A mobility specialist, Natick resident Suzi Abu-Jaber teaches people - including infants - with visual impairments to get around life's obstacles.
(SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF)
Susan Chaityn Lebovits | People
F or nearly two decades, Suzi Abu-Jaber has been helping visually impaired children gain the confidence to venture out into the world.
Those who are sighted, she says, will observe a task being carried out a thousand times before they attempt it on their own. But for children who cannot see, there's a disconnect with even the most common undertaking.
"A child who can see will watch an adult pick up a telephone and start speaking into it," said Abu-Jaber. "If someone can't see, they might hear the footsteps and the sound, but they don't have the big picture that pulls all of the bits of information together."
As a certified orientation and mobility specialist, Abu-Jaber helps give children that infrastructure, a process that begins by encouraging them to investigate their surroundings.
"You have to let a child know that there's a reason to move and explore," she said. "That there's something out there."
She begins by enticing their curiosity as infants, surrounding them with objects that will cause a reaction if accidentally bumped into or touched, like Mylar sheets that make a crinkling sound, or soft toys that have bells. As children get older, she teaches them how to navigate around their homes and schools, cross streets, and use public transportation.
A Natick resident, Abu-Jaber works for the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown. She's sent to do assessments, suggest a plan of action, and motivate children to learn.
Now in her 40s, Abu-Jaber began helping people when she was attending middle school in Newton. Her first summer internship was at a state facility in Canton, where she worked with special-needs children. In high school, she worked at the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center in Waltham and the League School of Greater Boston, which is devoted to individuals with autism or Asperger spectrum disorders.
After earning a bachelor's degree at the University of Vermont, she went on to get two master's degrees from Boston College, working with people with visual impairments.
The graduate program included a requirement that students wear a blindfold as a learning experience. "I spent a lot of time under a blindfold," said Abu-Jaber.
She has spent her career teaching students the skills they need to survive. She recalls working with a woman who had lost sight to macular degeneration and needed to relearn basic skills, such as navigating stairs, and with a man who had lost his vision as an adult and wanted to get through a specific subway stop.
Abu-Jaber said she often wonders what happened to one of her earliest students, a young man who had tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the face. Not only was he blinded, she said, but he was disfigured and still dealing with the issues involved in his trying to take his life.
The experience, said Abu-Jaber, had a profound impact on her, in terms of the grief he was going through and how difficult his life had become.
"At the same time it was wonderful how excited he was to start feeling less afraid to try to go out for a walk," said Abu-Jaber. "When you're used to having your sight and it's gone, the world is a very scary place."
Mary Liz Van Dyke of Wellesley met Abu-Jaber shortly after her daughter, Grace, was born with optic nerve hypoplasia, leaving her with very low vision.
"When you're a parent and have a child with a disability, your first reaction is to be very fearful because you're not sure what the future holds," said Van Dyke. "Suzi was very reassuring and always focused on what Grace could do; she educated me, and if she didn't know the answer to something, she'd find out."
Now, 11 years later, Grace has been reunited with Abu-Jaber. Grace is working on learning her way around the middle school she'll be attending in the fall. They also are working on street crossings.
"As much as I'd love to have a Prius someday, for someone who's blind or visually impaired, they're treacherous because you can't hear them," Abu-Jaber said of the
Also frustrating, and quite terrifying, she said, is dealing with wild donkeys and motorcycles - two things she encounters when teaching blind children in Jakarta, Indonesia.
For nearly 10 years Abu-Jaber has been involved with the Hilton-Perkins Program, which sends staff from the Perkins School around the world to lead seminars and mentor teachers. Abu-Jaber has taught in Poland and Hungary, and will leave for her fifth trip to Indonesia this month.
"Traffic in Jakarta is worse than any traffic I've seen anywhere else in the world, including Cairo," said Abu-Jaber. "People ride motorcycles on the sidewalks."
During a program in Indonesia, Abu-Jaber said, she was accompanying some children to a local market to get snacks and food for a cooking project. "On the way there were donkeys and carts, high curbs, and big holes on the street," said Abu-Jaber. "How do you do that safely with a 5-year-old who can't see?"
The satisfying part, she said, was getting to the store, as the 5-year-old knew just what he wanted and found the snack by feeling for the package.
"He took the money from his pocket, walked up to the register, and paid," said Abu-Jaber.
Over the past few years, Abu-Jaber said, she's gotten to know many of the people in Jakarta and has seen changes in what they teach, and how they interact with the parents.
In the United States, Abu-Jaber said, with a parent's permission she begins taking kids into the street at 2 years old - not for lessons on crossing, however. She uses a quiet cul-de-sac to let them feel a manhole cover or a grate, and experience a car wheel or a bumper.
"You or I see the car as a whole," said Abu-Jaber. "For someone who's blind you get it hand by hand."
For the most part, Abu-Jaber has been very pleased with the results of her efforts, though she concedes that there have been a few times when she's gotten into her car and cried in frustration.
"I recently assessed a child, recommended a lot of services, and the school system decided not to provide them," said Abu-Jaber. "It was mind-boggling to me to see a child who is sinking and needs so much, and the school saying no."
For more information on the Perkins School for the Blind, visit its website, perkins.org.
To suggest a subject for a People column, e-mail Lebovits@globe.com.
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