Talking Vision by Vision Australia RadioTalking Vision 626 Week Beginning 23rd of May 2022
This week on Talking Vision Sam catches up with Mildura volunteer Andrea Gorham to celebrate National Volunteer Week which recently took place between the 16th and 22nd of May. Andrea chats all about the work she’s been doing as a driver and swish umpire for the best part of 7 years, and her favourite memories over the time.
Then later in the show Sam chats with blindness and low vision specialist teacher Marc Angelier and occupational therapist Marie Oddoux from the Lego Foundation, they join the program to speak all about the foundation’s Lego Braille Bricks which are now celebrating 12 months in Australia.
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's your host, Sam Collins.
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness and low vision.
Our dream is really to give possibility to each blind students wherever his or she is in the world, to learn Braille and to have access to those bricks.
Welcome to the program. That voice you just heard there was blindness and low vision specialist teacher Michael Angelia from the L.A. Foundation, speaking about the foundation's philosophy behind them, like our biopics, which are now celebrating 12 months in Australia. He joined me alongside occupational therapist Maria to also from the Lego Foundation to chat about all things in the world of Lego biopics. And that conversation's coming up later in the show. First, though, I had the chance to catch up with Mildura volunteer Andrea Gorham to celebrate National Volunteer Week, which recently took place between the 16th and the 22nd of May. And that conversation is coming up right around the corner. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of Talking Vision. Last week, the 16th to 22nd of May was National Volunteer Week, celebrating our fabulous volunteers and all the vital work they do at Vision Australia. And one such fabulous volunteer is with me on the line from Mildura right now it's Andrea Gorham. Andrea, welcome to Talking Fish and thanks so much for your time today.
Very welcome.
Now, firstly, Andrea, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself and also the the type of work you've been doing?
Well, I'm mainly a driver. I started driving and then gradually I got up to four days at one stage. But I do. I was doing crossword. And learn and do and wish. And helping with day center and also dine at.
What sort of program swirl of those stir somewhat storytelling.
Oh, no. Back when I started, we did it all face to face in our center. I would pick up clients and bring them back to the center. And we had a core and. He would read the questions to them and they would work out the answers. And I started joining them. And it was a lot of fun. It really? Yeah. Oh, clever lady.
Yes. Oh, very clever. Yes, I am. I did tell Blink for a little while with some crosswords where we had people from all around the country join through their phones and we'd have people from all different states, all conferencing together and working on the 1 to 1 crossword. And we all sort of got together and put our brains together and managed to cycle through quite a few words everyday. Sounds very exciting. Now tell us a bit about the other programmes you mentioned swish your swish reference. So tell us a bit about how you got involved with that.
Well, I started driving this week when I didn't have a driver and I was just walking through the centre and I thought there was one volunteer trying to run it all. And I thought, I just think, can I help you? And and I've been there ever since. So it is such an amazing game. I, I really enjoy it. And after many years they tried to get me to do umpiring, but I'm not very confident doing things like that. But eventually, only this year I started doing umpiring. And my biggest issue is I get so involved with the game that I forget the score. Oh, okay.
That's a bit of an issue.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
But yes, I get a little overexcited and.
Oh, well, that's right. That's right. It's a very exciting game. Yeah.
It's very, very quick and it amazes me. We have one on umpire at the moment. She's totally blind and. Cause when I forget she knows anyone who's who is umpiring, she will correct them. It just amazes me. How clear. Mrs..
So you've been driving for seven years, I understand. And how long ago have you. Did you start getting involved with SWISH after that time?
Well, I did crosswords maybe a year before I started doing swish. I yeah it was about about a year. Oh well before I started doing swish. Yes.
Okay. So you've been involved with swish for six years now. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Love it.
Yeah. Oh, sounds like. And so when you sort of were thinking about what you'd like to do or you got involved with the driving, how did that come about? Why did you decide to become a volunteer? And I guess my driving in particular.
