A Sense of Texas

This month we share a fact-finding interview held by the TSBVI IR department discussing the our experiences over the summer running two of the school's flagship vocational rehab programs: SWEAT and WALIC. Our instructors Carlotta Binns and Laurel Taylor give us some background on these programs, the challenges remote instruction has presented them, and how they worked to overcome them going into the regular school schedule.

It's often hard to track how a toddler is developing but if you suspect there is a problem getting them help early can vastly improve outcomes. Guest host Kate Borg, TSBVI Outreach Director, joins the podcast this week with TSBVI Outreach Consultants Kathi Garza, Deanna Peterson, and Mary Shore to discuss ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) and how it's helping toddlers with visual impairments achieve milestones in early development. 

 

For more information on Early Childhood Intervention: 

https://hhs.texas.gov/services/disability/early-childhood-intervention-services

https://www.tsbvi.edu/outreach

Guide dogs are one of the best- and most widely known- resources for people who are blind or visually impaired to achieve independence in transportation and mobility, but they are often misunderstood. The amount of work that goes into getting a dog ready for service and the skills needed by the prospective user of the service are enormous. Jake Koch has expansive knowledge of these service animals and works at Guide Dogs for the Blind to get service dogs working for people who need them. Afterward, TSBVI's Lisa Calaci talks to us about student experience with service animals.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

O&M Resource Guide

Are You Ready for a Guide Dog Lifestyle?

Orientation & Mobility Immersion Program

One of the most challenging and fun parts of teaching students in a residential school is extracurricular activities. These activities are essential to helping our students gain important social skills and to help fill the time on campus they aren't spending in the classroom. TSBVI Residential Instructor Dan Butler joins us to talk about The Semi-Modulars, a student music group born from his idea of using tactile synthesizers to help kids learn about music and sound design. We also hear from a member of The Semi-Modulars, Graham, about how the group has helped him tackle challenges in his own life. 

To hear more of of The Semi-Modulars visit: http://www.thesemimodulars.bandcamp.com/ 

This episode is getting uploaded a little later than usual so that we could ensure the accuracy of the information inside.  As of the morning of August 15, 2020, these are up-to-date.  But given the shifting nature of information, we will strive to keep this updated if anything changes.

Emily, Sally Freeman, and Daniel Wheeler speak about the current plans to reopen the school and what safety protocols and equipment is in place.  Emily speaks on the school as a whole, Sally on the Health Center perspective, and Daniel on the technological challenges and opportunities brought about by this crisis.

This is specific to the Texas school, but if you're listening from elsewhere we hope it can help you with information.  As always, we hope you are safe and secure and are helping bring services to those who need it.

At the very least, Spring 2020 saw school systems scrambling to maintain their educational mandate for their students. Few experienced the challenges of distance learning more than those who teach O&M, the most physically contacted part of education for those who are blind or visually impaired. We are fortunate to have specialists like Chris Tabb, formerly of TSBVI and currently of Maryland School for the Blind (though stay tuned for an update on that), in the field to bring their curiosity and voracious appetite for information to the rescue.

 

Chris presented some of his insights to these challenges in April as part of one of TSBVI Outreach's answers to the COVID challenge: their three-times-a-week Coffee Hours that provided professional development for people in the field throughout Texas, the country, and the world. This brainchild of newly-minted Outreach Director Kate Borg grew in popularity during its two-month run and was recently recognized with a presidential citation for excellence from the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division of Visual Impairments and Deafblindness and the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired. There are rumors that it will continue in some form in coming months, even once our pandemic restrictions are lifted.

 

Chris brings his usual passion for the field, as well as his volumes of resources which you can access with the links below.

 

Chris' Live Binder

Chris' Distance Learning Resources

Coffee Hour Resources, Transcripts, and Recordings

Barbara Miles has been a leader in the field of DeafBlind education for as long as we can remember. Before her recent retirement she hosted a workshop at TSBVI and was kind enough to sit down with our own Matt Schultz and Chris Montgomery to talk about communication and building relationships with our students and what she hopes to see in the field of DeafBlind education going forward. 

Between given names, nicknames, and any number of adjectives used to describe yourself, language will always be an important part of how people identify themselves. In this episode we bring in our resident linguist Doug Bigham to discuss some context of person first versus identity first language and how it has been used in marginalized communities. We will also share perspectives from past interviews with Adam Wilton, Neva Fairchild, and Greg Stilson to discuss how educators and people with visual impairments are using person first or identity first language to describe themselves and the people in the communities they serve. 

This is the recording of our first live episode on June 5th. Assistive Technology Guru Bruce McClanahan joined Emily for a discussion on the past, present, and future of assistive technology and to trade insights from their years in the field. If you'd like more information or access to Bruce's copious resources, you can find that here.

This is not an episode. It's a teaser for our first LIVE episode this Friday, June 5th at 1PM eastern time.  Emily will sit down (virtually) with assistive technology expert and legend Bruce McClanahan for a discussion on all things assistive and remote tech. We hope you'll be in the audience and will contribute your own questions and conversation during the episode.  There's more info in the teaser.

The link to the LIVE episode's Zoom room.

See you on Friday!

The impact of becoming blind as an adult isn't often on the minds of educators working mostly with children who are blind or visually impaired. Helping adults learn the skills needed to live and work with their disability is an important part of educating all individuals with vision loss. Neva Fairchild, National Aging and Vision Loss specialist with American Foundation for the Blind, joins the podcast this week to discuss how AFB is helping individuals who become blind later and shares some of her own journey as a person who is blind. 

In March, Chrissy and Cyral told us about the origins and operations of the Texas Mentor Programs with special attention on the experience of the mentee.  Now they return to focus on the experience of the mentors and speak about their work helping other states set up programs for their own teachers.  Afterwards, one of the alumnus of the program Pam Parker, Outreach Director for the Washington State School for the Blind (and one of Emily's mentors), joins us to offer her perspective on the Texas program as an out-of-state professional and program participant.

All of us at TSBVI and A Sense of Texas hope this episode finds you healthy and helpful in this time of upheaval. We hope the podcast has and will continue to provide needed information to you.  If you are looking for further resources, please visit the TSBVI Media Library for our extensive collection of webinars and training videos.

And check out our new program Coffee Hour with TSBVI, a thrice-weekly chance to hear from and chat with education professionals from TSBVI, around the country, and around the globe.

The Covid-19 pandemic caught many systems and individuals by surprise, causing many to scramble for solutions to daily-changing circumstances. As one state’s school districts after another closed schools and delayed student return, many teaching professionals found themselves working fast and improvising in order to keep lessons making it to their students.  These challenges are especially acute for special education teachers.

 

One person inordinately prepared for a challenge such as this is Emily’s guest Dr. Yue-Ting Siu, a TVI and assistant professor in the Program for Visual Impairments in the Department of Special Education at San Francisco State.  She literally wrote the book on accessible technology and we couldn’t be more fortunate to have her with us to share her critical knowledge at a tumultuous time.

 

Links Referenced in This Episode:

Ting on Twitter

Ting's YouTube Channel

Ting's Book

Bruce McClanahan's Info and Downloads

Greg Stilson joins the podcast to discuss his journey as a blind programmer in the private sector and how APH is positioning themselves as a global innovator in the field of assistive technology. 

Sometimes a new TVI or COMS (or one in training) find themselves in an area with a small support system.  In a state the size of Texas, this can happen more often than not as many school districts are far-flung and in isolated areas.  Cyral and Chrissy join Emily to discuss the programs TSBVI Outreach instituted decades ago to address this issue and how they've kept it going and the improvements that have been made over time.  This will be Part One of this discussion, which will conclude this time next month.