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Blind Citizens Australia: the united voice of blind and vision impaired Australians. Our mission is to achieve equity and equality by our empowerment, by promoting positive community attitudes, and by striving for high quality and accessible services which meet our needs.
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Large Print ISSN 1441-449X
Braille ISSN 1441-5658,
Cassette ISSN 1441-564X
Lynne Davis
It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in this same place writing the introduction for the first issue of 1999 - how time flies by! Before we have a chance to blink, the year will be ending and with it the century and the millennium. From my conversations with many people, it seems that there is an increasing awareness of the possible consequences in all our lives of the Year 2000 computer problems. It doesn't look as though the planes will be crowded with passengers next New Year's Day!
Being a bit more parochial for a moment, Sydneysiders are reminded in many ways that next year will also see their city becoming the host for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. A great deal of work has been done already to make the Olympic sites universally accessible, and a number of people from Blind Citizens Australia have been involved in this work. As the time for the Games gets closer, construction work on many of the venues is completed and the focus is now shifting to ensuring that the operational aspect of the Games is also accessible. For blind people, a big issue will be whether we can get access to the same information about the Games as everyone else, both in the lead-up to the Games and while they are in progress. Not that I'm suggesting this is more important than access to any other information (I'm not very interested personally, and hope to be on the other side of the world while the Games are on) - but I think the Games offer a unique opportunity to influence planners, policy-makers, providers and the public, and to expand the definition of 'access' beyond a narrow focus on wheelchairs.
The feverish pre-Olympic activity is not confined to Homebush Bay, however. It seems as though every building in the Central Business District of Sydney is being refurbished and the city is a hostile environment for vision impaired pedestrians. I wish that the City of Sydney could take a leaf out of Brisbane's book (see Ivan Peterson's article in this issue) and make an effort to communicate regularly with its blind citizens about changes to the city streets and traffic.
Well, enough on that subject for now. There is lots more of interest in this issue: an article about adults learning Braille (written by three people who have done just that), a challenge to rethink the practice of blindfolding sighted people to give them an understanding of blindness, reports on two recent anti-discrimination cases in which BCA advocated on behalf of blind people, and much more. I hope you find something to interest you, and perhaps you will even feel inspired to put pen (or Perkins) to paper in response.
I've really enjoyed hearing from all the people who've taken the time to
let me know what they think of the newsletter. It's very important to have
this feedback, because the News belongs to all of us. To make the News a
truly national enterprise, I'd particularly welcome comments and
contributions from those parts of Australia we haven't heard so much from as
yet - Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern
Territory. How about it?
I do thank and congratulate you on your fine editorship of Blind Citizens Australia's newsletter. It is a good read as well as conveying valuable information.
Kevin Rowley
thank you for your splendid article ["A Tenuous Grasp of the Miracle", February 1999]. Your highlighting of the depression that inevitably follows sight loss caused me to remember that for six years after I lost my reading sight I would not / could not bring myself to use a talking book machine. I was too angry, too horrified that I had to rely on the vagaries of technology. I am, after all, technology phobic, still.
I am going to campaign for your tutoring proposal at RVIB where I am on the Client Services Committee. I would have written this to you on tape but each of my cassette machines has a problem at the moment. My phobia about machines and tapes breaking down is not entirely in my mind!
Carolyn Maclean
Victoria
I would like to share some thoughts on the interactions between the effects of childhood abuse and the effects of disability because I haven't, so far, found anything written on this topic and because I believe it will help some people to feel less isolated.
Child sexual abuse is receiving increasing media coverage. It seems that at least one in four adults carry this damaging legacy, and there is some evidence that the proportions amongst disabled groups are slightly higher.
People with disabilities often feel quite isolated, coping with anger, sadness and loss which they find hard to share with non-disabled people. It is interesting to me that survivors of child sexual abuse have the same struggles. People with either problem are afraid that if they share the true extent of their inner turmoil other people will react with hostility, or with ignorance and a 'cheer up, be strong' attitude which blocks, even deliberately discredits, the true extent of their feelings. Or simply that other people will be saddened and not have the inner resources to cope with the strong emotions that such disclosures tend to bring up in people. A disabled person who hides a painfully embarrassing incident behind humorous bravado has a lot in common with a child who hides the night time fear of his/her abuser behind daylight cheerfulness and athletic prowess.
For myself, I don't see any difference between the anger and the almost driven desire for social improvement I experience when my needs as a disabled person aren't met and my angry rejection of a society which has acted to protect perpetrators by its unwillingness to accept that some of its superficially decent upstanding citizens can have such little regard for children's feelings and rights.
I was sexually abused in two contexts during my childhood and adolescence. I also experienced some physical and emotional abuse from care givers when I was young. This abuse has had many effects in the short time I have been an adult. I am pretty certain it has caused depressions which were, at one stage, bad enough to warrant hospitalisation and it has contributed to low self esteem.
It is common for children who have been abused to end up blaming themselves. Because the idea that they could live in an unpredictable world which could inflict acts of violence upon them is too threatening for most young children, they attempt to take responsibility for other people's actions.
The difficulty I experience is that it's not just myself I have blamed. Even now that I can see them as lies the conclusions that often jump into my mind include 'If I wasn't blind this wouldn't have happened to me' or 'I'm blind, that must make me unbelievably ugly and dirty for him to treat me like this'. I believe that there were times my mind subconsciously jumped to the conclusion that even the blindness itself must, somehow, have been my fault. I felt that having a disability which often placed demands on other people made me a selfish, and even a very cruel little girl.
Most people with a disability feel somehow different from other people and 'feeling different' has also been listed as a symptom common among survivors of child abuse. The interaction of these effects has made me feel isolated and often very frightened.
I wanted to share this part of my story in the hope that others who have had similar experiences will begin to understand them better. Healing will take time, energy and mistakes but I'm beginning to believe it will be worthwhile.
