Assume nothing Part II
Originally posted Thursday, August 11, 2005
My second orientation is scheduled for 3:00pm. Perfect, that gives me two hours before we close to take care of the new student, this should be more then enough time.
4:00pm, still no word from the administration team as to where my new student is.
4:10pm, I see one of the administration personnel walking into the conference room with someone. Ah this must be my new student, and running a little late I see. This is going to be cutting it awfully close to my beer time.
Finally at 4:30 the administrations person walks out of the room and heads my way.
“Can you do the orientation?” he says “ I know its late sorry but the student was late”
“Yeah, I guess so”
“ok thanks, it should be an easy one, he is just taking one course of the entire MOS certification”
“Ok cool, anything else I need to know?” I ask.
“Ummmm….. no, that should do it” He strides off to the office collecting his belongings to head home. Must be nice to go home early. I enter the conference room and my new student continues to stare straight ahead. Hmmm…..is he trying to intimidate me? I sit down in front of him and introduce myself as his new teacher.
“Welcome to our facility” I say with a smile.
“Hi, I want to start off by saying I am legally blind, so I can’t see anything you are pointing at or referring to.”
“Ah….uh huh, well then” this would explain the blank stare I am getting. When I asked the administration person if there was anything else I should know, this would have been an excellent point to bring up. I guess he assumed it was not something I needed to know before hand. At this point I begin to talk very loud, almost to the point that my voice is echoing throughout the small room.
“SO YOUR TAKING THE MICROSOFT ACCESS COURSE?” Why am I shouting, he never said he was deaf. I try to lower my voice without being to obvious of what an ignorant ass I am at his handicap. He just continues to stare straight ahead, a quiet smirk on his face as if to say to me “damn ignorant fool”
“Yes I am, and you don’t need to shout, I can hear you fine” he explains.
“OH…..AH, I didn’t realize I was shouting” Trying to hide my ignorance. At this point I make direct eye contact with him and speak very slowly as if he can read my lips. Again, what the hell am I doing, he isn’t deaf, he’s blind!
“Are you ok?” he asks “you sound a bit frustrated”
“I’m fine thank you,” I tell him trying to conduct myself in a professional matter without making anymore of a fool out of me.
“You know it’s alright, I get this a lot from people who don’t understand my handicap” he tells me. With this I begin to make faces at him and gestures that are best left out of this text for younger viewing audiences. Not even so much as a flinch, wow, I guess he really is blind, either that or I will have a pink slip waiting on my desk when I return. * Quick scan around room making sure they haven’t slipped any of those damn cameras in here *
I glance up at the clock on the wall –Tick, tock, tick, tock- “Well since your blind, no sense in going over any of the paperwork as you can’t read it anyway. I’m sure when you get home you can have someone read it out loud to you” Did I just actually tell a blind person there is no reason to waste my time in reading through a bunch of material he can’t see in the first place? Yep, I’m going to hell. I move on to how he needs to log into our system to access his course materials.
“Ok, so what you see on the screen here is the same thing you will see…..at……home” I slap my hand across my forehead “well never mind about that you can’t see that either” Damn this might be the shortest orientation yet. “All right enough of this, how in the hell are you going to take a course you can’t even read the book for?” I ask
“I have someone that reads it to me.” He chuckles
“And what about the test?” I demand
“They come with me for that to, and read the questions to me and the possible answers, I then give them the answer I want selected and they choose it”
“Well that’s not allowed” I say “You can’t have someone else in the room with you, they could be giving you the answers for gods sakes”
He begins to laugh hysterically at my ignorance “The state sends someone over that is certified to give the test for disabled people such as myself. Who did you think I would bring, my sister?” He continues to laugh.
“Yes……well…….anyway” With a sheepish look on my face I hand him his book. (Just for fun I keep pulling it away just before he can grab it.) and send him on his way.
I help him out the door and towards the front desk where the director meets me.
“New student?” he asks me
I nod my head without saying a word, and slide up next to the director. Quietly I whisper into his ear “yeah, but he is 90% deaf, so if you are going to introduce yourself you need to speak up in order for him to hear you”
He looks back at me and whispers, “but isn’t that rude?”
“No” I say “I thought that to, but he totally expects it, otherwise he won’t hear you at all”
The director walks up beside the new student, lowers his head to his ear and begins to shout at a deafening level “WELCOME TO OUR FACILITY”
The student startled beyond belief stagers backwards clutching onto the desk to keep him from falling, with a wave of his hand he continues on with a look of fear as if he is expecting more. His hands trembling down the side of the desk and across the wall searching feverishly for the door handle to exit as quickly as possible before something else happens.
“Did I say something wrong?” The director asks looking back at me.
“Dunno, maybe” I say
“hmmmm, odd fellow, he seemed to just look right through me rather than at me, and did you see how he was running his hands all over everything like that?”
“Yep” I say “Bet he was looking to steal something until you startled him”
“Yes……yes, keep an eye on that one, he might be using that disability excuse to rob us blind.” he says squinting one eye.
“Well you got half of it right.”
I have nothing more to say!
