- [Instructor] How to work with a victim/survivor with a visual disability. Welcome to our new four part webinar series called Your Lived Experience. In this series, you will learn what it is like to be a person with a disability from their perspective as a person with a disability. In each webinar, we will focus on a specific type of disability. In each webinar, you will hear about the speakers best experiences when trying to get help, and their most frustrating experiences. You will learn suggestions, tips, and best practices for when you interact with persons with disabilities in your office. And finally, we will share with you some common accommodations that are appropriate for each specific type of disability. We hope you enjoy this new webinar series. The Miami Inclusion Alliance is comprised of four organizations that have spent the last five years studying the domestic violence and sexual assault services in Miami-Dade County. And how persons with disabilities are utilizing these services. Disability Independence Group is an advocacy center for disability rights. Dade Legal Aid is a legal aid that handles domestic violence cases. M.U.J.E.R is a licensed sexual assault center, and CVAC is the Miami-Dade County one-stop for domestic violence. The project was supported by Grant No. 2015-FW-AX-K001, awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. The mission of the Miami Inclusion Alliance, or MIA, is to learn about the intersection of disability, and domestic violence and/or sexual assault in order to promote a culture of inclusion within and between all collaborating agencies. This collaboration will implement the necessary changes, so that persons with disabilities, who are affected by domestic violence and/or sexual assault, have access to services. Our speaker today is Luz Marina Rosenfeld, a blind advocate.

- My name is Luz Marina Rosenfeld. I'm an advocate for the blind for the last 12 years that I lost my vision. And I have created many different things for people that have disabilities, and they have something to do with domestic violence, because everything that happened to me, has something to do with it. I went to the Marymount Schools in Colombia, South America, and then in my nursing school, and then I studied nutrition and personal training. That's what I used to do in the past. Right after that, I lost my vision, and I started something in the medical like I was. What has to do with massage therapy and I did advanced therapy, and I specialized in cancer and accidents. What I do is I teach service about service animals. I go to career days, go international, and I teach that.

- [Instructor] How would you describe your disability?

- It's not a disability to me. I will say it makes your senses come out more than they were before. You listen more, you pay attention more. I do things very differently. Of course no driving no more. That's one of the only things I can say I can't do no more because I learned how to cook, I learned how to put makeup on, do my hair, clean my house. All depends how do you want to just do things different? You do the same thing differently because if you close your eyes, try to do your lips, lipstick you can do that, senses enhance. So you become more sensitive and more aware of everything. You are more concentrated, before I used to get distracted, you know, visual distraction that you have with your eyes. Now, I think more, I listen more.

- [Instructor] Can you tell us more about your service animal.

- And besides the independence I will say, gave me the security of being protected by her, even though my guide dog, doesn't protect, but she did. We have done a lot of traveling together by ourselves in planes, boats me just going somewhere all by myself with no one else. Just depending on the special transportation person to take me to the door. and from that, the dog and me work according to the direction yes.

- [Instructor] Can you tell us about your most frustrating experience when you were trying to get help?

- One of the parts that I found like frustrating, you have to go and explain and explain, and people still didn't understood until, I demanded the attention for it because it was a lot. For example, STS, special transportation. I have been dropped off in the wrong doctor's office. You know, with your money, be sure you don't use money. My first time that I used money, I gave her 50 and they told me, it was a 20. It was the way I folded and that, that was all that my husband gave me that day for something that I needed. Be sure that you use credit cards, that when you come home, you go home, you check in your computer, you check in your phone. So to dropping my daughter, my granddaughter to school. I was denied access for my guide dog. So I said, no, any service animal is allowed anywhere. So I started doing that and I've taught tons about that with a lot of love, of course. I was angry, but you have to teach in order for people to understand what is, why you need that dog to go in there.

- [Instructor] What suggestions would you give to people that are working with persons with disabilities like you?

- The language has to be very respected, have braille, if it's possible in the bathrooms, so the person know, which one is men/women. When you are working with them, you know, ask them permission to hold their hand. So you don't feel someone is just grabbing you. Move the person if they are in a danger, don't scream at them to move, open door all the way because usually they don't. Don't leave doors, you know like top cabinets, like open because they will probably, you know, in their face because they don't see those. And sometimes we leave cabinets open and help us close it. And steps, count the steps. Always say a ramp is coming, is gonna be a step coming. Even though you are using a seeing eye dog it is very important because you are preparing. Even though the dog will stop and wait is a good idea. Because the majority don't use guide dogs, they use a cane. Explain to them, the place walk them around, show them what it is and explain in measurement wise how big it is. Left, right, if there, for example, if they are in a business of food, do it in clockwise, 12, 6, 3, 9, and that is very informative. When, for example, you are in a place that you have to go too wide because we lose track on the space. For example, if we walk into a really tall place, we can feel that and we lose the movement of right, left, straight. We'll lose it because it's too big. Text is the best and texts on phone are, because we have notification that let us know there's something there. It works in offices like that, to give them that kind of advice for people that don't see. It is more intimidating that they give you the paper or they throw it to you or sign when you are signing. Mine is different, what I do is, I put a code on the I don't sign. I put codes for my credit card. Which if you know the numbers how they are and if that number is declined. That's when you using credit cards or that's not good. And always have a tablet or something that will talk back to you, that you can prepare everything back that you need, a reminder.

- [Instructor] What are some unique tactics used by abusers?

- There's a lot of people don't know what is abuse. They think, oh, that's nothing, right? But it's something for that blind person. And like, for example, my glasses, I don't wear them all the time, I wear them if it's light, for example, in front of the computer, I need it because that light bothers my eyes. People will move your glasses. If you happen to sit them down, they move them. Usually they hide things from you. Like, when I was going to school, they never really thought nothing of it, but I think it is abuse that I would have they assigned me into a chair where I will come every morning and put my books and they would move them because, they thought that was their place, and I just came and sat there. And that, to me, it was hard because I will come to the same place and they didn't care where they put my stuff oh, I just sit there with no consideration. Ah, don't move things, don't move the house around, I move the house around, but I know where they are. Don't take my telephone and take the voice off because it just bothered you. They do that, Or they turn down the volume. Ah, move my cane and then I don't find it, well because it was not, where it should be going. Being in there, I can fall as I pass by and is in the corner, but I know that it was there. Moving things on the blind is very insulting because it's like, can you imagine being downstairs in dark room, looking for places and things that you have put in there with tags and little balls, little disks, so you find them. And some people thought that they were helping you, but now they, that's abuse I think because I, it tears your world down immediately because you have like a TV in your head that is set up for you and someone just disrupts it.

- [Instructor] Resources. Disability Independence Group website, www.justdigit.org. Phone number 305/669-2822. Legal Aid Society website, www.dadelegalaid.org Phone number 305/579-5755 x2229 CVAC website, www.miami-dade.gov phone number 305/285-5900 MUJER website, www.mujerfla.org Main office phone number, 305/247-1388 Sexual Assault Helpline, 305/763-2459

- I would like to thank you for doing this because a lot of people should know these little things that make your life a lot easier and make you be fulfilled. Losing your vision or losing something as being considered a special need, is very important that people know little things that will make your life a 100% better.

- [Instructor] Thank you for watching this webinar today. We hope you enjoy the other webinars in this series, your lived experience.