Jessica Richards
New South Wales
Bill Jolley
There are many things happening in Australia which are important to blind people. These are both within Blind Citizens Australia and in connection with blindness agencies and the wider community. In this article I will give you information about some important developments; but please contact Councillors and Branch Leaders to get up-to-date information, and be sure to catch our other information outlets like the SoundAbout magazines, the Horizons program and the Web page. This article covers staff changes, DDA developments, the Fifth WBU General Assembly in Melbourne, the 1999 National Convention and the BCA Identity Card.
Sadly, I must begin this article with yet another apology to Braille readers. You will have received your last edition of Blind Citizens News more than a month after everyone else; and when you got it, if it was anything like mine, it was rather a mess. Bruce Maguire does the Braille formatting for Blind Citizens News, and since he handed the file in for embossing in the third week of February, it was pretty poor form that copies did not arrive until late April and early May. My copy, for example, and I know that some others had the same experience, had pages in the order: one, blank, three, two, five, four, etc. I know why this happened, but the explanation is not relevant here. I complained to the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children about the time delay, not knowing then about the collation problem. I appreciate the Institute's gesture to waive the account, but that doesn't make up for the untimely delay for Braille readers nor for the inconvenience of the pages being out of order. I hope that the Institute will keep its promise to lift its game and do better next time.
Staff
Nina Yacoub has joined the staff of BCA as Administration Assistant. You will probably speak to Nina when you call the office, for she is the main person to answer the telephone these days. We congratulate Nina on her recent engagement. Nina is a very modern young woman, she met her boyfriend on the Internet. We wish Nina a happy term of employment with BCA, and we also hope that she will be very happy and fulfilled in her personal life.
Sandra Knight's role has changed, with a promotion to Projects Administrator and Office Manager. Cheryl Gration is working two days per week as Administration Officer. She is returning to good health, after a difficult time early in the year.
In this edition of Blind Citizens News we have articles on National Advocacy and National Policy from Aileen McFadzean and Ivan Peterson. The work that they have been doing has been very important and successful, improving the situation of blind people throughout Australia. I expect that they will both have matters for follow-up later in the year. Also, we will want to hear from Rose Ross and Elizabeth Casling who lead the work on DDA Standards and Telecommunications & Disability Consumer Representation. There are important developments happening in relation to both of these projects which BCA leads on behalf of the wider disability community.
Meanwhile, Maryanne Diamond has settled in well. She has just completed a series of five regional forums in rural Victoria. Maryanne reports that the usual issues emerged: access to the built environment and to community services, lack of public transport and peer support, and the need for better information about services and benefits. Robert Mascitti continues to work as our finance officer and computer system administrator, and it is interesting to look back from year to year to see how our dependence on computers is growing. The final member of our staff, and she deserves a mention too, is Tran Dan Phuong in Vietnam. Phuong assists with interpreting and administration for the BCA/VBA Braille Literacy Teacher-Training Program. Since 1994 we have assisted in the training of 125 teachers, who have since taught Braille to more than 1000 blind people.
DDA Standards
We received good news in April that the Commonwealth Government has decided to sponsor an amendment to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) to allow for the making of a Disability Standard on access to public buildings. This gives a more concrete goal to the difficult and complex work of reviewing the Building Code of Australia and the Australian Standard AS1428 to bring them into line with the objects and provisions of the DDA.
Congratulations to our National Policy Officer, Ivan Peterson, who now chairs the sub-committee ME/64.1 which is revising the Australian Standard for Tactile Ground Surface Indicators. Ivan has also recently been appointed as the representative of blind people to the parent committee ME/64 of Standards Australia which is revising the Australian Standard AS1428 on accessible premises for persons with disabilities.
There were celebrations in Adelaide on Friday April 30, following the decision of the Australian Transport Council (ATC) to recommend adoption of the Draft Standard for Accessible Public Transport as a Disability Standard under the DDA. The ATC is the Council of Commonwealth, State and Territory Transport Ministers. ATC accepted the Draft Accessible Transport Standard in June 1996 as a technically feasible standards document, and since that time there has been a detailed and drawn out process to develop a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS). The ATC has adopted the Draft Standard with the recommendation that some exemptions be provided for dedicated school buses, chartered buses and open-water ferries. None of these exemptions are important, in practice, to people who are blind or vision impaired.
I want to congratulate the representatives of people with disabilities who have worked so hard in developing and negotiating the DDA Accessible Public Transport Standard. The DDA Standards Project was represented by Maurice Corcoran and Kevin Murfitt. Other significant contributors were Margo Hodge and Angus Downie. Our Project Officer, Rose Ross, also made a major contribution, and she should joyfully participate in the celebrations that herald the inclusion of people with disabilities among the customer base of public transport providers throughout Australia.
There are a couple of legal issues to be tidied up concerning the process for application and approval of blanket exemptions, and the New South Wales and Tasmanian Governments have conditioned their approval of the Standards on the Commonwealth Government funding their implementation. We hope to have a DDA Transport Standard through the Commonwealth Parliament by the end of the year.
We became aware in February that the Attorney General proposed to provide eight State Laws for exemption from the DDA. This would mean that an act done in strict compliance with such an Act, albeit that it may be discriminatory in itself, would not be considered as unlawful under the DDA. We were alarmed to find that the Food Services Regulations under the Health Act in NSW had been included. We acted quickly, advising that such prescription may deny the right of entry by blind persons accompanied by their dog guides to restaurants, delis, take-away food places, food courts or even aeroplanes - wherever food is served. We are pleased that our concerns were heard and that particular Regulation was withdrawn from the package, pending proper scoping of the exemption provision so as not to deny the right of access by blind persons with their dog guides.