My second orientation is scheduled for 3:00pm. Perfect, that gives me two hours before we close to take care of the new student, this should be more then enough time.
4:00pm, still no word from the administration team as to where my new student is.
4:10pm, I see one of the administration personnel walking into the conference room with someone. Ah this must be my new student, and running a little late I see. This is going to be cutting it awfully close to my beer time.
Finally at 4:30 the administrations person walks out of the room and heads my way.
“Can you do the orientation?” he says “ I know its late sorry but the student was late”
“Yeah, I guess so”
“ok thanks, it should be an easy one, he is just taking one course of the entire MOS certification”
“Ok cool, anything else I need to know?” I ask.
“Ummmm….. no, that should do it” He strides off to the office collecting his belongings to head home. Must be nice to go home early. I enter the conference room and my new student continues to stare straight ahead. Hmmm…..is he trying to intimidate me? I sit down in front of him and introduce myself as his new teacher.
“Welcome to our facility” I say with a smile.
“Hi, I want to start off by saying I am legally blind, so I can’t see anything you are pointing at or referring to.”
“Ah….uh huh, well then” this would explain the blank stare I am getting. When I asked the administration person if there was anything else I should know, this would have been an excellent point to bring up. I guess he assumed it was not something I needed to know before hand. At this point I begin to talk very loud, almost to the point that my voice is echoing throughout the small room.
“SO YOUR TAKING THE MICROSOFT ACCESS COURSE?” Why am I shouting, he never said he was deaf. I try to lower my voice without being to obvious of what an ignorant ass I am at his handicap. He just continues to stare straight ahead, a quiet smirk on his face as if to say to me “damn ignorant fool”
“Yes I am, and you don’t need to shout, I can hear you fine” he explains.
“OH…..AH, I didn’t realize I was shouting” Trying to hide my ignorance. At this point I make direct eye contact with him and speak very slowly as if he can read my lips. Again, what the hell am I doing, he isn’t deaf, he’s blind!
“Are you ok?” he asks “you sound a bit frustrated”
“I’m fine thank you,” I tell him trying to conduct myself in a professional matter without making anymore of a fool out of me.
“You know it’s alright, I get this a lot from people who don’t understand my handicap” he tells me. With this I begin to make faces at him and gestures that are best left out of this text for younger viewing audiences. Not even so much as a flinch, wow, I guess he really is blind, either that or I will have a pink slip waiting on my desk when I return. * Quick scan around room making sure they haven’t slipped any of those damn cameras in here *
I glance up at the clock on the wall –Tick, tock, tick, tock- “Well since your blind, no sense in going over any of the paperwork as you can’t read it anyway. I’m sure when you get home you can have someone read it out loud to you” Did I just actually tell a blind person there is no reason to waste my time in reading through a bunch of material he can’t see in the first place? Yep, I’m going to hell. I move on to how he needs to log into our system to access his course materials.
“Ok, so what you see on the screen here is the same thing you will see…..at……home” I slap my hand across my forehead “well never mind about that you can’t see that either” Damn this might be the shortest orientation yet. “All right enough of this, how in the hell are you going to take a course you can’t even read the book for?” I ask
“I have someone that reads it to me.” He chuckles
“And what about the test?” I demand
“They come with me for that to, and read the questions to me and the possible answers, I then give them the answer I want selected and they choose it”
“Well that’s not allowed” I say “You can’t have someone else in the room with you, they could be giving you the answers for gods sakes”
He begins to laugh hysterically at my ignorance “The state sends someone over that is certified to give the test for disabled people such as myself. Who did you think I would bring, my sister?” He continues to laugh.
“Yes……well…….anyway” With a sheepish look on my face I hand him his book. (Just for fun I keep pulling it away just before he can grab it.) and send him on his way.
I help him out the door and towards the front desk where the director meets me.
“New student?” he asks me
I nod my head without saying a word, and slide up next to the director. Quietly I whisper into his ear “yeah, but he is 90% deaf, so if you are going to introduce yourself you need to speak up in order for him to hear you”
He looks back at me and whispers, “but isn’t that rude?”
“No” I say “I thought that to, but he totally expects it, otherwise he won’t hear you at all”
The director walks up beside the new student, lowers his head to his ear and begins to shout at a deafening level “WELCOME TO OUR FACILITY”
The student startled beyond belief stagers backwards clutching onto the desk to keep him from falling, with a wave of his hand he continues on with a look of fear as if he is expecting more. His hands trembling down the side of the desk and across the wall searching feverishly for the door handle to exit as quickly as possible before something else happens.
“Did I say something wrong?” The director asks looking back at me.
“Dunno, maybe” I say
“hmmmm, odd fellow, he seemed to just look right through me rather than at me, and did you see how he was running his hands all over everything like that?”
“Yep” I say “Bet he was looking to steal something until you startled him”
“Yes……yes, keep an eye on that one, he might be using that disability excuse to rob us blind.” he says squinting one eye.
“Well you got half of it right.”
I have nothing more to say!
posted by Mr. Cheese @ 6:33 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home