Over the next few weeks, summer will come to a close. A looming question arises for kids, “What’d you do this summer?” Many parents hope that their child’s answer will detail the meticulous and tireless efforts they took to keep them educated and busy. We all have a hope that children will have summers filled with friends, activities, exploration and growth. For children with disabilities, particularly those who are blind, this hope is deeply held by their parents who are searching for a welcoming and inclusive community. The BELL Academy is one such program and has several connections to Greenbelt.
The BELL Academy, a program sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland which stands for Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning, is a two week immersion impaired children living in Prince George’s County. Entering its sixth year, nine students, ranging in age from five to 12, were offered an opportunity to be “kids” while learning from blind adults. During each seven-hour day, students engage in fun instructional activities in Braille, cane travel and independent living skills, plus they receive a huge serving of positivity in what it can mean to be an independent blind individual. Due to significant cuts in special education services, many blind students receive a fraction of specialized resources they need to stay on par with their sighted peers. The BELL Academy was created as an answer to this dilemma where local blind adults would serve as teachers and mentors for the students.
This year, students visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and met with Greenbelt resident and scientist Dr. Robert “Bobby” Candey who shared his expertise in radio astronomy, which is the idea that space can be more than what you see, but also what you can hear! A team from the Ice, Cloud, Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) program created tactile 3D models for the students to understand the effects of climate change on glaciers and created a game that taught them the science behind how the satellite uses laser photons to gather science data. For many of them, this was their first exposure to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) activities that was tailored to their needs as a non-visual learner.
An even more memorable experience was created and supported by the staff at the Greenbelt Aquatic & Fitness Center. Due to good intentions of protective parents and a fear of trying, many of these blind students have never gone swimming with friends, an activity which would be appropriate for teens their age. The GAFC staff were supportive in giving the students room to explore the facility with their white canes, learn how to use the locker room and navigate independently to the pool area. This may sound simple enough but for many blind children and adults, they are often not given the space to use their own navigational skills to do these very tasks without the assistance of someone else. There is an old adage in the disability community, what may look like floundering to one person can be a form of swimming to someone with a disability who navigates a world through touch and sound.
GAFC lifeguards Jessica Cook and Stacy Hindalong created a surprisingly simple yet engaging game for the students. For many who are blind, distance is something that must be experienced and touched. So to say that a pool is 25 meters in length, a blind teen may have a vague concept of what that actually means. Combining a dash of creativity and compassion, Stacy and Jessica created a What time is it? game where a leader asks the students to take a given number of steps which correspond with the time. For instance, Paul, a tall 12-year-old, yells out, “it’s six o’clock” to the question from the eager group, “what time is it.” Whoever is the first to reach the leader gets to declare that it is Dinner time! This ingenious game gave the students a chance to be leaders, understand and become comfortable in navigating the water, and have fun in making as much noise as they wanted. While Stacy and Jessica did not have any specialized training in blindness or special education, they had an open spirit filled with curiosity and compassion that led them to create a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for these kids. And at its core, this is the mission of all of the activities occurring around the city, to help grow happy, healthy, confident and vibrant children.
Denna Lambert is a disability programs manager at Goddard Space Flight Center.
