question about the names we use for the other major approach to providing services to blind people. Since they are the majority and the dominant group, they create, maintain, and are served by the dominant narratives about blindness. They have the privilege of practicing with the same kind of default nod or primacy effect that an incumbent candidate receives in an election for public office when only a few of the voters are aware that they could do better. Sometimes, we call it the ?traditional? approach or the ?conventional? approach. We often end up defining what we do by stating how we differ from the conventional approach, but this way of talking and thinking about our identity as Structured Discovery practitioners still centers the other approach. There are many people, including a few in my family, who are perfectly happy to default to whatever it is that they perceive to be the most mainstream. It occurs to me that these people in my family all moved to suburban communities, too, so maybe it has something to do with trying to blend into the dominant groups in society. Perhaps it comes from conflict avoidance, where they?ll be less likely to face conflict if they?re doing whatever the default already is. Perhaps they think they?ll be able to extract some of the crumbs of power if they attach themselves to those who already have the most power to potentially give. Perhaps it is because they do not trust their own ability to know any better and assume that the masses must know what they?re doing. It could be any or all of these things, or it could be something else. In recent years, before and after he became our President, Mark Riccobono has discussed another name for an approach to working with blind people, which he has called the ?vision-centered? approach. I love this term and how he has constructed it. I?ve found it as early as his speech from a research conference that was transcribed in the very first issue of the Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, and I?ve heard him use the term at national convention every year since about 2017. To me, it seems that this term also describes that other approach that we often reference. If we start framing the two opposing approaches as the Vision-Centered approach and the Structured Discovery approach, this does not inherently skew toward either approach. ?Vision-Centered? gives the other approach a name that more clearly explains what it is. I don?t know how we get the practitioners of the Vision-Centered approach to adopt this name for what they do, but maybe we don?t need to. Maybe we need to start by naming this model that has been maintaining the marginalization of blind people and the Vision Industrial Complex. Borrowing wisdom from some other minority groups, we cannot wait for the master to give us the tools to dismantle his own house; we must name our opponents and make it easier for people to choose a path. Once aspiring professionals see two options: Structured Discovery or Vision-Centered, they can make a choice between those two options. This may create less bias than telling aspiring professionals that they can choose the conventional approach or the Structured Discovery approach. Sometimes, we can sit and think about ideas that sound good to us, which I have been doing with this. That doesn?t mean that it sounds good to others. To figure that out, I?m sending it to all of you to see what you think. What do you think? Mahalo, Justin PS: In case you?re interested in reading the earliest naming I know of the vision-centered approach, check it out here: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/jbir/jbir10/jbir010103.html Justin MH Salisbury, MEd, NOMC, NCRTB English Pronouns: he/him/his Phone: 808.797.8606 Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu _______________________________________________ NOMC mailing list NOMC at lists.nbpcb.org http://lists.nbpcb.org/listinfo.cgi/nomc-nbpcb.org
Hello Justin, Just to give some context to the use of "Conventional" in reference to the vision based approach, this name was chosen at the time, rather than "Traditional," since Structured Discovery has a tradition as well, and as a formal methodology it is very close to being as long. Of course blind people have been teaching each other to travel for even longer that either formal approaches. Unlike the Conventional approach, our paradigm has been more given to evolution and innovation that is centered on the experience of the end user, where the Conventual approach has tended to make adaptions that seem more intended to preserve the paradigm, than to reflect the needs of the blind. Jeff -----Original Message----- From: NOMC <nomc-bounces at lists.nbpcb.org> On Behalf Of Edward Bell Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2023 4:15 PM To: 'Justin Salisbury' <PRESIDENT at alumni.ecu.edu>; 'NOMC List' <nomc at lists.nbpcb.org> Subject: Re: [Nomc] Using the Name: The Vision-Centered Approach Hi Justin, I do not have a stance on what we should start calling the traditional or conventional model. I guess each Paradigm should name itself. I did want to call your attention back to Richard Mettler who coined the traditional model the Vision Paradigm way back in 1995. Sometimes called the visual model or vision Paradigm. This is not to take anything away from President Riccobono's use of the phrase, but our body of knowledge made this