|
By Sheila Burkett-Luckey
I am a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor at the Washington
State Department of Services for the Blind (DSB).
Mell Toy is an Orientation and Mobility Instructor at the
DSB Orientation and Training Center (OTC).
Recently, Mell and I facilitated a DSAP workshop that took
us outside the box.
At the OTC, we provide a residential program for adults who
desire to make a concerted effort to learn the adaptive skills
of blindness. People participate in the program on a quarterly
basis, attend classes from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through
Friday, and live in apartments near the Center. Adaptive skills
of blindness include Braille, orientation and mobility training
(for example, how to use a white cane to travel safely), computer
skills with specialized software, and non-visual home management
skills.
Last summer, Mell and I facilitated a DSAP workshop for our
students. It was a big learning experience for all concerned.
With CDS approval, we provided the pre-work and Participant
Workbooks in formats accessible to our students: large print,
audio tape, CD, and Braille. For illustrating their good experiences,
we gave people the choice of drawing with crayons on paper
or sculpting with Play-Do. For the 9-Dot exercise, people
could choose to work with large print diagrams or with peg
boards and pipe cleaners.
We conducted an eight-week workshop, two hours a day, one
day a week for the first seven weeks, with a four-hour session
in week eight. We assigned homework whenever participants
needed time beyond the regular sessions to complete the exercises.
We also encouraged participants to schedule time beyond the
regular sessions to meet with a facilitator whenever there
was a need for extra help with the exercises.
All went well, except that halfway through the workshop we
discovered a challenge we had not anticipated. Half the participants
lacked the adaptive skills for a reliable method of recording
and retrieving information from presentations and quad discussions—information
needed for developing a Dependable Strengths Report.
We continued the workshop by dividing the participants into
two groups: a group able to take notes, and a group that required
note-taking assistance. We facilitators became the note-takers
for the group that required note-taking assistance. As needed,
we would read back information during workshop sessions. Between
sessions, we would make recorded information available as
needed.
Our DSAP workshop was a success, and we are planning more
DSAP workshops for the future. Meanwhile, the OTC staff is
seeking to address our note-taking and retrieval issues. One
solution might be to require note-taking and retrieval skills
as a prerequisite for the DSAP workshop. But, that could eliminate
people who may need DSAP the most. Another solution might
be to pair up each participant who lacks note-taking and retrieval
skills with a note-taker. But, that is not a perfect solution
either. If anyone in the DS community has any insight or experience
to share with us, we would love to hear from you.
Contact Sheila Burkett-Luckey by email at: sheburkettluckey@dsb.wa.gov.
See a
related article by Lisa Turner in the Summer 2005 edition
of DSNews.
|
