Blindness

He was in the neighborhood, so he stopped by for a visit. Eric Duffy, a long-time member of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), spoke to our Philosophy class recently when he came to visit the Center.

Duffy, who was visiting his brother and family in Colorado Springs, previously served as the President of the NFB of Ohio and, most recently, directed the Access Technology department at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute (NFBJI) in Baltimore.

Cathy Kudlick, Julie Deden and Anahit LaBarre reunited for dinner last Thursday. Cathy and Anahit, who works in our Senior Services Dept., were students together in 2000 to 2001.

It has been nearly 18 years since Catherine Kudlick first arrived in Littleton as a student at CCB, but the lessons of her training have endured, as she told staff and students in Philosophy Class last Thursday.

Cathy’s blindness is due to Nystagmus and she had never used a cane before she came for training. Still, she counted her travel training as one of the most important classes for her. She told students in frank terms about her internal struggles in that class under sleepshades.

Access to concepts and information presented in graphical form has long been a challenge for blind college students. In the past couple of decades the surge in digitally-displayed content has, well, gone supernova. Thus, blind college students need to develop basic tactile literacy with two- and three-dimensional representations that their sighted peers may have learned much more informally through media such as picture books, television, film, or YouTube. Blind people learn how things look best by touch.

Descriptions are a stop-gap, but only that. Thus, one aspect of our College Prep class’s goal of preparing our students to be savvy and nimble in gaining access to their studies involves taking a look at the kinds of things colleges may throw in front of them and expect them to be able to interpret.

Last Friday’s Senior Holiday Party brought together members of all three of our weekly Older Blind Programs groups that meet at the Center – Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – along with sighted and unsighted spouses (insider’s joke), and both old and new friends. There were adult children and grandchildren. There was plenty of food, lots of laughs and thanks for our great Older Blind Programs staff. But really, what everyone was celebrating was one another.

The thing that makes a difference in the lives of newly blind people is other blind people to help them to understand that blindness need not hold us back. And then, a little farther down the road, the once-newbies are passing it on to the next round of new ones.

Happy Holidays!

Each student who meets all the requirements for graduation from the Colorado Center for the Blind earns a Freedom Bell. Ringing that bell symbolizes that they are free to pursue the lives they want, free from dependence and lack of blindness skills, ready to challenge society’s low expectations with “Confidence and Self-reliance”.

It’s a very long road, and a difficult one that leads to the day our students get to ring their very own Freedom Bell, but every step is worthwhile!

We believe that the Freedom Bell signifies not only the individual’s new-found freedom, but greater freedom for all blind people from the many misconceptions about blindness and the barriers to full participation that result.

Our alum Poonam Vaidya of Bangalore was recently part of a BBC World Service radio episode of “The Conversation.” She spoke about blindness with another guest, a blind attorney from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Shortly afterward, the BBC posted this short video of Poonam. Check it out:

https://www.facebook.com/bbcworldservice/videos/1779617258724059/

Last Monday our student J.D. couldn’t wait to report his big news.

“Good news isn’t as good if you can’t tell someone,” he said at morning announcements.

He went on to tell us that he had been named Editor of the Colorado Fire Fighter, the newsletter of the Colorado State Fire Fighters Association (CSFFA). His increasing skill and confidence with nonvisual access to computers and the Internet permit him to put his native skills in writing and editing to work on the CSFFA newsletter.

J.D. was a volunteer fire fighter in northeastern Colorado for many years before becoming blind a year and a half ago, and is still strongly dedicated to the CSFFA and the work its members do across the state.

Take Charge with Confidence and Self-Reliance

Colorado Center for the Blind page

Colorado Gives Day is December 5, and donations received that day online receive a share of an incentive fund, as well as being subject to lower credit card fees. But as we get into the Thanksgiving weekend and all that entails, be assured that you can go to Colorado Gives Day and schedule a donation as well!

Meantime, enjoy the video!

In this part of the world, the BBC’s World Service can be heard during normal sleeping hours on one of our public radio stations. This week our volunteer photographer/videographer Mike Thompson had the BBC World Service on while falling back to sleep in the wee hours when he heard a familiar voice and a familiar name – Poonam Vaidya.

Poonam is from Bangalore, India and was one of our international students. (We always try to have one international student at any given time.) She graduated in 2016. Poonam was one of two blind women interviewed for the BBC program, “The Conversation.” The 30-minute radio podcast gives interesting insights into how blindness is viewed in other cultures.

And thanks for the great plug, Poonam!

Listen to the episode

I-Fly Denver invited us over on Monday to take flight and learn about the science around wind tunnels and things like force and resistance. There was math involved, just saying.

Then we got to experience push and pull full-body, so to speak. Here’s a story from CBS Denver Channel 4 last night:

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/11/13/students-center-for-blind-skydiving/

Thanks to everyone at I-Fly Denver – we had a great time!