Be My Eyes

Most sighted people believe that blind people need a lot of help.What do you believe about blindness? How do you feel about blindness and the blind child you will be working with everyday? Do blind people need a lot of help? Are blind people limited in certain ways? Can blind people know as much as sighted people? Can they be competitive? Is blindness a tragedy? Do blind people need compassion?

Teachers and teachers' aides who adopt this goal of self-sufficiency will expect their blind students to participate fully and independently in the class. To achieve this goal they will:

• Keep expectations high.
•  Provide the same or equivalent information, experience, and education for the blind child as for the sighted children in the class.
•  Build in the expectation, the instruction, and the practice time for independence in all areas-academic, social, and personal.
•  The classroom teacher will assume the same responsibility for the education of the blind child as he or she assumes for the education of the sighted children in the room, i.e. speak directly to the child at all times, grade the child's papers, know the child's work, interact with the child daily, discipline the child, and so forth.
•  Understand and respect the alternative skills the child will be learning, i.e. the use of Braille, cane, sound, touch, memory, various special tools, and so forth.

After you work with a blind child for even a little while, you will probably find these simple adaptations have become second nature to you. Many classroom teachers report that they enrich the classroom experience for all the children. Here are some specifics:

1.  Be more verbal. Verbal description will help the child interpret what is going on in the classroom.

• Use names when calling on children.
• Provide precise verbal description in place of vague statements and/or motions when modeling an action. "Fold the paper lengthwise" instead of "Fold the paper like this."
• Explain your routine a bit to help the blind child interpret situations which he/she cannot see. "I'm so glad you're all being quiet as I get the snack ready."
• Verbalize what you write on the board or on overheads; spell out words when appropriate

      2.  Help the child learn the workings of the classroom. Blind children in the early grades, like all children, have much to learn about classroom routine. You may need to teach the child:

• to focus on the teacher;
  
• to respond quickly to instructions;
• how to respond (raising the hand, answering aloud, answering in unison, etc.);
• when and where to move in the classroom.

   3. Organize the child's desk area and materials storage area for maximum independence.
   4. Adapt materials or parts of the lesson when necessary. 
   5. Provide hands-on opportunities. These will make experiences more meaningful for the blind child.
Blind people are a cross section of humanity-that there are tall ones and short ones, bright ones and not-so-bright ones, very dear people and pretty obnoxious people.  That blind people are just like everyone else. There is no one "blind personality," no "psychology of blindness."

 We have a blind mathematician, lawyer, college professor, industrial arts teacher, elementary school teacher, NASA engineer, chef, car body mechanic, transmission mechanic,Foreign Service Officer, triathlete, and a man who sailed solo in a race from San Francisco to Hawaii, twice, and came in third!
And here i like drawing attention on my "Jeb Janine" village in where we have a blind girl who's got a master's degree in mathematics.

 We (parents and teachers) need to have high expectations, provide good training and education, and keep all the doors of opportunity open for our blind children. I know that blindness certainly does not have to stop a person from accomplishing goals and fulfilling dreams.

 Our job as adults is to assist the children in becoming independent, self-sufficient, competent adults who will have a job, a family, friends, options for leisure time, and the ability to go where they want to go when they want to go there.