More Assessments and School for the Blind

Tuesday May 9th – This morning we did another round of assessments with the O&M instructors playing the roles of clients. My client was “Sophie De Beauty” played brilliantly and flawlessly by Lil. “Sophie” is a very shy insecure older woman who has a variety of medical aliments and eye conditions. Lil made me work hard to try and develop a rapport with “Sophie” and she NEVER broke character.
After our morning of assessments we joined the Orthoptic students from LaTrobe University for a tour of the School for the Blind. The school was originally run by the RVIB (Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind) which has recently merged with Vision Australia. The school was founded in 1961 and began as a boarding school. Today it is a day school only with about 25 students ranging from 5 to 18 years old. The school is located next door to a primary school and one of the popular programs is the reverse integration program. In this program about 10 students form the primary school attend school at the school for the blind with the visually impaired students for a period of one year. Having the primary school so close also allows students to have dual enrollment when appropriate.
We closed the day with some more blindfold work and Sue and I managed to make it to the gym.