Not everyday do we see blind advocates become actresses in the blink of an eye. But when Aria Loberti was extended a role on the Netflix Series, “All The Light We Cannot See,” she didn’t shrink back. Instead, she and her guide dog were glad to take on that part which led her to the Golden Globe Awards! Check out this article from the Guide Dog Foundation’s website and links to an accompanying interview with Aria herself.

https://www.guidedogs.com/blog/aria-mia-loberti-netflix

For those of us who have lost our sight over a series of waves, readjusting to the “new” normal gets tiresome. We’re changing the font on the computer screen and the enlargement of our letters. Keeping up with shots to our eyes gets painful and dominates our schedules.

Then there’s that nagging conscience that wavers between the fear of another wave of sight loss and the potential hardships that might bring. We critique and critique ourselves in how we cook, clean the kitchen, shrink away from social contact, and the list goes on.

On a recent edition of Hadley School’s “Insights and Soundbites,” Ann encourages us to look at our sight loss as if it were happening to someone else. You can check it out here or at the link at the end of this post.

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Often the motivation to get someone’s help with everyday tasks vacillates between glum apathy to eager anticipation in a matter of minutes. Each time the wave of sight loss hits, you are adjusting to again. Ann’s experience tells us the very real emotions that hit when we constantly assess how to meet our needs.

The question, though, ,remains. How might we anticipate the next wave of sight loss in the equipment we use, how large or small we adjust our computer screens, or the frequency we use a mobility cane or walk down a busy street without one.

One solution some present is using sleep shades as you reteach yourself to cook or sign your name or dress yourself. Some schools such as the Louisiana or Colorado Center for the Blind have every client in residence go under sleepshades more than not. The staff members have some degree of blindness, so they know the impact the whole process has on someone.

We who follow blind sports know that goalball requires everyone to go under sleepshades for the whole game. Everyone plays on the same level with feel of lines on the court and the sound of the bell-filled ball to guide their play.

But are sleep shades for everyone? Some centers like World Services for the Blind do not require trainees to wear them. Instead, they begin with the skill level each person is at. Then they build from there. When in residence at WSB on a couple occasions, I had acquaintances who underwent one or more waves of sight loss there. On one occasion, that meant taking some time from the planned course of study to re-engage with some mobility skills to readjust to a blurrier line of sight.

If you notice some change in your vision due to not being able to read the mail or cooking instructions so well, don’t wait. Instead, talk to your primary doctor and get referred asap to an eye doctor who can determine the best course of action-bifocal glasses, monocular lenses, or even taking off the glasses for good and handing your car keys to someone else.

Especially changes like this last one takes some serious self-talk, objectivity, and encouragement from family and friends. That’s why it’s important to DIY the coping with your vision loss. Finding friends and acquaintances on or off-line will help you view what’s happening through other people’s perspectives. Read blog posts or listen to Youtube videos of people who have successfully progressed on the coping journey. As someone who enjoys fitness, I love hearing how some of our USABA athletes talk about the paths they have taken and the type of workouts they do.

It’s very common for people going blind to accept the hovering hands eager to do everything or to just give in as if their abilities have waned along with their sight. This, however, leaves you in a static bubble that neither you or anyone else can willingly pop. Instead, adjusting to your vision loss through the questions asked of or to someone else will sharpen your skills toward knowing what to expect. Then, you can better approach each change with boldness, armed with the right questions to ask when navigating life’s contours.

https://hadley.edu/podcasts/insights-sound-bites/how-would-you-help-if-it-wasnt-you

Everyone’s experience navigating the web is different. Yet, the bugs or glitches in accessing some content is the same for many blind or low-vision users. That’s one reason a new survey promoted by Freedom Scientific is important.

Partnering with a group from Utah State, Freedom Scientific is gauging how well people of all experience levels and expertise can navigate the web. Follow this link and take the survey yourself. Anything we can do to assist web developers and assistive tech instructors in making the online environment the most conducive for our use the better.

