| Description | Interviews with trainers and students at the pre-vocational training centre at Torquay, including Gloria Jackson, one of the orientation and mobility teachers, and Mrs Turner, a typing instructor
Tracks 1-4: Gloria Jackson continues to talk about her work teaching the long cane method, and her belief that children in school should be taught use of the long cane. She describes the process by which one of her students, Fred Roberts, learnt to use the long cane. Fred Roberts joins the conversation to give his views about the negative attitudes of the administration at Torquay towards teaching the long cane, and their apparent determination to dismiss the teachers of the long cane method. Gloria Jackson talks about her conviction that the long cane is the future for rehabilitation and mobility, and Fred Roberts describes the benefits of the long cane for him in enabling him to live an independent life. Gloria Jackson goes on to discuss the the ease of use of the long cane method for people of all ages. She rejects the suggestion that the method is easier to learn in America because of the street patterns
Track 5: Tony Farmer, from Blackburn, and others sing and play 'Norwegian Wood' 1.46 mins
Track 6: Tony Farmer and others sing and play 'Yellow Submarine'. He then talks to Charles Parker about his guitar playing, and there are sounds of people typing 3.58 mins
Tracks 7-12: Mrs Turner, a typing instructor, explains how she trains people with visual impairment to type, in the use of the braille ruler, taking dictation, and writing letters. She talks about the ability of people with visual impairment to undertake commercial work as telephonists or typists, and the need for students to be able to measure the layout of text on the page, and goes on to explain the methods she uses to teach typing. She talks about students who publish prose and poetry they have written, starting work at the centre during the 1940s, and describes the main problems that students with visual impairments have when beginning to learn to type. She explains that many of her students use their typing skills for social use rather than entering commercial jobs, and recounts employers reports about their typists with visual impairments. She goes on to give students instruction in typing and takes them through a typing test
Total: 33.25 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF549C0071680 |