Well, I had a friend who worked there, a couple of them. We are retired go guide leaders. And says, volunteering is in our blood. And she she just said, why don't you just come and help? You know, they're doing a driving course soon. And so it took me a while. I said, Oh, all right, I'll go and. You know, just go in and have a look around and everything. And I thought, Yeah, I do this in it. So I did the driving course and and started driving. Right away. Really. And just loved the contact with the clients. I drive over the border, had a few clients over the border. So I do the long drive and.
I go to Barry and those sort of places.
To wait weren't. And Toomelah.
Oh, wow. Okay, cool.
Yeah, that's very cool.
Okay, now you've touched on this quite a bit there and there are a lot of enjoyable aspects of the volunteering that you have mentioned already. But is there one you can sort of pinpoint as sort of the number one thing you most enjoy about volunteering? I know it's a tricky question.
Well, to tell you the truth, being around them now for seven years of really I just I love to help at least just one person fulfill a dream and really just get across the road. I just I think they're amazing people. And if I can do just one small thing that makes my day.
Oh, wow. That is so lovely. That's perfect. Thank you. And do you have a favorite moment or a favorite memory from the last seven years that really sort of sticks with you as one of those things you'll remember for the rest of your life and just really, really touched.
Well, I have a few, but I have one. I worked with a very special young lady and I used to pick her up and drive her everywhere. And she had a lot of problems. And losing her sight was her last problem. And. I used to. One night on dawn at going home. She. She noticed that I was slowing down. I'd gone through the lot and I was slowing down, she said. But. What's going on. I think we have a lot of stock going across the highway. There's no no one around. So I'm going to slow down and let them guide. And with that, she sped up and she said, Oh, I can see them. And I said, Oh, good on you. And she then she said, Oh, boy, that they're on their way to find the girl that. And that she couldn't see them. But it was just a funny thing. And we just giggled all the way home. Yeah, it was really. To us, that was really entertaining.
Oh, that is a lovely story. Thank you so much for sharing that. I've been speaking today with Andrea Gorham, driver for our Vision Australia Centre in Mildura, who's been driving for the last seven years and as you've heard, been quite heavily involved with the crosswords at first, but also as a Swiss volunteer. For the past six years. I'm Sam Cooley and you're listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio, Associated Stations of Age and the Community Radio Network. If you're enjoying the show and you'd love to find out more like where to find local radio frequencies or a good spot to listen to past programs. You can find all this info and more on the Talking Vision web page. Just search talking vision and it should come up as the first option. You can also find the program on the podcast app of your choice or through the Vision Australia Library. And now back to the program. I'm here today with Murray Idowu and Mark Angelia to file experts from the Lego Foundation. Since 2019, they've been in charge of the creation and implementation of Lego bricks as an educational concept. And they join me now. MURRAY Mark, welcome to Talking Vision. Thanks so much for your time today.
Thank you.
Hello. Thank you.
We are really happy to be here with you.
And I'm happy to have you. Now, let's just start before we get into the biopics themselves. Why don't we get a bit of info about yourselves? Maria, we'll start with you. I understand you're you're an occupational therapist specializing in low vision. So how did that come about?
Yes, that's true. I've been on a personal therapist for nearly 30 years now and always worked with blind or visually impaired children from the beginning. I don't remember why, but I always been attracted by visual impairment.
Okay. And Mark, I understand you're a specialist teacher of children who are blind or have low vision that some that's a topic of. I'll talk to Maria about this briefly. That's a topic quite close to my heart because I am I started off at the RV lab here, the Royal Victorian Institute of the Blind Forum for the first two years of my life. And it is really life changing work. So tell us some tell us a bit more about your work in that field.
Yeah, in fact, I am a teacher for the visually impaired and I come from France and in fact, I am. So I was servicing children age three until 20. So that is to say I was trying, I was itinerant and I was trying to help teachers and students to learn Braille and to be able to learn in an inclusive settings.
Okay, wonderful. Now we'll get onto the topic of the Lego biopics themselves. Now, Marie, did you want to give an overview of what the Lego bricks are all about?
