87 High Street Prahran

PO Box 229 Prahran

Victoria 3181 Australia

Telephone 03 9521 3433

Toll Free 1800 033 660

TTY 03 9521 1200

Blind Citizens Australia

Winter is certainly upon us and with the shorter second term of school almost at an end, it seems no time since we prepared the last issue of this newsletter. I hope you will find the material in this edition both interesting and thought-provoking.

In the last issue I gave a brief overview of the World Blind Union 5^th General Assembly and 2^nd World Blind Women’s Forum which will be held in Melbourne during November this year. I have enclosed the Information and Registration material for your information. This is a unique opportunity for all Australians to learn about organisations of and for the blind, programs for the prevention of blindness, advances technology for blind people to name a few. It will provide the opportunity to visit an extensive state of the art technology display for people who are blind or vision impaired, which will be held over 5 days. I encourage you all to read the material and attend part of or all of these events.

I have also included a document outlining the public transport entitlements for blind and vision impaired people in each state, how to apply for the various travel passes, eligibility criteria, entitlements for pass holders who visit other states.

The newsletter contains a variety of material including: camps, programs for students, useful and interesting websites and an article written by a parent of a young blind child.

Tel 9521 3433, Toll Free 1800 033 660.

According to the January 2000 edition of NoticeBoard:

Children under 16 can visit the Melbourne Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary for the concession price of $3.50 and one carer/parent is admitted free of charge. For children over 16, the cost for the child is $10.80 and one carer/parent is admitted free of charge.

Secondary School Aged Students

Hosted By the Guide Dog Association of Victoria

The Guide Dog Association of Victoria is inviting Secondary Students with a vision impairment to attend the Grampians Adventure Camp.

The camp will be based at the Halls Gap Caravan Park situated in the heart of the Grampians. The Halls Gap Township offers an opportunity to develop and extend the students mobility skills in unfamiliar environments.

The mornings will be structured one to one learning focusing on mobility and daily living skills, with the afternoons and evenings focusing on a wide range of recreational activities with an outdoor, indigenous Australian focus. This program will involve quite a bit of hiking, so boots, rain gear and a warm sleeping bag are essential.

This program, inclusive of accommodation and meals, is free of charge. Referrals close on the 16th June 2000. Further information and referral packages can be obtained through Shelley Pannier, Children's Mobility Services, 9854 4439.

Quantum Technology has a new and improved website at www.quantech.com.au. Their site is full of information, pictures, and free downloads. It has stacks of stuff including information on products that Quantum manufactures and distributes and their most recent newsletters. There are also a truly astonishing number of links to sites that cater for people who are blind or vision impaired including:

• educational resources for teachers

• general resources

• technology

• mobility

• parents of children with impaired vision

• tactile graphics resources

• general disability

• deafblind resources

• Paralympic information

• and even a link for kids looking for an e-pal

Steven Sahyun from the Physics Department, Oregon State University posted the following information on the AERNET discussion group recently. Maybe we’ll finally have a solution to accessing graphing calculators!!!

VCE examinations Papers and GAT CD-ROMs are now available. Copies of the 1998 and 1999 editions can be purchased from Information Victoria. Copies of the 1997, 1998 and 1999 editions can also be purchased from the Board of Studies counter sales. All copies are priced at $30.

* Information Victoria

356 Collins St Melbourne 3000

* Board of Studies Counter Sales

There are hundreds of Australian newspapers available on line!!!! And you can find links to large numbers of them at OnlineNewspapers. Here are the first 10 in the alphabetical list so you can get an idea of the breadth of the selection:

· Adelaide Advertiser (South Australia)

· The Advocate (NW & W Tasmania)

· Aerolist Australia

· Alice Springs News (Northern Territory)

· The Alpine Times (Myrtleford, Victoria)

· The Age (Victoria)

· Arab Net

· The Area News (Griffith, NSW)

· Augusta Margaret River Mail (SW Western Australia)

· AusDaily Online (Australian/Chinese Daily)

· Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

· A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

· Common Sense by Thomas Paine

· Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

· Hamlet by William Shakespeare

· Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

· Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

· Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

· Short Stories by Edgar Allen Poe

· Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

prompts it takes ages but is possible with a bit of perseverance!!!

