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First of all, I should like to thank the organisers of this international meeting for the confidence they have deposited in us, inviting us to participate in this working session. And to those of you here present, I also wish to thank you in advance for the open attitude you demonstrate even before I begin.
I hope my intervention will be in keeping with Larry Campbell's indications, offering an adequate response to the issues that Paul Ennals has just raised. For this purpose, it will be based, on the one hand, on the reality and extensive experience which the Organisation I represent possesses in the education of blind and visually impaired children; and on the other, on the way in which it has resolved the relationship between the distinct professionals involved in the educational process.
Like Paul Ennals, I too wish to provoke your reactions, both for and against my opinions, whilst - despite the possible, reasonable differences expressed - ensuring that harmony be the dominant factor that defines our mutual interests.
From the very beginning, I should like to qualify an important concept on which my intervention will be centred. When we speak of education, we must refer to a complex process which goes far beyond mere training or instruction. Education involves getting individuals to develop their potential to the maximum, with a view to achieving that they become independent persons, free and capable of accessing culture and a decent, productive job, as well as finding solutions themselves for the problems that present themselves in the course of their everyday lives. Education is therefore a shared process which involves the intervention of diverse agents, who must coordinate their work and constantly take into account, not their own interests, needs and circumstances, but rather those of the pupils.
This is one of the reasons for the success of the associations or teams which, before they even adopt a formal organisational structure, in accordance with the established regulations, must share and live out a general consensus of the common interests and needs to be attended. In the field of human relations, whenever need creates the rule, there is more chance of success than when the rule exists first and then attempts to seek out the needs. In order to be effective in any activity undertaken, feelings must come first, followed by action. Goals are more accessible if the participants form a team with common interests.
Most of those present already know of the Spanish National Organisation for the Blind (the ONCE), which I am most proud to represent at this moment in time and which is a vivid example of what I have just outlined, for it is currently an organisation that is truly unique in the whole world with respect to the attention it offers the blind and visually impaired. In 1938, the blind in Spain were experiencing and suffering common problems of a truly grave nature. For this reason, with great tenacity and much effort - and not without difficulty, they managed to get the government at that time to dictate a legal ruling to support their interests and associative movement. With their enthusiasm, those blind persons proved capable of setting up a great "social services machine" to attend the many evident needs, amongst them the question of education. At present, all the services which Spanish blind persons, members of this organisation, may require throughout their lives are sponsored and financed by the ONCE.
As each period in history is, of necessity, determined by the foregoing eras as well as the current one, the Spanish educational system in the first half of this century only conceived education for the blind in terms of special attention schools. The ONCE adapted itself to the dictates of the times, creating four (later, there were five) schools in different Spanish cities to attend the needs of pupils who suffered grave visual problems. There were some attempts to integrate the blind pupils in ordinary schools, but examples of this were scant at that time.
Nevertheless, Spanish society, as in many other countries, evolved progressively, modifying principles and eradicating the prejudices surrounding disabilities, in general, and blindness, in particular. Thus, the legal provisions progressively incorporated those initiatives that arose from the general attitudes of the agents promoting such changes. In the present day, the restructuring of the educational services for the blind and visually impaired, currently being undertaken in Spain, responds to principles of integration, normalisation, sectorial and individual requirements, as laid down in the legal provisions and backed by the internal regulations of our Organisation.
From those structures of specific schools for the blind we have moved on to their transformation into Educational Resources Centres, with a vocation to act as support centres and bases for the distribution of resources within a specific geographical region of the country, and ready and willing to open its doors to the social milieu in which they are situated.
The organisational structure of the Educational Resources Centres of the ONCE comprises the following elements:
- A Specific Special Education Centre for Blind and Visually Impaired Pupils.
- Support teams for the Integrated Education of the blind and visually impaired pupils attending ordinary schools within their catchment area.
- Specialised Services, through which the following are provided:
- Educational support (temporary
or permanent).
