There is no such thing as a "typical" day at BLIND, Incorporated. We have a class schedule with a curriculum for each teaching area--Braille, computer literacy, travel, home management, life (daily living skills), industrial arts, career exploration, and seminars on blindness--but our primary goal is to integrate what is being taught in the classroom into each person's everyday life so he/she gains experience using each skill, becomes comfortable using that skill, and comes to understand that blindness need not be a barrier to personal success in life.
A day at BLIND Inc. begins at about7:35 when students leave their apartments and take a city bus to the center. Morning announcements start at 8:00. Everyone is informed of the events of the day, tours of the program by prospective students, friends or families of students coming to visit, students serving their small or large meals, etc. We discuss current news and tell jokes. We read a vocabulary word and a quote of the day. Our main goal is to get students revved up and hopefully laughing so that they can take on the rigorous class schedule before them.
There are four class periods in the morning and four more in the afternoon; each class period is fifty-five minutes long. Certain courses, such as Braille, life, and computer literacy, have one hour each. Other classes, such as home management, travel, and industrial arts are two hours in length.
Very frequently, however, our day-time schedule is altered. Challenging activities are planned so that students can get out into the community and use the skills that they are learning. Apple-picking, rock climbing, hiking to Minnehaha Falls, going out for lunch, canoeing, snow tubing, cutting down Christmas trees to decorate the Center, participating in Martin Luther King Day marches, attending the Minnesota State Fair and the Festival of Nations, celebrating Valentine's Day, and touring area museums are just a few of our many options.
We sometimes take extended trips which may take two or three days. We go to Iowa to tour the Amana Colonies and surrounding points of interest such as the Hoover Presidential Library, the Little Brown Church, and the Spillville Clock Museum. We may take a three-day camping trip and put up our own tents, do our own outdoor cooking, and experience travel outside the big city. We might spend a few days in Duluth, where we ride around the harbor of Lake Superior in an excursion boat, tour an ore-carrying boat, and visit a train museum. Students are permitted to attend National and State Conventions of the National Federation of the Blind to become familiar with the organized blind movement in action. We also travel to Washington, D.C. for the National Federation of the Blind's annual Washington Seminar where we check out the sites of interest in our nation's capital, ride the Metro Transit System, and meet with our elected officials in Congress.
Every day in the life of a BLIND, Inc. student is filled with exciting adventures. Change is a normal part of life, and challenges must be welcomed and not feared due to blindness. Students come to understand themselves and their potential as they learn alternative techniques for completing the daily tasks they once thought required eyesight. They come to realize that they can deal with blindness and they refuse to let it stop them from following their dreams.
Most students in this program receive assistance through their state vocational rehabilitation (VR) program. By law, an eligible VR client from any state can choose to come to BLIND, Inc.