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| '''Agency Overview'''
| | *[[Tri County Agency Overview]] |
| | **History |
| | **Mission |
| | **Serviced Offered |
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| ''History''
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| The Tri County Association for the Blind opened in 1921 as a non-profit organization designed "to improve the quality of life for people who are blind and visually impaired by helping them achieve their full potential and maiximum independence."
| | *[[Tri County Types of Work]] |
| | **Types of Jobs available |
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| ''Mission''
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| The mission statement for Tri County is written as, "The Tri-County Association for the Blind works to improve the quality of life for people who are visually impaired in the Tri-County region of Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry Counties. By helping each person achieve his or her full potential and maximum independence, our consumers flourish within and enrich our communities. In addition, the Association provides prevention of blindness services to the public."
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| ''Services Offered''
| | *[[Tri County Community Issues]] |
| | **Clients / Member |
| | **Cultural Assumptions |
| | **How we can solve these problems |
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| Tri County offers people with seeing impairments many services, the first of which is Access Technology. Access Technology includes any machine or program that helps those who are blind or visually impaired work easier with a computer. Good examples of Access Technology include speech synthesizers, brailling machines, and enlarging and brightening texts on a computer screen. Another service provided is the Production Facility which includes packaging, assembly operations, mail preparation, pen production, chair mat production etc. There are a variety of companies that pay Tri-County to perform these services for them, which allows Tri-County to pay people with seeing disabilities, who might find it problematic to find employment anywhere else. Other services include mail processing, where there are many other different job opportunities, and a braille department in which employees transcribe different documents into braille. There is also a recodring studio where audio tapes are recorded, and the blind are able to rent numerous books on tape for their pleasure. Tri-County provides carpet installation services that are wide ranging and also includes other types of flooring installation. The radio reading service broadcasts the news and other information that those who are blind may not have access to otherwise. The necessities store contains many items that are meant to help facilitate life for the blind or visually impaired. There are also social services offered, such as in home shopping and home maintenance. Tri-County sponsers an ongoing fundraiser, which sells candles for $10 each. The candles come in over fifty different scents, and all of the proceeds go towards different ways to help people with seeing disabilities. The final service offered by Tri County is their attempt at prevent blindness by providing preschool vision screenings as well as educating youth and their parents on maintaining healty eyes and ways to prevent eye injuries.
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| '''Community Issues'''
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| -''Clients and Members''-
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| ''Cultural Assumptions''
| | *[[Tri County Agency]] |
| | **Problems the agency faces |
| | **Potential ways to overcome the problems |
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| Society as a whole seems to find it easy to judge people who have disabilities, even those who are afflicted with something as superficial as poor eyesight. Although it is genreally easier for someone who is blind to lead a relatively "normal" life as opposed to someone with a more debilitating disabilty, there is still ubiquitous evidence that people with blindness are still not treated as equals in many cases. The blind are not given jobs, which many are fully qualified for and when they are employed, they are often given positions for which they are, in fact, over-qualified.
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| People who are blind are confined to a world where they are forced to rely heavily upon all of their other senses. Much of society assumes that since people who are blind do not have their sight, that there are other relavent functions that are absent as well. Many people who are blind had their sight at one point and were able to lead the normative existence which society believes the blind lacks. The majority of people who are blind are completely self-sufficient, despite their condition. However, because blindess is considered to be a disabilty, they are at times treated as though their mental capacity is negatively affected as well.
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| ''How We Can Solve These Problems''
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| Society can solve the problem of rashly judging people based upon their physical appearance by simply understanding that disabilities are not synonymous with being helpless. This assumption is the result of countless years of naivite and cannot easily be erradicated, regardless of its simplicity. People who do not have an understanding of the nature of blindness would benefit from merely speaking to someone who is blind or taking some sort of proactive measures to learn more about the condition. One will find that many of the cases of blindess are comprised of those who are legally blind, but still have some sight.
| | *[[Tri County Mosaic of Experiences]] |
| | **Samples from Pre-Service Reflections |
| | **Excerpts from Service-Learning Journals |
| | **Samples from Post-Service Relections |
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| People who are blind can, for the most part, do the same jobs as those with sight can. The blind hold positions such as teachers, writers, and doctors(http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/04/02/seeing.no.limits.ap/index.html). It is the actual act of understanding that being disabled does not equal incapability that is difficult for some people to reach. Being immersed into a sub-culture of people with disabilities (regardless of how major or minor the disabilities may be) is an important step to understanding more about the nature of disability itself and the people who have disabilities.
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| -''The Agency''-
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| ''Problems the Agency Faces'' | | *[[Tri County Relevance of Fiction Reading on Experience]] |
| | **Motherless Brooklyn |
| | **What's Eating Gilbert Grape |
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| ''Potential Ways To Overcome the Problems''
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| ''Mosaic of Experiences''
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| ''Samples from Pre-Service Reflections''
| | *[[Tri County Relevance of Non-Fiction Reading on Experience]] |
| | **Extraordinary Bodies |
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| Excerpt from Amanda's:
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| I’m truly at a loss as to what to expect from my forthcoming service-learning experience at the Tri-County Association for the Blind. On one hand, this particular assignment appears as though it would perhaps be easier than the others. For the most part, the average person is more “comfortable” with a person with visual impairment than they are with someone with another form of disability. Blindness does not seem as taboo of a subject as, for instance, schizophrenia or something of the like. Society tends to view people with mental disabilities as being “crazy” and as far from the “normate” as one could possibly stray. People with blindness are not viewed in the same light.
