This week, at conventions for the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, discussion will flourish about the ACVREP’s latest move to grant certificates for occupational therapists who take continuing education modules for working with the blindness community.
On the surface, it looks attractive. Why not have a licensed worker who serves people having cognitive and physical disabilities simply update their certification to include people who are blind, then call it all good. Continuing education is a big deal in many fields of study from teacher education to small engine repair, from insurance licensure to specialized pastoral education for becoming a hospital chaplain. Then, we take a closer and-I dare say-deeper look at the matter. When it comes to blindness, one size of adaptation or rehabilitation rarely fits all contours or cuts.
Given someone’s eye condition, he may have made more than half a dozen individualized education plans (IEP’s) before graduating from high school, gone through a State’s Vocational Rehabilitation Services’ individualized plan for employment time and again. All along eye conditions wax and wane from seeing shadows to splotches or twigs, then nothing at all. The equipment needs, screen reading software and homemaking accommodations-not to mention the orientation and mobility-needs will constantly change. Many States get the matter right when having a separate department or commission for tghe blind which receives separate funding from Vocational Rehabilitation. And to be a certified rehabilitation counselor for either agency takes a Masters degree.
How, then, will someone who has gone through Masters level training to be an occupational therapist gather the whole field of blindness and visual impairment studies in a mere certification built around continuing education. It is impossible!
Of course, we laud the work that certified occupational therapists do. Their field of care and study is huge in itself which embraces anything from treating dyslexia to matters along the autism spectrum, to finding dignified employment for people with mental retardation. Add into this side of the matter the neurological side of helping those with partial bodily paralysis or being without a leg or arm gain muscle memory and you’ve got a huge challenge to consider.
Yet, blindness in and of itself is not just any other disability and does not fit nicely in the treatable category. Yet, it does remain one of those conditions with which one can most easily cope. Sure, there is some diagnosed overlap between those having mental or an additional physical impairment, most people who are blind have no other diagnoses. Hence, the importance of not lumping the condition under the general umbrealla of “handicapped” or “disabled” as if the same road mmap can bring someone who is blind or deaf or paraplegic to a paper-designated level of recovery. No case closure for employment can broad-brush blindness and the lifestyle that accompanies its wide scope of visual acuity.
Yet, the plan for certification of occupational therapists for a career in or widening array of responsibilities for people who are blind assumes that our community can be handled in such a cooky cutter fashion. Occupational therapy is a field in and of itself that deserves funding from government and private sectors. The same true for the blindness community. As we have featured previous posts on fields of blindness and visual impairment studies, the field encompasses a large enough domain and covers matters from assistive technology, orientation and mobility, teaching children and adults who are either low-vision or totally blind. Add to that the different adaptations ibetween many physical handicaps such as cerebral palsy for athletics versus those adaptations one makes for those who are blind and the needs become starkly different though sometimes complementary. How someone swims while blind, learning the body mechanics is different than the muscle memory taught to someone who lacks a leg or whose right arm suffers from stiffness or a weakness that needs compensated. We applaud the wheelchair basketball or hockey player while acknowledging the type of accommodations for playing their sports are completely different than those for becoming adept at goalball or beep baseball. Again, in the area of athletics, as we celebrate our para-athletes, we are thankful for the USABA whose sole focus is on the blindness population.
Service and guide dog training is, however, one area where cross-certification may be appropriate.
After all, the guide dog community, in particular, does show a segment of people who are simply blind and needing kept walking along a straight line of travel while some add to that the need for balance or specific signals for hearing the flow of traffic. Wheelchair riders may at times have a decrease in some degree of visual acuity. In both cases, trainers can work toward teaching physically disabled students to handle the specially trained four-legged friends. Schools such as Guidedogs of America and Kansas Service and Guide Dogs offer classes that focus on blind and otherwise physically disabled future dog handlers.
What, then, is behind this recent push for continuing education-style certification of occupational therapists to handle their blind or low-vision clientele? It is the fear had by the those agencies serving the disability communigtgy at large that they can’t budget for the employee who is trained specifically in the field of blindness and visual impairment studies. Agencies fear the cost of paying more staff whose cdertifications are separate and more specialized. Yet, this fear is truly unfounded. Instead, the answer lies in the encouragement and recruitment of more people who will be certified instructors of orientation and mobility, certified assitive technology instructors, rehabilitation therapists for the blind and low-vision, and teachers of the visually impaired. With more and better trained people serving in these areas, the trickle-down effect will be people who are blind better able to embrace the contours of home, school, and work while being boldly blind. The venefit for those serving the more generalized disability community will as occupational therapists is a concentration on those often connected neuro-physical disabilities which many people have.
As the summer vacation season is well underway, traveling and lodging is essential to everyone, including people with disabilities. The next webinar in the U.S. Access Board’s free monthly series will take place Thursday, July 6 from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. (ET) and address requirements in the 
Boldly Blind 