September 16, 1999
Agency for blind helps Iowans to readjust to new situations

Amanda Novak
digital•iowa staff reporter
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Twenty-two year-old Todd Berans is not blind. He can see some things but not others. When asked, he shrugs his shoulders and says that doctors can't even tell him why he sees some things and not others. He vision was impaired after a head-on auto collision last August that resulted in a brain injury. He was in a coma for nearly three weeks, and his hospital stay lasted seven months. When he got out of the hospital, he decided to go home to the orientation center, a division of the Iowa Department of the Blind, in Des Moines.

There are four divisions within the department: the library, independent living rehabilitation, vocational rehabilitation, and the orientation and adjustment center.

Although he expects to get his vision back, Berans has been at the center for just over three months and is still learning Braille. "I didn't know anything about it until I came here. It is really hard to learn," said Berans, who has mastered the first half of the alphabet and is working on the second. He has some vision and is required to wear sleep shades during the day so he is not dependent on the vision that he has.

The orientation center is a place where blind and visually impaired adults learn to cope with their blindness. Adults stay at the center for an average of six months and take classes to teach them skills that will help them function in the real world. Vocational rehabilitation teaches the skills and means of finding a job. This division also works on educating the public to dispel negative myths regarding the ability of visually impaired persons to work. The independent living rehabilitation program focuses on teaching Iowans the skills to live independently in their own homes. The fourth division, the library, provides literature for those unable to read standard print. Books and magazines are printed in Braille, large print, and are produced in audio and video.

A typical day at the center begins with breakfast at 7 a.m. Group members meet in the recreation room at 7:45 a.m. and the first class begins at 8 a.m. Berans' first class is woodshop, where he practices welding and building. The classes at the center are all two hours long and all students take the same classes; the only variation is the time slot in which students take their classes.

At 10 a.m., Berans goes to home economics where he learns how to cook and use an oven without the use of his eyes. He meets with the other students for lunch at noon and at 1 p.m. he heads to his communication class where he learns Braille and computers.

His last class, travel, begins at three. This class forces the students out into the community by teaching them to use the bus lines and walk around the community. Staff follow behind students who are using canes and by the time they leave the center, they are dropped off somewhere in Des Moines and are expected to find their way back to the center without the help of staff members.

Program Director Sandy Tigges said that this is one of the most important skills a vision-impaired person can learn while at the center. "When you get out into the real world you have to know how to get around. There isn't going to be someone behind you helping you find your way."

There are 18 long white canes arranged in a fan-like manner on the wall in the recreation room. Although they are decoration, visually impaired staff once used these long canes to guide them around the street of Des Moines. The center teaches students to use long cane rather than seeing eye dogs because canes are more reliable.

"A seeing eye dog will walk right around a man hole and you can fall right into it," Berans said. "With a cane you get a sense of everything that is around you."

After classes have ended for the day students gather in the recreation room and plan where to go for dinner. Every night students must go out to dinner so they become comfortable in the community and other people get used to seeing persons with low vision.

Outside activities that encourage blind persons to live independently include a scavenger hunt, snow and water skiing, and picnics where participants cook over an open fire. According to Tigges, participants are encouraged to think of something that they want to try, and the center will either help them do it or point them in the right direction.

"The purpose is to teach people confidence. It's problem solving. People develop confidence that they can do it. In travel you learn the most when you are lost," Tigges said.

To students like Berans, the center has made a big difference. "At first I didn't think that I would like it here, but I really do," Berans said.

Tigges said that new students should enter the program when they are ready. "People can come to the center too soon. They first have to accept that they are blind. Blindness carries a pretty heavy stigma and people don't want to admit that they are blind. People can be blind for years or months before they come to the center," said Tigges. "Some people think that what they have is as good as it gets but this simply isn't true."

Although the program is rigorous, staff encourages new students to wait until they are ready so they are capable of dealing with the learning new techniques of living.

"People are stressed. You are learning all new habits. And they don't seem as good as the ones you originally knew. Trying to get people to create new habits is difficult, " Tigges said.

"The foundation for the center is the same positive attitude toward blindness. It is just a characteristic," said Tigges, who believes that programs like these have made a difference in not only the lives of blind people but also in the community. "There is such a difference. If I think back, as a child I had only seen one blind person. Blind people are out riding the buses and in the community."

"In this state the attitudes toward blind people are much better (than other states). I can tell the difference when I cross the state borders. You still run into misunderstandings about what blind people can do. The economy has made a difference. The more 'risky' employees have been given the opportunity to work. Employees still run into misunderstandings, sometimes people are afraid to talk to you, but it is much better than it was," said Tigges.

According to the department, more than 1,200 of the estimated 10,000 blind Iowans have gone through the orientation program, learning to live on their own with sight disabilities, since the program began in 1960. This $130-a-day per student program is paid for by the state if the student is a state resident. This is beneficial to the community because it teaches skills that are necessary to function in careers and daily life. After training at the center, most students go on to work, and their employment will return more money back to the state through taxation and Social Security and the students learn skills that will help them daily.