thesis almost 30 years ago, so I want the current discussion to acknowledge the historical context. Also, Back in 1984 Allan Dodds, in using the term Structured Discovery to describe our model made the statement "The whole mobility experience was much more in the vein of structured discovery learning, rather than the receiving of sighted wisdom at second hand. PG2" In other words, conventional or traditional O&M being synonymous with sight or vision has a long history. So, just food for thought Edward C. Bell, Ph.D., CRC, NOMC, Director, Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness Louisiana Tech University 600 Mayfield Ave / 210 Woodard Hall PO Box 3158 Ruston LA 71272 Office: 318.257.4554 Fax: 318.257.2259 ebell at latech.edu http://www.pdrib.com/ ************* "I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -- Stephen Jay Gould -----Original Message----- From: NOMC <nomc-bounces at lists.nbpcb.org> On Behalf Of Justin Salisbury Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2023 3:47 PM To: NOMC List <nomc at lists.nbpcb.org> Subject: [Nomc] Using the Name: The Vision-Centered Approach Aloha everyone, I'm writing today to ask a question about the names we use for the other major approach to providing services to blind people. Since they are the majority and the dominant group, they create, maintain, and are served by the dominant narratives about blindness. They have the privilege of practicing with the same kind of default nod or primacy effect that an incumbent candidate receives in an election for public office when only a few of the voters are aware that they could do better. Sometimes, we call it the "traditional" approach or the "conventional" approach. We often end up defining what we do by stating how we differ from the conventional approach, but this way of talking and thinking about our identity as Structured Discovery practitioners still centers the other approach. There are many people, including a few in my family, who are perfectly happy to default to whatever it is that they perceive to be the most mainstream. It occurs to me that these people in my family all moved to suburban communities, too, so maybe it has something to do with trying to blend into the dominant groups in society. Perhaps it comes from conflict avoidance, where they'll be less likely to face conflict if they're doing whatever the default already is. Perhaps they think they'll be able to extract some of the crumbs of power if they attach themselves to those who already have the most power to potentially give. Perhaps it is because they do not trust their own ability to know any better and assume that the masses must know what they're doing. It could be any or all of these things, or it could be something else. In recent years, before and after he became our President, Mark Riccobono has discussed another name for an approach to working with blind people, which he has called the "vision-centered" approach. I love this term and how he has constructed it. I've found it as early as his speech from a research conference that was transcribed in the very first issue of the Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research, and I've heard him use the term at national convention every year since about 2017. To me, it seems that this term also describes that other approach that we often reference. If we start framing the two opposing approaches as the Vision-Centered approach and the Structured Discovery approach, this does not inherently skew toward either approach. "Vision-Centered" gives the other approach a name that more clearly explains what it is. I don't know how we get the practitioners of the Vision-Centered approach to adopt this name for what they do, but maybe we don't need to. Maybe we need to start by naming this model that has been maintaining the marginalization of blind people and the Vision Industrial Complex. Borrowing wisdom from some other minority groups, we cannot wait for the master to give us the tools to dismantle his own house; we must name our opponents and make it easier for people to choose a path. Once aspiring professionals see two options: Structured Discovery or Vision-Centered, they can make a choice between those two options. This may create less bias than telling aspiring professionals that they can choose the conventional approach or the Structured Discovery approach. Sometimes, we can sit and think about ideas that sound good to us, which I have been doing with this. That doesn't mean that it sounds good to others. To figure that out, I'm sending it to all of you to see what you think. What do you think? Mahalo, Justin PS: In case you're interested in reading the earliest naming I know of the vision-centered approach, check it out here: https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/jbir/jbir10/jbir010103.html Justin MH Salisbury, MEd, NOMC, NCRTB English Pronouns: he/him/his Phone: 808.797.8606 Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu _______________________________________________ NOMC mailing list NOMC at lists.nbpcb.org http://lists.nbpcb.org/listinfo.cgi/nomc-nbpcb.org _______________________________________________ NOMC mailing list NOMC at lists.nbpcb.org http://lists.nbpcb.org/listinfo.cgi/nomc-nbpcb.org
participants (3)
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ebell＠pdrib.com -
jeff.altman＠nebraska.gov -
PRESIDENT＠alumni.ecu.edu