[nfbwatlk] Call for Accountability

Sat Oct 6 17:01:08 CDT 2007

    Wow! Thank you Mike for those very nice words about me!
I saw these posts and was dying to jump in. But I was hesitant to speak on
behalf of DSB since I am no longer an official employee. I am currently, as
Mike so kindly pointed out, providing services for DSB as an outside
contractor. I am covering a wide area of west Washington as far north as
Seattle. Unfortunately, I gave my job in Vancouver away so I don't get to
work close to home anymore (violins please). I was an employee for several
years previously. 

     Speaking as a non-employee with a close enough contact to observe the
agency, My understanding of DSB policy is to provide the best quality
services possible with the resources available. There is no need to pressure
DSB to "require prospective participants to go through an evaluation of
blindness skills" because DSB policy already has such a requirement. I'm
sure LouOma would be happy to explain the policy.

    My personal opinion of the evaluation process is that it provides an
insurance policy to ensure good service. The assessment of blindness skills
(by a non-counselor) creates an opportunity for a second opinion, from a
skills training expert, to ensure that the counselor has not missed any
training needs. I perform many of those assessments and I absolutely do
encourage Braille training to anyone who cannot read print easily.
Unfortunately it often takes considerable time to convince someone who is
slowly losing their vision of the need to learn Braille. While my
observation has been that DSB counselors generously provide whatever
training is needed or desired, they don't force anyone to accept unwanted
training (with the exception of those who choose to attend the OTC - I
believe they must attend all classes). OTC attendance is encouraged. For
those who cannot, or will not, attend the OTC itinerant services are
available (which is what I provide). Basically, we make house calls. But it
is not realistic to provide the same extensive service to everyone in the
state via house call as a teacher cannot be at everyone's house eight hours
per day, five days per week. Nevertheless, I have never been denied a
request to provide regular, ongoing, in-home training to those who want it
and participate responsibly. Those who attend the OTC will receive the full
meal deal and this is available to all.    

     I'd like to address the reference to Braille from a previous post:
"...As I wrote earlier on the list, I was dismayed at how one of the
counselors from our office views braille, and my concern on how that
negative attitude is being passed on to participants." (Joanne's response):
During assessments I have occasionally encountered people who told me that
they were informed by their counselor (or teacher or school) that they did
not need Braille or it was "too soon to learn." Those comments disturb me
greatly because I believe that anyone who struggles to read print or whose
vision is deteriorating is better off learning Braille now rather than
later. Fortunately, I've only heard of those comments coming from the mouth
of a DSB employee one time in the past nine-and-a-half-years. Many DSB
counselors seem to have a better-than-average grasp on the need for training
and I suspect we can thank LouOma for making that happen as she truly talks
to her employees in a service-oriented manner.

   I think some of the conflicting issues with counselors may stem from the
fact that counselors have received completely different university training
to do their job than I had to do my job. Counselors coordinate the whole
package but blind rehab counselors are not required to have the same
extensive exposure to the capabilities of blind people as I have received
(mostly I learned from you all). Counselors push a lot of paper and are
required to have excellent administration skills while teachers are out
there teaching and observing people skills. The counselor who is not
advocating Braille training might not be a bad counselor, but rather, an
uninformed one. The assessment that DSB requires for all new applicants
provides an opportunity for a teacher to correct any such misunderstandings.
(and I can assure you the person who made the "it's too soon to learn
Braille" comment to me received Braille training with the counselor's
blessings)! 

   I look forward to seeing you all at convention!        

Joanne Laurent
Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist
If you can't learn it, I'm not teaching it right!
www.blindcoach.com

Highest Expectations Travel and Adaptive Skills Instruction for the Blind
P.O. Box 586 Ariel, WA 98603
(360) 231-4597 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Mike Freeman
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 1:02 PM
To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Call for Accountability

Judy:

In fact, although I was not there, I understand that the rehabilitation
advisory council was rather exercised over what was perceived to be a lack
of enthusiasm for braille and Louoma has written me privately expressing a
willingness to work on ways to increase emphasis upon the usefulness of
braille as well as other alternative techniques.

In fact, there is an initial assessment that all prospective DSB clients are
suposed to take to determine what skills might be useful (we haven't gotten
to the point yet where DSB says if you're a client, you *must* take the
following courses ...). Perhaps Alco can help me out here as she was a DSB
counselor and RT at one time.

Lisa is, I suspect, correct in her opinion that your best bet if you need
skills training (most especially training in braille) is to attend the OTC
in Seattle (assuming you can't persuade your counselor to okay training at a
NFB-operated center). My impression is that skills training is hit-or-miss
at best if you do not live in Seattle. Here in Vancouver, at least, O&M
training is excellent in that Joanne Laurent contracts with DSB to do some
O&M; she is excellent; she is a member of our chapter and will be at the
convention. Elsewhere, I cannot say.

But even assuming that there is good skills training available, we still
have the problem of differences in philosophy between the two major
organizations of the blind as to the extent that *all* blind and visually
impaired clients should learn all the alternative techniques of blindness.
Those in ACB/WCB tend to be a little more lenient or less doctrinaire than
are we in that regard. This works itself out in DSB policies in having
excellent-sounding directives that are, in practice, often honored more in
the breach than in fact. (I'm specifically thinking of sleepshade policy
here but one can say much the same about other aspects of blindness skills
training.)

But even if skills training were always to be emphasized, I think it's a
fair question to ask whether such training is easily available around the
state. I presume that the answer should be obvious. What to do about it in
an age when the legislature won't even fund WTBBL up to par is a great
puzzle, if I do say so myself!

Mike

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Chris & Judy Jones
  To: Unknown
  Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 11:43 AM
  Subject: [nfbwatlk] Call for Accountability

  Greetings to all,

  I'd like some perspective on the following.

  As I wrote earlier on the list, I was dismayed at how one of the 
counselors from our office views braille, and my concern on how that 
negative attitude is being passed on to participants.  Is this attitude 
indicative of an agency-wide attitude in other service areas?

  There are agencies serving the blind that require prospective 
participants to go through an evaluation of blindness skills.  If they 
test out, -- fine.  If not, they need to go through braille, cane 
travel, etc. before receiving services.

  The Texas Commission For The Blind apparently has a program like this.

  Is there a way we can pressure this agency to step up their game?  Are 
these issues being worked on through the advisory council?  Remind me if 
we have any resolutions on the books to this effect.

  In a perfect world, it would be great to have an agency promoting a 
can-do philosophy across the board and mandate that employees do the 
same.

  Am looking forward to the feedback.

  Thanks.

  Judy

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