62 Comments Posted by BlueSkyes
BlueSkyes wrote:
Hi,
This is a very awsome site! I have spent, at different times in my life, time in this or that state run school, the state school for the blind, both a state run and privately run training and adjustment center for blind adults and 2 1 month training classes at guide dog school.
I've seen and heard lots of things, especially aat the school for the blind that has been truely awful. Abuse, mistreatment of students who could not defend themselves things like that. There are some awful awful people who mistreat people just because they can. But there are a lot of people who care about their job and the people thy are meant to help. Some of my fondest memories are from the times I was at the school for he blind. Anyway...
I'd like to point up a slight correction re the invention of Braille... Braille wa invented by a blind man, Louis Braille, who lived, who lived in France. When he was a small boy he was playing with his father's leather working tools and lost the sight of ne eye as a result of, well poking his eye out. On accident. He retained vision in the remaining eye for a very short time but lost that eye as well, a result of sympethic opthalmia (sorry I am not the world's most gifted spellers). Louis attended a school for the blind. There have been a number of reading/writting codes for the blind. But Louis wanted to have one system any blind person anywhere could learn... He got the idea of what we today know as Braille from ships of all places. These shipswell the people on the ships didn't want enemies, I'm guessing this was in a time of war or something to spot where they were. So they'd pass pages with these raised dots around and it could be read without the use of light, thus keeping the bad guys in the dark. Louis addapted that system into Braille. It is composed of 6 raised dot. 2 collumns with 3 dots per collumn. Sort of like a cupcake bake sheet. Depending on the configureation and the location in the cell (there are "upper cell" and "lower celll" configurations one can write, in Braille, nearly anything one could write in print. Numbers are made by using the number sign, the lowest dot dot on the left side (when you read) and all three dots on the right, it looks like a backwords print letter L followed by any letters on their own or together the letters A to J A is 1, B 2, C, 3 and so n. J is the number zero. So, to braille, for example the year 2007 you would write the number sign and then the letters B J J G with no spaces... The Braille cell is small enough to fit under one finger tip and for most people they'll read with their pointer finger. Some people, I am not one of them, can read 2 lines at once. Reading speeds for Braille can be the same or much faster than the reading speed sighted people have for print, same with brailleing, this s how we write Braille. Brailleing speeds can be as quick if not quicker than typing speeds... Braille can be done in 2 ways. The oldest, and the one most closely related to a pin and paper is the slate and stylus. The slate is a frame, it can be metal, wood, plastic. This frame is hindged on one side so i's sort of ike a very narrow metal book... It's as wide as a sheet of paper but not as ong, on avrage it only has 4 lines per slate. Anyway you open the hendged slate, slip the paper inbetween the front and back plates and you are ready to write! The slates, well most of the ones I've used have mall pegs on the corrners of one of the plates to hold the paper tightly. It also helps n keeping your place as you go along down he age. You put the top pegs into the holes left by he ottem pegs til you reach the bottem... Slate writting can be a bit of a challenge as you must write "backwords" The word order is the same. You'd still write "my dog has fleas they bite his knees." only the way you'd form the etters would be reversed. Example, the letter L when you read it it is all three dots going down the rightsside of the cell. When you use the slate and stylus you'd make all three dots in a ollumn but you'd write in the left most portion of the cell. There is also braille writers. These are most like typewritters for print. The brailler has three keys on the left side, a space bar in the center and three keys on the right, they are n a straight row there are two smaller keys located higher up, these are for backspacing and dvancing the page up a line. This IMHO is the more easy way to write braille becase you don't have to think how a letter is reversed. If ou ant to write a L you ust mash down all three keys on he right hand side of the brailler...
Each country or language has their own braille codes, there is American Braille, British Braille, German Braille and so n. You can ven do math and sciency stuff with Braille in additio to musical notation... I've been around Braille nearly all my life but didn't get very good at it 'til a few years ago whn I attended an adjustment center for the blind in Colorado. I'm still rather slow at it but can read and write it much better now and at times prefer using it over some other means of communicating... Sorry for the long long history lesson, and poor spelling... It's due in part to somethig's up with my computer not typing all the letters as I type and more because I've always been a crap speller.
This is a very awsome site! I have spent, at different times in my life, time in this or that state run school, the state school for the blind, both a state run and privately run training and adjustment center for blind adults and 2 1 month training classes at guide dog school.
I've seen and heard lots of things, especially aat the school for the blind that has been truely awful. Abuse, mistreatment of students who could not defend themselves things like that. There are some awful awful people who mistreat people just because they can. But there are a lot of people who care about their job and the people thy are meant to help. Some of my fondest memories are from the times I was at the school for he blind. Anyway...
