AMANDA NELSON
The Corsair
Blindness sounds frightening doesn’t it? Imagine that one day your eyesight has been lost to an illness or an accident and now people have to cook your meals, do your laundry, or read your e-mails to you. Does that sound like a very independent life?
There are 1.3 million Americans in the United States who are blind, as reported on the Independence for the Blind of West Florida Web site.
“We serve about 100,000, and there are even more than 1,000 people who don’t ask for help,” Alicia Heafty, finances and grant specialist for the local organization, said.
But, for those who do ask for help, independence is right around the corner.
Through the new C.W. Gemmill Training Center in Pensacola, many blind and visually impaired people will achieve their independence this year. Clients learn independent living skills such as cooking, how to do laundry, how to read Braille, and how to use computer skills.
“I prepare blind persons for work, employability skills, and daily life skills,” said John O’Dillon, counselor and cooking instructor.
O’Dillon manages four employees at the Independence for the Blind of West Florida.
“The new building is more roomy than the older building. It offers better space for training,” O’Dillon said.
Being a teacher and trying to teach a blind or visually impaired student does have its ups and downs. The hardest part of the job for assistive technology instructor Jason Grills is “giving instruction to blind people to use the computer for the first time.”
But Grills finds his work rewarding too.
“I am able to prepare visually impaired people to enter the workforce,” he said.
Working in the old building was hard to do.
“There was a lack of technology and room. Now we have current technology and larger training area. There is area for seeing more clients in the lab instead of travelling to their home,” Grills said.
The training center is very large. Before the center was built the instructors had to go to client’s homes, and the clients had shorter lessons because of the time constrictions.
“This new training center would not be possible without the helpful generous donation from a private donor, Division of the Blind and many government agencies, and from many people in the Pensacola community,” Hefty said.