Inside the incredible school where blind people learn to rock climb, cook, and live totally independently (2024)

In one recent survey, a sample of Americans rated going blind as a worse fate than losing memory, speech, hearing, or a limb. In another, a majority of respondents believedthatgoing blind leads to aloss of independence.

It's true that vision loss leads to some limitations — blind peoplecan't drive cars or pilot airplanes, for instance.But that doesn't mean they can't live full, independentlives on par with their sightedpeers.

That's the philosophy at the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB), where blind peoplefrom all walks of life learnhow to tackleeveryday tasksand live on their own.

The CCB, a private nonprofit established in 1988 and located just outside Denver, is one of just three training programs of its kind in the country. Its flagship courseis called the Independence Training Program, or ITP.It's for adults from all over the country who were born blindor lost vision later in life and want to learn independent living skills.

"Blindness is one of the most feared disabilities of anything, because I think people feel like it takes vision to do most things," CCB executive director Julie Deden, who's been blind since birth, told INSIDER. "But really, once people begin using their other senses, they realize you caneasily do things without being able to see."

It's true:Throughout the six- to nine-monthprogram, ITP students learn tocook meals for60, go shopping, read braille, use smartphones and computers, handle power tools, navigate public transit, and travel streets safely — all while living on site with fellow students.

Thosewho retain someresidual vision are even required to wear black sleep shades like these:

This ensures they'll rely completelytheir other senses.

"I found that kind of liberating," said recent CCB graduate Peter Slatin, 62, who's gradually losing his sightbut still retains some visual perception. "The way I see can be very confusing. I think I know where I'm going and what I'm looking at, and my mind fools me. So by wearing sleep shades, I can't guess anymore."

All the instructors are blind, too — save one sighted wood-shop instructor who frequently wears a blindfold in class.

"He actually had training for three months with a blindfold and learned how to do everything as a totally blind person," Deden said of the teacher. "And he stays in practice!"

A major part of the curriculum is learning hard skills.

Students practicecrossing streets by listening to the flow of traffic, train onspeech software that reads text messages and emails out loud, and learntorecognize the letters that make up the braille alphabet.

They also take class into the great outdoors with trips for whitewater rafting, skiing, and rock climbing.

"We weave a lot of challenge recreation into our program to challenge people, so that they know they can handle things that come up in life that might be daunting or kind of scary," Deden said.

But the most important thing studentslearn isn't a trick or an adaptation: It's confidence.

Some of the ITP coursework is challenging: Cane travel classes take place in the real world with traffic rushing by, and learning to read with your fingers (especially if you grew up doing it with your eyes) can be frustrating. But Deden saidthat the biggest struggle for mostincoming ITP students is gainingconfidence.

"With the students [who] have always been blind, we find that people havealways said to them, 'you can’t.' So they have it kind of ingrained and we have to switch that whole mindset around for people," shesaid. "And then the other [students]have been losing their vision or have lost vision later on in life. And so they’ve had a lot of life experiences and all of a sudden they’re having to deal with the fact that they’reblind."

CCB cane travel instructor David Nietfeld agreed.

"Alot of people struggle with just having confidence that they can go and do things," he told INSIDER. "So when they first learn how to cross the street, just believing that they can go out and go do it is a lot of times challenging for people."

Slatin, who lives and works as a consultant in New York City, said attendingCCB really did strengthen hisbelief in his own abilities.

"I'll say the biggest change is in confidence in approaching the world and representing myself as a blind person and inhabiting being blind," he said. "I used to cook, and for many years I haven't, and now I feel better able to cook. I have a guide dog, but I feel like my travel skills are better. And I learned braille, which I now see as incredibly important. I alsoI started out [...] as a painter, and one of the great things that happened at CCB was that I started doing artwork again, focusing on non-visual art, tactile art, in a serious way."

TheITP has grown considerably since its inception.

Back in 1988, the program had 5 students and three instructors. Today, Deden said, there are dozens of staff and as many as 35 students per session.

Each crop of students graduates with the skills to prove that blindness doesn't equaldependence on others — not by a long shot.

"People don't understand how much we can do and how much we want to do for ourselves," Slatin said. "I was standing at a bus stop one day fairly recently and a woman came up to me as I was getting on the bus and she said, 'I admire you so much. I could neverdo whatyou do.'And I said, 'Actually I beg to differ with you — I'm sure you could.'"

Read more about the programs offered at the Colorado Center for the Blind on their website.