- Didactic resources and
materials.
- Training and retraining
of professionals.
- Family guidance.
- Psychological and vocational
guidance.
- Residence for those pupils
that require it.
- Attention to deaf and
blind persons.
- Advice for educational
innovation and curriculum adaptations.
- Basic skills.
In order for the Educational Resources Centres to carry out their work, they need, on the one hand, the necessary personnel to attend the Specific School included within each Centre, as well as the specialised services they provide; on the other hand, they require an extensive structure of Specific Teams for Educational Attention to Blind and Visually Impaired Persons, distributed all around their region. To offer some statistics of a general nature, some 600 pupils are currently catered for in the five Special Education schools that the ONCE possesses in its Educational Resources Centres around Spain, as well as some 6,000 schoolchildren who attend ordinary schools. This clearly demonstrates the importance of these Teams, which operate with the support and advice of the respective Centres.
As I said at the outset, for educational action to be effective, it must be organised and shared (never improvised nor individualistic). For this reason, we must not fall into the trap - as Paul Ennals warns - of overloading responsibilities on certain educational agents with respect to others. They are all equally responsible for all successes and failures. Based on this principle, the design of the general educational services of the ONCE is currently structured along teamwork lines, maintaining compactness and shared responsibility, the opinion and role of each member of the teams being equally significant.
The Teams are basically composed of the following professionals: Integrated Education Teacher, Social Worker, Psychopedagogue, Typhlotechnologist, Basic Rehabilitation Expert, Visual Rehabilitation Expert, etc. In any case, the number of professionals from each of the mentioned specialities is determined by the number of pupils to be attended in their respective zone.
Our colleague Paul Ennals seemed to be expressing some concern about the manner of establishing the competence and distinct responsibilities which must be assumed by the people with direct educational functions. In our view, this question can be resolved:
- if the roles of each of the members are clearly defined and distributed.
- if each of them assumes their obligations without reservations.
- if everyone is truly convinced that, alone, little can be achieved yet, forming a compact team, their forces are multiplied.
- if each member of the team believes that the work of the others is just as important and necessary as his/hers.
- if the basic working method is based on interdisciplinary coordination.
- if there exists a true association of concerns and interests related to the pupils and not to the professionals involved.
- if the following rule is accepted as a requisite: the errors are not all due to the others, nor can all the successes be attributed to me.
Our criterion is that those who design, programme, coordinate and direct educational actions must not neglect either the fields in which action must be taken, nor the functions that each of the professionals has to fulfil. The Specific Teams of Educational Attention to Blind and Visually Impaired Persons, which the ONCE has established and deployed all round the country, are the ones who carry out those functions directly related to the education of the schoolchildren. To ensure that these functions do not neglect any of the aspects that must be taken into account, it is essential that the design and programming of same are arrived at following the participation of all its members. Any opinion, suggestion or proposal must, at least, be heard. The discussion and contrasting of ideas permits, in the end, a consensus of criteria to prevail instead of an imposition of criteria.
For this reason, the activities of the Specific Teams are based on three fundamental principles:
- Specificity: The professionals who make up these Teams are qualified to carry out the tasks and functions relating to the special educational needs derived from blindness or visual impairment.
- Coordination: Given the multi-professional nature of these Teams, coordination - both internal and external - is fundamental; the intervention and functions of each of these professionals must be clearly defined.
- Comprehensiveness: The work of the Teams must cover all the needs of the pupils throughout the development and learning process.
The principal objective of the Specific (or Integrated Education) Teams is to advise and intervene with all the agents of the educational community in order to provide an adequate response to the diverse needs that exist, progressively facilitating the specific aids that the pupils require so that the process of integration and normalisation in every aspect of their lives may become a reality.
The Specific Team acts as a functional unit, with a unique organisation and plan of action, fulfilling its tasks with the dynamics inherent in collective work, combining these tasks with those pertaining to the specific field of each of the professionals involved.
