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Hunter letter to Senate Sponsor -Johnson

May 24, 2010

Dear Senator Johnson:

I write this memorandum in support of licensure for vision rehabilitation therapists (VRTs) and orientation and mobility (O&M) specialists and to thank you for your leadership on this bill to license VRT and O&M specialists (S.5581B). Your work succeeded in getting the bill out of committee and passed by the entire senate just two sessions ago. I know because of you this bill will be on the Higher Education Committee agenda this session.

 As you know that the Hunter College Master’s Degree in rehabilitation teaching and orientation and mobility (RT/O&M) program prepares vision rehabilitation professionals in

New York. Hunter professors also have the unique opportunity to evaluate their students at the start and end of the 52-credit program. Occupational therapists, social workers and teacher of learners with visual impairments are among the professionals who returned to school to complete the Hunter College RT/O&M Master’s Degree or O&M Advanced Certificate programs. These students brought with them a wealth of knowledge but still they were novices when it came to understanding how to teach someone with a visual impairment to independently conduct daily living skills and travel age-appropriately. Beginning students bring with them many of the false understandings and bias that society holds about individuals with visual impairments. They start Hunter as well meaning, educated and motivated students (5 percent of whom are visually impaired themselves) who, like their family and friends, see only the limitations of blind travel –– no driving a car or reading street signs. Hunter teaches them to see the opportunities – use of white canes, knowledge of the latest technology and how to build self-confidence in their students.Those opposed to licensure suggest that this is the one profession in the history of professions that does not need high educational standards. VRT and O&M specialists are akin to other allied health professionals. VRT and O&M professionals go into the homes of the elderly who are newly blind and visually impaired. They teach them to regain independence in the kitchen as well as other areas of their home and they teach them the most effective way to travel.

These skills are deceptively “simple” one might think – I can teach someone who is blind how to handle boiling water, cut with sharp knives and label home toxins and food. I can teach someone to use a cane to cross their street and get on the subway. Because I do these things myself, I can teach others.

Don’t believe it and ask yourself, who would you rather be taught by? A well-meaning person who feels she has the skills to teach or a well meaning licensed professional who has demonstrated she has met the minimum state standards and has the skills to teach?

What is worse than no cane and no instruction in how to use it? Having the wrong cane and misusing it and having misinformation about how to orient to the environment. When a cane is used incorrectly it provides no protection to its user. When someone doesn’t know how to reorient non-visually, they get lost and scared.

If you are too scared to travel and you think you have “received O&M services” you think you did something wrong or you are unable to learn how to regain independence – so, you sit home and become dependent on others and stop living a full life. I know you won’t let this continue to happen – please let me know how I can help you to influence the Senate Higher Education committee to put the bill to license vision rehabilitation professionals and orientation and mobility specialists (S.5581B) on their agenda this session. New Yorkers with visual impairments cannot wait any longer to obtain the same protections under the law.

Sincerely,

Grace Ambrose-Zaken 

Grace Ambrose-Zaken, Ed.D.

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