experience working with visually impaired people?

[zumbamama]

There is a girl who wants to join my dance class who is partially blind. I don't know to what extent, but I know she takes other dance classes. Other instructors I talk to get frustrated with her and have warned me about her needing a lot more attention, understandably, of course.

I have only one experience teaching her, once when I went on an audition, she was in the front row, and she wanted me to stand in front of her, very closely, the whole time. I tried to get close enough to her for her to see my feet, but I can only get so close, as I need to be viewable to everyone. I encouraged her to focus less on my feet, and more on my verbal cues and the music. Is there anything else I can do? I would love to have her in my class, as I try to make it an "everyone is welcome" atmosphere, but also don't want to interfere with the other students experience. Or should I recommend she take a more specialized dance class? If you have any pointers in how I can make it more beneficial to her...I'm all ears.

[Anonymous]

Ask her to describe more about her visual impairment and how she best follows cues -- is it verbal direction (i.e., words) or does she do it by where the sound is coming from, or does she go by visual cues (i.e., shadows). It sounds like she does have some sight, so you might want to make sure that your feet/shoes do not blend in with your legs or the floor. It you wear black tights and shoes and dance on a brown floor, then there probably is not enough contrast for her to pick out your feet. If she cues by sound, then you might need to figure out a way so that she can tell when your left foot hits the floor, vice the right foot.

I don't have experience teaching visually impaired people, but my cousin it totally blind and her boyfriend is legally blind (but can see some shadows).

[Anonymous]

I am legally blind without my contacts in, which I didn't get until I was almost 18yrs old, so I feel her pain. Even with them my acuity is still not a perfect 20/20, or even 20/40.

I have attempted dance classes (ballet, belly dancing) without my contacts before and it wasn't always fun.

I tried to stay in the front to have a better view, but I was always either self conscious that I had it totally wrong, or worried I'd hurt myself from having it wrong and putting too much strain on the wrong muscles/etc.

It's definitely an exercise in frustration at times!

Not all vision impairments are made equal though- I for instance probably actually did fine and I only needed a little added help here and there from my teachers, it was just my own fear that I wasn't doing it right.

My suggestions based on my own experience-

-A small class size (I'd say no more than 20 or so for me personally)
-Stay in the front near you
-For you to check her every so often, particularly at any parts where she could potentially injure herself to ensure she's in the correct position(I suspect this is more a problem with ballet vs. other types of dance though...)
-If you have hours available to tutor/do one on one (or one on 2-4...) people classes, it may help her to do a few of those alongside the bigger group classes in order to be more confident that she knows the steps and is doing the moves correctly. If she KNOWS them, then when she sees them, she will be able to more quickly recognize them and follow along accurately in the class. Learning the verbal/music cues if you do the same moves at the same part of the song could be helpful here as well.

It may also be worth suggesting that she find a friend or someone to come with her until she is more comfortable with the dance moves. This person could watch/follow you, while staying close to her and keeping more of an eye on her than you can reasonably do with an entire class to help and teach.

A lot really just depends on what her vision problem actually is, as well as her acuity. I'd also say it depends on her personality and how hard *she* is willing to work to make it work. There's really only so much you can do as a teacher in a group setting without being unfair to the other students, and hopefully she does recognize that and will appreciate what extra help you can give.

Additionally, even though you've heard from her other instructors- it'd be best to ask HER about her vision problem, what she thinks/knows would be helpful, and how much help she thinks she needs on average. I've had people hear I'm legally blind without my contacts and suddenly I am blind as a bat! One funny example- I was in a college class and the desks were all over the place, not in any sort of order. I went up to the professor to ask her to make photocopies of her slides for me as I had difficulty seeing them in the larger lecture halls and/or with people in front of me...Keeping in mind I navigated just fine up to her, didn't bang into anything, etc..she had NO idea until I spoke up that I wasn't perfectly sighted- most people don't. After she found out, we talked a bit, I went to take a step back to turn and walk away, she reached out to take my hand and told me to be careful of the desk behind me! Way overkill. So while she may really need a lot of help, it may also be that they are overzealous or exaggerate the need for whatever reason. At least for me, people tend to really underestimate my visual abilities even without my contacts when they hear the word "blind." There are many, many different conditions and even with the same condition, the person's actual sight and their skills at compensating/etc can be drastically different.

And finally- as someone who has been in her position, thank you for caring enough to try and make it work, even if you can't with her specifically!

[zumbamama]

oh I never even thought of the color aspect of my feet/floor. But I should have, being an artist! That is a great suggestion. I usually go barefoot in Samba class, the one she wants to join...so currently there is absolutely no contrast between my feet and floor. Guess I'll need to go black shoe shopping!

[Anonymous]

PP here:

And for the sake of accuracy- my vision without my contacts falls in the category of legally blind- but I'm not actually since it is corrected a lot with contacts to within the range of "normal." But for 18years I was legally blind.

[zumbamama]

thanks for the insight PP, I will definitely ask her about the details of her condition if I see her again. I'll do my best to make her feel comfortable without overdoing it, as you say! ~ZM