Okay. Yes, sure. So Lego bricks, it's both a box of bricks and what we call a pedagogical concept. It means that inside the box you have Lego bricks, but the studs and tops of the bricks are not all present and some are removed, and some are here to represent the Braille constellation of each character. So that's what is inside the box. And to go with that, we have an educational tool with a website and more than 100 activities to help teachers teach Braille through play.
Okay. And Mark, did you have anything to add to that?
Yeah. What is really interesting to understand with Lego bricks is that it's really not just the tools, not just the books, but the whole pedagogical concept and whole learning through play philosophy.
And Mark, where did the idea for Pale Bricks come about?
In fact, a lot of people all around the world as add to the idea to transform a classic Lego brick into a Braille cell. Because if you look at a two by three brick, classic brick, you can easily imagine that it can represent a full Braille cell with six studs. So that's easy to understand that if you remove some of the dots, it can be the way that you represent the letters with raised studs. So the raised. That's all the studs.
Okay. And Marie, did you have anything to add there?
No. Like Mark said, every way around the world, everywhere, people claim to have invented Lego bricks. And we know that many people indeed. Some also try to make bricks out of wood, plastic, 3D print. So that's really an amazing tool. And we were a lot using them really before Lego bricks was invented.
Okay, now we're coming up to the 12 month mark of the Lego Bricks Project now. So that's some that's quite an exciting little anniversary there. So let's some perhaps have a discussion, I guess, about the general feeling about the rollout so far. And also, I guess, dig into the relationship that has developed between the Lego Foundation and Vision Australia. Marie, did you want to go into that for a bit? Mm hmm.
So the project started in many different countries, more than 21. So for some of them it's we are in the middle and Australia was part of Wave two. So yeah, it really was helpful to have that connection with Vision Australia from the Live from Lego Foundation. And we have now a strong partnership in terms of implementing, distributing the bricks in Australia and that's really great for us to be here today because with the time difference it's always tricky to be able to communicate with Australian practitioners. But we really are happy because every time we still have Australian practitioners, even if the webinar we are having online are in the middle of the night for you, yes, people are still with us.
So I know that's fantastic news. And Mark, what what are your feelings about the rollout? What do you have to say about that? I suppose.
Yeah. In fact, our dream is that every blind student wishing to have a kids at school to learn Braille can be a reality. So that's why we really want to train the practitioners so that they know how to use this concept. And so now the point is sometimes it's easy because a lot of blind student are identified and they know about Lego bricks so they can ask for them to have them at school. But also we know that sometimes, especially in inclusive setting, the teachers may not have the information about that. And that's something, though, about the roll out that is important to go further, how to go further, and to reach every people, every blind student in Australia.
Okay. Now, Mark will stay with you on that topic. How important are the Bible books for nurturing the development of young kids living with blindness and low vision, as you sort of just touched on briefly there?
Yeah. In fact, we have concept of the whole pedagogical concept and all the activities on a breadth of skill. So it's really much more than just learning Braille or developing the skills that are needed to make Braille, to learn Braille. But that's also a lot of skills that every kind of student as to learn at school. So usually it's based on a national curriculum. For example, you can see parallel and same skills in the national curriculum or the regional curriculum in Australia, for example, in the Queensland curriculum or Victoria whatever, and Lego bricks. So that is to say that it is a tool to develop, to learn the skills, to learn Braille, but also a lot of global holistic skills.
Okay. And Maria will come to you now get your perspective. What what do you feel is the most important aspect of biopics for the development of young children?
Same as what Mark said. It's a tool to develop the breadth of skills. So. Not only particular ones, but what is also great with Brian Briggs. And one of our goal is not only to help to teach Braille to four kids, to learn Braille, but also give a tool for practitioners, teachers and other kind of practitioners to teach Braille. Because we know that in many countries, due to inclusion, some teachers might have a blind child in class and don't have any knowledge about Braille or not enough. So we tried to make a tool that can give you the opportunity to teach Braille, even if you don't have a strong background in low vision Braille teaching and so on. So that's really a tool that you can use even if you don't know anything, and you will find many different topics covered. So the breaks but lessons, online courses, webinars and a lot of different things.
