Frost shares challenges with teachers

Posted Aug 4, 2011 By Jake Davies

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EMC News - Last Wednesday, July 27 was a beautiful day with a great big sun and no clouds in the sky.

The birds were chirping. If you are someone who has vision and hearing problems though, it could be difficult to enjoy a class outside on the steps of Tabaret Hall at the University of Ottawa.

Orléans athlete Kevin Frost, who suffers from Usher's Syndrome - a genetic disorder causing progressive hearing and vision loss - was speaking to elementary, secondary, special education and regular classroom teachers about the challenges facing someone with vision or hearing difficulties.

The talk was organized by Christine Sauvé Guindon, a teacher for the deaf-blind, as additional qualification course in deaf-blindness for teachers.

Sauvé Guindon, who designed the course with Jean-Marc Cholette, says the course is the only one of its kind among French-speaking countries.

Since 2003, nearly 45 teachers from across Ontario have come to University of Ottawa to take the additional qualification course.

Frost, and his guide dog Nemo, shared the difficulties of everyday life for people with vision and hearing difficulties.

Frost is a multi-discipline athlete hoping to represent Canada at the Paralympic Games in the speed skating event. Frost has 10 per cent hearing and four per cent tunneled vision.

While best known for his exploits on the speed skating oval, this summer he's been training with the Canadian national paralympic track team.

"My presentation went very well," Frost said. "Lots of great questions on Nemo, my working guide dog."

Frost says he's in his off-season, sort of, and giving back to the community that provides him with encouragement and opportunities for training is something he loves doing.

"It's what I do for the public, the police and the community," he said.

"This is my off-season, but it's not much of an off-season."

In a couple of weeks Frost will be competing at the Ontario Para-Athletics Track and Field Championships.

"Then I switch over to the blades," he said referring to speed skating.

The additional qualification course allows the teachers, all of whom have taken a sign language course, to be better teachers when dealing with students with a visual or audible disability, Sauvé Guindon said.

"Some already work with deaf-blind kids and wanted to know more," she said.

"But for the most part they are here to learn how to teach multi-sensory deprived children. The teachers have given up vacation time to learn and to make the difference."

The course contains three parts.

"In the first part of the course we want our students to meet some deaf-blind individuals," Sauvé Guindon said. "Since Kevin became deaf-blind and was not born that way, he can communicate how it is to be deaf-blind. The students can hear the testimonial of a deaf man who is also now legally blind. Since our students have done many simulations during the course, I hope they can imagine how it could be if they were to become deaf-blind. I know that hearing Kevin and his positive outlook on life will inspire them and lead them to become inspirations to those they teach."

As for Frost, giving back is part of his training.

Along with speaking to interested parties and training for his endeavours, Frost also tries to help in other ways.

He is supporting three underprivileged youth, one from Cancun, Mexico and two from Nicaragua, by providing hearing aids for them.

"I strive for that every year," he said of his program to provide hearing aids. "Giving the people the ability to hear like everyone else."

jdavies@theemc.ca




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