[nfbwatlk] [Wcb-l] setback

[Dan Frye]

Kevin:

I rarely if ever presume to post to this list, instead preferring 
to simply observe and stay in touch with my friends and 
acquaintances in the blind community of Washington State in this 
way.  But your message so distressed me that I felt compelled to 
write in support of the outrage you are feeling.  Breaking one's 
wrist is a common enough occurrence for anybody, be he or she 
sighted or blind.  It, while regrettable and certainly painful, 
does not represent the end of independence or competence.  Your 
own determination as to your ability should have been respected 
by the OTC and DSB staff.  You are precisely right that in this 
environment, particularly, you should have been encouraged to 
identify alternatives to dealing with your situation.  The spirit 
you manifest is what a conscientious staff member or manager of a 
rehabilitation training center for adults should hope for in a 
student; their reaction is appalling and reflective, I fear, of 
the absence of belief in blind people that has long prevailed at 
the center.  Lip service to the contrary is often spouted by DSB 
and OTC managers, but ever since we worked jointly among the 
consumer organizations in Washington during the late nineties 
(both Carl Jarvis and I) to affect change, and those changes were 
summarily abandoned after our taskforce ceased to exist, my faith 
in the true commitment of the OTC to promote independence and 
self-confidence among their students has been severely tested.

I urge you to show some resolve, reaffirm your interest in 
continuing your training, and if your surgery now legitimately 
keeps you out for a few days, to share, at least, your feelings 
with the agency's Executive Director.  This anecdote is telling 
and troubling to say the least.  If any of the resolve you now 
show may be attributed to your brief stay at the OTC, good for 
their work, but I imagine that your desire to achieve successful 
outcomes is more the product of your fundamental character and 
less the product of their coaching.  Kevin, you are right to feel 
aggrieved.  You now have the obligation to turn your grievance 
into something tangible, a complaint based on principle.  If my 
reaction is offered without knowledge of a particular aspect to 
this story that should modify or temper my perspective, I am 
unaware of it.  I am open-minded enough to hear another side or 
opposing argument that could conceivably change my mind, but 
honestly, I would be hard-pressed to excuse a student for 
training who came to me, on his own initiative, suggesting that 
he would like to find alternative approaches to living with 
another temporary disability.  What should such a person, in a 
similar circumstance do, should such a person be faced with this 
instance when living his or her life outside of the safety of a 
training environment? Why should not a training environment be 
used to promote the independence that you wanted to exhibit 
instead of serving only to affirm the lowered expectations of 
society about the capacity of the blind to function despite the 
inconvenience of possessing another temporary disability? 
Liability is the biggest cop out of all and harms the blind much 
more than it helps us.  Don't let the lawyers and professionals 
persuade you to the contrary.

Good luck!

With Kind Regards,

Daniel B.  Frye
Office: (410) 659-9314, Ext 2208
Mobile: (410) 241-7006
Note: This message has been issued remotely from the Braille 
Note.

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Kevin LaRose" <kevin at kevinlarose.net
>To: <wcb-l at wcbinfo.org
>Date sent: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:35:19 -0700
>Subject: [Wcb-l] setback

>Up until last week, I was continuing to make great progress at 
the OTC.  We
>were just about to start doing mobility routes in the business 
district of
>Columbia City, and cooking was going to get interesting.  Last 
Wednesday,
>however, I suffered a setback.  I collided with a fellow student 
in the
>hallway, and I fell and broke my wrist.  I am having surgery to 
get it
>repaired on Wednesday at Swedish Hospital.  I was disappointed, 
to say the
>least, in how this incident was handled by the OTC staff.  I felt 
like I was
>capable of taking care of myself.  I was able to shower, dress 
myself, and
>even took out my garbage on one occasion.  However, the OTC 
director was
>convinced that I was not able to take care of myself and would be 
a
>potential liability.  We had a very discouraging talk Friday 
afternoon.
>Actually, it wasn't much of a two-way conversation.  The bottom 
line of the
>"discussion" was that I was told to leave the apartments and go 
back to my
>mom's until my surgery.  T ome, this felt like custodial 
treatment of the
>worst sort.  As I indicated earlier, I had already determined 
that there were
>things I could do using my one good hand; and I could probably 
have figured
>out strategies to make other tasks work as well, but they were 
not willing
>to even give me a chance.  I have been laboring under the 
impression that one
>of the major goals of this program was to foster independence.  
Their
>reaction to my accident makes me wonder if that commitment is 
fully there on
>their part.  If this is coming across rather harshly, it's 
because I cannot
>remember being angrier about anything for a long time.  Right now 
I am
>finding it hard to not question OTC's commitment to me and my 
success.  They
>certainly did not seem to show much confidence in me or my 
abilities in this
>instance.

>Thanks for reading, I just had to vent.


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