Meanwhile, there has been a discussion paper circulated on the matter of the right of access by persons with disabilities when accompanied by a service animal. Of course we do not want to deny the right of assistance and access to persons with disabilities who are not blind who may use service animals, but we have been clear and strong in our submission that service animals must be properly trained by an accredited individual or institution. This is a very important matter, because a community backlash to a generously framed provision in the law, as at present, could ultimately lead to sharply reduced rights of access by blind persons with their dog guides. Of course we advised the dog guide training associations of this public debate, but unfortunately they showed little interest and we were left to defend the rights of blind people by ourselves. Thanks to Aileen McFadzean, with advice from some dog guide users, I'm sure that we did a good job of that!
WBU Fifth General Assembly
Early May witnessed the visit of leaders of the World Blind Union to Melbourne to plan for and launch the staging of the Fifth General Assembly of the World Blind Union in Melbourne in November 2000. The General Assembly, welcoming 800 participants from 140 countries, will be accompanied by a display of assistive technology for blind people, and will be preceded by the Second World Blind Women's Forum and the First World Blindness Services Management Symposium.
The visitors were WBU President Euclid Herie from Canada, First Vice-President Kicki Nordstrom from Sweden, Second Vice-President William Rowland from South Africa, Secretary General Pedro Zurita from Spain, Treasurer Geoff Gibbs from New Zealand and East Asia Pacific Regional President Grace Chan from China Hong Kong. Fred Schroeder, Commissioner for Rehabilitation in the United States Clinton Administration, was also present for a planning meeting of the International Program Committee. The visit was highlighted by a reception given by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Councillor Peter Costigan, and included visits by the President to Canberra and Sydney.
The Fifth General Assembly of the World Blind Union will be held at the Melbourne Town Hall, November 20-24 2000. It will be preceded by the Second Blind Women's Forum on November 16-18, to be held concurrently with the first World Blindness Services Management Symposium. Starting on Sunday November 19 there will be an exhibition of assistive technology products. Next year there will not be a separate National Convention of Blind Citizens Australia. The Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday morning November 19, and blind people from Australia will be enabled and encouraged to attend the Women's Forum and General Assembly as observers.
The General Assembly and associated events are being organised by Blind Citizens Australia in association with partner organisations. The Host Executive Committee is chaired by WBU Immediate Past President David Blyth, and John Simpson has been appointed as Event Organiser. Partner organisations are Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind, Vision Australia Foundation, Royal Blind Society and Guide Dogs Association of Victoria. Between them, they have pledged $175000 to underwrite the costs of staging the event. This is a once in a life time opportunity for blind people in Australia and for the blindness agencies, and we will work very hard to make the event successful and widely beneficial. Already we have planned for coverage over the radio and the internet that will ensure that the proceedings of the General Assembly and its Women's Forum are delivered to blind people in their homes throughout Australia. We look forward to making it a truly great and memorable occasion, one of high enrichment and lasting benefit to blind people throughout Australia.
Blind Citizens National Convention
The Blind Citizens National Convention for 1999 will be held in Brisbane during October 15-17. It will be held at the Gazebo Hotel, 345 Wickham Terrace Brisbane. We have negotiated a very favourable rate of $60 per night per room, with $10 for breakfast. The Convention registration is $150 including the dinner. This year we will hold the dinner on the evening of October 15, as a joint celebration with the Queensland White Cane Committee, celebrating October 15 as International White Cane Day.
We will precede the Convention with a two-day Horizons Seminar for staff of blindness agencies as well as a one-day forum hosted by the National Women's Branch. We hope to have a display of assistive technology, including low-tech and high-tech assistive devices.
Once again we will encourage the participation of young people through the Leadership 2000 program, and we will present the BCA David Blyth Award and the Certificates of Appreciation. The Convention notices will be sent out in August.
Identity Card
The Blind Citizens Australia Identity Card is now available. It is worth twenty-five points as proof of identity for financial transactions. It will be accepted as photo-ID at times such as collecting plane tickets or entering a mobile phone contract. The Blind Citizens Australia Identity Card includes your name, address, signature, date of birth and photograph. It is available to BCA members by completion of the application form and payment of twenty dollars. Already we have issued more than 100 cards and the applications keep on coming in. Please be sure to provide all the information, including giving us a signed photograph, otherwise the form must be returned to you for completion.
We have started work on the Non-Driver's Identity Card for people who are
not legally blind. We hope to start issuing these cards by the end of the
year. They will carry similar information to the BCA Identity Card, but they
cannot be used to infer entitlement to benefits on account of blindness or
vision impairment.
How would you feel about winning a $15,000 shopping spree at Grace Bros, Harvey Norman or Harvey World Travel? This is just one of the great prizes in BCA's current Lottery which will be drawn on 30 June. Tickets are just $5 each and are available in books of five tickets for $25 per book. Take a book and be in the draw with five chances to win $20,000 worth of prizes.
You can also help out and earn money by becoming a seller in the Lottery.
For more information or to purchase tickets call BCA's national office on
1800-033-660 or email
lottery@bca.org.au.
Lynne Davis, Helen Merrin & Eddie Solomon
Lynne's Story
When I was first diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, the initial reaction of many people (family, friends and acquaintances) was to ask if I was going to learn Braille. In marked contrast, no medical or rehabilitation professional ever raised this issue with me. Indeed, when I raised the subject myself, one rehabilitation worker informed me that Braille was an outmoded system, which had been supplanted by modern technologies such as the tape recorder and the personal computer. When I began to spend time with blind people, though, I discovered that this was not a view which they shared. They valued their Braille literacy very highly, seeing it as being complemented but not supplanted by the new technologies. How, for instance, could one learn to write, and to spell, if one's only contact with the language was auditory? How could one learn to appreciate the power, the structure, and the beauty of language in its written, as well as spoken, form? How could one read unobtrusively, anywhere and at any time, especially in public situations? Imagine the uproar if it was to be suggested that these were no longer important goals of the school system, if it were suggested that schools get rid of their books and replace them with new technologies ?