The functions of the Specific Teams are structured on several planes:
a) Counselling and support for the family - Whenever a child is blind or visually impaired, several circumstances arise within the home environment that must be taken into consideration. It may be the case that the parents accept the fact without any difficulty, overcome the traumas caused and attempt to seek appropriate solutions. However, it is also possible that the initial reaction of the parents, when confronted with a blind child, is one of anguish, fear, disorientation, doubt ... and, regrettably, on some occasions, rejection.
This is where the initial work of the Teams begins:
- To help to detect, as soon as possible, the child's visual problems, informing the families of the psychopedagogical evaluation carried out and of the most appropriate educational formula to respond to the needs of their child.
- To facilitate acceptance of the facts (which, in all certainty, will be irreversible), intervening in the process of adapting emotionally to the blind or visually impaired condition.
- To offer encouragement and guidance in seeking the most appropriate solutions, motivating them so that they may foster the independence and self-concept of their children.
- To obtain the collaboration
and commitment of the parents, with a view to getting them to associate
with, and support, the professionals in the team.
The above actions do not aim to train the parents as professionals, as Paul Ennals so rightly said; however, to qualify what he said, they do endeavour to provide them with certain abilities, skills and guidance to enable them to be in a position to optimise the development of their blind or visually impaired children.
The "primary socialisation" process occurs within the home environment; yet there can be no doubt that many families cannot provide this due to their lack of preparedness. How often do mistaken family actions result in the child becoming a little tyrant or a person hated or rejected by those around him! How often does overprotection or neglect achieve the very same negative effects! How often does - not only active, but also passive - ill-treatment lead the youngster down the wrong road!
Thus, channelling early attention through the family and the teams as soon as possible will manage to prevent and reverse the appearance of problems that prove difficult to resolve, before they have a chance to incorporate themselves definitively in the child's behaviour pattern.
If the "primary socialisation" process has been correctly carried out, and the children learn to speak, to wash themselves, to be obedient and to distinguish what is right from what is wrong, the school can then develop what the sociologists refer to as the "secondary socialisation" process and devote their attention to broadening the knowledge of the pupils.
The parents, with the counselling of the professionals within the Teams, have to channel their sentiments of affection and love for their children. A suitable approach consists in a commitment to action and participation in the overall task of educating their children, as well as in their own training in the "Schools for Parents", which we have set up and are constantly enhancing. The role of parents is to love...; and yet love may, at times, just like a river, overflow when there is an excess, dry up when there is a shortage, or even disperse uncontrolled due to a lack of a determined channel. This, then, is where the work of the Integrated Education Team comes in, to provide the needed corrections and guidance.
b) Support for the centre - One of the principles defended by the Spanish legislation (and, of course, by the ONCE) with respect to the education of disabled pupils (in this case, blind and visually impaired pupils) is Normalisation. By way of this principle, the aim is to get the pupils to participate and benefit from the general services available in an ordinary school; in short, that they be considered citizens with the same rights as anyone else and that the "secondary socialisation" process we mentioned above may take place. The school is where the mechanisms involved in social relationships begin to be employed; where the first instances of integration are tried out and put into practice; where the initial (and often definitive) relationships based on friendship, collaboration, rejection, etc. are forged. It is therefore within the school environment that the work of the Integrated Education Teams takes on a crucial importance, in order to achieve - from the very start - the integration of the blind and visually impaired pupils, not just as far as academic knowledge is concerned, but also as regards their social integration.
The opinion of the Specific Team, regarding everything that affects the blind and visually impaired pupils, must be afforded sufficient weight so that it may be taken into consideration by the school and those in charge. The members of the Team, especially the Integrated Education Teacher, must form part - insofar as is possible - of the teaching staff within the school; they must participate in the design and programming of activities that, in some fashion, might have a bearing on the blind or visually impaired pupils; they must form part of the decision-making process on issues that affect these pupils; in short, they must be recognised as true specialists, and their opinion and judgments taken into account.
