Re: Training Centers
@Kileman, I'm afraid I still don't get the sleep shades thing. To me, saying "well you've lost lots of vision so lets force you to use no vision at all" is like taking someone who is paraplegic and tyine one hand behind their back, then forcing them to live like that for a while because surely if they can live without the legs and one hand just living without their legs would be better right? Ignoring the fact that one hand can't support as much weight as too or that you do things very differently with one hand.
It just strikes me as a method to make all the totals feel better about themselves at the expense of people with lo vision, which seems a little devisive to say the least, not to mention unrealistic in expections. For example, I have several medications I take. I tell these apart by different coloured labels on the boxes. Now yes, I could braille the boxes or do something similar, but why the hel l should! I? my sight is pretty stable and going to remain so, so why should I be penalized for someone else's disability?
Heck, why not stop at sleep shades, maybe everyone should go around in wheel chairs too. I'm sorry but your explanation just doesn't seem to make much sense, at least to me.
REgarding the course and teaching, well I have no experience of the organization, though bits strike me as a little overkill. For example, I am confident enough in my ability to learn skills to assume that if I put my mind to it I probably could! learn to make a table out of wood, however i have no interest in becoming a carpenter or developing that skill. This is not to do with sight so much as it is to do with my choices in my life, so if I were going on a basic independence course I'd feel a little resentful at having to do something which I will likely never do again just in order to pass.
Similarly, I can certainly cook a meal for 6 or 7 people and have done so on occasions, but I have no interest in mass catering as a career, so why should I bother developing the skills to cook for 10 people?
I suppose there is the arguement that knowing these things will promote basic confidence, however that is pretty much true of learning any skill and I could just as much argue that my confidence is built from the time I spend practicing singing and performance as it would be learning a random set of skills which some other organization deems it necessary for a blind person to have but which don't really have any relation to everyday life or personal goals. I would also wonder if you don't engage in skills like carpentry or mass catering on a regular basis how long your going to keep them after the course anyway, after all they're not like basic cleaning or cooking or mobility that you will naturally practice anyway just as a basic part of life.
@Camlorn, I would define motivation differently. motivation is the ability to go out and do something when it is difficult, either when that difficulty is practical or not.
How this relates to travel time is simply a function of how valuable something is. If I get into the opera school I play to go to, it will mean a three hour train journey there and back three times a week, plus a half hour walk once I get there, probably a round travel time of about 6-7 hours, however I am quite willing to do this because my singing career is quite important to me.
For the last four years, I attended a light opera society which required a round trip of about 2 hours each day, comprising one taxi, one train, one metro, and a half hour walk each way, which i did sometimes 5 or 6 times a week. previous to this, I was in a production which required an hour's walk.
shopping when i lived in colidge requ ired a 45 minute walk to the nearest shop, and then 45 minutes back, though now fortunately my flat is closer so it's only about a half hour walk.
Even when I first got to university, despite the fact that I asked the disability service to put me in a colidge close to where the lectures etc wer, they happened to stick me literally in the farthest one possible, meaning I had a half hour walk (an hour round tri), to each lecture or university event (often I did this there and back 6 times a day, and up a dirty great hill with a laptop on my back). I could do it in 12 minutes if I ran at an unsafe speed, but I rarely did that unless I really had to. Funnily enough however, I actually got used to this, indeed when my parents saw where the colidge I'd be assigned to was vs t where the department was they were shocked, while I just said "I'll do it!" since I was so bent on going.
No, this is not fair or reasonable and means that having a visual imparement (or indeed any condition meaning lack of driving), takes a lot more energy. It is also possible to say relative to a similar sighted person with a car, such journies are unreasonable, and to let organizations know about these facts when applying for disability bennifits such as a bus pass or mobility allowance, although Britain seems to be buggering this up at the moment.
However, unfortunately there is often no choice, which is why as I said you need to be dam sure what your doing is worth it to you. Just commuting two hours or so to a dull 9-5 drone style job in a call center is not reasonable or worth it, or at least wouldn't be in most cases unless you were desperate for the money, which is again why I'm a little uncertain at the "job at all costs" type of mentality that I've seen some people have.
then again I know perhaps there is a cultural difference here, since I know in the states having a job is seen as a bennifit in itself, and if you find things that way fair enough, though that's not personally a concern to me.
Indeed, I confess I don't feel overly guilty about living on bennifits so long as I can find another method to contribute something to society, and I don't tend to find lack of motivation is a problem since between writing and singing I have things I am very dedicated to doing. If someone decides to pay me to do either, fair enough, but if not, well I'm not going to panic.
Then again at least in Britain while being on bennifits I won't ever be rich, i do at least have enough money for what I need to live and for basic leasure, ie, computer games and dvds, which might not be the case in the states particularly in situations like Cae's.
URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=166854#p166854
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