When you’re in the midst of a conversation with someone who is blind, make sure to let them know if you need to step away for a moment. If you don’t and they don’t hear you move, they will keep talking as if you are there. That makes them look unaware and silly.

I know it’s tempting to do this because anyone who can see communicates as much with gestures, nods, pointing, and so forth to complement or replace speaking. But because your blind friend, family member, customer (in a store) or business client can’t see you, they must depend on your words to know where you are.

With that said, if pointing is natural for you, speak in specific directions. “Over there,” “here,” and “there” don’t help someone who needs to know where you are indicating and what you want them to know.

The incorporation of assistive technology into kids’ studies must be done early these days. After all, it provides the means by which they will learn and retain the means for relating to the modern classroom as well as the material discussed.

I can remember some years ago when an orientation and mobility instructor and I discussed this while on a lesson in west St. Louis County. For us who are blind or visually impaired, the learning curve in many disciplines is steep because we learn both the content and the adaptations. So, it’s no surprise that this article from Perkins E-Learning covers warm vs. cold-blooded animals at the same time as it encourages teachers to help strengthen their VI students’ skills in using Voice Over or other screen reading technology.

https://www.perkinselearning.org/technology/blog/google-docs-table-activity-warmcold-blooded-animals

It’s the weekend! Whether you are in school or a working professional, this means you might be getting together with friends, going on a date if you’re single, or…. Staying at home alone and wondering how you might join the crowd.

For many who are blind, getting the oomph to engage in a long-term relationship after feeling isolated can prove to be a very daunting task, not unlike a job interview. Even if you’re going to hang out with a group, the questions may make you nervous: What do I wear? How do I introduce myself? Will people include me at first for curiosity’s sake and then back off being sure of how to interact with someone who’s blind? Add the pressure of dating in the mix and the stress level might amp up tenfold.

We who’ve been blind most of our lives heard rather than saw our friends initiate romantic relationships. Their enticing smiles, approving winks, and quick texts even during a class lecture went on unnoticed by us. Maybe, we’ve had to develop our own tricks and social survival skills by trial and error only to be corrected later by a concerned friend or parent.

So unless we date someone else who’s blind or visually impaired, we may take on a more serious air to cover our own feelings of inadequacy. And who wants to date someone who’s hyper self-conscience?-we might think. And this takes the thrill and fun out of diving into those first few stages of friendship impromptu. After all, most people love their fair share of spontaneity, especially when it comes to deciding on where to eat, what movie to see, or how long to hang out.

Dating was a rare event  for me in high school, college and during my early professional years. Part of that was on me; I didn’t want the embarrassment of being turned down just because people didn’t know how to date a blind guy. I didn’t want to initiate long-term dating relationships anyway because I was never sure how permanently I’d remain in the same place or mood and I wanted potential relationships to develop “according to the rules” whatever they were. In other words, for many years, I was not ready to date.

Thanks to the internet, those who don’t want to disclose their disabilities don’t have to right up front if they choose to meet someone online. Of course, that involves some risk of facing someone’s shock and awe when seeing your cane or guide dog with you later. While we’d hope people would appreciate us for who we are, blind or sighted, still the element of surprise can make a first meeting a bit awkward if we forget or neglect to mention our blindness.

The internet adds another advantage for us who are blind as well. When suggesting where you want to go on a first or second date, you can look up many restaurant’s menus. This helps alleviate much fear of feeling embarrassed about asking your date to read the meal selections to you aloud. Especially if you go somewhere familiar, you may already know what you want to eat. Bringing your smart phone along with you can give that certain someone a glimpse into how you keep time, chat with friends, and navigate the out-and-about of life when stepping beyond your same four walls of home.

When going to a movie, suggest a theater which offers the option for audio description. That way, you can laugh or gasp or groan audibly right along with everyone else in attendance instead of needing to wait for your date to describe things to you. Beside, amorous multitasking can go on, too. Reaching for her hand doesn’t have to wait till that supposed perfect moment. Or, ladies, getting some skin time while you both reach for the popcorn simultaneously doesn’t have to preclude the enjoyment of an action scene while it happens on the screen.

Here, I’ve provided a link to World Services for the Blind’s blog where an author has posted a few more suggestions for dating blind. I hope you find them helpful whether you yourself are dating someone or giving some advice to a friend or your kids.

https://www.wsblind.org/blog/2022/3/18/dating-with-a-disability

Amid all the advice, a big key is not to take yourself too seriously but to enjoy the dating fun for what it is. Tackling further steps toward having a steady relationship, engagement, and marriage can wait for a later time.

On today’s Fitness Friday evening, we showcase judo. Like wrestling, it’s a great sport where opponents can gain excellent physical conditioning while in martial art, hand-to-hand combat. Judo means the gentle (or yielding) way in Japanese. Invented by Dr. Jigoro Cano, the sport takes the principles of balance and swift efficiency in jujutsu and puts it to the athletic venue.

Judo clubs (or dojos) exist in most mid to large-size cities and. Through learning this sport, you don’t just gain the ability to whip your opponent in a fight. Judo trains the mind as much as it trains your brawn. You learn how to prioritize the moves you made for keeping physical balance and mental alertness. You can, of course, transfer these skills to other areas of life like your family leadership, educational and professional pursuits, and financial responsibilities. That’s because when you stretch your mind, you cross-train yourself to recognize and defeat thos obstacles in your path.