Pets as Therapy program coordinator Peter McNabb says, "The Guide Dog Association of Victoria is now pleased to offer our special Labrador Retrievers exclusively to children and adults living with a vision impairment. This means we will have an increased number of dogs available for adoption this year – free of charge." The dogs become available at around 16 months of age.

Charlie, who lives with two visually impaired children, highlights how gentle and affectionate dogs can promote a sense of wellbeing and fun. Both Luke and Annie have gradually become more confident with Charlie and Luke loves walking him in the park.

As Peter McNabb says, "Dogs can provide all of us with companionship. They can become someone to care for and laugh with – and in return they provide unconditional love." If you are interested in applying for a Pets as Therapy dog, call Peter McNabb at the Guide Dog Association of Victoria on (03) 9854 4419.

For further information please contact Loretta Walsh, public relations officer, Guide Dog Association of Victoria on (03) 9854 4411.

Following is a list of programs or special days which are being run at RVIB Burwood. If you would like any further information or wish to register your interest in any of the programs, please contact Michelle Piggott or Garry Stinchcombe on [03] 9808 6422 or Fax, [03] 9808 2194.

Term Three

Tuesday 8th to Friday 11th August 2000

This residential program is aimed at middle to upper primary and early secondary students.

The program provides country students or those students unable to attend the Support Skills Program with an opportunity to be involved in curriculum related to the Unique Learning Needs of vision impaired students.

Expressions of interest need to be made by no later than Friday 30th June

Second week of Term Three Holidays

Tuesday 26th to Friday 29th September

This program is aimed at secondary school aged students who are unable to attend the Support Skills Program. As with the Junior Residential Program the focus is on those areas of the curriculum, which relate to the unique learning needs of the vision impaired student.

Expressions of interest need to be made by no later than Friday 18th August

Both the Junior and Senior Residential Training Programs cost $80.00. Positions are limited for both programs

Friday 3rd November 2000

Students who are seeking enrolment in the Support Skills Program for 2001 should first attend the Try Day. Vision impaired students should be in Grades Two to Year Nine. Students, their families and teachers are encouraged to attend Burwood for this half day. While students are experiencing the program first hand, their families and teachers meet with the staff involved in the program. Registration of interest for this day closes on Friday 13th October

Lyndsay Connors

Chair, Ministerial Working Party

Public Education: The Next Generation

The Victorian Government launched a statewide review of future directions for Victoria’s government schools on Monday March 27, 2000. The Government confirmed its commitment to the high standards of education that children deserve and that parents have the right to expect when they send their children to any of the State’s 1630 public schools. On behalf of the Government, the Minister for Education has released a discussion paper entitled Public Education: The Next Generation. All Victorians are invited to participate in a public discussion about the future of the State’s public education system.

The purpose of the paper is to inform and assist school communities, government and non-government agencies, interest groups and the broader public in taking part in an open conversation about broad future directions for the public school system in Victoria. The Minister has appointed a Working Party with membership broadly representative of the education community to seek community views and to report on options for consideration by August of this year.

There are several ways in which individuals, groups and organisations can make contributions to the discussion:

• Written submissions may be sent to:

Public Education – The Next Generation

• A website has been established where key documents will be posted as they become available and where details of the consultation process will also be provided. The website can be found at:

The Working Party looks forward to hearing the views of Victorians about the major issues to be covered by the Review.

Public Forums - Timetable

James was born 14 weeks premature on the 4^th of July 1989 and weighed a mere 956 grams. To say we were in shock would be something of an understatement. Some 257 days later after many highs and lows we were able to take James me still connected to an oxygen supply which was to remain with him for a further 4 months.

During his stay in hospital there were numerous medical problems many of which were corrected with surgery. The one problem that changed our lives forever was the diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity, resulting in James having no functional vision, with a little light perception in one eye.

