Then, some years later, I decided that I
would like to take a university course with the ultimate aim of achieving a
Master’s Degree. Again, I turned to CNIB. Staff members put me in touch with
volunteers who would read and record my textbooks for me. I took further
mobility training and learned how to use my white cane on Edmonton’s transit
system. I took a six-week course to learn the intricacies of an audible screen
reading program on my computer. There were six of us in the class and the CNIB
instructor was excellent.
In the past and on different occasions, I
have visited the CNIB offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge and
Medicine Hat. It seems that as of this month, those visits, however
helpful they might have been to me as a CNIB client, will now be just a
nostalgic memory.
Not so long ago, the CNIB divided its
focus. As I understand it, there are now two main streams. The first is CNIB Foundations
and the second is Vision Loss Rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the latter, which
apparently relied solely on provincial government funding, has been severely
impacted when the latest application for funding from the provincial government
was denied.
I am just a lowly client so I really don’t
have any idea of how the financial end
of things works, but I do know how this cutback is going to affect me.
This is what I have heard. The subsidiary CNIB
offices in Grand Prairie, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat have been
closed. The CNIB stores in both Edmonton and Calgary are closed as of today.
For rural clients especially, the closing
of the subsidiary offices is a major blow. For people with low or no vision, it
is difficult enough to find transport to these local offices without now having
to find ways and means to get to the further distances of the main offices in Edmonton
and Calgary.
As for the closing of the stores – well that
is another issue again. The word is that we can now order all our vision aides on
line. Ordering on line might work well enough for people who are sighted, but
for people who need to test a magnifier, for instance, this doesn’t work well
at all – and that is only the tip of the iceberg. Those of us with partial
vision are not all painted with the same brush. Partial sight can range from
seeing light and dark, to seeing black and white, to seeing only peripherally,
to seeing only the tunnel of central vision, to counting fingers, and so on.
Finding the appropriate aides to help us maneuver our way in a sighted world,
often means a bit of trial and error. Ordering items online doesn’t really
allow for trial and error testing.
This past week, in a recorded phone message
from Matthew Kay, Executive Director of
Vision Loss Rehabilitation, Mr. Kay said that Vision Loss Rehabilitation would
try its best to continue to serve CNIB clients. He suggested that a letter
writing campaign might be launched in order to regain funding for next year’s
budget. Nevertheless, it will be difficult to regain services once they have
been discontinued. I am deeply disappointed with this turn of events.
No comments:
Post a Comment