Blind Iowans marched outside of the Iowa Department for the Blind in Des Moines Tuesday as they protested changes to a state program that prepares people with impaired vision to live independently.
The department recently ended the requirement for blind Iowans to use sleep shades — eye masks that block out all light — while learning to navigate the world without vision at its Orientation Center.
Opponents of the change are concerned it will make the state’s intensive training for blind Iowans less effective. About two dozen protesters chanted slogans, including, “Make IDB Great Again,” and “Keep the shades, raise the bar, shades show us who we are.”
Jonathan Ice of Cedar Rapids said he trained with sleep shades when he started working at the Iowa Department for the Blind in 1996. He said the requirement ensures people truly learn to use non-visual techniques, which builds their confidence.
“The tendency is to think, 'I can’t do it without that little vision I had,'” he said. “With the sleep shade requirement, I learned that I could get out, get around all over Minneapolis, all over Des Moines with my cane, without seeing a thing.”
Connie Mendenhall, chief information officer for the Iowa Department for the Blind, said in a statement that the Iowa Commission for the Blind approved the change from sleep shades being “required” to being “highly recommended.”
“This change gives Iowans who are blind or have low vision greater choice in their training and better serves individuals with additional disabilities and health conditions, for whom sleep shades aren’t always a safe, effective or viable option,” she said.
Mendenhall added that a recent survey showed that 35% of department clients would be more likely to attend the Orientation Center if sleep shades were recommended instead of required.
She said people who forgo the training end up relying on more limited in-home instruction for two hours every two weeks. At the Orientation Center, blind Iowans get 40 hours of training per week.
“The key thing for us is that the state agency serving blind people really pays attention to the needs of Iowans, so that our tax dollars are used to effectively help people become employed, live in their homes and be the best for the state of Iowa.”Helen Mejia, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa
Helen Mejia, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa, trained with sleep shades in a different state. She said that experience made it possible for her to go to college and graduate school and to be in the workforce.
“We’re all for choice,” Mejia said. “The problem is … the person who’s just losing their vision, and they’re scared — they don’t know enough to be able to make that choice yet.”
She said the new director of the department, Stacy Cervenka, pushed to make the sleep shades optional.
In a video explaining the policy change, Cervenka said some blind Iowans are missing out on training at the Orientation Center because they do not want to use sleep shades.
“We believe these new policies would allow more clients to receive the intensive training they need to get the jobs that they want to get, to maintain their employment and to be independent in their community,” she said.
Mejia said Iowa’s program with sleep shades has been very successful at helping blind people enter the workforce, and it has been a model for the rest of the country. She said the department’s director should be replaced or should take more time to learn about Iowa’s program before making changes.
“The key thing for us is that the state agency serving blind people really pays attention to the needs of Iowans, so that our tax dollars are used to effectively help people become employed, live in their homes and be the best for the state of Iowa,” she said.
Cervenka said the department held listening sessions with the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa and the Iowa Council of the United Blind, held monthly director’s forums and surveyed clients.
