Keenan Cole

For this new blog entry, I found something very interesting.  The life of Keenan cole and some real life experiences, the idea came from one of my former student when they mentionned life experiences.  Keenan Cole a young man aged of 17 years old who has been blind since birth tells us how he has lived up to now.  It all started when he became active in the National Federation of the Blind, where he met some older men and women, role models, and gave him more confidence in his approach in life.  One main idea he remembers was when he had a biology class and had a lab to do,  the teacher told him he wouldn't be capable of doing it.  He accepted her opinion but when he went back to the NFB told his peers about it, they all told him that he should have done the experiement and gave him tips.  It made him feel great because he knew he had people to count on.  This comitee which helps these blind people to share and help each other was founded in 1940.  This organization was first made to "achieve greater security, opportunity and equality."  The Federation now has over 50 000 members and this part of the article was made in 1986.

 http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr6/Issue2/f060202.html

Not a disease

Even today, in 2011, there are still many stereotypes and prejudices related to visual impairments. Indeed, the main psychological barrier is that people are mostly afraid of being in contact with these individuals because they do not want to catch their ''disease'' since many's fear is that the loss of vision is contagious, so they simply (sometime unconsciously) prefer to avoid any kind of human contact with them. Therefore, this obvious kind of exclusion had mainly gradually created a minority group associated to the visual impairment. In addition, this lack of openness is still apparent even if there are many blind people who had accomplished great things, such as being employed, having books that have been published, raising children and playing music, such as George Shearing, one great jazz pianist who was blind from birth, who expressed an early musical aptitude by memorising songs that he heard on the radio and by reproducing them on the family's piano. In fact, many can accomplish wonderful things even if they cannot drive a car. Moreover, visually impaired ones use and develop much more their other senses than ordinary citizens, which can be perceived as a particular advantage on others. In addition, instead of judging people by their physical appearance, they see others with their heart which is unusual in today's society and may be seen as being remarkable. However, it is important to keep in mind that visually impaired ones also have feelings and dreams like the rest of the society.

(Picture 1: http://www.couleurgeek.fr/efoto/grippe-masque.jpg)

(Picture 2: http://www.jazzfm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/george-shearing.jpg)

Training center

I recently learned about the existence of an organisation founded in 1986, BLIND Incorporated, which is still mainly based on teaching blind people how to live a successful life as independent individuals. Indeed, BLIND, inc. helps severe visually impaired ones to deal with blindness and it acts as a training center where they become more aware of how to develop some skills and confidence in their everyday life. Most become more confident with learning how to read the Braille, with using a white cane, with learning how to manage their home and their schedule. Furthermore, there is a comprehensive program which lets blind students to integrate their theoretical knowledge (what they are learning in class) into everyone's everyday life. This leads to make them gaining experience and becoming more comfortable to deal with their blindness and the outside world. Indeed, the main objective is to make the students understand that their loss of vision does not have to become a barrier in their personal achievement towards a fullfilled life and to realize the level of their potential to accomplish alternative tasks that were initially associated to the requirement of sight. Moreover, on the BLIND, inc. web site, it is mentioned that even some members of the staff are blind who represents positive models to the students. In fact, the whole tutoring session is mainly done in order to help blind ones to gain self-assurance, independence, and then, an employment. On this web site, it is also declared that a recent study has estimated that 84% of the graduated obtain a job within a year of graduation. which clearly shows a certain progress in their work in eliminating the 70% unemployment of BLIND, inc. by offering a better quality of life from this minority group, and then, hope for blind people is much more perceived as being rational.