Can a rubber ball thrown against a stone wall ever make a dent? No, it’s easier for that ball to get punctured and lose its air through the hole gouged into its surface.
There’s no secret that many in the blind, let alone the larger disability, community have given up searching for employment after time and again seeing their efforts deflate. Whether it be because the company claiming not to have enough money to make a needed, if not reasonable accommodation or the staff to provide specialized technical assistance or a proposed individualized plan for employment (IPE) being denied, the temptation to slip through the cracks looms large.

Compared to that rubber ball, we who experience these frustrations need to keep bouncing. Often, we may need to help the rehabilitation counselor or job preparedness coach by raising their awareness of training programs that may make us more marketable.

After all, Vocational Rehabilitation and many States’ Departments for the Blind, have two sides-one for job seeking/preparedness and another for job training and education. While keeping your pulse on one, you can never lose sight of the other. If the job search is taking months to years, perhaps you may consider taking some course of study or vocational training to gain those skills in a given area. When you’re training for some desired career goal, gaining awareness of jobs which are out there will help you land that gainful employment when your course is nearing completion.

No doubt the economy has had an effect on the budget that Vocational Rehabilitation can spend on each client. Waiting lists for services expand and constrict given the resources allotted each State’s Department of Family Services under which VR and similar programs are housed. Sometimes, plans for client services, then, will include an amount of time or a deadline for keeping a case open. Sometimes, waiting lists will be based on how many disabilities-hidden or visible-someone has.

One way you who are blind or low-vision can help raise awareness for your VR counselor is to be educated yourself. Know what the approximate amount your county’s or State’s office has budgeted for each person’s services. Let me warn you: It’s not very much based on the type of IPE agreement you’ve established. We’re talking one to four thousand dollars unless a specific dispensation has been granted for purchasing work accommodations like JAWS screen reading software or a refreshable braille display. You will need to martial not only the reasons you want various services from your local VR or Department of the Blind’s offices, but you will need to justify why your counselor should go above the bare minimal cost for equipment or schooling you might need.

Then, if the job search is taking you and your support system back to square one time and again, be prepared to look at alternatives. If you have a knack for being tech savvy, pursuit of a certification to teach assistive technology or technology access consultant makes good sense. Schools like Little Rock’s World Services for the Blind offer courses on and off-line designed to teach you how to teach others the necessary and wide world of computing. The Hadley School for the Blind has many paths for training toward employment including a partnership with the Chicago Lighthouse’s Business Enterprise Program. Through theBEP program, you can learn to run a convenience store, coffee shop, or vending machine on Federal Property-thanks to the Randolph-Sheppard Act).

Finally, if you are among a larger group of friends or acquaintances who are looking for work, keep tabs on which companies seem more amenable to employing people who have blindness or other disabilities. Like it or not, laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Rehabilitation Act (1973) can only prescribe standards. Not every company in your town will have made those accommodations and some simply don’t have the savvy to bring one of us into its workforce in the least intrusive manner possible. So look for those workplaces that have a track record of hiring and retaining people who are blind or otherwise disabled.

Depending on your skill set, you may wish to look at places like the

which has centers spread throughout the country under the auspices of the National Industries for the Blind. Your Center for Independent Living may offer positions open to people who have any number of disabilities and, of course, the Federal government in all its agencies offers positions adapted for us on a noncompetitive hiring basis.

With all this in mind, we don’t have to ricochet off the stony wall like a rubber ball which, if smacked too many times, might deflate and fall. Whether our caseworker/counselor with Vocational Rehabilitation or similar agency knows the many paths to employment, we can raise awareness for them. Then, when we are presented with a new IPE, we can help them plan for those alternatives or opportunities that may lead us to being fully employed.

Assistive Technology Month is here and Braille Institute has a calendar of ways to learn it online. In the calendar linked here, you can be trained virtually in everything from basic JAWS to ways of navigating Voiceover on the iPad. You will not want artificial intelligence to leave you behind. Several classes will help you gain a better grasp of how you can make use of this new world in your gaming, daily life around your home and when you travel.

The advantage of all classes this month is that they are online. Just click the link for any of them and you will be directed to a registration form. Fill out the information requested and your are all set.

When seeing me read in public, some people have asked me about those bumps rising above my manuscript or computer display. Most have heard it’s called braille but aren’t so familiar with how it works.

