Cleveland Sight Center

Cleveland Sight Center is a CARF accredited non-profit agency founded in 1906 that provides preventative, educational, rehabilitative, and other services for individuals who are blind or visually impaired, directly serving approximately 10,000 clients annually (in 66 out of Ohio's 88 counties) and many more indirectly through its radio-reading and community outreach programs. In addition to providing educational and rehabilitative services, CSC also offers social and recreational activities for its clients, hosts camping sessions at its summer camp Highbrook Lodge, and has a Low vision Clinic.

More than 100 specially trained staff members, including social workers, optometrists, certified vision rehabilitation therapists, orientation and mobility instructors, occupational therapists, educators, nurses, and other professionals work to help individuals with vision loss to live and work independently.

Although unique services are available for each age group, many activities, especially social and recreational activities, overlap.

History

The Cleveland Sight Center was founded in 1906 under the name Cleveland Society for the Blind, inspired by an 1898 project at Goodrich House which, among other things, encouraged enrollment of blind and visually impaired individuals in the Cleveland Public School System. In early 1906, with support from the Cleveland Public Library system, Visiting Nursing Association, related charities, area settlement houses, and the American Foundation for the Blind under Robert B. Irwin, the Society for the Blind was established.

Subsequent Event Timeline

• 1907: institution of broom manufacturing shop offering employment for the blind and visually impaired
• 1908: sponsoring of two bills resulting in creation of Ohio Commission for the Blind
• 1927: organization moves to Caesar A. Grasselli house
• 1928: Highbrook Lodge summer camp founded in Claridon, Ohio.
• 1950s: expansive volunteer involvement from civic groups like the Council of Jewish Women
• 1966: organization moves to current location on Chester Avenue on East 101st Street
• 1967: begins offering radio and transcription services
• 1976: beginning of radio reading service
• 1984: STORER Technology Center opens up
• 1989: renamed as Cleveland Sight Center of the Cleveland Society for the Blind
• 2011: Major renovations started on the University Circle campus; The Sight Center temporarily relocates to Cleveland Heights.
• 2012: Renovations completed and services begin again in University Circle

Leadership

In April, 2015, Cuyahoga County Development Director, Larry Benders, became the tenth President and Executive Director of the Cleveland Sight Center. Benders had served as the director of the Cuyahoga County Workforce Investment Board. He had also served as the Director of Marketing for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Low Vision Clinic

The Sight Center's Low Vision Clinic provides structural assessment of a client's vision via a specialized, comprehensive clinical vision examination conducted by a trained optometrist. After the assessment, optometrists provide the client with recommendations for low vision aids (i.e. technology) well-suited to helping the client best utilize his/her remaining vision.

Personal Rehabilitation Employment Preparation (PREP)

The Sight Center's PREP program focuses on providing clients with necessary skills and self-confidence to live independently and maintain competitive employment. Rehabilitation instruction professionals, many of whom are blind or visually impaired themselves, train working-aged clients in areas of daily living skills—including cooking, cleaning, budgeting, Braille, and hygiene.

After an initial assessment of a client's abilities through hands-on activities, the instructors create an individual service plan for the client targeting five specific areas:

1. Employment Readiness - skills to obtain and maintain employment
2. Vision Skills- tools and techniques to enhance functional vision
3. Mobility Training - skills to travel independently in the community and at work
4. Communication Skills - skills to communicate effectively in a sighted world
5. Adaptive Daily Living - skills for functioning effectively at home and work

To best achieve the goals set forth by a client's service plan, PREP works in conjunction with other CSC services, including Children and Young Adult Services, the STORER Computer Training Center, Business Enterprises, and Employment Services.

STORER Center technology training

The STORER (Specialized Training, Orientation, Rehabilitation and Electronic Resources) Center, founded in 1984, provides all forms of assistive technology for the blind and visually impaired. STORER Center staff provide an in depth assistive technology evaluation with clients, allowing them to test the various programs and tools available before deciding which ones work most efficiently for their particular needs. After determining what adaptive technology is most suitable, center staff are available to train clients in its use.

