Blindness

That’s right – it’s here again! Colorado Gives Day is December 5, just a month away! So, if you’re considering a holiday gift to the Colorado Center for the Blind to help us offer training and programs so that blind people can “Take Charge with Confidence,” why not on Colorado Gives Day?

CGD is Colorado’s annual massive statewide movement to celebrate and increase philanthropy in Colorado through online giving. Presented by Community First Foundation and FirstBank, Colorado Gives Day is powered by ColoradoGives.org

Everyone – staff and students – were in Fort Collins last weekend for the 63rd Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado. For some, it was their first convention, while others were very involved in a number of activities and divisions.

Above, these three recent alums were at the podium at different moments. Left to right: Blanca was part of the CCB presentation talking about her training and her new job; Tabea was one of the scholarship winners, here shown as part of the “My Blindness, My Self” panel; and Ryan also talked about his new job, and how he was quickly moved to a new position that challenged him even more. He had met many challenges as a student and that confidence helped him push forward.

Quite a few, it turns out.

Staff and students held an Eclipse Party to celebrate and enjoy the 92 percent coverage of the sun today. Students in Home Management prepared a black bean salsa and cookies to start things off about 10:30 this morning as we took time to learn a little more about the eclipse.

Among our tools was the recently published Getting a Feel for Solar Eclipses, published by NASA. It featured tactile (and colorful) graphics of a solar eclipse and a tactile map of the United States depicting the path of totality.

We’re proud of our senior programs and how they have changed the lives of seniors who have lost vision and the people who love them. We’re excited about how those programs continue to grow – from the residential Seniors in Charge (twice a year), to four support groups (one in Spanish), to ever-expanding opportunities to provide outreach services.

And so we’re proud of our new Senior Program video, made with filmmaker and long-time collaborator Djuna “DJ” Zupancic. The video doesn’t talk about all the program details as much as it endeavors to tell what those programs and services have meant to five seniors in particular.

Embodied in these seniors and in their stories are the values that drive our Senior Services – indeed everything we do at CCB – skills that build belief in ourselves, a community that supports us, hope where there was uncertainty and maybe just a skosh of defiance!

Thanks to DJ for her highly professional and creative work. She gets us!

There wasn’t time to sit still till lunch was served, but none were inclined to do so at Saturday’s #NFChallenge Olympic Day 2017. There were just too many things to try out – beep baseball demonstration with the Colorado Storm, judo and power-lifting, goal ball and tandem bicycling with Eye-Cycle! Everybody got to take a turn at three or four of these activities, and a few even took a second bike ride or got into a couple of actual goal ball matches!

But participants were able to sit still long enough to listen to Paralympic runner Chaz Davis talk about how he went from “overweight and out-of-shape” to being the current record-holder in the marathon for blind and visually impaired runners.

And then it was back to another round of fun – and fitness – activities!

We want to call your attention to this excellent article by Catherine Kudlick, a 2000 CCB grad, The Price of Disability Denial

It was published in the New York Times on May 24 as part of its Disability series. The Times says: “Disability is a weekly series of essays, art and opinion by and about people living with disabilities.”

Kudlick is a Professor of History at San Francisco State.

By Thursday, Jessica was challenging herself to travel independently between classes while wearing sleep shades.

We want to give a farewell wave to Jessica Edmiston, who spent Monday through Thursday here at the Center, not just observing, but working under sleep shades all week, going to classes with student mentors and working on the basics of Braille, Assistive Technology, cooking and travel. And as it happened, she was here to witness three graduations, including partaking of the meals prepared for 60 by the graduates, and the awarding of their Freedom Bells!

It’s no small deal for Jessica to take a week to do this, since she’s the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind Birmingham Regional Center Director. That’s a long title, and it has a lot of responsibility to go with it, but her center contains a recently established Structured Discovery program, which is (the methodology and philosophy we employ here at CCB, called the Alabama Freedom Center for the Blind.

As Trevor explains, he’s been “cubing” for years, figuring out better and faster ways to solve the Rubik’s Cube. Working out how to make the Cube tactile and using all that he’s already learned to solve it nonvisually is just a part of solving the blindness puzzle for Trevor – of taking charge and living the life he wants!

Oh yes, we’re big on Braille here at CCB, because it is fundamental to literacy for blind people and has high correlations with successful employment of blind adults. Our camera man Mike stopped by one of Jen’s classes recently and collected this video.

Editor’s Note: We thought this hometown article about our student Chaz and his American record in his first-ever marathon last month well worth the read. Needless to say, we’re excited for him and proud of his achievements!

By John Conceison
It’s always fine when a competitor thrives during an Olympic year.

For Grafton’s Chaz Davis, 2016 has served as a year of wondrous accomplishment, complete with the trip to Rio and recording personal bests at the Paralympic Games.

Well, apparently, the year wasn’t quite complete until the beginning of this month. Davis still hadn’t run a full-course marathon, though he had participated in the relay challenge at last year’s California International Marathon in Sacramento…

Read the rest of this Worcester Telegram story