However, as is obvious, in order for an opinion to acquire sufficient capacity for it to be listened to and taken into account, it is essential that it is backed up by clearly demonstrated professionality and results obtained. The ONCE thus attempts to form its Teams with professionals whose preparation and attitudes have been sufficiently verified.
c) Support for the ordinary classroom teacher - Until we manage to get training related to blind and visually impaired pupils specifically included on the syllabus of the universities and teacher training colleges, it would be Utopian to believe that the classroom teacher is prepared to adequately attend the special educational needs of all the pupils. Therefore, until this becomes a reality, the Specific Teams will have to continue in existence in order to provide the curriculum adaptations necessary in each case and the specific support required in terms of special techniques, such as orientation and mobility, everyday skills, visual stimulation, the Braille system or social skills.
The Team must carry out the following actions, amongst others:
- Provide the ordinary teachers with the training and guidance necessary for them to be able to attend, in certain aspects, the needs of the blind and visually impaired pupils.
- Provide them with the material resources so that they can offer the pupil access to certain curriculum materials.
- Compile and evaluate their opinions and criteria regarding the characteristics of the pupils, their circumstances, how they cope and develop, as well as any other information that might serve to acquire greater knowledge of the pupil.
- Arrange and carry out the visits and joint work sessions that prove necessary, with a view to achieving an optimum coordination of the actions required.
- Offer advice and guidance to the other professionals within the Support Team in those aspects that prove necessary.
- Achieve an atmosphere of understanding and mutual respect between the classroom teachers and their Integrated Education counterparts, as well as with all the other members of the Team.
- Nevertheless, I would be so bold as to say that the efficient work of an Integrated Education Team, on behalf of the ordinary teachers, could be measured in terms of the latter acquiring sufficient training and skills so that they have to rely, to an ever decreasing degree, on the support of the Team.
d) Support for the blind and visually impaired pupil - Nobody is in any doubt as to the principal objective of all educational actions undertaken - the pupil. The pupil is the one at the receiving end of all the successes and failures obtained by those working on his behalf. He is the motive behind, and the reason for, all the concerns that arise... This is plainly stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on November 20th 1989. However, as a person, the child is not merely a collection of isolated, unconnected potentialities, but rather a comprehensive whole, indivisible and individualised, requiring a personalised attention in accordance with his specific characteristics.
It is often said that, in order to act correctly and effectively on behalf of blind or visually impaired pupils, it must be taken into account that their education must be "for life". I wish to qualify this by saying that they should be educated for "their" lives, for "their" interests, for "their" needs, for "their" own future..., and never for that of others.
It will therefore prove necessary to intervene directly with the pupils in order to achieve an adequate adaptation to the characteristics of the blindness or visual impairment, assisting them in the formation of a suitable self-concept and providing them with the support they require, both within and outside the classroom, with specialised intervention in those specific areas related to visual impairment.
The classroom teacher is still these pupils' tutor and the person responsible for them, to the same extent as for the other pupils, and, for those tasks specifically related to the visual impairment, he receives the support of a team specialised in these activities, whose mission is to collaborate with him in order to ensure the successful integration of the pupil. Each of the stages attended by the Specific Team requires a different kind of intervention:
1.- Early attention:
At this stage, the goal is to get the blind and visually impaired children to acquire those social and community habits required in the peculiarities of their environment, attempting to prevent delays and disorders in their development. The actions undertaken by the professionals will be complemented by the involvement of all those integrating elements within the social and family environment that most closely surrounds the child, with the result that it proves indispensable to work directly with the family in order to prevent possible maladjustments.
At the end of this stage, the child must be ready to initiate a normalised schooling process, and so the pre-learning stage of specific techniques, such as independence and socialising, must have been successfully completed.
As regards Spain, the ONCE
has signed agreements with neonatal health institutions in order to ensure
the earliest possible detection of visual problems, given that it is convinced
that, the sooner action is taken, the more effective that action will be.
