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January 24, 2009 - Dozens of Dixon Middle School students wearing white masks bumped into each other in the hall, fumbling to adjust to their morning routine through pinhole eye slots. "Dude, this is, like, weird," one boy remarked to another as he clung to the straps of his backpack for direction. "I can barely see." "There was a door coming to hit you," cried a girl guiding her disoriented and frustrated friend through the crowded hallway. "I was trying to be nice." One small boy appeared to take the lesson to heart, even as others threatened to mow him down in the frenzy.
"Luckily, I have some vision," he declared. It was part of an object lesson hosted Friday morning by Foundation Fighting Blindness, a Maryland-based nonprofit that works to raise awareness of and sensitivity for degenerative eye diseases. The organization was visiting Dixon as part of an educational campaign called Students for Sight. Earlier in the morning, two successful blind men spoke in an assembly about the realities of living in a sightless world. "The greatest fear a blind person has, as far as mobility is concerned, is trying to cross the street," said Lynn Boulter, a Salt Lake City resident who traveled with his guide dog, Mariah. "The real problem with blindness is getting around. It isn't some of the other things." Boulter explained that his dog has been trained for "intelligent disobedience" -- that if he walks into oncoming traffic, for example, the dog will stop leading him. He said he's been committed to using guide dogs ever since a previous one, Park, kept him from walking into a crowded street. Now he relies on his dog as he would his own senses, he said. "Besides being beautiful, she's my eyes," he said. Boulter explained how he first experienced vision problems on a Scout trip 45 years ago. His disease, retinitis pigmentosa, progressed over time, first taking his peripheral vision. But he said it pays to focus not on the handicaps it brought, but the abilities he yet retains. "It isn't what I can't do that matters; it's what I can do," he told the assembly. "We all have different limitations." Rhett Jones, a mobility counselor for the Utah Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, was born completely blind. He encouraged students not to feel threatened by their own challenges, but to work through them. He shared his personal experience as testimony: In addition to gainful employment, Jones is currently working toward his second master's degree. "Try to figure out how to use what you have to accomplish what you want to do," he counseled. "I'm figuring out how to do things other people with sight are able to do." Jones talked about how technological advances like text-to-speech software have enabled him to read textbooks without the delay blind people once suffered. But more than fancy equipment, he said he's learned depending on others is the most helpful tool in his toolbox. "I don't think there's a lot of really successful people who do it on their own," he said. "One of the key things to success is to ask for help when we need it." |
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