Unterschleißheim – New boss in the center for the visually impaired – district of Munich

Reiner Ulbricht recently had special glasses put on that restrict the field of vision. At first he didn’t even notice what was happening to his left and right. Then the glasses also simulated retinal defects. In certain places he just couldn’t see anything. For the new executive director of the Southern Bavaria Center for the Visually Impaired and Blind (SBZ) in Unterschleißheim, these were experiences that showed him what his new job is all about – on this 3.4-hectare facility in the center of Unterschleißheim, which looks like a village works in the city. It is a crèche, school, boarding school, crèche, support and advice center – or in short: the competence center par excellence for young people with visual impairments and their families between Neu-Ulm, Ingolstadt and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The 51-year-old Ulbricht is the successor to Hildegard Mayr in the director’s office, who managed and shaped the facility for 14 years. After a three-month transition phase, the man from Unterhaching has recently been able to enjoy the view of the Alps from the sixth floor of the administration tower alone. Ulbricht knows it’s a privilege, especially in his home, which is designed to support children with visual impairments or total loss of vision from an early age and then into teens. They learn the simplest things in the crèche. After that, it’s about gaining a foothold in a foreign world and becoming self-employed, up to and including high school and university entrance qualifications. The goal is to give the young people “self-confidence” for life, says Ulbricht, and “assertiveness”.

Reiner Ulbricht wanted to study architecture, but when he was a young man working with people with disabilities, he switched careers. He went to the University of Applied Sciences for Social Sciences in Munich and soon qualified for management. Ulbricht managed a residential home for children with multiple disabilities. As a state specialist for help for the disabled at the Parity Welfare Association, he was in demand as a networker and later earned further merits in management positions at the Caritas Association. At some point in the job, a lot was about controlling. And the need grew to be “operative” again, as Ulbricht puts it – the management vocabulary still rolls off his lips to this day.

Technical devices help to learn and be independent despite visual impairment.

(Photo: Robert Haas)

He was drawn back to base. He doesn’t really like the executive office, which could well be understood as a little room in an ivory tower. He hopes that his employees will find their way up to him as often as possible, he says at a meeting there at the conference table. He always seeks direct contact himself. On a walk through the extensive grounds, Ulbricht is familiar with his new place of work: here the building complex with the advice centers, there a residential group and there the indoor pool and sports hall, which are next to a large outdoor sports facility.

Unterschleißheim: The center for the visually impaired and blind is directly opposite the community center and, with its brick buildings, is like a small village in the city.

The center for the visually impaired and blind is directly opposite the community center and, with its brick buildings, is like a small village in the city.

(Photo: Robert Haas)

Reiner Ulbricht is responsible for ensuring that the facilities in the SBZ network with 200 employees, 165 of whom are employed by the SBZ, run well. 121 students attend primary and secondary school, 71 secondary school. It’s about subsidies, personnel policy and also about supporting the school directors in finding qualified staff for this job. Acquiring students who have to travel up to two hours to get there is an issue. Networking is still important.

The SBZ board works together with the Bavarian Association of the Blind and with institutions from Munich to Würzburg. The SBZ itself is a contact and advice center for parents, educators and teachers from all over Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria and Swabia. SBZ teachers drive to regular schools as a mobile service. They help inclusion work with visually impaired children and support teachers. 107 children are supported in outreach help. Reiner Ulbricht says it is a challenge for him to see whether what he claims as a manager actually works. “The SBZ is a small, manageable company with an enormous variety of offers.”

Ulbricht likes to emphasize the possibilities at the Unterschleißheim site with special devices, tactile models and the concentrated knowledge of the employees. He sees limits, he says, to working outside in mainstream schools in terms of inclusion. Sometimes the requirements are too extensive. Ulbricht promotes strengthening children and young people in the SBZ for life and then letting them go. So when is the right moment for inclusion? “Maybe it starts when you get out of school,” says Ulbricht.

In any case, many doors are open to blind and visually impaired people if they get support. Digitization and technical innovations create new opportunities, says SBZ boss Ulbricht, whose establishment together with the technical and vocational school in Unterschleißheim has already led many students to university entrance.

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