Mostly, though, the arguments around the importance of Braille literacy were focussed on children's learning. What I really wanted to know was about the place of Braille in the lives of people who lose their sight in adulthood. People, that is, who are already literate but have lost the ability to read print. I found it very difficult to tap into discussions of this subject - and hence the seeds of this article were sown.
In the end, I went ahead and enrolled in a Braille class for adults, without the benefit of much advice or information but with a firm conviction that if I could learn this new way of reading and writing it would enable me to do some things I valued highly. I had gained the impression that Braille learning posed too much of a challenge for adults, the amount of effort required outweighing any benefits one could hope to gain, so I wasn't entirely confident that this venture was going to succeed!
One year later I have completed my Grade 2 Braille course. The students in my class still meet weekly in a Braille peer support group, as we all recognise that our new skills are pretty fragile - you could say our motto is "use it or lose it". I'm still a very slow reader, but I know that this is definitely something which will improve with practice. I'm not so sure about my memory, though. I find it very frustrating to realise how easily I once would have remembered this new code, and how hard it is to make things stick these days. Strangely enough, this wasn't the way I'd expected things to be. My big worries were about whether my fingers, having weathered half a century of wear and tear, would be able to feel the dots. As it happens, this hasn't been much of an issue at all.
I enjoy writing Braille, and it gives me a lot of pleasure to be able to send and receive letters to and from blind friends and colleagues. For me, learning is always easiest when the content is meaningful, so I much prefer my personal correspondence to the meaninglessness of classroom exercises. I get a real thrill out of being able to read in the dark, or under the table.
I don't know why, since I'm free to read when and where I choose - I think it must be a throwback to the forbidden delights of childhood! But I'm incensed about the costs of Braille writing: Braille paper costs vastly more than ordinary writing paper, and the Perkins Brailler ( the Braille equivalent of the ballpoint pen, really) costs between $800 and $1300! Blind children may acquire their Braillers as part of their schooling, but, apart from short-term loan schemes, adults must purchase their own. What is the point of learning to write if you can't afford writing implements?
I was also surprised to learn that Grade 2 Braille is taught to adults in only a few centres in Australia - what happens, I wonder, to people who don't live in those centres (most of the population)? Even though I'm one of the privileged few who have access to these classes, it isn't easy access. Classes in Sydney are held in only one location (an hour's travel in each direction by train and bus from my home), and only on weekdays. I had to wait until I left the workforce before I could enrol in the Braille class!
Among the adults I met while attending classes, there were many different reasons for learning Braille and, as a result, many different goals to attain. In my own case, my particular goal was to be able to speak in public from Braille notes - a goal I think I will eventually attain. I was saddened to meet a number of people who, as children with low vision, had neither been taught Braille nor become print literate (what an indictment of our education system). Their principal goal was to achieve the literacy they had been denied as children, and to obtain educational qualifications. There are many different stories among the people learning Braille as adults: here are just three of them.
Helen's Story
My teaching days began in the primary schools. Within this setting I often explored with children the exciting worlds of music and literature, and was always stimulated by their creativity and desire to test their own limits. During the 1970's, when teaching at the local Catholic primary school in Wahroonga, Sydney, I first met children who had severe vision loss. These were the pupils of St Lucy's, next door to my own school. "Walking in another person's moccasins" has always held a fascination for me, and during those years I often wondered how people who were blind saw the world. What did a cloud look like? How did they perceive beauty, colour?
Putting on a blindfold was absolutely no use for I had my visual memory to fall back on. I found myself often asking questions and being really keen to learn what it was like. Little did I know the future in store for me! Any fear that I may have had about the disability of blindness was dispelled during these years as I mingled with blind and vision impaired children and adults who had such a zest for living.
When some time later I returned to teach at St Lucy's I was challenged as never before. How to keep up with the children's questions and their thirst for learning? I found it important to read Braille as most of the children in my classes were Braille students and so I ploughed through the Braille Primer and sat for the exam for Braille transcribers. Of course I read Braille with my eyes, why not?
When I left St Lucy's a few years later for a further study opportunity I was determined not to forget Braille. I took with me a Perkins (this was in the pre-computer age), writing letters to former students and transcribing children's books. During lectures I found myself writing Braille contractions in the print notes - a form of printed Braille shorthand!
My personal encounter with blindness came in 1994 when, during an art weekend workshop, I found I could not see well - it was like looking through a tear at first, then a gradual loss of vision. I found it frustrating, but also interesting. After all, it was an experience of being in another's shoes, so to speak, but this time I was unable to remove the blindfold at will.
What had I taught the children? How would I apply these things to myself (and would they work)? I borrowed a Braille copy of "The Little Prince", a story I knew well. Immediately I discovered that, though I knew the theory of Braille, reading by touch was very different and very, very difficult. I could not link together what I knew to be the shapes from my visual experience of Braille and what I was feeling with my index finger. There seemed to be no channel of communication connecting the two. It took me hours - no, probably days - to read the first page! Would the elephant never get out of that boa constrictor? Never being one to do things the easy way, I was trying to read a book in single spaced, interpoint, Grade 2 Braille and predominantly with my right hand! I finished the book with a great feeling of triumph - six months later!
Looking back now I can understand some of the differences and difficulties in changing from print to Braille reading. Firstly, there was the comparison of speed! Reading Braille was, and still is, much slower than my reading of print. Even though I try to skim words, frequently guess and gain sense from the context rather than the progression of words, I am slow and mostly quite lacking in the fluidity which I felt was normal when I read print.
Another difference lies in the construction of words in Braille and therefore the need to look for words within words. In print this only happens when a word is a derivative of another word. The use of contractions in Braille reminds me of the games children play, where the task is to find all the words hidden within another word or random sequence of letters. Print readers would not normally find "the" in the word "cathedral", or think that "money" contains the word "one". This is definitely a trap for the unwary!
A third difference lies in the shape of the words: in Braille there is no interest in the physical shape of the word. The word "comb" is an exception, perhaps, but it is not a word one often comes across!