Available technologies

CSC's STORER Center offers a wide variety of technologies and training to its clients, including computers, CCTVs, voice control (Dragon & J-Say), software magnification (ZoomText & MAGic), screen reader (JAWS, Window Eyes, System Access), optical character recognition (Kurzweil, OpenBook, and OmniPage), Braille translation (Duxbury), digital recorders, and digital book players, Braille embossers, refreshable Braille displays, note takers (PacMate, BrailleNote, and Braille+), and Microsoft Office products (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Access)

Working in partnership with University Hospitals' Eye Institute's Center for Retina and Macular Disease and its director, Suber Huang, MD, the Cleveland Sight Center will help treat patients who receive the first FDA approved retina implant, the Argus II. The implant works like a wireless device to transmit images through glasses to the implant, actually allowing patients to see. The Argus II is only effective with the nearly 100,000 people in the US suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease. Ann Arbor, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Durham, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia and San Francisco are also US cities approved for the device.

Organizational affiliates

• CSC is Ohio's distributor for Freedom Scientific
• CSC's senior assistive technology practitioner is a member of RESNA
• the STORER Center's manager is a member of North East Ohio Usability Professional Association

Orientation & mobility

Cleveland Sight Center's PREP program evaluates the extent of a client's needs for effective independent travel, creating a personalized orientation and mobility training plan catered to the individual's specific needs and age group.

Employment services

Cleveland Sight Center's Williams Career Development Department helps adults who are blind or visually impaired seeking career opportunities. Working in conjunction with the STORER Center and PREP, Employment Services informs clients and employers of the accommodations available to help the blind and visually impaired utilize their abilities and talents to their fullest capacity in the workplace.

After determining what career interests clients have and/or are best suited for via its comprehensive vocational evaluation system, staff provide clients with training in various areas of job readiness, from learning to fill out applications and develop their resumes to practicing job interviews and learning about employer expectations. Through networking and partnerships with various organizations in northeast Ohio, including Progressive Field, the Great Lakes Science Center, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, employment services helps connect clients with employers and secure work. Once a client finds permanent work, he/she is monitored for 90 days during which employment services determines what accommodations the client needs to perform at optimal efficiency.

The agency received a contract from Tourism Ohio, the state agency charged with promoting tourism to the Buckeye State. The Cleveland Sight Center runs the state's 1-800-BUCKEYE phone service. Those who call the tourism number are connected with an operator at the agency's call center, where the caller can get information and literature on visiting Ohio.

In January, 2016, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted contracted with the Sight Center to provide call center services for callers looking for information on business services. The contract, which Husted said was for quality purposes, was for approximately $500,000. 95% of callers surveyed in the first month of the service reported a satisfactory service.

Beginning in 2009, CSC began an 8-week program training working-aged clients to work in call center or customer service positions.

Business Enterprises Training

This program provides training to clients as potential food service managers in any of 100 facilities (e.g. cafeterias, snack bars, dry stands or vending machine locations) on Federal and State properties in Ohio, eleven of which are located around the Greater Cleveland Area. To qualify, a client must be at least 21 years old, have good interpersonal, math, and mobility skills, have a high school diploma or G.E.D., and undergo a two-week pre-training in-stand evaluation.

By the end of August, 2012, the Cleveland Sight Center closed its nine remaining food stands, citing financial losses. The food stand program, which began in 1922, employed ten visually impaired people. The program had contracted significantly since 2000, when there were 18 food stands in the Cleveland area. The Sight Center has committed to finding replacement employment for all affected individuals.

Early intervention

Cleveland Sight Center's Bright Futures Early Intervention program works with children from birth to 3 years old and their families to help them overcome or minimize developmental delays, including adjusting to vision loss.

The program staff includes an early interventionist, occupational therapist, physical therapist and a speech and language therapist who conduct assessments and activities, host weekly support groups, and provide encouragement and information for each family through these most crucial first three years of the client's life.

Preschool

Cleveland Sight Center's Bright Futures Preschool—a part of the Sight Center's Early Intervention program—is a program for 3- to 5-year-old children who have disabilities, including visual impairments. Children without any disabilities are also welcome.

Students each receive assessments conducted by the Early Intervention staff, resulting in the creation of personalized lesson plans for them in typical areas of importance for developing children. The students participate in the program four times a week.

Just like its other departments, CSC's preschool program works with other organizations and individuals to make the world more accessible for its young clients, such as its work with the local Girl Scouts to create tactile versions of Eric Carle books.

Highbrook Lodge Camp

Highbrook Lodge is Cleveland Sight Center's ACA Accredited summer camp spanning over 60 acres in Geauga County. Seven camp sessions are held throughout the months of June, July, and August, each focusing on a specific age group.

