Surprise surprise.

[phinnia]

Well, bitching at the IEP people hopefully did something.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it was the orientation instructor who used the word 'sighted guide'. Ever had to deal with a person that you just don't like and you have no real reason not to like them, given that they're very good at their job and all, but you still don't like them and you can't get away from it? And they haven't done anything directly, but ... you just don't like them?
That's how I feel about Sean's orientation instructor. I hate that. I wish there was something concrete there. Then I could actually say 'I don't like them because they did blah blah'.
But anyway, Carlyn (the group leader person) asked us to send her some suggestions and she'd pass them on. Hopefully that does something. If not, at least I know who to complain to directly.

---

Still awake. Still feel mostly human except for the coughing. The only reason my brain is cornmeal mush right now is that I spent the afternoon writing a paper. *dies* If I'm feeling even vaguely human after CI I'll probably watch the other movie for this week.
I'm awake enough to want to write and not awake enough to be able to actually think. Go me. :P

Comments

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Okay, I apologize in advance for what is likely a stupid question. What's wrong with the term "sighted guide"?

*grovels in advance*

[tallin.livejournal.com]

Maybe I may be better equipped to answer this one, as I've been in the trenches and come out more or less intact. You'll have to forgive me if this seems a trifle rambly—but here it is.

In the school system I went through, which is a school for the blind, I'd frequently encountered not just the term "sighted guide", which is one of those buzzwords that you sort of become immune to after you hear it too often, but also carries with it an implication that "sighted" == "more competent for navigational purposes", which isn't exactly the case. Now, if you're introspective enough to think through your own processes, and you automagically question everything you're given, you can overlook the use of the term "sighted guide" and dismiss it as the industry jargon that it is.

Unfortunately, I've seen people go through the System that actually figure that a sighted guide would be more competent than any blind person, including themselves, across the board (Jamie Tachiyama, the guy I work with at Verizon, occasionally falls into this trap until he calms down). The fact that partially sighted students at my school could become certified as "guides" whilst the totally blind could not, as far as I could tell, created an artificial hierarchy based on sight. You had blind people going out of their way to find partially sighted dates because they were, according to the System, inherently more mobile (I got around this by making liberal use of the local taxi system, but then, if I didn't agree to a regulation, I tended to bend it until it squealed for mercy).

Then there's the question of whether or not the specific instructor handling Sean's case actually takes the term "sighted guide" literally. It's entirely possible, in fact, that he does not, and would consider me just as competent to lead him as Leah might be ... so I'm willing to put that down to splitting hairs.

Add to this the sort of denormalizing of the whole thing (if little Amelia holds on to her mother's hand, it's "holding her mother's hand"; if Sean does similar, it's "sighted guide". If this behavior is age appropriate, why change the term?). This follows them on to elementary school where little Amelia may be asked to guide or help Sean (or Sean may be asked to "go sighted guide" with Amelia). Sean notices the other kids not needing this help and asks, potentially, the closest person there (i.e. his teacher). The teacher answers that he needs this help because he's blind—or, worse yet, "different". No prognosis of when he may not need this help anymore, no notion of when he can have the same autonomy as the other kids. Again, call it transference to a degree if you will, but the best I've seen this do is nothing, and the worst I've seen these attitudes, from whence the term "sighted guide" is derived, do, is damage the confidence of these people so incredibly that they don't even know they *HAVE* damage. Not sure that this answers your questions, but there it is. Feel free to inquire further. 8-)

[reannon.livejournal.com]

It does, and thank you. I guess when I heard the term "sighted guide," I figured it was someone specially trained to care for Sean, like the "student aides" who assist some IEP students in the Kiddo's school. Oy. That WOULD get on my nerves.