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| However, on the other hand, blindness is not something I have ever had to deal with personally; I don’t even know anyone who is blind. This aspect of the work I’ll be doing with the Association is exciting, because I will be exposed to something that I really don’t know that much about, even as prevalent as blindness is.
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| ''Exerpts from Service-Learning Journals''
| | *[[Tri County Related Links]] |
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| Exerpt from Lisa's second trip:
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| At one point, Andrew, asked us what our majors were. When Caroline told him that she planned to major in Psychology, and possibly become a psychologist, he responded by saying “oh we would be great patients for you.” I found this to be a very interesting statement, and now that I think about it I find that it relates to the reading by Lennard Davis, “Constructing Normalcy.” Generally, people visit psychologists for a psychological problem, so for Andrew to claim that he would be a good patient reflects the fact that people with disabilities are not “normal.” The idea of what is “normal” has been constructed to create “problems” with those who have disabilities. Andrew cannot see, there is nothing mentally wrong with him, and I think that if he truly believes he needs to see a psychologist, then that is sad.
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| Exerpt from Rachel's first visit:
| | *[[Tri-County Association in the News]] |
| I am not sure how to relate my first experience at the association with my own life since we weren’t fully given the opportunity to help those that were in need. In that moment, though, I could still look around the production site and realize what lives these people have led. Some of the workers were stationed at the “pen production area” and you could tell that although this was such a humdrum job, they took it seriously and didn’t stop until the clock struck 4:00. Realizing how lucky I am to be a healthy, young woman.
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| Exerpt from Alicia's first visit:
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| The woman with whom I spent my two hours working alongside was Linda. Linda is in her early forties and an extremely fun lady to be around. She was born with a condition where the nerves in her eyes are not controlled and thus she could see, but could not control where she was looking. Now, she is completely blind in one eye and can only make out small images from the other. It was interesting how she expressed that having been able to once see and now unable to was probably the most difficult part about being blind, since she has to relearn and readjust to everything in life. As we sat there for two hours I truly enjoyed her company but the task became extremely mundane and under-stimulating, I cannot imagine boxing pens all day along, everyday. I felt extremely sorry for the employees, not simply because they were blind, but because this is the type of work they have been engaging in day after day, most of them for years. Linda was very open about her disability and told me it is extremely hard to find jobs when you are disabled, especially blind. Also, she talked about the low wages they receive and how many of the disabled (and non-disabled) are losing their jobs to people overseas and in Mexico who will work for lower pay. At this point I just wished I could say something encouraging, but the truth is I do not know if that is ever going to change and honestly I wish it would, but it seems the CEOs and people in charge care more about making their billions even if it means people are making five cents an hour and some in our own country are left with out work.
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| ''Samples from Post-Service Reflections''
| | *[[Contact Information for Tri County]] |
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| Exerpt from Amanda's Post Reflection:
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| Every time we were actually able to interact with the workers, I can honestly say that I believe that there was a reciprocal relationship between us. Not only were the workers helping us understand their condition and life better, but also we were able to act as an outlet for them to talk about their blindness. It is amazing how open they were all willing to be, and how much they were able to share in such a short amount of time. Because they understood that we were not there to judge them, the workers were able to talk about a lot of the things that bothered them about their current condition. Aside from the fact that many were never able to live their lives like “normal” people do (or at least how they believe that normal people do), I found that the biggest source of discomfort for them was that they were not treated as equals. One woman told me that she liked us because she didn’t feel as though we were “thinking mean things” about her and the other workers. We were able to become close to them and listen to them, even if only for a couple hours, while we helped them with their work for the day.
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| Exerpt from Charlotte's Post Reflection:
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| There is an endless list of the problems the visually impaired face in a “normative” society. Their impairments prohibit them from participating in many of society’s standards for a normal life. Something as simple as watching television or reading the newspaper is a frustrating, if not impossible task for members of this community. Employment, too, creates a difficult situation for the visually impaired. Requiring special computers with audio programs and Braille printers, the visually impaired are not ideal employees both productively and economically. The Tri-County Association for the Blind helps to overcome these obstacles for the visually impaired. Hearing aides and audio programs are provided to the community. Also, by employing those with the impairments, the Association allows them to fully function within the working world.
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| Throughout the semester we have been discussing the presence of the impaired within a “normal” society. In Motherless Brooklyn, Lionel, was labeled as “freakshow” because his Tourettes differentiated him from others. In Fat, the fat man is described only as such—society is only concerned with his physical appearance, thus stripping him of his humanity. Through my experiences at the Tri-County Association for the Blind, I have learned that the visually impaired, too, are restricted in society, as their physical impairment overwhelms their identity.
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| ''Relevance of Non-Fiction Reading on Experience''
| | [http://itech.dickinson.edu/wiki/index.php/Dismodern_Body:_Prof._Kupetz Back to The Dismodern Body Page] |
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| ''Related links''
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| [http://www.tricountyblind.org/index.html] | |