We were soon put in contact with the R.V.I.B. and became part of the Early Intervention Program with one of the staff visiting us in hospital and offering advise and support. We often questioned whether we needed to move to Melbourne to attend the R.V.I.B. However, this was not encouraged as our family and friends were all in Geelong.

James was enrolled in kindergarten and through these years we were able to maintain our contact and support from the R.V.I.B. Unfortunately on preparing for the transition to school we were once again faced with the decision of trying a mainstream school or moving to Melbourne to be at the R.V.I.B. At this time the R.V.I.B. were unable to provide funding for a Visiting Teacher for James at school in Geelong and our understanding at the time was that we could only really deal with either the R.V.I.B. or the Department of Education.

We eventually found a school that didn't make excuses on why it wouldn't be suitable for James and enrolled him there with Gill his wonderful Integration Aide following him from kindergarten. We obtained the services of a Visiting Teacher for one morning a week and proceeded to try and educate James.

James progressed slowly and we gradually came to realise the difficulties of trying to maintain him in this type of school setting. We looked at various assessment methods and consulted with our paediatrician of the time. His answer was that James was intellectually disabled and should just be removed from the mainstream school setting and enrolled in a special school. We then found another paediatrician who seemed better able to understand children like James and through the introduction of medication, James was better able to cope in the school setting.

The situation remained pretty much as it was for the first 2 years of James' schooling except that changes were made at the school which indicated that his future education was probably not going to be there. We started the 3rd year with the knowledge that we had no visiting teacher initially with hopefully one being employed in the near future. We put up with this situation for the first term with the school assuring us that they were doing their best to help us.

The second term came and went with the same assurances. We were becoming very frustrated and anger started to creep in. Life with a disabled child has many emotional highs and lows and can be difficult enough without the added burden of having to fight for every little thing and wade through the bureaucratic red tape. Just to add to the emotional strain of this year I lost my mother after a two-year battle with cancer.

We could see that James needed development of his every day living and social skills more than trying to learn braille or his times tables. He also needed attention to other areas that couldn't be addressed at a main stream school. For some time we had been taking James to a weekly Sensory Motor Program run by a local Special School.

We actually then obtained the services of one of the teachers from the special school as a visiting teacher, he had some experience with vision impairment about 10 years before. His first thoughts were that we should have an accurate assessment of James done to see just where his development lay and to guide us with future direction. After a break of three years, contact was once again made with the R.V.I.B. School at Burwood and a Multi-Disciplinary Assessment was organised over one and a half days, involving eight specialists and James and us.

A debrief with the whole team followed and a few weeks later we received a comprehensive written report detailing the observations made by the various specialists and their recommendations and strategies to assist us with James development.

Whilst at the R.V.I.B. we had the chance to look closely at the school environment and saw children who looked just like James and were amazed at seeing a small group of children sitting in a calm controlled environment, interacting with each other and the teachers. This was compared to our mainstream school setting of 32 boisterous children with one teacher and James sitting on the edge of the class trying to absorb what was going on with the assistance of his Integration Aide.

The situation at the school deteriorated and we ended up with James attending the special school 4 days a week. This was far from ideal as he was regressing in many areas. Our minds were made up for us, it was time to make a break and move to Melbourne.

We spoke with the Manager of Education Services at the R.V.I.B. School at Burwood and enrolled James for the following year. Then came all the traumas of having to sell our home, and look for a home in Melbourne. Eventually deciding to buy in a suburb only five minutes away from the school.

We cannot sing the praises of the staff at the R.V.I.B. School highly enough. In a little over twelve months James has developed many good social and daily living skills and we have even been able to take him off one of his medications with no perceivable change in his behaviour. He is still a long way behind sighted children of his age and just how far he will progress is unknown. As loving parents we aim to support and encourage him to achieve whatever level he can. Through the school we are constantly given hope seeing visually impaired young adults moving up through the school into TAFE courses or university and on to gainful employment.

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