In fact, some members of the Specific Teams get in touch with the families
immediately, as soon as the problem is detected, in order to counsel them
and commence the work of stimulation and direct intervention with the baby,
both in the home environment, and in the kindergartens, infant schools
and pre-school education centres.
2.- Compulsory Education:
At this stage, the attention of the Team is fundamentally based on offering guidance, undertaking curriculum adaptations and providing access to curriculum material, on direct support in specific areas and on continuously monitoring the whole integration process.
The action undertaken by the Team focuses on the following aspects, without forgetting that this all requires the collaboration of the centre:
* Multidimensional evaluation.
* Personal, school and vocational
guidance.
* Braille system and the
development of haptic perception.
* Use of specific instruments:
typewriter, typhlotechnical material, relief maps, optical and non-optical
aids...
* Personal independence
and communication: orientation and mobility, everyday skills, social skills.
* Development of the personality:
self-concept and attitude to the disability.
* Visual stimulation.
* Intellectual work techniques.
* Adaptation of the place
of study with the necessary computer and typhlotechnical equipment.
* Elaboration and adaptation
of material.
* Leisure and free-time
activities.
3.- Further Education:
Once the compulsory secondary education cycle has been completed, the pupil must have acquired sufficient independence so as to not require systematic support.
Support at this stage must take the form of offering initial guidance to the teaching staff at the centre in question, informing them of the characteristics of the pupil, and offering them the possibility of support whenever they require it, regarding specific aspects of the visual impairment.
Every effort must be made to ensure that the students learn to be as independent as possible, capable of seeking the resources they require in order to develop their independence.
We have been talking so far of the work carried out by the Integrated Education Teams and we have also stated that, by defining the competence and responsibilities that must be assumed by each of the members of the Teams, it is easy to achieve good coordination between the distinct professionals involved. It is now time to specify, albeit briefly, the role of these professionals, particularly that of the Integrated Education Teacher, given the liaison role this person plays between the Team, the school and the pupil.
The different professionals that go to make up the Teams attend the needs of the blind or visually impaired pupils in a coordinated fashion. This is a multi-professional workgroup, with one sole organisation and working method, which carries out its distinct tasks within the dynamics of working as a team and combining them with those specifically relating to the particular field of each member. We could summarise the functions of the principal components of these teams in the following manner:
- Social Worker: takes care of organising the initial interview welcoming the parents who have requested assistance, fulfilling the first tasks relating to lending an ear, providing information and advice, detecting the needs arising from the situation in question and passing on to the Team a social assessment of the pupil and information regarding available resources. In addition, (s)he participates together with the other professionals in the activities relating to family guidance, classes for the parents, etc.
- Psychologist and Pedagogue: undertake the psychopedagogical evaluation of the pupils, and draw up the intervention programmes deemed necessary.
- Basic Rehabilitation Expert: designs and applies, together with the teacher, the programmes aimed at orientation and mobility and everyday skills, endeavouring to get the families and the rest of the centre involved in the process.
- Typhlotechnical Instructor: intervenes in the design of programmes, the evaluation and development of capabilities and skills related to the use of typhlotechnical equipment and learning with a computer.
- Sociocultural Events Organiser: collaborates in programming and developing sporting, leisure and free-time activities in order to facilitate the social integration of the pupils.
- Integrated Education Teacher: in collaboration with the other professionals in the Team, undertakes the process of counselling the ordinary centre, the classroom teacher, the pupil and the family on the educational needs derived from the visual impairment, as well as the most suitable strategies to facilitate the normalisation of the situation and the pupil's integration. To achieve this, (s)he must:
* collaborate in the curriculum adaptations the pupil requires.
* offer guidance with respect to strategies for improving integration within the classroom as well as outside.
* offer direct assistance to the pupil in those specific areas derived from the needs resulting from the visual impairment, procuring the involvement of the teaching staff in the educational centre.
