Merlin has been around a long time and seen a lot of changes. Some of the ideas that were bounced around over the years weren't exactly in the best interest of consumers. Consider the following:
A few years back, there was a real furor over whether or not teachers who were blind should be allowed to teach mobility. Now, Merlin is a broad-minded person, but there are some things Merlin doesn't believe in. I want an O&M teacher who doesn't have to worry about his own safety when they ought to be looking after mine. I'm just selfish that way. I want the instructor to devote 100% of their attention to me.
The same folks who liked that idea were probably the ones who made such a fuss over a blind traveler's "right" to sit in the exit row on an airplane. Obviously, they felt this right was more important than the safety of the other 130 or so passengers. Of course, the way many flights end up sitting on the runway for a couple of hours, there would probably be enough time to teach the blind passenger not only how to open the emergency exit, but how to fly the plane. You want to see a passenger get trampled to death in a hurry, you just let him spend more than 10 seconds fumbling with the emergency exit door.
Even though Merlin has spent many years helping to prove the consumers can do many types of work, the above seem like extremely poor ideas. It's too bad some consumers can't devote more time to important issues. For example, helping to fight for specialized services.
Speaking of the above, the worst idea in our field is thinking that blind consumers can be well served by generic VR programs. If I am going to have heart surgery - although I like my general practitioner, I don't want him operating on my heart. There are many differences in the needs of blind consumers and consumers with other disabilities. Why this is considered rocket science is beyond Merlin.
Continuing on, the award for longest pursuit of a dumb idea has to go to those wonderful, intelligent folks at RSA. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the pipe dream of finally introducing the concept of weighted closures. This idea would encourage and reward state VR agencies that truly attempt to serve people with the greatest disabilities first. Sounds like a good idea, but it will never happen. It would mean actually enforcing the Rehab Act of 1973; something that has never happened. The Fat Cats know they need to claim thousands served and placed into employment in order to con the people who make appropriations in Congress. Anyway, it wouldn't matter because under the Social Security regs, almost anyone with more than a sprained toe is considered "severely disabled".
Finally, there are many agencies in our field that feel that accreditation is not important(don't mistake Merlin as "pro-Nac"). They may be among those who were concerned that the National Accreditation Council (NAC) couldn't survive their financial woes back in 1990. Actually, NAC is stronger financially now than ever in the past. What's their excuse now? Maybe some of those who think they can get by with generic accreditation will be among the first to be eliminated when their agency is merged with the general VR agencies. Or, maybe they will be replaced by private sector services who feel you can give an OT or PT a few hours inservice and make them qualified to serve blind consumers.
A lot of this can be tied to the egomaniacs running some consumer activists groups. Or, at least they would like to think of themselves that way. They would rather fight for blind O&M instructors, claim their rights are violated when they can't sit in the emergency exit row, and fight against an organization they once were in love with until they learned they couldn't dictate who sits on NAC's board.
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