The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for content, style and space available. Opinions expressed are those of the authors, not those of the American Council of the Blind, its staff or elected officials. "The Braille Forum" is not responsible for the opinions expressed herein. We will not print letters unless you sign your name and give us your address.
Daniel Tijerina's Teacher talks about What She Has Learned from Daniel
My name is Jenny Barbee and I am a Creative Movement Specialist at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Preschool. I have been teaching Daniel Tijerina, a child who has retinopathy of prematurity, since August of last year.
In less than a school year I have seen major progress in Daniel's overall development. Mostly I work on fine and gross motor skills with him and the other children at the preschool. When I first started with Daniel I was a bit challenged because I had never worked with a child who was blind. It made me think more on a sensorial level. I also had to retrain myself on giving directions such as using more descriptive words to teach Daniel the skill or task that we were working on. Working with Daniel has made me a better teacher by showing me that children not only learn through sight but also through energy and communication.
As I started to get to know Daniel I began to notice his likes. He loves music with a good consistent beat. I found that he was more responsive and had more energy when I played music that had a fast tempo. Some of his favorites are The Beatles, Van Halen (with David Lee Roth on the vocals), Elvis, The Baha Men, Smash Mouth, disco music from various artists, and No Doubt.
When he began getting into the music and getting familiar with me he began to understand that when I came to his classroom that meant that he was going to be hearing music that he liked. After he made that connection with me and the music that is when I started to see Daniel spread his wings.
Daniel's alignment began to get a little straighter. His posture slowly started to lengthen, meaning that the muscles in his stomach were becoming stronger because of the upper body exercising that he does with me in his dance class and with his physical and occupational therapists.
Daniel's ability to transition, such as going from sitting to standing and standing to lying down, became more fluid. His spatial awareness got better, especially with pulling himself through the tunnel. When I first put him in the tunnel he would get very irritated and would almost cry. Now he feels the sides and taps the material and smiles while crawling out.
Daniel's fine motor skills have also developed beautifully. He has more dexterity in his fingers, therefore it is easier for him to hold onto and manipulate objects. We do a lot of squeezing and grasping of small objects such as squishy balls, cotton, and sponges. Before, he would just let the object fall to the ground, but now he is motivated to use his strength and push, pull, and squeeze. Right now we are working on squeezing objects to the beat of the music, which he is really doing a good job with.
Daniel's upper arms are stronger. He can open and close his arms and hands and claps without any assistance. Daniel's thighs are getting stronger. Once his leg is in the air he stomps it down to the floor. He can alternate after being prompted. Daniel's hamstrings are more flexible and it has gotten easier for him to bend and straighten his knees.
Daniel likes and understands having a result due to an action of movement. For example, when Daniel claps, the sound of his hands coming together lets him know that he has successfully completed a task. The bells on his shoes motivate him to kick and stomp because he is getting positive reinforcement every time he performs the task.
Daniel's cognitive development is amazing. He reacts to the music with smiles and bobs his head to the beat. He is fully aware of who I am and what dance class is. He is quicker with following directions and is ready to get his groove on from the moment I walk into the room and say, "Daniel, are you ready to dance?"
Working with Daniel has been a blessing. I have learned so many new avenues of teaching. I'm trying to be more sensorial with my teaching. My vocabulary has changed and now I am having the other children close their eyes while they perform certain dances. I'm having children do a little more listening and feeling versus always asking them to "Look." I am proud to have been part of Daniel's early childhood and look forward to all of the wonderful things he is going to accomplish in life, for he has already accomplished more than most.
-- Jenny Barbee, Creative Movement Specialist UNLV, Owner and
Operator of Dancing With Miss Jenny
A Positive Experience at the Olive Garden
Recently, I had a very positive experience at the Olive Garden in Fargo, N.D. that I want to share with someone at the ACB national office. I hope that when other restaurant owners learn about this positive experience from a blind consumer's point of view, steps might be taken to ensure that more blind or visually impaired consumers can have experiences as positive as mine at any restaurant where we choose to dine.
This past Saturday, my family and I chose to dine at the local Olive Garden, not expecting the experience to be as positive as it turned out to be. When I dine out with family or friends, I often have to have someone assist me with the menu because I cannot read print unless it is large or evenly spaced. I also cannot read cursive writing, which seems to be the case on more and more menus that I have seen recently.
Some weeks ago, I had learned that the Olive Garden was making a menu available on tape to its blind or visually impaired diners. Although this was not our main reason for choosing to go to this establishment, after what happened on Saturday night, the Olive Garden will definitely be my first choice for eating Italian food from now on.
My family arrived at the Olive Garden to discover that we would have to wait for a table for a significant length of time. In the meantime, Mom obtained menus for us to look at while we waited. I asked Mom to ask if the menu on cassette was available. To my great surprise, the restaurant's menu was also available in two additional formats: braille and large print.
