Profiles
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Focus on employment
Rebecca Mogridge, 27, has retinopathy of prematurity, which she has had (as the name suggests), since birth.
Rebecca moved from Christchurch to Wellington for a Mainstream (State Services) position. This job has now been made permanent. Rebecca works as an analyst in ministerial services, Ministry of Health, and is part of a team that answers correspondence that comes to the Ministry of Health from the public, and parliamentary questions from MPs. There would be 40 or 50 items of correspondence to deal with at any one time so prioritising is important.
Rebecca does research for the responses and says her Master's degree has helped with her research, organisation and analytical skills. Good people skills are also required as information must be obtained from people who are often extremely busy. When asked what she loves about this job Rebecca says that it is really challenging, there is a huge variety of work and lots of people interaction. Rebecca uses a large screen on her computer and the settings have been adjusted for maximum use.
Vocational placement co-ordinators:
Auckland - Eleanor Wicks ph 09 355 6879; Hamilton - Bob Wicks ph 07
838 7516; Wellington - Shirley Hampton ph 04 380 2149; Christchurch -
Stephanie Lange ph 03 375 4319; Dunedin - Paula Waby ph 03 466
4250.
Kiribati tales
The 33 coral atolls of Kiribati that straddle the equator are, according to Lonely Planet travel guide, "hard to get to, untouristed and deeply religious".
Kiribati is halfway between Hawaii and Australia. It was granted independence from Britain in 1979. The Pacific nation has few resources to sustain its population of around 100,000 and just one school for children with disabilities, in the capital of Tarawa.
Earlier this year two New Zealanders who specialise in working with blind and vision impaired students spent two weeks at the school. Michael Ocean, who works for the Foundation as a Developmental Orientation and Mobility Instructor (DO&M) was one and Cathy West, a Resource Teacher Vision in Wellington was the second.
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"I had a personal and professional interest," says Michael, "in seeing how orientation and mobility could fit into other cultures. For instance, the long cane is universal and its purpose can be communicated without language."
The official language of Kiribati is English, although most islanders speak I-Kiribati. The school for the disabled was set up in 1992 by the Red Cross as a place for children to socialise. That notion of charity ran out at about the same time as the school's funding did. A group of dedicated parents decided that their children deserved an education. They appointed Kinoia Boutabu as acting principal of the thirteen students and began lobbying Pacific nations for support.
Last year, the Terry Small Trust responded to that call for support. Kinoia was invited to spend three months working in visual resource centres in New Zealand. The trust then paid for the two New Zealanders to go to Kiribati in April this year. At the request of Kinoia and the school's committee, Michael and Cathy assessed individual student's needs and worked with them on braille and orientation and mobility skills. "What we found," says Michael, "were very able children who would be in mainstream classrooms if they were in New Zealand."
The pair also worked with school staff on various areas of the expanded core curriculum and the school's management. "It was a big task in such a small time," adds Michael, "and there was some naivety on both sides about what could be achieved by professionals going into a different culture."
Despite those challenges, the visit highlighted the difference that qualified and experienced staff could make to the school. Two teaching staff have been offered a two-year teacher-training course, beginning in 2005. Ongoing support for the school is also being sought through other ongovernment agencies such as Volunteer Service Abroad, and through regional educational councils.
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Michael Turner - Chairman's Award recipient
"Michael Turner is a man who has dedicated decades of work for his community, without regard for his personal needs and reward," says RNZFB Chairman Don McKenzie.
Michael's involvement with the RNZFB began more than 30 years ago when his sight started to deteriorate while he was teaching at Wanganui Collegiate.
Without additional skills Michael recognised that he could not go on teaching in the conventional way, so he came to the RNZFB's Adult Rehabilitation Unit in the early 70's and learned braille.
Discovering the "magic of braille" he wanted to share it, so he devised the Audio Tactual distance learning scheme of teaching Braille using taped instructions and brailled lessons.
"Because of his own sight loss, Michael has strong commitments to and understanding of the needs of blind and vision-impaired people," says Don. "He has used his knowledge to inspire and assist others."
Taumarunui community committee chairman and nominator Dr John Lane says he is delighted that Michael has been presented with this year's Chairman's Award. "To say he has been an active supporter over a long period would be a huge understatement."
Michael's other achievements include:
- ABC NZ voluntary treasurer and its first fulltime advocate
- RNZFB Board of Trustee member 1980 - 2003
- Past RNZFB Chairman
- Involved in the development of the Bledisloe Estate Trust in the 80s which is responsible for managing the RNZFB's Parnell block
- Instrumental in forming the Gabriel Trust which offers opportunities for talented blind musicians to perform at a professional level.
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TIS celebrates 10 years
Looking for today's latest news, financial reports or sports? A job? A hot date? Then you should be ringing the Telephone Information Service (TIS), which is growing like Topsy as it celebrates its 10th anniversary in December.
TIS lets you hear an enormous amount of news (and even gossip) using only your phone - no computers are ecessary. You just ring your local TIS number, choose from the menu, and then let a human or digital voice deliver the information you desire.
This year alone, TIS has:
- Launched ASB BankTalk, bringing members ASB's wide range of financial news - from exchange rates to financial reports; and
- Added classified advertisements from the New Zealand Herald - including job adverts and even racy "personal" classifieds.
In the future APN, which owns the Herald and many other New Zealand newspapers, will be providing even more local news through TIS. In addition to being an information resource, TIS is also a confidence builder and teacher for members coming to terms with their vision loss.
"TIS helps you learn through listening, and that's necessary when you lose your vision. It just takes practice," says Mary Schnackenberg, Divisional Manager Adaptive Support.
TIS was born in 1994 after Mary and Clive Lansink saw a version in the US. Clive, a software engineer and technical whiz, developed our world-leading TIS on the smell of an oily rag. (The full story about the ASB BankTalk launch and TIS history is on the Foundation's website: www.rnzfb.org.nz/Media/media_releases)
The brilliance of TIS is that it uses one of the most recognisable tools in the world - the telephone keypad - to give vision-impaired people a link to news, entertainment, and confidence.
"If you can use the phone, you can use TIS. And if you can use TIS for news, you can go on to phone banking and more. The sky is the limit, if you want it to be,"Mary says.
TIS will continue to evolve to help meet objectives outlined in the Foundation's Strategic Plan, especially in employment support and meeting the needs of older members.
Telephone numbers for TIS are printed in each issue of Outlook (see page 24 in this issue). If you would like more information or training, please ring Murray Peat on 0800 24 33 33.