Harmony Curtiss has helped hundreds of people become a Massage Therapist, or Holistic Health Practitioners. One of her proudest achievements, has been to help those with visual impairment or who are blind. “A visually impaired student, or blind student faces innumerable challenges.
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e do our best to support those students achieve their dreams. We can also help visually impaired students find Federal and State funding so that they may go to school without the worry of tuition. If you know someone, or you are someone who is visually impaired, contact the school today!”
Below are some questions a visually impaired student may be asked in order to meet that students specific needs.
How much sight do you have?
While this question may seem a bit invasive, it is important to establish what visuals will work, and what won’t at the beginning so we can be prepared with the appropriate materials.
So, you can see a little, do you use a program like Zoom-text on your computer at home?
Zoom-text is a program that is made for visually impaired people. It can blow up text to be really big, or change colors to be easier to see. In some cases we can get a publisher to give us a pdf file of a book so that the student can blow up the text and see it at home.
Are there specific colors you can see more easily than others? Are there any colors you can’t see?
Some visually impaired people have a hard time seeing black on white. If we find out that a student sees better with a different color of paper we will make sure to have some in stock just for them.
How comfortable are you using a recording device?
Because it can be harder for a visually impaired student to take notes, we highly recommend they record the lectures so they can listen to them on repeat.
So, you have zero sight. Have you ever had sight?
People who have a memory of sight have different needs then people with no memory of sight.
How recently did you lose your sight? How old were you?
We are trying to establish if the student is still learning how to live with losing sight. For some people, if they are still learning how to simply get around, then we may ask them to take a few courses at the Braille Institute before they enroll.
You have never had sight, do you read Braille? How comfortable are you with Braille? Do you have a device that translates into Braille?
Establishing whether or not a person reads Braille can be imperative. If someone reads Braille then we can make sure to transfer Word documents into their Braille reader so they can read the material that way. We can also test using the students Braille device. However we do need to format our materials so it’s helpful to know the best way a blind student can read is.
While these questions are to the point, really this is a discussion between the student and the administrator. Establishing a students’ need so that our school can meet those and excel. As always, our goal is to provide hands-on, experiential learning for our students. What better place for a blind student, then a massage school that cares about how they learn? Cares about knowing where each muscle is, where it attaches, identifying it, and then smoothing it out.
The staff at Healing Hands School of Holistic Health goes above and beyond to support students. If you have a visual impairment, or know someone who does, contact us today! We are happy to help you get the funding you need to achieve a dream of becoming a Massage Therapist or a Holistic Health Practitioner.