[nfb-talk] How to get Chapter members interested innfb literature

[T. Joseph Carter]

We had at least one Jumbo Braille Perkins at the Colorado Center for those
people who could not manage standard Braille.  We had several people at
the center who worked very hard just to feel the dots.

If blindness is your only disability, our training centers know exactly
what to do for you, particularly if you're younger.  When you add other
complications (other disabilities, diabetes, etc) into the mix, the things
that work change just a bit.

I don't know how well Nebraska adapts to that--they're not one of our
training centers, and I've not been there.  I've been told they generally
try to follow our model.  I don't know if that includes recognizing when
the model cannot be applied without alteration.

At the Colorado Center, the seniors program is very different from the ITP
intended for younger people for precisely those sorts of reasons.  Some
people there might as well be part of the ITP with a full day of classes
including travel, Braille, and industrial arts.  Others take just a few
things they find themselves needing and are happy enough with that.  You
get pretty much everything in between as well.  You are right, they do not
fit into a neat little box.  No way.

Joseph

On Sat, May 03, 2008 at 01:02:28PM -0500, Bonnie Ainsworth wrote:
> Another thing to consider is that some senior citizens who have gone through 
> the orientation centers are diabetic.  Some have no feeling in their fingers 
> and cannot read the regular Braille.  However, the person I'm remembering 
> has managed to read jumbo Braille.  That's not encouraged at the center in 
> Nebraska, but that was the only way this person learned to read.  While some 
> alternatives, even Braille, work for some people, but not necessarily for 
> all.  Where senior are concerned, they shouldn't be put into a box in my 
> opinion.