A recent letter from Deborah J. Glick, a New York State Assemblymember, refers to licensing vision rehabilitation therapists and orientation and mobility specialists.
The identification of Rehabilitation Teachers as Rehabilitation Therapists is a giant step in the wrong direction. Years ago(1965) when I attended the Northwest Regional Training Center, now called the Orientation and Training Center, I was greeted by a group of Therapists. There was a music therapist, a home management therapist, an O&M therapist, an occupational therapist, a physical education therapist, an industrial arts therapist, and one Braille/Communications Teacher.
Can you guess which one of these folks was the blind one?
As near as I could tell, these people were all instructors. But the star was Alice Olson. She taught Braille, typing, hand writing, how to handle money, how to use the telephone, how to operate tape recorders, etc.
Most of these folks held Master's degrees, except Alice. Alice had a B.A. from the U. of W.
Every morning we students were expected to arrive at 8:00 A.M., ready for class. But the Therapists were always huddled in a staff meeting until 9:00 A.M. Except Alice. In those days we used last names, so she was Mrs. Olson.
We would arrive a bit early and gather in the cafeteria for our morning coffee and doughnut fix. At 8:00 A.M. sharp we could hear Mrs. Olson's heels clicking down the hall.
"You're late for class", she would announce. And we all jumped and scooted off to the Braille room. Mrs. Olson was a task master and one Hell of a fine teacher. Not that the therapists weren't, but I think that knowing that she was the only blind member of the staff, made Mrs. Olson more committed to her task. She also knew how to build up a person's self confidence.
Anyway, the use of the term therapist is just so much bureaucratic snobbery as far as I'm concerned.
Curious Carl
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