Yesterday, I listened to an impressive radio programme. A journalist and a writer, a regular contributor to the programme, went to an ONCE (Spanish National Organisation for the Blind) centre to talk to EBO (Compulsory Basic Education) students.
There were eight students in the class, all aged 18 or under (after that age, they have to go to another centre). All of them were deaf and blind. The journalist and the contributor spoke to the teacher, who explained that some students make sounds but have not yet learned to speak (when they are young) because they have not learned our language. They use the Braille system, via a computer with an adapted keyboard, but also using the palm of their hand as a means of communication between themselves and the support person each of them has. Because, as a Spaniard once said: ‘Their world begins at their fingertips’.
The work carried out by ONCE is wonderful because, until the end of the 19th century, these blind, deaf and deafblind people were usually confined to their homes, isolated from the world. But now, thanks to ONCE and other organisations, we know that these people are capable of living happily, despite their enormous difficulties.
At the end of the 19th century, Hellen Keller, a 7-years-old American girl, began to lose her sight and hearing. Her parents sought help and went to a centre for the blind in the United States, where they were sent to a therapist, Anne Sullivan, who began to work on communication with Hellen. One of the exercises she did was to take Hellen to a water fountain, put her palm under the water and then write the word “WATER” on her palm.
Returning to the ONCE Centre, the journalist and her colleague spoke to a 34-years-old man, Javier, who lost his sight and hearing at the age of 13. His father took him to ONCE, where he was assigned a psychologist who talked to him about working on ‘climbing’, that is, improving Javier's abilities so that he could build as stable a future as possible. The psychologist asked him, ‘Javier, do you want to resume your studies?,’ Javier replied: ‘Yes’. Javier then finished his secondary education with a grade point average of 10. He then studied for a double degree in Law and Business management. As he was attracted to the Erasmus programme, he went to London and enrolled in an English language school ---his classmates looked at him strangely, but he had no complexes---. Javier had to make a great effort, although he had the help of a therapist. And he was the first deafblind person in Europe to participate in Erasmus.
Javier currently works in the Institutional Relations department of ONCE. He is married and has two young children.
As he spoke ---which sounded strange, because he couldn't hear himself---, I couldn't understand how he could understand the questions from the journalist and the collaborator; but, at the end of the interview, the collaborator explained that Javier had the help of a therapist at all times, who translated each of the questions for him in real time. For example, the collaborator asked him how he knew when to correct himself if he was speaking too softly or too loudly. He replied: ‘If I speak too softly, my therapist slides her hand from my forearm to my shoulder. And if I speak too loudly, she slides her hand from my shoulder to my forearm.’ But the collaborator said that the therapist did not want to be in the spotlight, so she did not speak or give her name.
Another thing Javier mentioned was that blind people walk down the street with a white cane, but deafblind people carry a red and white cane.
When the programme ended, I was impressed because I didn't know about the work that ONCE does. And I'm glad that programmes like this give visibility to these people, who seem not to exist, but they are among us and they also deserve to be happy.
That's why those of us who, thanks to God, don't have these disabilities must appreciate THE GREATNESS OF SEEING AND HEARING LIFE.