Having independent access to a menu at an eating establishment made me feel less dependent on sighted family members to read the menu which, in turn, helped increase my confidence for that meal in general.
Thank you for taking the time to read about one experience of a satisfied visually impaired consumer. I hope that my experience helps other blind and visually impaired consumers to feel confident about asking for what they need at public places.
-- Alexis Read, Moorhead, Minn.
Regarding "What Is Employment?"
I teach the blind and visually impaired adult class in Auburn, Calif., and I read them the article that came out in the April 2002 Braille Forum: "What Is Employment? U.S. Department of Education Out of Step with Reality," by Christopher Gray. We loved the article. It was just so insightful and unusual and dealt with things we didn't know about. But one thing that I see a lot in these articles, and I'm wondering if you can help us out, is at the end it never tells us what we as the citizens can do. Who shall we contact, and what are the dates to contact someone so that this legislation can be passed? If this amendment has not been passed, perhaps we could e-mail or write to certain people. We need to know who the people are and where this is. We're just confused about the cut-off dates. Our group loves to write letters.
-- Kathleen Medley, Auburn, Calif.
Regarding the contents of Affiliate News and the Forum
Dear Editor:
In addition to all the work that goes into putting together programs for special-interest affiliates and committees of ACB, we do our best to inform ACB members through "The Braille Forum" in a timely manner so they can make decisions about attending convention programming. Traditionally, articles sent to "The Braille Forum" about convention programs appear as part of the convention information.
The convention is the centerpiece of what ACB does for its members and they need to know about what's happening at the convention in time to book travel and hustle their employers for support to come. By the time the pre-registration materials come out, it's almost too late to plan to attend if you didn't already intend to come. Committees and special-interest affiliates have excellent programs and hopefully, in the future, they can be archived and available through ACB Radio.
A number of us are very disappointed that the information has been relegated to the Affiliate News column. I didn't know that an ACB committee came under the heading of Affiliate News.
Why do some articles have a byline and some don't in Affiliate News? What can affiliates like Friends-in-Art do to have a separate article?
Many of us who are long-time hard-working ACBers are very discouraged.
-- Bernice Kandarian, Mountain View, Calif.
The Editor Replies
Dear Bernice,
I regret that you and others have found this departure from "tradition" a disappointment, and I appreciate your sharing your point of view.
Nonetheless, many of the convention-related articles (except for those in May, nearly the entirety of which was devoted to convention issues and events) have been posted amid Affiliate News items because they related to affiliates. Your point that the Women's Concerns Committee is not an affiliate, however, is certainly well taken.
My thinking in placing much of the convention-related material amid Affiliate News items was that the majority of our readers cannot attend the conventions. Therefore, it seemed to me that utilizing most of the magazine's space to talk about convention events is really quite unfair to these readers, who come to "The Braille Forum" for information that they can use. The pre-registration mailing, including the "Convention Scope," as well as the convention program and the convention newspaper and the dial-in news service all can inform convention attendees about events.
In addition, we do a convention issue of the Forum (this year, it will take the place of one of our monthly issues because of budget cuts), which also informs readers about what happened at convention and hopefully whets their appetites for attending future conventions.
As for bylines: If someone sends us an article which includes a byline, or talks in terms of first-person plans, we attempt to give that person a byline; if articles are submitted in a more generic way, then we don't utilize bylines.
Thanks for writing and telling me about your dissatisfaction as well as your suggestions, and for asking questions about the way we do things. "The Braille Forum" is, indeed, your forum, and we hope to make it as useful and informative as possible to ACB members and to blind people in general.
-- Penny Reeder, Editor
Regarding Access to Money
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am a nine-year-old going into the fourth grade. Recently, my family went to Chicago and I noticed two people who were blind and alone at a restaurant and was concerned how they would pay their bill. So, I am writing to ask you to help people who are blind.
There are many dishonest people in the world and I thought it would be a good idea if paper money was made in braille so that people who cannot see could tell the difference between $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills, etc.
I hope you think this is important too. Thanks for your help. If you could write back to me that would be great!
-- Dustin Guy, Richland Center, Wis.
cc: President & Mrs. Bush
Vice President & Mrs. Cheney
Secretary of Treasury O'Neill
National Council on Disability
The Editor Replies
Dear Dustin,
Thank you so much for being such a caring person and for writing to the American Council of the Blind and members of the Bush administration to express your concern about the inaccessibility of our currency. Our members, most of whom are blind or visually impaired, agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments you have expressed, and we recently filed suit with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, asking them to make changes in paper currency so that people who cannot identify the denominations of paper currency can have another way of accessing that information independently.
We will share your letter with others in the American Council of the Blind and with the attorney who is arguing our case.
-- Penny Reeder, Editor