About Us : Newsletters : VITP Visionaire Fall 2005
Please Note: As this is an archive of a previous newsletter, information may no longer be applicable. At time of original publication, however, all information was verified as accurate. The format of this publication may differ from what was originally published, and may include ommissions such as no longer-relavent contact information.
Fall 2005 / Winter 2006
In This Issue
- Fond Farewell
- Warm Welcomes
- Deepest Condolences / Get Well Soon
- Program Updates
- Reflections of O&M in China
- Wish List
- Website Update / Newsletter Delivery Changes
Note: We apologize for the untimely delivery of this newsletter. Unexpected family medical emergencies among our faculty and staff prevented us from meeting our intended November date.
Fond Farewell
It is with mixed emotions we bid adieu to Dr. Alana Zambone as she leaves the VITP to assume a new position with East Carolina University. We were optimistic when Dr. Zambone came to us a few years ago to fill the positron vacated by Dr. Walker when he assumed the new position of Related-Services Coordinator - her unique educational experiences and warm style of teaching brought new perspectives for our TVI students. We are saddened that she has left us for a new endeavor, but excited that she will remain a close ally of the VITP. We look forward to working with Dr. Zambone and her colleagues at ECU, and know that this could open up promising prospects for the VITP. We wish her all the best.
Warm Welcomes
Due to Dr. Zambone's recent departure, we have some exciting news to announce. Julie Bardin, M.S. has been hired as the new Coordinator for the VI Program. Ms. Bardin, who is in the process of completing her doctorate at Florida State University, brings with her the vast experience of that university's distance education program, and has some exciting ideas on how best to serve the needs of our students "in the far corners of the state". Ms. Bardin will join us this Spring, and should be Dr. Bardin shortly thereafter.
The VITP would also like to welcome the new Director of our gracious host, the Governor Morehead School. Dennis Thurman arrived on the campus this summer after a long and successful stint as Director of the Iowa Braille School. Mr. Thurman brings some exciting and innovative ideas to the GMS campus, and should prove to be, as have all recent GMS Directors, a very supportive friend of the VITP.
Deepest Condolences / Get Well Soon
We wish to express our sadness at the recent passing of Dr. Zambone's father and Dr. Walker's father. For those of you who never met these men, both were loving gentlemen who strongly supported their children - that loving support shows in Dr. Walker's and Dr. Zambone's work and devotion to the field of visual impairment. Please offer Dr. Walker and Dr. Zambone a little extra support in their time of loss.
As many may know who have tried calling us at NCCU recently, Lisa Sutton has been out of the office. Ms. Sutton is at home, recuperating after a hospital stay in early December. We hope that she gets well very soon, and ask that, if you get a chance, you drop her a card in care of the VITP.
And, as some of you may heard, Mr. Dragon's mother suffered a heart attack shortly before Thanksgiving. She underwent open-heart surgery (her second in 13 years) and, we are happy to say, is at home in Texas undergoing a very speedy and successful recovery.
Academic Common Market
We are pleased to announce that, after a successful trial period, the UNC System (including NCCU) is now a part of the Academic Common Market. What this means is that out-of-state students now "may" be eligible for in-state tuition rates. The requirement for residency has long been one of the major hurdles in successful Distance Education programming - the Academic Common Market promises to remove this hurdle for qualified students. The VITP applauds this long-overdue development.
Reflections of O&M in China
Several weeks ago Ms. Jan Elder, an advanced student in the Visual Impairment Training Program, received an invitation to be part of a committee asked to visit a school for the blind in China. Ms. Elder returned with many stories of trials and tribulations, graciously agreeing to provide us with a brief synopsis of her visit. In this well-written story, Ms. Elder shares her observations, her thoughts, and her feelings regarding what she found there. We hope you enjoy her insight into a remarkably different culture and the blindness services that she found while there.
The story to China began in the Southern city of Anshun about 1 1/2 hours from N. Vietnam. It is one of the poorest areas in all of China equal in poverty to any of the poorest areas in the US. In the city of Anshun, there were three young men walking down the streets trying to find the bus station. They were asking for directions along the way. There were quite a few people around and each time they would ask, someone would give them a different direction to go and laugh about it. As you probably have guessed, the 3 young men were visually impaired. They could not find their way and because it was obvious that they were blind, people were intentionally giving them the wrong directions and laughing at them. An American who teaches English in Anshun just happened to walk into the area and realize what was happening. She helped the 3 men to find their way to the bus station that day. They learned quickly that they could trust her and asked her then if she knew of other teachers that could teach blind students. The English teacher then advertised in the US for teachers to come to China to work in the Deaf and Blind School of Anshun. Llewellyn Jones, former Deaf-Blind Coordinator at the Eastern N.C. School for the Deaf, saw the ad and responded with an e-mail to this English teacher in China. From this point, a small team of 4 volunteered to go to China. The team consisted of Llewellyn Jones, Lea Moynihan, Deaf-Blind Specialist at the Wilson Regional Resource Center, Denise Munz, COMS, and me.