I'd like to point up a slight correction re the invention of Braille... Braille wa invented by a blind man, Louis Braille, who lived, who lived in France. When he was a small boy he was playing with his father's leather working tools and lost the sight of ne eye as a result of, well poking his eye out. On accident. He retained vision in the remaining eye for a very short time but lost that eye as well, a result of sympethic opthalmia (sorry I am not the world's most gifted spellers). Louis attended a school for the blind. There have been a number of reading/writting codes for the blind. But Louis wanted to have one system any blind person anywhere could learn... He got the idea of what we today know as Braille from ships of all places. These shipswell the people on the ships didn't want enemies, I'm guessing this was in a time of war or something to spot where they were. So they'd pass pages with these raised dots around and it could be read without the use of light, thus keeping the bad guys in the dark. Louis addapted that system into Braille. It is composed of 6 raised dot. 2 collumns with 3 dots per collumn. Sort of like a cupcake bake sheet. Depending on the configureation and the location in the cell (there are "upper cell" and "lower celll" configurations one can write, in Braille, nearly anything one could write in print. Numbers are made by using the number sign, the lowest dot dot on the left side (when you read) and all three dots on the right, it looks like a backwords print letter L followed by any letters on their own or together the letters A to J A is 1, B 2, C, 3 and so n. J is the number zero. So, to braille, for example the year 2007 you would write the number sign and then the letters B J J G with no spaces... The Braille cell is small enough to fit under one finger tip and for most people they'll read with their pointer finger. Some people, I am not one of them, can read 2 lines at once. Reading speeds for Braille can be the same or much faster than the reading speed sighted people have for print, same with brailleing, this s how we write Braille. Brailleing speeds can be as quick if not quicker than typing speeds... Braille can be done in 2 ways. The oldest, and the one most closely related to a pin and paper is the slate and stylus. The slate is a frame, it can be metal, wood, plastic. This frame is hindged on one side so i's sort of ike a very narrow metal book... It's as wide as a sheet of paper but not as ong, on avrage it only has 4 lines per slate. Anyway you open the hendged slate, slip the paper inbetween the front and back plates and you are ready to write! The slates, well most of the ones I've used have mall pegs on the corrners of one of the plates to hold the paper tightly. It also helps n keeping your place as you go along down he age. You put the top pegs into the holes left by he ottem pegs til you reach the bottem... Slate writting can be a bit of a challenge as you must write "backwords" The word order is the same. You'd still write "my dog has fleas they bite his knees." only the way you'd form the etters would be reversed. Example, the letter L when you read it it is all three dots going down the rightsside of the cell. When you use the slate and stylus you'd make all three dots in a ollumn but you'd write in the left most portion of the cell. There is also braille writers. These are most like typewritters for print. The brailler has three keys on the left side, a space bar in the center and three keys on the right, they are n a straight row there are two smaller keys located higher up, these are for backspacing and dvancing the page up a line. This IMHO is the more easy way to write braille becase you don't have to think how a letter is reversed. If ou ant to write a L you ust mash down all three keys on he right hand side of the brailler...
Each country or language has their own braille codes, there is American Braille, British Braille, German Braille and so n. You can ven do math and sciency stuff with Braille in additio to musical notation... I've been around Braille nearly all my life but didn't get very good at it 'til a few years ago whn I attended an adjustment center for the blind in Colorado. I'm still rather slow at it but can read and write it much better now and at times prefer using it over some other means of communicating... Sorry for the long long history lesson, and poor spelling... It's due in part to somethig's up with my computer not typing all the letters as I type and more because I've always been a crap speller.
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What we learned, like I said, was based in part upon recomendations from our parents and V.I. (special ed teachers trained to work with blind kids). What we learned at the school day, especially in relation to our personal self-care skills were observed and worked on when we returned to our dorms.
This meant everything. And I do mean everything! Especially if you were one of the younger kids. The dorm was split into a boys side. I didn't ever go over there more than a hand full of times so I can't say what it was like over there, but I'm guessing it was more or less the same as happened over on our side. On our side there was the main dorm where the younger girls from about age 5 through 12ish would live. and then then there was the east wing where the older girls stayed. The older girls had much more privicy. For every 2 2 person bedrooms there was a shared bathroom. They had their own kitchenette and lounge. It was a pretty sweet setup if you ask me. I know I loved it when I finally landed a spot there.
On the main dorm there were several large 3 - 4 person bedrooms. We each got a closet, a desk and a chest of drawrs if we were lucky. Some kids had to split up the dwars one having the top 2 and the other having the bottem 2... We had a large lounge and a empty bedroom that was converted into a weekend breakfast room. We had a piano room at the end of the long hall and a large "public" bathroom. When you walked in straight ahead of you was a large open space with a washer and dryer and a large sink on your right. A sort of wall that was open on both ends on your left. A full length mirror was on this wall and a large gray laundry baskette where bed clothes and towels and school owned laundry was put. If you turned right there was a long row of toilet stalls and across from that, on the wall behind the washer and dryer, a long row of sinks and mirrors. If you turned left and went round the full length mirror wall you had a stall shower. and then two bathtubsthen a small wall and a single tub on that next to the windows. There were chairs next to each tub... There wasn't much privicy in the bath section unless you took a shower or got the tub next to the window... But even then you were pretty much on display.
The reason being that a dorm mother would oversee the baths and stand there and watch you, especially if you were a lil kid to make sure you took a bath and cleaned your body and washed your hair rather than play around . Some kids even got watched when they did their toilet. Because I guess they needed help.
The reason we were watched even when taking a bath or whatever was to, like I think I saidd, was to make sure we were doing our self-care properly or to spot any troubles that had gone unnoticed... It didn't bother me when I was younger but today, partly I think because of the lack of privicy we had to put up with there, I am a very privet toilet person. I can't stand to bathe or do my toilet if someone else is around and I try to get changed in regards to my clothes as quickly and as unseen as possible.