The sheer physical volume of Braille is a dramatic difference. Try carrying around a Braille Bible for casual reading in your spare moments! The lack of universality of codes is a major obstruction to those of us who read or write other languages. In print the knowledge of one alphabet provides access to many languages. The Braille codes are much more restrictive. I used to correspond with a young French friend who is blind, and for some years could not understand why her parents asked me to send a print translation of my letters so they could help her to read what I was saying. Little did I know that, while the alphabet remains constant in both languages, English contractions mean something completely different in French! I wonder what Tvan was reading in my letters!
And now I come to my present experience of Braille. I delight in reading again these days and am grateful that I persevered with Braille. Although there are very limited resources in Braille format and I need to complement it with material in disk, cassette or "reader" formats, I prefer it as a medium and love nothing more than settling back with a book on my stomach to enter into an author's world. It also gives me great joy to be a channel through which other adults who have experienced vision loss can read again, for I now teach Braille in Sydney at the Royal Blind Society of NSW.
When I was invited to write this reflection as part of the current article, I was asked to consider the differences between teaching Braille to children and to adults. There are some significant differences which I consider important to reflect on myself and with the students I meet.
Firstly, there is the grief and loss experienced by each of the adult students, whether due to a sudden or deteriorating loss of vision. People have often been advised that they need just to find other ways of doing the things they used to be able to do. That is true, but the challenge lies in the ability to deal with the frustration, effort and time it takes to achieve those other ways. Many students come to their first Braille class thinking that learning the alphabet will be difficult, but once mastered, it will open the door to all reading material and they will be able to read adequately in a very short time. As Braille readers know, this is not the case, and it is a rather devastating experience for some people to discover that, after four weeks, they still cannot read with accuracy and speed, and for others there is the added frustration of not having yet mastered the alphabet. It is hard to remain motivated when learning is so slow, and in a way quite embarrassing, for almost everyone can learn the alphabet!
The degree of motivation and determination influences the amount of perseverance when adults are striving to master Braille. For some, labelling and phone numbers are goals, for others reading library books is the desired outcome. Each of these aims is important! The question, then, is not about literacy but about access. For children the issues are different, and literacy is a major goal.
Braille has been formulated in a very logical way. Once the sequences are broken open the learner can understand where the dots should be in each cell and this will assist the fingers in locating their place. It does not assist everyone, however, and it is for each student to find the way that best assists, whether it be in the language of Braille's logic, in visualising shapes, corners and lines, or in the dots' positions in the cell. Often I find, students visualise the places of the dots, in a way that only people who have had vision would do.
Almost all adult students find their left index fingers the more sensitive for distinguishing dots. I have not been aware of this trend in children. The children I knew tended to read with both hands, favouring neither one.
Finger sensitivity becomes an issue for some people. For those who have worked in the more manual trades, Braille has an added challenge as the skin of the fingers has become more tough and less pliable in order to deal with the knocks of the trade. One of the consequences of diabetes is decreased sensitivity in fingers and toes and this, too, can provide added difficulties.
It is difficult to find suitable yet simple reading materials for adult students. Articles which are simple in content often seem uninteresting for students who yearn to satisfy their intellectual hunger. Readings suited to their intellectual ability would be lost while they are still struggling to decipher each word. At this stage the mastering of Grade 1 or Grade 2 Braille is the major concern. Intellectual stimulus will come later!
While the above are all obstacles and difficulties for those learning Braille in adulthood, I believe that one of the major difficulties is the different way of "looking at" words, the trick of finding words (contractions and abbreviations for the Grade 2 students) within words, and the rules about when these can and cannot be used. When children learn these as their "first language" there seems very little difficulty in using them correctly. For most adults it is an added challenge.
People often come to class anxious to achieve and progress quickly through the lessons. Often the nervousness results in sweaty hands, which in turn dissolve the dots and make them impossible to decipher. The "water effect" on Braille paper was something I had not anticipated last January when I used Braille notes as memory joggers when giving a talk. It was an outdoor celebration and just before the speeches a ferocious thunderstorm hustled us all under cover. I was devastated to find, when I stood up to speak, that my pages were sodden and very smooth, quite dot-less!
As I have explained I came to Braille by a different route. Even in the early days of my blindness I found Braille dissipated my frustrations and it also filled in those endless hours of waiting at doctors' surgeries or waiting to be taken somewhere. I do believe, however, that the decision to learn Braille is another step in the acceptance of blindness. It is an important (but not vital) step in the decision to live with blindness rather than to survive with a condition.
Eddie's Story: Braille, Braille, and more Braille!
I am now 48 years old, and my eyesight started to deteriorate about 4 years ago due to a genetic condition. In the early stages of my eyesight deterioration, I was able to read large print. Now I have to rely on others to read for me as reading printed text has become increasingly difficult.
I started my own business in 1975 and I have been in business ever since. Over the years, I have been involved in various activities such as importing, wholesaling, real estate, etc. I am also a financial writer and I have published various books on finance. I do a lot of research for my writing, however it is very difficult now. Since the deterioration of my eyesight my business also started to deteriorate. I lost the motivation to start new things. I contacted the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service hoping they could help me add speech software on my computer. After lengthy interviews, lasting about three months, and after filling in dozens of forms , they told me that I have to accept employment that they provide in order for them to help me. As I am already self-employed and struggling to make a living I could not afford to do this.
I approached the Royal Blind Society to learn to touch type and the course has been very helpful. I can now type without looking at the keyboard. I had heard of Braille but I always thought that you had to learn it from childhood. I was too embarrassed to ask if there was a Braille course for adults in case they laughed at me. However, I eventually discovered that there was a Braille course for people like me and I decided to enrol in order to gain some independence and not to rely on others for reading. No one had ever informed me that Braille could be an alternative to finding others to read for me. I was also surprised to hear that many blind and vision impaired people do not use Braille.
