National Federation of the Blind of
RESOLUTION 2006-3
Concerning the
WHEREAS,
The Orientation and
Adjustment Center operated by the Florida Division of Blind Services is
primarily for the purpose of assisting blind and visually impaired Floridians
to adjust their attitudes about blindness; and
WHEREAS,
There are centuries old
myths, misconceptions and stereotypes about blindness and the blind which have
become generally accepted by the public and by the blind themselves; and
WHEREAS,
These myths, misconceptions
and stereotypes result in limited expectations by both the public and the blind
themselves; and
WHEREAS,
The teaching of the various
skills of blindness such as Braille, cane travel, assistive technology,
etcetera are only a part of the training necessary to overcome these myths,
misconceptions and stereotypes; and
WHEREAS,
The acquisition of
blindness skills alone will not adequately prepare blind Floridians to succeed
in order to live a full and productive life as an active participant in
society; and
WHEREAS,
It is essential to
encourage blind Floridians to challenge the myths, misconceptions and stereotypes,
gain confidence through activities that challenge their own beliefs and stretch
their expectation; and
WHEREAS,
The Director of the
Division of Blind Services, Craig Kaiser, has set forth new policies for the
operation of the Orientation and Adjustment Center designed to focus on the
adjustment to blindness aspect of the residential rehabilitation experience
Now therefore BE IT
RESOLVED that
the National Federation of
the Blind of Florida assembled this 28th day of May, 2006, in the City of Orlando,
Florida endorses and supports the changes being implemented by Director Kiser
as embodied in the DBS document quoted below:
“Orientation
and Adjustment Center
May
1, 2006
1. Students enrolled in
the Orientation and Adjustment Center (general Rehabilitation track) will be
required to participate on a fulltime basis for an average period of six to
nine months. A six-month stay will
represent the minimum period of time that any student will be expected to participate
in this residential rehabilitation program.
2. Students enrolled in
the Orientation and Adjustment Center will participate in the full curriculum,
and will not be permitted to customize their program by excluding specific
courses in their Individualized Center Plan (ICP.) All students will take core courses in:
Braille; Orientation and Mobility; Key Boarding and Adaptive Technology; Home
Management; Personal Management, and Seminar Class. All students will be invited to select one optional
course to take for their personal growth and training. These optional courses will include: Arts and Crafts, Horticulture, tailored
Academic Instruction, or other course offerings that may be made available to
students from time-to-time.
3. Consideration will be
given to expanding periods of course instruction for classes in Orientation and
Mobility and Home Management. These
courses traditionally are better received with more time than the traditional
50-minute period.
4. Class instructors and
all center staff will emphasize problem solving, self-sufficiency, and
independence in all interactions with students.
Students, when faced with a question or challenge, will be encouraged to
engage in exploration and critical thinking to identify solutions to their
situations. Use of the Socratic method and basic principles of Structured Discovery theory
will be effective tools for facilitating this objective. In short, staff are
not to immediately offer help when it is requested, but are to encourage
students to seek answers to their own questions.
5. All students in
training at the Orientation and Adjustment Center are to carry the cane issued
by the agency with them at all times during their residential rehabilitation
program. This practice will positively
contribute to their increased independent travel skills and may also be useful
in helping students to acknowledge and cope with public identification as a
blind person and emotional acceptance of their limited sight. Similarly, blind agency staff members are
urged to carry a cane or use a dog when on duty. In addition to being necessary for safe
travel, it will serve as positive modeling for students who look to them for
role guidance.
6. Students enrolled in
the Orientation and
7. No student enrolled
at the orientation and Adjustment Center may use Sighted Guide" technique
for traveling, either on or off campus in relation to all formally sponsored
instruction, once they have been issued a cane and given a brief orientation to
the training campus.
8. In an effort to
foster greater student independence and initiative, the cafeteria at the
Orientation and Adjustment Center will only provide sandwich and salad bars
every evening making it necessary that students wanting a full hot meal use
their developing mobility skills to leave campus and acquire their evening
meal. Students will be encouraged to use
this opportunity to practice bus or taxi travel, to function independently in a
public restaurant, and to develop healthy relations by offering support to one
another. Additional maintenance will be
provided to cover such costs. Staff will
not provide shopping trips for students.
Students will be provided information regarding public transportation
and location of malls, stores, etc.
9. Extracurricular
programs will be established within fiscal constraints to stretch and challenge
enrolled students at the Orientation and Adjustment Center. Some of these programs may include camping,
skiing, or other spontaneous events that require students to practice their
skills and build their self-confidence by performing tasks that they traditionally
believe a person cannot independently manage with non-visual techniques.
10. All students will
participate in regularly scheduled seminar" or "philosophy"
classes calculated to stimulate student reflection and understanding of the
emotional and social issues/barriers faced by blind people living in the
everyday world. Such sessions, at a
minimum, should occur once a week, but gradually the frequency of these classes
should increase to at least two days per week.
11. All students with
residual sight will participate in formal classes and organized extracurricular
activities under Vision occluders.
Outside of the scheduled class day (8:00 AM-4:30 PM) and occasionally
planned extracurricular activities, students may function without their Vision
occluders. This policy is designed to
enable students of the Orientation and Adjustment Center to build confidence in
performing daily activities using non-visual techniques. It is not a policy calculated to minimize the
value of ones residual vision where such sight can be efficiently used, but is
instead used in training to create an optimal environment for practicing one's
non-visual skill development. Once it
has been determined that a particular student has thoroughly mastered use of
non-visual techniques, students with useful residual vision may spend their
last several weeks in training without Vision occluders to practice low-vision
techniques, e.g. use of Zoomtext, etc.
Every effort will be made to minimize student apprehension, which may
arise when vision occluder use is originally introduced. Minor exceptions to this policy may be
adopted at the discretion of the Administrator of the Orientation and
Adjustment Center to accommodate students with unique circumstances. The intention, though, is that the vision
occluder policy will be enforced with relative uniformity and consistency. After an evaluation by the Administrator or
his/her designee at the Orientation and Training Center, decisions will be
reached as to the appropriate tool to use to achieve visual occlusion. During the initial student evaluation,
students may be assessed without Vision occluders, but if it is determined that
their vision is sufficiently poor to remain in the program for training, these
students will be advised of, and subject to, this vision occlusion policy. Following sufficient training, class
instructors should teach under Vision occluders to demonstrate the efficacy of
non-visual approaches where this will encourage their students to embrace this
training practice.
12. In light of the
extended enrollment obligation, eligible students will be afforded longer
access to the four existing student apartments for practicing their independent
living skills (e.g. cooking, cleaning, and other home management techniques)
before graduating.
13. New staff employed to
work at the Orientation and Adjustment Center will undergo training as a fully
immersed student for a period of at least three months before they commence
their formal teaching responsibilities.
These new hires will take all courses and participate in training
activities under the same terms and conditions required of all students, e.g.
vision occlusion and cane usage. A
procedure for an abbreviated training of this nature will also be developed for
new hires throughout the agency that are not specifically assigned to work in
the Orientation and Adjustment Center.
Provision will also be made, on an on-going and staggered basis, to
expose existing agency staff to such blindness orientation training. The Administrator of the Orientation and
Adjustment Center will possess the discretion to amend or implement this policy
to take account of any unanticipated operational exigencies.”