by L. Penny Rosenblum
(Editor’s Note: Dr. Penny Rosenblum is a researcher and faculty member at the University of Arizona.)
If you find yourself in a high school hallway between classes you’re bound to catch many snippets of conversations, “What did you do when he said that?,” “Are you going to the game?,” “That test was hard!,” and “Two more weeks till I have my driver’s license and I’ll be a free woman!”
The later comment, which can be best characterized as “car talk,” permeates the conversation of today’s youth as they approach the magical age in their state for driving. When I was a teen growing up in New Jersey the age was 17. As a teen with low vision, as the day grew closer and closer I became more depressed. Since I couldn’t see well, the realization that I wasn’t going to be making the trek down to the motor vehicle department on my 17th birthday made me feel “left out.” I was among the youngest in my class and many of the kids I knew had been driving for months; some owned cars, most were saving for cars, and all equated their driver’s license with freedom. That was a tough time for me; and even though I am a very independent, non-driving, visually impaired woman in her mid 30s I still struggle with the issues of “independence” in a society where for many the key to this is a motor vehicle.
When I was growing up in New Jersey I received itinerant services from a teacher of the visually impaired and periodically O&M services. I don’t remember anyone working with me on learning the skills of being a non-driver, for example, how to hire a driver, plan an efficient route for a driver, develop a transportation budget, or how to exchange services (e.g., tutoring, babysitting) for a ride. The O&M instruction I received was focused on making sure I had the skills to be a safe traveler (e.g., crossing lighted intersections, taking public transportation). Though safe and efficient O&M skills are an important part of being a non-driver, there are many more skills one must learn.
When I went off to college, many people on campus didn’t have a car and so it wasn’t that big of a deal that I didn’t drive. My bike was among many others locked in front of the dorm. I walked with friends to many stores and restaurants that surrounded the campus. In my senior year it was time for me to student teach and for the first time in my adult life I was in a true transportation dilemma; riding my bike, walking, or getting a ride from a friend wasn’t going to get me to my student teaching site 30 miles away every morning at 7:30 a.m. and home again at 3:30. I knew no one who was student teaching in that school. As I cried on the phone to my folks, my mother suggested I call the professor and ask for help. I thought this was the most humiliating idea I had heard, but with little choice I found myself in his office the next day. In a short time he was able to produce the names and numbers of two other student teachers in my school and four people student teaching in the junior high just down the street. After some phone calling that evening I found myself with two rides to school, something that came in handy when the main carpool person got the flu. This experience was one of many I had as I made the transition into the world of work; there were a lot of lessons for me to learn about being a successful and independent non-driver.
Dr. Anne Corn, who is a professor at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and I have both had experiences as people with low vision. Though Dr. Corn is now a bioptic driver (she is licensed to drive a car as long as she wears prescription lenses that contain miniature telescopes) as a teen and into her adult years she was a non-driver. We both have worked with school-age children with visual impairments and with university students, some of whom are visually impaired. It is our experience that the vast majority of teens and young adults with visual impairments are not adequately prepared to be non-drivers in today’s society.
We have developed a curriculum called Finding Wheels: A curriculum for non-drivers with visual impairments for gaining control of transportation needs. The curriculum is designed for kids in middle school and high school who have visual impairments (or other disabilities) and who would benefit from exploring what their options are as non-drivers. Finding Wheels is very flexible in how it can be used; parents, teachers, or O&M specialists can use it with teens in either a home, school, or summer program setting. A teen can move through the curriculum individually or in a group. Not every teen will need to explore all 10 of the units. Each individual’s needs and interests will determine what parts of Finding Wheels are appropriate.
Finding Wheels is divided into four sections. In the first, users meet four travelers, some of whom are more successful than others. Next, teens explore who they are as travelers (e.g., rites of passage, knowing about their own visual impairment as it relates to travel). In the third section teens are introduced to the variety of transportation methods (e.g., walking, public transportation, paratransit, drivers). The last section focuses on how to be an independent non-driver (e.g., budgeting, planning, what to do when a ride is late).
Throughout Finding Wheels there are suggested activities for teens to do in order to learn about themselves and local resources. One popular activity is for teens to interview adult non-drivers. A teacher who has used the curriculum with her high school students commented about the interviews, “It is good that they hear from people who have actual experiences in planning and using resources to meet their transportation needs.”
In our field testing of Finding Wheels we had parents of children who attended public school and residential schools use the curriculum as did teachers and O&M specialists in a variety of settings. One parent whose 16-year-old daughter is blind and who used the curriculum with several other students in an after-school class shared, “I think Finding Wheels is a wonderful class. At first I thought, ‘How much does she need to learn about this subject? Would it be a waste of her time at the end of an exhausting school day?’ I am very glad that we made the class a priority. It made me realize that we needed to understand Samantha’s feelings about never being able to drive. This allowed us to process it as a family.”
If you are interested in ordering Finding Wheels you can do so from Pro-Ed (800-897-3202), 8700 Shoal Creek Blvd., Austin, TX 78757, or by visiting their web site at http://www.proedinc.com. Finding Wheels costs $34 plus $3.40 for shipping and handling.