I often explain that each letter, number, or sign is formed from a combination of six dots (or with computer braille, eight dots). A tiny dot six before a letter notes how that letter is capitalized. A different sign turns that combination of dots in the next cell into a number or a series of numbers.

The system that has been adopted worldwide over the decades since Louis Braille created it in 1824 is truly remarkable. Yes, six dots in many combinations can say a lot. For us who use the system, whether in the current Unified English Braille Code or previous grades or versions, letting our fingers do the walking is second nature. Even traversing a refreshable braille display for work or study becomes a matter of habit.

But if you are a coworker or classmate, family member or friend of someone who is blind-no doubt you will be astounded by this incredible system of dots, combinations, and signs.

Over the years, some have debated whether braille is worth preserving since, apparently, so few people who lose their sight later in life ever learn it. Thankfully, braille remains. And I don’t just say that as a proficient reader of braille. I speak on behalf of many who advocate for its use in schools and especially in the workplace where a screen reader may not tell everything you need to know by itself. Sometimes, with braille rising and collapsing beneath your fingers on a 40 to 80 cell display, you may be able to work faster than you would by hearing an automated voice. In fact, many of us who use braille, with or without the computer, can read just as fast as someone who sees the printed text.

When it comes to navigating braille with a display, clicking an icon or correcting a mistake may be as easy as pushing one of many quick navigation keys located above the line of text. These router keys along with buttons that pan the screen up and down or side to side bring us everything necessary for filling out forms, filing reports, data entry, and studying languages.

As we extend the celebration of World Braille Day (January 4), we walk in the ingenious footsteps of Louis Braille whose contribution shows we can do so much with that six or eight dot cell!

Over the months, Boldly Blind has featured various personalities in the blindness community and their journeys in advocacy. You’ve read posts about goalballers, beep baseball athletes, guide dog users, legislative advocates, and more. It’s time we title said posts Boldly Blind Achievers.

In this post, then, check out this YouTube video brought to us courtesy of Freedom Scientific. You will learn about Kate, who is a senior in high school and multitalented. She’s ambitious, wanting to travel, go to college for degrees in music and therapy. She has a great story to tell about her desires and drive. Hear it for yourselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCtaQs9rmoI

After seeing this article on David Goldfield’s blog, I couldn’t help but share it with you. The advocate, Paul Parravano, did much more than simply stand up for better legislation or rights pertinent to the blindness community. His expertise in the skill of structured negotiation led him to advocate on our behalf to get credit report statements and American Express notices in braille.

I encourage you to read more about this incredible champion of disability rights here.https://www.lflegal.com/2024/01/paul-parravano/#Read-more-about-Paul

Have you walked into any of these streetside scenarios:

You want to cross with the parallel traffic but the hand on the sign doesn’t signal it’s time to cross in tandem with the traffic flow?

The color contrast between concrete, pavement, and paint at an intersection looks blurry or indistinguishable?

Polls with audio signal buttons are offset from the curb such that you have to walk several paces to find them?

Some lesser traveled streets in your area have audio signals while heavier traveled areas still don’t?

We’d love to have answers to these accessibility predicaments. Yes, the Americans With Disabilities Act does specify important information about accessible travel. But we need to update our knowledge for the current time.

The webinar from the U.S. Access Board on February 1 will provide guidance and answers to these concerns and more when discussing accessible crosswalks. Click the link below for more about this excellent opportunity for us to learn more about the cityscape around us, especially the streets we must cross. If you are blind or low-vision, you will benefit by learning more about the variety of intersections around you along with the ways your city government should be improving these areas. If you are sighted, check out this webinar so you can learn more about how having accessible crosswalks will give your friend or relative more confidence and desire to travel independently.

Here is the link where you can e

For a long time, video games have been inaccessible to us who are blind or low-vision. Of course, some have been created over the years and the geekeier among us have joyfully gravitated to them. However, for the run-of-the-mill blind computer user, blind gaming has been a world that seems a click too far.

Enter Forza Motor Sports who has created a new racing game whose features allow for accessibility for us who are blind orlow-vision. The site along with the interview with a blind gamer are found here. Listen to how Brandon interacts and discusses the experience with those who designed the program.