Transcript: Betty Hurst

Listen as Betty Hurst, an elementary teacher in Nashville, TN, discusses her experience helping a blind student navigate the classroom (time: 1:10).

Well right away I found out there was some furniture in the way that was giving her a problem trying to get to the bathroom. We were able to find a way for her to put one foot on the rug, one foot off of the rug and walk to the bathroom, but of course, the rug didn’t go all the way to the bathroom so she did have to kind of feel her way. And again, you know, the children would be real good and want to help her and I would say, ‘Kayla needs to do this by herself.’ And she would find her way to the bathroom and she would learn left and right, ‘take a left once you get to the sink,’ and throughout last year she still had some difficulty knowing that type of spatial relationship – left and right was still giving her some difficulty. But I would say, ‘What are you feeling, Kayla?’ you know, ‘Are you going in the right direction?’ and she would giggle and say, ‘No, Mrs. Hurst,’ and so I’d say, ‘Turn around!’ And then she would take care of all her bathroom needs, take care of her hand washing without any assistance, and then she would find her paper towel and she could even find the trashcan without her sight. So, for the most part, there was no problem with mobility in the classroom. I don’t know of any instance where she ever bumped into a table or fell over a child. And you might think that would be a problem but usually it was never a problem.