* adapt the material the pupil requires or, where applicable, advise the centre and the classroom teacher on the adaptations that are needed.
* design and/or carry out programmes aimed at the adequate use of the pupils' residual vision and monitor the use of the prescribed optical and non-optical aids.
The entire burden of responsibility for the education of the pupil in question should not fall on the shoulders of the Integrated Education Teacher. (S)he constitutes an important link in the educational chain, but is not the only factor responsible for the effectiveness of this chain. Nor should we insist on virtues such as those attributable to a genius, hero or saint. We wish to count on persons of flesh and blood, susceptible to errors, but also capable of getting things right and, fundamentally, of rectifying where needed. What we must demand of these professionals is that they have received sufficient specific training to tackle their work with dignity and, above all, the necessary qualities and commitment to ensure their willingness to collaborate and discuss, with enthusiasm, tolerance and total dedication to their work. They must be capable of accepting, without question, their specific responsibilities; they must be open to the opinions of others; they must strive constantly to innovate; they must be convinced that their training is not complete, but rather that they must continuously perfect their knowledge of this field... We are aware that their work is really demanding and requires considerable effort and dedication, but also has compensations and proves most rewarding.
Should we wish to summarise the skills the Integrated Education Teachers have to be suitably prepared for - sharing some of the ideas expressed by Paul Ennals on this question - we would list the following as the most important:
- They must be capable of counselling and advising on those matters in which they are competent, placing their wisdom and preparation at the service of the other members of the team and the classroom teacher.
- They must demonstrate, at all times, a spirit of assistance, both to the parents of a specific pupil, and to the teachers and other professionals attending that pupil.
- They must be capable of training other professionals.
- They must be prepared to transmit their knowledge and expertise to other teams, associations, groups of people, etc. who wish to study the specialities these professionals already master.
- They must possess sufficient capacity in order to be able to guide their pupils along the path to resolving their problems by themselves.
- They must advise and guide those persons who intervene with the pupil outside the classroom, as they are also highly important in the educational process.
I do not wish to terminate my intervention without first referring to several ideas which I feel are worth sharing with you all.
Our experience in the educational field, which extends over many years now in our country, puts us in a position to be able to affirm that, in order to be effective in the educational process, action cannot be taken in an isolated or individual fashion. It is essential that many people and institutions join forces to ensure that the risk of error is reduced and the capacity of response increased. The ONCE is very clear about this principle and it carries it through to its logical conclusion, establishing pacts and collaboration agreements with the state and regional administrations, with universities, schools and associations, etc.; in short, with the majority of the representatives of the educational community in our country.
These agreements and associations, however, must share common interests and a consensus for reaching the same goals. And when I speak of goals, I am always - I repeat, always - referring to those of the pupils, who must be the basic element, the reason any decision is made with respect to their education. No self-respecting educator has the right to even dare to choose a path, an objective, a reading-writing code, activities, ..., thinking of what they want rather than in the needs and interests of the pupil.
The ideas I have been so bold as to put forward here are born out of the experience we have gained as an organisation for the blind and visually impaired; from this perspective we can talk as a rather highly developed national organisation in the field of providing services for the disabled, in general, and for the blind and visually impaired, in particular; our experience has been gleaned from rising from our beginnings with zero economic resources, although with a powerful seed of enthusiasm and persistence; from a context in which it is us, the very people affected by these visual problems, who coordinate and direct these services on the basis of our own experiences and needs.
Paul, as is clearly evident from my words, I do not share the concern you express with respect to the way in which the negative experiences lived out by the blind persons might influence the running of their organisations. I sincerely believe that the history of the ONCE clearly demonstrates how we, the blind and visually impaired leaders, have been capable of overcoming our own experiences and creating a progressive organisation, without getting stuck in the past, and we remain ever-filled with hope for the innovations on the way and the future, in general.
I do, however, fully agree with you on the question that I too may be mistaken.
Many thanks to you all.