Activities

• Arts and Crafts - learning how to participate in arts and crafts with a visual impairment
• Book Club - discussion groups to discuss books campers are reading. Books on tape are available.
• Camper councils - through events like talent shows and cabin-cleaning, camper councils offer opportunities for campers to share information with each other while developing leadership skills
• Evening Programs - dances, campfires, music, competitions, etc. provide entertainment and socializing opportunities for campers
• Sports and Recreation - sports like beeper ball and archery provide team-building and socialization skills
• Field Trips - broaden the campers' horizons and act as good opportunities for additional orientation and mobility training

Facilities

• Smith Lodge - primary camp lodge used as a meeting place for meals and various evening activities
• Tall Timber Lodge - two cabins connected by a large common area with a porch overlooking Robert's Field.
• Lester Sears Recreation Hall - location for various indoor activities, including dances, talent shows, and arts and crafts.
• heated swimming pool
• outdoor bowling alley
• three accessible playgrounds
• Robert's Recreational Field and baseball diamond
• outdoor chapel

Events

White Cane Walk

Cleveland Sight Center's White Cane Walk events, typically held in Crocker Park and Legacy Village, serve to educate the general public on technique and training involved in using a white cane and offer information on Ohio's White Cane Law. Orientation and Mobility specialists provide instructions and basic training on proper usage of this simple-looking tool that's so integral to the independence of persons who are blind or visually impaired. Attendees are then welcome to travel around the Crocker Park or Legacy Village areas with a white cane, utilizing their normal vision, wearing a pair of goggles that mimic the limiting effects caused by various eye diseases, or even sporting a blindfold if they so desire.

CSC's 4th Annual White Cane Walk, held on 05/30/2010, had more than 400 people in attendance, including WDOK's on-air personality "Trapper Jack" who spoke of his own struggles with vision loss leading to eventual blindness and relationship with the Cleveland Sight Center.

EnVision Independence Vision Rehabilitation Program

Cleveland Sight Center normally provides rehabilitative services to clients at its University Circle location as well as through in-home sessions. However, since the inception of this new community-based rehabilitation and technology training program in October 2007, CSC has been able to provide the same services in Westerly Apartments & Barton Senior Center in Lakewood and Villa Serena in Mayfield Heights utilizing a class-like setting that mimics in-home training sessions.

Each EnVision Independence session lasts seven weeks, during which trained and licensed social workers and rehabilitation professionals, many of whom are blind or visually impaired themselves, teach daily living skills complemented by assistive technology training.

"The change in a client's confidence and outlook on life once they have completed their vision rehabilitation is remarkable," says Peggy Keating, Director of Senior and Outreach Services at Cleveland Sight Center. "We hope to continue to expand this program to other communities throughout Northeast Ohio."

Skipper's Invitational Sailing Excursion

Cleveland Sight Center's Blind and Visually Impaired Sailing Program, made possible in 1995 thanks to a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Watercraft, aims to train persons with varying degrees of vision loss to navigate and pilot a nautical vessel. The program places great emphasis on teamwork, communication skills, and safety.

Two teams were selected to sail to Fairport Harbor from the East 55th Street Marina on a Friday on two of CSC's donated boats, with two separate teams selected to make the return trip the following morning. Participants were chosen for this special excursion, expected to last between 4–5 hours, based on their skill level. Although the trip started off well, the boats eventually encountered strong headwinds and 8–10 foot waves which hindered any progress they could make as the crews estimated a remaining 7–8 hours between them and their destination. As a result, the teams headed back to Cleveland, arriving successfully after maneuvering through intense waves and less-than-ideal conditions. Despite not completing the challenge, it was evident that the crews still felt successful for achieving as much as they did, difficult seafaring conditions notwithstanding.

Fundamentals for success

Fundamentals for Success is a six-week program offered annually from June to July. It focuses on providing training for college or vocational training for CSC clients aged 16–22. CSC houses them in a residential apartment and provides them with various training and rehabilitative services. Services include independent living, survival skills, orientation and mobility, technology, financial aid/scholarship counseling, and developing recreational and social skills.

See also

• Visual impairment
• Blindness
• White cane
• Low vision
• Guide dog
• Orientation and mobility
• Cleveland

Further reading

• "Cleveland Sight Center: VisionAWARE." Information For Adults Experiencing Low Vision, Vision Loss, and Blindness. Retrieved 22 Dec 2010. http://www.visionaware.org/Cleveland-Sight-Center.
• The Cleveland Foundation. Retrieved 22 Dec 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101214050013/http://www.clevelandfoundation.org/Donors/BecomingADonor/DonorProfiles.html.