Re: What is wrong with the NFB?
As someone with some usable vision, I can tell you that it does conflict a lot with what you're trying to do when you know you can't do it visually. For instance, I have a red plastic liquid measuring cup that goes up to two cups. If I wanted to read that thing, I'd need the magnifier on my phone on and so forth, but why, when the thing has raised lines and the printing is embossed. I can literally feel the number 2 and the word cups. This is one reason I think that even though you're blind, you should be taught print to some degree. They have these large stencils and magnetic letters for children's boards that you can stick them to to spell words out, that would suit perfectly.
Anyway, your eyes lie to you, I've learned not to trust them, and my vision can vary between days a bit. Your brain also does its best to fill in missing information, which means you're not actually seeing it. If I look at a picture, nine times out of ten, I won't be able to tell what it is, it just looks like a jumble to me. If it's a setting I know, I might be able to work out some of it, or recognize some people, though I am not good with faces. But, as soon as I have that picture described to me, I'll be able to point out each thing on it. and the next time I see it, I'll be able to pick out all the details. So, once my brain knows what is in the picture, it's able to sort of use that info to reconstruct it for me. But sometimes that doesn't help, like if you remember there being a particularly nasty crack on a sidewalk you would just do better to step over, but they actually came and repaired it, your brain will put that crack in your vision even though its not there. So you'll step over nothing.
Being in the middle between sighted and blind sucks sometimes, a lot. I think it would be easier in some ways to be fully blind than to be where I'm at now. Even with enlarged print, my reading speed has never been great, because of field of view and zooming and all, us VI people generally end up reading a letter at a time rather than a word at a time like fully sighted people do. We can't really skim as easily and so forth. My Braille reading speed isn't all that great either, it's been tested at about 35WPM. I type double that with a shitty keyboard, and more if it's a good one.
Where I'm going with all this is that I can actually see the centers' points of view when they insist on shades for VI people, because you will not only cheat and not learn if you are able to use your vision, but vision can also hamper your learning in other ways. If you have RP or some other degenerative condition, than I think this is the best method for you because it will allow you to learn how to do things the blind way, which will become an inevitability soon enough. If your vision is stable, well then, you have a choice to make. Do you learn how to do things the blind way, or do you try to find some other way to learn. I would recommend the former, and when you are finished with the center, go through and re-examine the way they taught you and find ways where your vision can be used to speed things up a bit. But, if you learn the blind way to do it and you were somehow to lose your vision, you'd have that to fall back on. Oh sure, you might be a bit rusty, but hey, at least you've learned something you can use to survive.
I think the argument could be made that everyone would do better to be taught individually, but how would this be done. Considering you'd need one qualified teacher per child, that's a lot, so the logistics just don't work out. I think the mistake on the NFB's part is their rigidity and thinking their way is the only way. People. differ. Their experiences combined with their childhood make them who they are. Some will go on to do great things, others may merely get by. This is the way of the world and it is no different among the disabled.
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