( Picture: http://www.brailleworks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/white-cane1.jpg)

Goalball

There is a sport for visual impaired people, this game is called goal ball.  It consists of three on three with a ball that contains bells in it for them to hear.  The goal of the game is to pass the ball behind the thrre players by rolling the ball either hard or soft depending the type of player.  One team is on the offense and having pass it to each other, then the defensive team can go on the offense.  The game is played in two halves, of five or seven minute halves.  This game is played in regional, national and international competition. 

http://www.recreationtherapy.com/tx/txblind.html

Fondation Mira

There are many ways in which visually impaired people are helped.  One of them is "Fondation Mira" which is here in Quebec.  This organization has been helping these people since October 21st 1981 when they presented there two first dogs.  This first step was a really nice start for these people who were happy of these new possibilities which will finally help people.  The mira fondation started with two categories of dogs which were the Labradors and Bouviers Bernois to finally have their own new race of dogs; labernois.  These specialized dogs help people and are educated through school to help these handicapped or visually impaired people.  Mira has gave over 2000 dogs and each dogs is worth about 30 000$ and has no government help.  Mira has many financial activities to auto-suffice.

http://www.mira.ca/fr/qui-sommes-nous-/3/historique_18.html

Braille system

As many may already know, the Braille system is a very important tool used by visually impaired people in order to express themselves, to learn and to increase their independency level. These achievements are mostly done through writing and reading a system of small raised dots, basically based on six dots numbered in a specific order, where each one or every combination of dots is associated to a letter of the alphabet. Gradually, it is used in many aspects of life, such as mathematics, music, literature, ect. Indeed, from the Canadian National Institute for the blind's web site, I recently learned where this significant invention came from. First of all, this creation had been made by Louis Braille, who was born in 1809, in Coupvray situated near Paris. His father was a shoemaker. One day, while Louis was playing in his father's atelier, he accidently poked his eye with a sharp tool mainly used to make holes in leather (called awl). After this incident, he was not able to see with his injured eye. Unfortunately, some time later, the infection spread in the other eye, which involved his entire loss of vision. Then, he went to an institute specialised for people having severe vision troubles, where it was not yet possible for the students to write; only to read from mentally bringing letters together, letters made by pressing shaped coppers wire onto a piece of paper. Later, Charles Barbier de la Serre tried to implant his French army system of night communication, but it was too complicated. However, Louis Braille inspired himself with the rejected invention, and then, he finally settled up his own system, and eventually published his method in 1829, called Braille. Then, today, his creation is known all across the world, not only by visually impaired ones, which is really great since it takes away some communication and knowledge barriers between people.

(Picture: http://www.item21.net/portal/images/stories/item21/Braille.jpg )

Human nature

To pursue the central idea of the previous post, the unequal approach towards visually impaired people is obviously present in our society. Many prefer to continue to believe speculations about individuals from this minority group instead of creating their own opinion through frequent exposures to them, and this, without earlier judgments. Insteed, this comportment reflects one of the aspects of human nature, where people often select a scapegoat, someone or a group that is not treated in the same way. In fact, many short story authors reveal human behaviours through figurative language. In Cathedral, written in 1983 by Raymond Carver, the prejudices of an ignorant guy towards a blind man are clearly noticeable. In this story, the man had formed his perception of his wife's friend by an accumulation of rumours from inaccurate sources. This reality is already shown as soon as the blind man arrives; the other character talked to himself and said that ¨his being blind borther (him, his) idea of blindness came from the movies (;) in the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed (and) sometimes, they were led by seeing-eye dogs (, then,) a blind man in (his) house was not someting (he) looked forward to ¨(77, The Art of the shorty story). Brief, this short story is another allusion to this problem, where the difference is not always accepted as well as it should since they are humans after all; they have the right to live and be respected. Furthermore, since 87% of the world's visually impaired live in the developing countries; the poorest and the most populated ones (estimated by World Health Organization), a large number of people may be categorized as being included in an additional minority group. As a result, when these individuals immigrate, they may certainly feel much more excluded and being under a certain control of a dominant group in terms of social status, education, employment, etc. Then, adding this further difference may seriously leads to a really worse quality of life.

(Picture: http://amarjyotitrust.org/ )