I discovered that Braille was not made for every one. For instance, it requires you to have sensitive fingers and anyone who used his/her hands in manual jobs such as gardening, carpentry, car repairs, etc might find Braille difficult to practice, especially in the later years of life.
During my first discussion with the Braille Coordinator I learned that Braille was invented by Louis Braille - a Frenchman who studied music and theology and who was blind himself. It was all right for Louis and his fellow delicate Frenchmen to learn Braille, but what about the rest of us?
The secret for success in Braille is persistence. I am greatly motivated by Helen Keller who was both deaf and blind at the age of nineteen months, yet when she was about ten years old she could read and write Braille in five different languages. She studied at University and later wrote her famous autobiography.
I have been learning Braille now for about nine months. At first I found it very intimidating. It did not make any sense. Each time I picked up the lesson to study, it felt like blobs on a piece of paper. I thought maybe there was something wrong with me and I should enrol for a class for the slow learner. Our teacher, Helen, said that this was common with new students. It was like learning a new language, she said. The secret is to keep practicing, as this is the only way to learn. I have now finished my Braille lessons. Helen has been very patient with us. I can still hear her words "Flat hands, EDDIE", "Ton of Bricks"!
I am able to read Braille now but it is still very difficult. I set a goal
for myself that in a year's time from now I would be able to read Braille
books from the library. It is a long way yet, but as I always say: it may
not happen overnight, but it WILL happen.
June Ashmore
Safe and efficient mobility is important to all people who are blind or vision impaired or who experience low vision.
The type of aid used and the extent of our mobility is something we choose, having considered all available information. Some individuals may choose to restrict their environment to home and garden, others may wish to access a larger space or indeed the whole world. We are governed by our own desires, the impact of other disabling conditions, the speed at which we wish to access our environment, and the degree of comfort we need in progressing safely and effectively through a sighted world.
Given information and thorough discussion about alternatives, individuals may choose to use a variety of techniques and aids including sighted guide, identity or long cane, dog guide, high-tech solutions, or a combination of these. With training, the mobility aid we choose will be right for us at a particular time, although our needs may change with further loss of vision, advancing age, or a change of environment.
So why am I talking about this issue? Recently, I had a very heated discussion about the benefits that may be gained from putting friends and relatives under blindfold. The reason given for this macabre practice was that the victims might better empathise with a person with poor vision and consequently become better sighted guides.
This subject became an issue for me many years ago when I was working as a physiotherapist with children with disabilities. My employer did not know that my vision was deteriorating. Prior to 1981, there was a genuine fear about confessing to having a deteriorating vision impairment. My employer suggested that I undertake a course offered by a specialist blindness agency as I had, in my care, two babies who were born blind. The course that followed did not help in the training of these babies but left me with a fear of blindness that took many years to overcome.
The course was quite well run, with many good speakers who were very informative about causes of blindness and prescribed treatments. Then followed the period of trial under blindfold to see what it was like not to see. You will all know that a blindfold that excludes all vision does not give an inkling of the variety of vision loss we can experience. One member of our group, on being deprived of all vision, immediately collapsed, as her very inefficient balance system was unable to cope without sight. I hope that she did not carry with her this effect of deprivation of total vision and that she does not experience age related blindness.
My fear of vision loss was so amplified by the complete exclusion of vision that I felt I could not face what would inevitably happen to me.
The worst and most memorable part of this exercise was when we were asked to eat a meal under blindfold in a busy hospital canteen. The meal itself was an unacceptable collage of boiled meat, watery cabbage and bland mashed potato. The result was a very messy table with participants vowing never to take a person who was blind to the Hyatt for afternoon tea. How can educators feel comfortable in implying that the people they are expected to help are not able to manage everyday practical and social skills? How can they feel comfortable in filling participants in their programs with fear of loss of vision? The remarks I remember hearing when blindfolds were removed could have been those made at a funeral - "thank God it is not me", "poor things". The only feeling provoked was sympathy, not empathy, and who wants that?
I ask you to consider what you want in a sighted guide. I want someone with good vision, who will accept the directions I give regarding hand holds and simple guiding techniques. I must be in charge of my own mobility, so it is up to me to learn how to direct my sighted guide. We rarely have the same sighted guide for the whole of life and often have several in one day.
Allow your friends and loved ones to help you, if that is your desire, but let them do so using the attributes you may lack.
Many of you will know that I use a guide dog. My guide dog does not know that I am blind. She only knows that I will trip over her if she gets in my way. She uses her good vision, training, and our combined talents to negotiate safely the hazards we encounter in our daily travels.
Imposing blindness on a sighted person is beyond my comprehension. Other disability groups have used similar techniques, or rather educators, to inform the general public about what it feels like to have a disability. In the early eighties it was considered de rigeur to sit government dignitaries in wheelchairs to have a taste of paraplegia or to try a pair of crutches to know how it feels to negotiate a rough path. Should we inject a little novocaine to ensure paralysis, or a dollop of arthritic pain to give true understanding of incapacity? There may have been a time when these shock tactics had an effect, but that time is long past. People with disabilities speak for themselves. We do not need to submit our friends, loved ones and members of the broader community to an experience they do not need in order to help us in our daily lives.
So therefore let us discourage the tired old traditions that demean others
and ourselves. Let us concentrate on ability rather than disability. Why
waste time training sighted people to be blind? Let us become the
teachers and own our own mobility.
Aileen McFadzean
Blind Citizens Australia is currently taking a few disability discrimination cases to final hearing on a trial basis. Previously, BCA referred all cases to private lawyers or legal services if they failed to settle at conciliation and needed to be taken through to final hearing. BCA will generally do the preparation work for a hearing if a barrister can be engaged to do the representation work. BCA will occasionally do both the hearing preparation work and the representation work for very straightforward matters. Since BCA has only one national advocacy officer who works part-time, it is not possible to take all matters on to final hearing. Most complex matters, as well as some relatively straightforward matters, will still be referred on depending on the advocacy officer's current workload.
