| Description | Interviews with people at the pre-vocational training centre at Torquay, including Gloria Jackson, one of the orientation and mobility teachers at Torquay.
Tracks 1-3: Charles Parker talks to people using gym equipment about the exercises they are doing to strengthen their limbs and to gain mobility, with background noise of people using machines and other sports equipment
Track 4: one of the trainers at the centre talks about the physical rehabilitation of people at the centre to make their movement and mobility easier when they return home and start work again 1.55 mins
Tracks 5-6: one of the men using the equipment, Mr Paul, discusses how he lost his sight a year previously after breaking a vein near his eye, being treated in hospitals in Portsmouth and Southampton and receving physiotherapy. He talks about spending time at Torquay to try and regain his strength and fitness, and gives his opinion about the training available at the centre. Another man, Fred Roberts from South Wales, then discusses how he began his training in the use of the long cane. He describes some of the difficulties with orientation that he experienced with the short cane, and the improvement he found. He talks about his previous job lack of confidence about going out on his own and contrasts this with his feeling of freedom at being able to go out, navigate through crowds and cross roads using the long cane
Tracks 7-10: Gloria Jackson talks about the need for follow-up training in the use of the long cane once people have returned to their homes. She goes on to talk about her experience taking the sixth month training course in the long cane method with Lee Farmer, gradually taking on students, doing lesson plans in the evening, and being trained to teach students, children and other teachers. She feels that the work Lee Farmer did was not always recognised by the centre at Torquay and emphasises the importance of teaching the method thoroughly. She thinks that the long cane is the only way for people with visual impairment to undertake independent travel. She describes how she was treated on her return to Torquay after a holiday, and her decision to leave. She thinks that her employment opportunities are limited because she is partially sighted, and she is worried that the skills she has learnt will be wasted because she cannot travel around the country teaching the long cane method. She thinks she will have to get a hotel job but does not want to give up teaching use of the long cane. She thinks that the administration at Torquay and other blind welfare institutions in the country are prejudiced against the long cane because they haven't seen the advantages of it.
Total: 29.27 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF549C0071580 |