Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (June 14, 1990)
Iternative i Clockwise from top: Dan and his travel instructor Larry Mackey walk along Capitol Parkway. Larry, who is also legally blind, was teaching Dan how to navigate the intersec tion at 27th Street and Capitol Parkway. John Moore, a Hinky Dinky employee, helps Dan with hi& grocery shopping. Dan tells time by feeling the position of his watch hands to the braille dots by the numbers. A talking computer tells Dan what l^has typed and prints on a braille printer. Story and Photos by Michelle Paulman □taxi driver tells the following story to his passenger: These two old women were talking when they see this blind woman. One of the ladies says, "Look at that poor, young handicapped girl." So I said to them /She’snot handi capped; she just can't see." And the ladies say, "Oh, yes, she is handicapped." About that time, the blind woman, who overheard the conversation, walks up to the ladies and says,' 'He’s right. I’m not handicapped; I just can’t see" The passenger, Dan Virts, laughs at the story. Dan is legally blind. He wears sleep shades as part of his train ing at the Nebraska Services for the Visually Impaired. He is going back there from grocery shopping. Being blind doesn’t mean being incapable, according to Dan. “You can do anything if you set your mind to it,’ ’ he says. Dan does many things as part of his training at the center. In typing class, he works on a computer that speaks the words he types and prints on a braille printer. He uses unmodi fied, electronic tools to make projects in shop class. He rides the bus to the store, class and home, and he learns to navigate intersections by cane during travel class. For homemaking class, he cooks, cleans and sews. And he docs all of this in sleep shades. According to the Services, the shades arc an educational tool used to build students’ confidence in their other senses and, if they have some vision left, to integrate non-visual techniques with their remaining vi sion in case their eyesight is unreli able in certain situations. Students may remove the shades during lunch and when they go home after classes. To Dan, the sleep shades emulate the inevitable total darkness that will come when he loses all his sight. A diabetic, he began to have eye trouble in 1976 when his right eye hemor rhaged. It healed, but in 1983 his left eye hemorrhaged, the retina pulled away, and a surgeon replaced the fluid in his left eye with a synthetic substance. From there, his problems “snowballed,” he said. He can now soc only highlights, shadows and some detail in Night light. “It’s a tragedy at first,” he said. But he does not feel it is the end of his life. “There’s no sense in being nega tive.” Dan said he has learned to use his other senses and can do what sighted people can, if he puts his mind to il He said he makes mistakes like everyone else. It’s not because of his blindness, he said, but because he is “just not paying attention” to what he is doing. “You’ve got to fail,” he said. “It’s part of the learning process.” Dan, 43, hopes to go back to school when he finishes his training this month and find a job as a computer program mer. The Services for the Visually Impaired will inform him of possible jobs and send employers information about blind people’s capabilities to prevent them from discriminating against the visually impaired. Dan’s training at the center lasts from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. He slays in a student apart ment during the week. On weekends, he goes home with his wife, Jackie. During the week, he invites friends over for supper, watches rented movies with other students, or listens to books on cassette tapes from the National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Dan maintains a positive attitude about his condition. “I’ll live one day at a lime,” he said, ”... just like everyone else.”