The two cases described below are examples of our new hearings policy in operation. The first case is one for which BCA did both the hearing preparation work as well as the representation work. The second case is one for which BCA did the hearing preparation work. The case settled a couple of weeks prior to the hearing.
Laurie Grovenor v. John Eldridge trading as Young Furniture Traders
Last December, BCA represented Laurie Grovenor in a disability discrimination action against a second-hand furniture store in Young, New South Wales.
The case related to the owner of the store refusing to allow Laurie Grovenor and her dog guide into his store. Mr Eldridge approached her threateningly with a mattress and aggressively insisted that Ms Grovenor and her friends leave the premises.
A complaint was lodged with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and attempts were made to conciliate the matter amicably. Conciliation involves the two parties to the complaint sitting down with an independent conciliation officer to try to resolve the dispute in an informal way. This was not successful, and the matter eventually went to final hearing before Commissioner Alice Tay, AM, the president of HREOC.
Ms Grovenor and other witnesses gave evidence. Mr Eldridge made no appearance but had made an apology just prior to the hearing.
Commissioner Tay decided in favour of Ms Grovenor and awarded her the sum of one thousand dollars for the pain and suffering caused to her.
The respondent, Mr Eldridge, has not yet paid the compensation and Ms Grovenor will have to issue proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia. This is because HREOC is a federal administrative body which under Australia's constitution cannot make binding decisions. Unfortunately for Ms Grovenor, this will involve a much more formal hearing and personal expense. State tribunals do not have this problem, but sometimes the state legislation is not as favourable.
Debbie Cooke v. People Matching Pty Ltd trading as Dinner for Six
Members may have been aware of the above case which involved Ms Cooke, who is legally blind, being refused membership by a dating agency which arranges group dinners. The stated reason for the discrimination was that the respondent could not guarantee that it could meet its contractual obligations because there was an insufficient number of members prepared to dine with someone who is blind or vision impaired.
The complaint failed to settle at conciliation and was referred for final hearing.
New discussions between the parties just prior to hearing led to the complaint being settled on mutually agreed terms favourable to the complainant, Ms Cooke. The agreement included a non-discriminatory policy towards people with disabilities, and compensation.
Both Ms Cooke and the respondent were extremely happy to have the matter finalised in this way and both felt it was a positive outcome.
Blind Citizens News will keep members up-to-date with further
outcomes.
Ivan Peterson
Members around Australia have confirmed that they regard physical access and safety issues as a high priority. They reported difficulty walking along cluttered and dangerous footpaths, crossing streets, using public transport, and in gaining access to public buildings, facilities and services.
We need to address these issues at several levels. Of course we need to put pressure on local and state authorities to address members' specific local needs. However I am convinced that if we work to cause positive change to the national, state and local laws, as well as the standards with which authorities must comply, then we will achieve maximum result for our effort. At the moment we use considerable resources in lobbying for the installation of audible traffic signals, pedestrian crossings and tactile ground surface indicators, and for the removal of hazards from footpaths and other public areas. As we are all only too aware, we have a long way to go with all of these issues.
It is important that we tackle these issues in a manner that will have the largest possible impact or "flow on" effect for the rest of the country when we achieve positive results. The hedges of Stonnington may demonstrate the point.
The Hedges of Stonnington
Hedges overhanging footpaths in the City of Stonnington in Melbourne have generated wide publicity including national TV coverage. Blind and vision impaired people complained to the City of Stonnington about foliage that impeded their access to footpaths. The City notified residents to trim the foliage but a few owners of offending hedges refused to comply. The City then moved to change the local law to allow existing cypress hedges to block footpaths.
Acrimonious public meetings failed to resolve the issue and a local lobby group, DAIS, supported by Blind Citizens Australia and the Lady Nell Seeing Eye Dog School, lodged an anti-discrimination complaint. The Victorian Appeals Tribunal found that there was a possible contravention of the Equal Opportunity Act in that Stonnington may have been discriminating against people with disabilities by failing to enforce the local law which prohibited foliage blocking footpaths. The Tribunal referred the matter to the >Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission for investigation.
After a lengthy investigation, the parties were called to a number of conciliation hearings as a result of which a draft agreement was negotiated between the parties. This agreement commits the City of Stonnington to maintaining footpath access past cypress hedges in the city to Australian Standard AS1428.1 criteria. This means that the footpath starting at the fence line must be clear up to a height of two metres and for a width of one metre.
The Council of the City of Stonnington voted 9 – 0 in April to approve this agreement. The outcome in this case is important for more than the residents of Stonnington. We will be able to use the outcome to inform local government that it has the responsibility to provide accessible footpaths which comply with Australian Standards. Most local governments are aware of the case and its implications.
Brisbane (Part 1)
The City of Brisbane is carrying out a multi-million-dollar refurbishment of the Queen Street Mall, an extremely popular pedestrian precinct in the Brisbane central business district. We congratulate the City of Brisbane on its commitment to making this a precinct that is accessible to all pedestrians. It has carried out considerable consultation and in particular is making every effort to keep people advised of any changes that effect pedestrian access during construction. I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet with the project team, to inspect the Mall, and to provide input on behalf of Blind Citizens Australia, Brisbane Branch.
John McPherson, Brisbane City Council Disability Officer, has enabled opportunities for blind and vision impaired people to trial the tactile ground surface indicators which will be used, and is working to incorporate their input into the project. I am also grateful to Brisbane-based architect John Deshon who has considerable expertise in access matters, for his assistance on this project.
Brisbane (Part 2)
Unfortunately, not everything that Brisbane Council does is inclusive of the needs of people with disabilities. Currently all audible pedestrian traffic signals throughout the city are turned off at 9:00 every night and not turned on again until 7:00 in the morning. Clearly, this is unacceptable and discriminatory. Terry Boyle, Lindsay Dyball and Karen Knight of Brisbane Branch, and Larry Laikind, solicitor with the Welfare Rights Centre, are preparing a complaint against Brisbane Council on this matter.
