By Sharon Monthei

(Editor’s Note:  This is the winner of the 2007 Metro Chapter essay contest.  Sharon Monthei is a very active member and past treasurer of the Metro Chapter.)

As a young person who desperately needed training and who got it when needed (although I resisted at the time), I became grateful for that training.  At 19 years old, I decided to dedicate my life to helping other blind people to receive the belief and training that I had received.  I went to college, stayed active in the Federation, and began my career as a Rehabilitation teacher, "a very good place to start."

Along the way, I taught travel in Chicago, and I encountered many immigrants as I learned my way around the city and taught students to do the same.  I found myself being incredibly annoyed with them, because it seemed to me that every other person I asked couldn't give me directions.  Either they didn't speak English, or I couldn't understand what they said.  Because I grew up in Iowa, I had never even encountered anyone from another culture until I was an adult, and my experience in Chicago did not help my understanding of this group of people.

Recently, I was asked to help State Services for the Blind (SSB) serve the blind immigrant population better, providing guidance to blind immigrants in Minneapolis and to the English as a Second Language (ESL) programs and our counselors working with them.  As I have gotten to know these men—so far, they have all been men—I have come to see them as our blind brothers who have many obstacles to overcome.

Those who have come here as refugees and many who have not, have especially difficult circumstances to overcome.  Many have spent years in refugee camps, sometimes growing to adulthood there, receiving little education and having no structured life.  Many have lost family members and everything they had.

When they arrived here, they had little or no English and were blind as well.  Yet, they are taking classes and hoping for a better future.  I got to know most of them before I knew of their horrendous backgrounds and never guessed the circumstances under which they arrived in this country.  I have found them upbeat and ready to learn whatever they needed to survive and thrive in America, no matter how long it takes.

I am no longer impatient with immigrants, and am determined to help these brothers—and I hope to find sisters—to become full, participating citizens in this great country of ours.  Immigrants now make up about 10% of our population and, of course, we are a nation of immigrants.

To learn about serving our immigrant brothers and sisters, I have been to Seattle to learn how to teach English to blind people, and I am taking classes at Hamline University in St. Paul to learn more about teaching English as a second language or "English language learners."

The challenge I am facing is that most classes use many visual techniques in teaching, and the teachers do not know Braille.  Students in the beginning classes cannot receive feedback from their teachers on their writing skills.  As a result, their speaking and listening skills progress far beyond their reading and writing skills, or they really don't progress as quickly as their sighted counterparts do.  This would not be a problem, except that standards are now being put into place telling state and federally funded programs how long they can allow any given student to stay at one level.  These standards are in danger of causing programs that have been willing to take blind students to be more reluctant to do so and may cause some programs to refuse to take blind students altogether.  Where are they to go to learn English if this happens?

We, as the National Federation of the Blind, need to address this problem and find workable solutions.  I have learned that there are nonvisual ways to teach English to immigrants, but most teachers in ESL programs are unwilling to change their methods to accommodate blind students.  We must find some blind individuals who are willing to learn about ESL methods in order to fill this need.  At present, these students are faced with ESL teachers unwilling or unable to teach blind students and Braille teachers who are unwilling or unable to teach ESL students.  Join with me to find a way to help our blind brothers and sisters to have a better life in America.