Mm hmm. Okay. And, Marie, what are the future plans for biopics, I suppose, in 2022 and beyond as well?
So we are encouraging the implementation and distribution. So we know, as Marc said, that not all the blind child have Brix already in Australia, but if we talk worldwide and we are trying to conduct pilot and scaling in different other countries, not only the 21, the 20 that have already launched. So we hope one day everywhere in the world, each child will have access to a tool kit.
Oh, wonderful. Marc will come to you now. What are some exciting things coming up from your perspective?
In fact, what is really now exciting about this project is that, like Marius said about the thing that it is a worldwide project. So our dream is really to give a possibility to each blind students, wherever his or she is in the world, to learn Braille and to have access to those bricks. Because what is also important, that's a project held by the Lego Foundation. So that means that everything is free, the bricks are free, the trainings offered to practitioners are free. And that's a good way also to try to improve Braille skills for practitioners. So we have made a lot of workshops of ASN and life physical workshops kind of all over Australia. We can say because we have been to Melbourne, we have been also to Brisbane and the last one was in Sydney and we were very happy to finally meet physically with all the practitioners using the bricks and also a lot of people from Vision Australia that are really happy to present Lego bricks to schools and to blind students wherever they are.
Now Marie Thornley will come to you now. So if there's some educators out there who are listening to this and they're getting quite excited about the concept of Lego biopics, how should they get in touch with you? What's the best way?
The best way is to go and visit our website so it's WW w dot Lego Brad bricks dot com. So we have a very nice website, fully accessible and you will find all details about learning to play Lego bricks, the activities to do in pre Braille and Braille category. You can have access also to a section called Get Bricks. Then you have Australia First Country in the list and you have direct link to contact Vision Australia, our partner for distribution here and see if you can have a tool kit and how to get the trainings. So yeah, it's really easy to go on the website and if you want to contact us, Mark and I will receive all the emails sent through the website. So you have a Contact US button and you also have access to our Facebook community. For practitioners here, you just have to answer a few questions to be sure you are relevant for the Facebook group because we don't want advertisement or commercial things. Yeah, that's.
Understandable. Yeah. No, that's fantastic. And as you've mentioned there, some information is also available on the Vision Australia website at Vision Australia dot org. Marie, Mark, thank you so much. Spare time today. It's been a pleasure having a chat with you. I've been chatting today with Murray Otto and Mark Angelia all about the exciting developments in the world of Lego biopics. Finally on the show this week, it's time for some news and information. Australia's peak health body, Vision 2020. Australia is calling on the incoming Labor Government and the large crossbench to prioritize equitable and high quality eyecare access for all Australians immediately. You can find a full list of Vision 2020 priorities on their website at Vision 2020. Australia. Dot org. Dot aew. That's Vision and the year 2020. Australia. Dot org. Dot EU. And in other news this week. Basically a scholarship applications are opening soon. Applications for the third round of the BCA. Huge free scholarship are open on Friday, the 17th of June 2022 and close on the 17th of July 2022 at 11:59 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time. This scholarship aims to increase the opportunities available to people who are blind or have low vision to participate in tertiary and further education. You can find all the details on the BCA website at BCA Talk today. You that's BCA dot org dot eu o. For more information, please contact Danielle Verhoeven at Danielle Verhoeven at BCA dot org dot AEW. That's Danielle dot via Zoe Venn at BCA dot org dot AEW or by calling one 800 03366. So that's one 800 033660. And that's all we have time for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking Vision is a production of Vision Australia Radio. Thanks to all involved with putting the program together. And remember, we love your feedback and comments. You can contact us at Talking Vision at Vision Australia dot org. That's Talking Vision or one word at vision Australia dot org. But until next week it's bye for now.
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on one 300 847466. That's one 300 847466 or by visiting vision Australia dot org that's mission Australia dot hall.