Sydney Olympics
With a project as large and significant as the 2000 Olympic Games, issues of access are extremely important, particularly with the facilities also catering for the Paralympics and remaining as community assets for many years. A lot of work has been done by Trish James, Lynne Davis and Naomi Clark from Sydney Branch in consulting with planners and officials of the Olympic Coordination Authority, and many areas, particularly the main stadium and surrounds and the train station, are accessible for all.
There is much still to be done, however, and the spectator area of the
Aquatic Centre presents a huge challenge. Although we are working with
the Olympic Coordination Authority on improvements to access to the
Aquatic Centre, the spectator area is essentially an inaccessible venue for
blind and vision impaired people at present. At this stage, my advice to
members would be "Think twice about going as a spectator to the
swimming without a sighted guide!" A sad indictment on our "showcase to
the world"!
Diana Braun
Women and Employment
If you are a member of the Women's Branch and are, or have been, employed we need you.
If you are not a member of our Branch, never wish to belong to it, but are a woman who is, or has been, employed, we still need you.
Our main project this year is to help blind and vision impaired women to join the workforce, if they wish to do so, or to find a new job if the one they are presently doing is unsatisfying to them. We cannot do this without the input of women who have been there and done that. The basic questions we need answered are:
We would really appreciate articles outlining your experience in obtaining and continuing employment, but if you have no time to write at length, short answers to the above questions are better than not sharing your experience with others who could benefit from it.
If we receive enough responses, we will do all we can to produce a book, in large print, Braille and cassette, which may help you, or your prospective employer, to think positively about employing blind or vision impaired women in responsible, interesting positions. We would like to be able to share your experiences with women in other regions who will be visiting Australia when the World Blind Union meets here next year.
If you are willing to help, please send articles either directly to me or addressed to me at the Blind Citizens Australia office. I will cope with any medium. My address is: 43 Woodside Ave., Burwood NSW 2134.
By the way, all contributors to the employment book will receive a free copy, in their preferred form, if and when it is produced. Contributions need to reach me by the beginning of August, please, at the latest. The sooner the better is usually my motto.
The Women's Branch Executive this year includes Maryanne Diamond as Vice-President, Janeen Sadhu as Secretary, Joan McCann as Treasurer, and Robyn Stephens as Liaison Officer. Guess who's still President? Please feel free to contact any member of our Executive if we can be of help to you.
Joan Heckmann and I have just finished the March edition of 'Women In
Touch', our quarterly cassette magazine. This edition included an interview
about the Braille Lite, contributions by two women who took active parts in
the recent NSW women's project, poems, recipes, an article about attending
a school for blind children in New Zealand, plus other shorter items. A
yearly subscription costs fifteen dollars, and you keep the C90 cassettes or
pass them along to a friend. Subscriptions should be sent
to Mrs Joan McCann, PO Box 546, Port Pirie, SA 5540. Please also contact
Joan if you have never listened to our magazine and would like a sample copy.
Members of Blind Citizens Australia are entitled to one free copy.
The 8th International Competition of Blind and Partially Sighted Music Composers and the 9th International Music Competition of Blind and Partially Sighted Musicians, organised by Czech Blind United (SONS), will be held in Prague in March, 2000. The competitions are open to blind and partially sighted musicians aged between 16 and 35 years, and composers of any age. Prizewinning compositions will be played at the opening ceremony of the International Music Competition. Participants in the musicians' competition, and prizewinning composers, are required to cover their own travel costs to Prague, and SONS will cover board and lodging costs of registered participants, prizewinning composers, and accompanying guides.
For further information, contact SONS Competitions Secretariat, Karlinske
nam. 12, 186 03 Praha 8, Czech Republic,
Tel. +420 2 24817393,
Fax +420 2 24818398,
email sons_zahr@braillnet.cz.
The Royal Society for the Blind (RSB) in South Australia has recently created an adaptive technology website which gives users a 'one stop shop' for information on adaptive technology. Users of the site can be kept up-to-date on all the latest adaptive technology without having to spend many hours surfing the Internet.
The site is both speech and large print friendly, and features the following topics:
The website can be found at
at.rsb.org.au, or you can hot-link it from
RSB's home page at
ww.rsb.org.au.
The closing date for articles for the next issue of Blind Citizens News
is Friday, June 25, 1999. Articles should be sent to Lynne Davis at the
Blind Citizens Australia Office, in large print or in electronic form (disk
or email attachment). If you would like to discuss your ideas for a possible
article please call Lynne on 02-9438-5675 or send her a message via the
Office.
For the latest information from Blind Citizens Australia tune in to Horizons on your RPH station, on a Community Station near you, or over the Internet. Horizons is broadcast regularly on RPH stations. It is also becoming available on Community Stations, but you may need to contact your local station to ask it to receive Horizons over the Community Radio Satellite.
HORIZONS BROADCAST SCHEDULE
Canberra -1RPH 1125 kHz
11.15 am Tuesday;
repeated 8.00 pm Tuesday
Sydney - 2RPH 1224 kHz
3.00 pm Wednesday;
repeated 8.15 pm Saturday
Melbourne - 3RPH 1179 kHz
8.30 pm Wednesday;
repeated 6.30 pm Sunday
Brisbane - 4RPH 1296 kHz
6.05 pm Monday;
repeated 7.00 am Friday
Adelaide - 5RPH 1197 kHz
9.15 pm Wednesday;
repeated 6.00 pm Friday
Perth - 6RPH 990 kHz
10.30 am Friday;
repeated 5.30 pm Saturday
Hobart - 7RPH 864 kHz
7.15 pm Saturday;
repeated 4.45 pm Wednesday
Mildura - 3MPH 107.5 MHz
8.30 pm Wednesday;
repeated 6.30 pm Sunday