In preparing to make the trip to China we gathered information from as many sources as possible. We obtained information on culture as well as teaching techniques to use in a foreign country that has a very different spoken language and a different sign language. Even knowing about the extreme poverty ahead of time still was not enough to prevent a culture shock. Many people lived in a small area behind or above their booth or workplace just off the street. In some areas, sewer leaked into the broken streets. It was also the rainy season. One day the market area flooded with up to a foot of water. And even though I had been forewarned, I wasn't ready for the toilets that were just holes in the ground--some with a porcelain ring around it. And they certainly did not flush! Dishes of "hot pots" where everyone ate out of the same big pot with chopsticks made for a challenging mealtime. There definitely were no sanitation grades. Across from our hotel there was a beautiful reservoir. If you were to look closely you would see that this is the place where the local people came to swim and bathe each week. This was their way of life everyday. For me, it was renewing to return to a nice hotel room at the end of the day to shower and plan for the next day's lesson.
China is a country that is rich in culture and beliefs that go back far into their ancestry as pride in who they are and their country was very evident in the classes that we taught. In the area of education of the deaf and blind this area of China is about 30 years behind the U.S. The first few days we spent observing in the school and working with the children. One of the things that I noticed immediately was that there were obviously some older children in the first and second grade classes. I asked how the children were grouped. I was told that children came to school when their parents could pay the tuition. If their parents could not pay for the next semester then they stayed out that semester and returned when they could pay. Not all of the children had books. Some parents could pay the tuition but not any extra for the books. They had to just sit and listen in the class as most lessons were from a workbook. The average income in Anshun is $50.00 per month. The tuition for the school is $120.00 per semester. This is very expensive for them, and I wonder just how much we as Americans spend every month just on fun stuff. 
In teaching the classes to the teachers and staff of the school much sensitivity had to be given to their pride in their teaching abilities. We encouraged them in the positive things that we had seen them do and taught our lessons based on the simple idea that we used other techniques as well in the U.S. when teaching deaf or blind students.
During the two weeks that we were there, Llewellyn and Lea taught the deaf education classes and Denise and I taught Orientation and Mobility for the visually impaired classes. In the O&M classes, lessons in sensory awareness and the eleven senses, simulation exercises in different visual impairments, concept development, sighted guide, tactile mapping, different modes of travel and an introduction to cane skills were taught. One of the most difficult parts of the teaching was the translation process. Each class was given a student from the university as a translator. A brief time before each class was used to discuss the topics and vocabulary of the lesson. Sometimes our spoken words would be several sentences long. The translation would only be several words. It was especially interesting when they all needed to say something at the same time! Sometimes when there were Chinese deaf children, Chinese teachers, English speaking and deaf Americans in the room, there would be 4 different translations being given for the conversation. All this into account, the classes were fun and the teachers were always on time to start and eager to participate.
Given the difficulty with the translations and extreme culture difference, I still believe that we made a difference in their thoughts and ideas of teaching the deaf and visually impaired even though it may have been small. I cannot think of a more exciting and challenging way to end an internship in O&M in the VITP. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn from the other professionals that I traveled with and to share my skills with others in a foreign country.
Wish List
Keratometer (manual or auto) with Table Obtained!
Children's videos
Volunteers
Cash
Website Update / Newsletter Delivery Changes
This issue of the eVisionaire offers a glimpse into how the VITP website will soon look. Our webmaster, Ray Dragon, has been hard at work this past summer and fall on freshening the look of the site, while, as always, incorporating the latest accessibility standards. He is confident that the new standards will continue to work with the latest in accessibility aides, while the site's look and feel will ensure the ease in finding information that our visitors deserve.
Also, with this issue of the eVisionaire, we are piloting a new delivery system. With the increasing misuse of forms on the web in general, and the use of forms to send spam specifically, we are now using an opt-in/permanent opt-out service to send the eVisionaire. What does this mean to you, the recipient? At the present time, you will continue to have the eVisionaire delivered directly to your inbox. In the future, however, should you wish to permanently stop receiving it for whatever reason, you simply opt-out and your e-mail address is assured of never receiving a copy again. And as always, we will never sell or give away an e-mail address to ANY outside entity.
If you have any information you wish to contribute for the NCCU-VITP eVisionaire newsletter, please forward it to our Editor, Ray Dragon, for consideration.