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Published: February 1st 2006
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Visiting the Hong Kong Society for the Blind
The
one on my left is Chester Xia, the head of the Hadley School for the
Blind in China. The man on my right is Thomas Ng from the Hong Kong
Society for the blind. Learning the Lay of the Land
A lot has happened since my last posting. I had my first O&M lesson on Tuesday night. The instructor is very kind and knowledgeable. He showed me how to go from my dormitory to my office and to the main library. We joked a lot, and he even offered to continue my lessons after our agreed contract is over, should I need more help. I haven’t been back to the library yet, but I have been between my office and my dorm several times. People are so helpful that I barely have time to learn how to know when I am on the right path and when I’ve deviated before someone offers me help. If their English is good enough, I ask the specific question that will help me learn my route. If we would need to speak Cantonese to communicate effectively, I let them guide me, since my Cantonese is practically non-existent. One guy who, I think, cleans my room at the Graduate House, likes to guide me by grabbing the tip of my cane and pulling me. As those of you who are blind are all-too-aware, is incredibly frustrating, not to mention quite dangerous. So, I just stop and gently pull the cane back. But, there’s a lady at the Graduate House who understands how I use my cane. She gently puts the tip of my cane on the top of the next set of stairs when I’m going down. In this way, I know that she understands how I use the cane. We utter a lot of OK and yes’s. I attempt to say thank you in Cantonese. But, there’s some kind of subtle difference in words used to say thanks in Cantonese that I haven’t grasped yet. So, I just smile a lot.
Meeting Colleagues
Wednesday was an exciting day. We had two ladies from the U.S. come and give lectures about assessment at CASE. I was treated like an equal colleague with the CASE staff. The woman who donated money to make the lectures possible was also there. She has lived in China her whole life and came to Hong Kong after Mao came to the mainland. Her name is Anne Marden, and she has four children, many grandchildren, and even some great grandchildren. I was honored to sit next to her during the lectures. Her company was delightful.
Thursday was spent planning the next International Association of Special Education conference to be held in Hong Kong in June, 2007. While I’m here at CASE, I’m on the organizing committee. (Dr. Lian believes in his colleagues so much!) I’m learning about how much planning goes into conferences - good experience for me.
Friday was an exciting and initially stressful day. I was scheduled to visit Chester Xia from the Hadley School for the Blind in China. I chat with Chinese students of Hadley who are learning to speak English once per week using voice-over internet protocol software. I’ve been wanting to meet Chester for quite some time. So, it was quite a thrill to finally make his acquaintance.
How I found Chester
So, a little more about how I got to where he is. Hadley Central in Winnetka, IL recently bought Chester a PacMate from Freedom Scientific. He came to the Hong Kong Society for the Blind
Hadley School for the Blind to get training on his new notetaker. When he learned that I would be in Hong Kong while he was here, he suggested that we meet.
Off on an Aventure
So, I took a taxi to Kowloon where the Hong Kong Society for the Blind is located. But, here’s the rest of the story. I asked the staff at the Graduate House to order me a cab. They were happy to do so, but when the taxi got there, the driver asked the English-speaking staff member to let me know that he didn’t know his way around Kowloon very well. So, he would try his best to get me as close to where I was going as possible. (Again, blind friends of mine are now experiencing vicarious panic!) Being told that in a foreign city is not a comforting feeling! I politely but firmly said that that wasn’t good enough. So, thank God, someone had a mobile phone and called the Society. They gave the cab driver good directions, I presume. Mind you, there was a crowd of five - I’m not exaggerating! - clustered around me and the cab, trying to help figure out the situation. It was raining, and many of them were gesticulating emphatically. Meanwhile, my BrailleNote and brand new GPS were getting wet. I was finally ensconced in the cab with lots of leg room and leather seats - probably a Mercedes - and we were off to Kowloon. As the traffic was quite heavy, it took about 45 minutes for us to get there. Thanks to my GPS, I could tell when we went into the tunnel. The fare was HKD120, which I thought was quite reasonable, considering the length of time I was with the driver. That fare equates to about $15.00 U.S.
Once the driver was close to the location, he asked a woman for directions. She walked along the cab for a while, talking with him. Finally, she just hopped into the back seat with me and continued to tell the driver where to go. Then, he found the Society, and someone from there walked me to the door. Whew, I made it!
[Hong Kong Society for the Blind
Chester, his helper, and I were given a tour of the
Hong Kong Society for the Blind Hong Society for the Blind’s library and braille production facilities by Thomas Ng, and Employment Assistant for the Society. They have Tiger embossers, thermal form machines, and the new tactile thing that makes ink raise up via heat. They even produce daily, brailled copies of the South China Morning Post! I have one I’m reading right now! It’s really cool! Their braille paper is manufactured locally to cut down on shipping costs. Whereas American braille paper has perforated tractor feed edges, theirs has tractor feed edges, but they are not perforated. Depending on the job they’re doing, they either leave the holes on the paper, or for books, etc., they cut it off.
We had lunch at the cantina at the Society. I had Singapore fried noodles. (I’ve got to say that it was my first Chinese food here that I’ve really enjoyed.) What a relief it was to have a meal that didn’t force me to contemplate gristle, unfamiliar textures, or nasty tastes as I swallowed!
I had a look at Chester’s PacMate, and he checked out my BrailleNote. I also learned that I can purchase the Talks software that makes certain models of Nokia cell phones speak from the Society! Today, Dr. Lian and his daughter have offered to take me out for dinner and to buy a cell phone. Hopefully, they’ll be able to help me locate one of the models that could be accessible.
Back to how I got home from the Society: Just as on Hong Kong Island, on Kowloon, the taxi drivers were not familiar with Pokfulam, the district where HKU is. So, after much convincing of Chester that his sighted helper could successfully shepherd myself and Chester back to Hong Kong Island, we were guided to the subway. We switched trains once and caught a taxi from the nearest subway station to HKU. The subway trains announce stops in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. But, the sound levels do not adjust to ambient noise. I’m sure that I could handle the subway, though, especially with the announcements. And, I’ll learn all about that next week from Piers Kuan, the O&M instructor from the Ebenezer school for the Blind.
Well, I think we’re about caught-up by now. I hope you are enjoying these updates. More later.
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Sujai
non-member comment
So cool
Christie - this is a GREAT description of your travels (and travails :-)). I remember thinking that Hong Kong airport was particularly well designed for the blind - because the tops and bottoms of stairways were textured and tiled differently... Hope the subway and other facilities are as good! Didn't realize you had a GPS now. Am sure that's a neat thing to have. Is it an attachment for your BrailleNote or a standalone thing? Keep writing. - Sujai