As explained on this video from the United States Association of Blind Athletes, (USABA), blind judo differs from the mainstream event in that competitors begin with gripping each other’s judogi under one elbow and on the opposite collar. They must maintain constant, physical contact throughout the practice fight, randori, or an actual match.

Here’s a longer video showing several matches from last year’s International Blind Sports Association  world championships.

If you are sighted and viewing this post, you can watch several or parts of matches and get the idea that these boldly blind athletes compete in judo just like anyone else. Learning to coordinate agile footwork with grips and throws takes incredible patience over many years. As younger blind judoka master the art, they learn to anticipate their opponent’s movements beyond mere guessing.

If you are interested in getting yourself or your children in this amazing sport, contact your local dojo and then get them connected with the USABA so that you receive the most accurate support for your training possible.

The readings for the third Sunday in Lent are Ezek. 33:7-20, 1 Cor. 10:1-13, and Luke 13:1-9.

God takes no pleasure in the death of those who disregard His command to turn from their sin. Through His Word, He shows us time and again the consequences that befall those who disobeyed Him throughout history. For He gives us each new day in which to bring our sins before Him that He may forgive us. For He provided us the only way out of temptation, through the cross of Jesus who laid down His innocent life to save ours.

Spring is almost here and with it comes warmer temperatures, little league and pro baseball, and better opportunities to get out and about. As the COVID pandemic seems to be waning, so opportunities for us to get up and get moving again are growing. In fact, that’s motivation behind a national effort for attaining better physical fitness and wellness.

You can find more information about that here. https://www.acb.org/get-moving-campaign-out-isolation-full-inclusion-independence

Perhaps, the encouragement to get up and get moving again spawned this article on mobility assistance by Maxiaids which you can find here. https://www.maxiaids.com/mobility-issues-you-can-keep-moving

So what helps you do mobility? The Chicago Lighthouse’s blog, Sandy’s View, discusses some basic ways in which we navigate streets, sidewalks, friends’ houses, and shopping malls:

• “The white cane helps people who are blind or severely visually impaired know when there are tripping hazards such as cracks, poles, etc. The cane is swept from side to side to clear one’s path from these and other obstacles. Other techniques allow us to know when we’ve reached a crosswalk or the entrance to a room. The white cane also signals to drivers that the pedestrian about to cross the street is visually impaired.
• Guide dogs are service animals that have received special and extensive training to guide blind and visually impaired individuals. These dogs guide their handlers around obstacles and can also help find things like entrances, escalators and elevators. It is up to the handler to tell the dog where to go – it is only there to lead the person and help him or her arrive safely to the desired destination.
• A sighted (or human) guide is probably the simplest of all the methods, and is the proper way of assisting someone who may need help getting somewhere. A blind person is guided by someone else by holding on to their arm. This method is preferred by some of us when in unfamiliar places or if there are large crowds.”

How Do Blind and Visually Impaired People Get Around?

In addition, some travelers use echolocation to. By clicking the roof of their mouth with the tongue, they can sense the reverberation bouncing off walls or a building’s outside overhang to determine where they are and if obstacles stand in their way. Sometimes, we speak of hearing a building next to us as we tap our cane on concrete or the tile floor. Guide dog users, too, can hear when a wall muffles sound or an opening permits it.

Here in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Glenbrook Square is our only indoor mall. After browsing books in Barnes and Noble,  I needed to get from there to the TMobile outlet. So after getting directions from a passer-by, I maintained my line of travel while listening for people traffic to cross in front of instead of just beside me. Even my footsteps grew louder and my cane’s tap-tap-tap sounded more hollow. I knew then to walk at a forty-five degree angle left to find the store’s entrance. Of course, my cane’s tip struck those lovely kiosks and random tables along the way until I stood in TMobile’s entrance.

Every one of us prefers one method over others. Social media and journal articles alike promote the advantages and disadvantages of each. Readers of this blog who are sighted can appreciate the way a blind friend or relative gets around by learning more about each mode of traveling more in depth than space allows this summary goes. If that particular someone struggles with confidence in his or mobility, encourage them to explore the options. None of them are better or worse than another, though cane and dog usage will allow more freedom to navigate independently than will depending on sighted guide over a longer period of time.

It’s this subject of orientation and mobility that gives rise to this blogs motto: Navigating Life’s Contours. One day shortly after I began dating her,  Amy, who now is my wife, she  dropped me off to meet the bus while she drove another direction to attend a class meeting. Let’s just say I traveled a good eight feet before realizing I was angled well away from the bus bench at the corner of Troost and 51^st in Kansas City, MO. I had to angle back to reorient myself while the bus pulled up.

Later on the phone, Amy asked why I was having trouble getting where I needed to go. I said that I needed to have better contours when finding my way at that street corner.

Isn’t that true in our daily lives? Whether navigating a street corner or following the links on a website, finding those touchpoints that help us know where we are keep us focused on where we are going.

Whether we travel two miles to the doctor’s office or ten miles across town to shop, many of us depend on paratransit services to get us there. Now I know we’ve all had our share of long wait times and bumpy rides that feel like we’re wandering around in circles. Most of the time, our trips proceed smoothly from one curb to another.

If you’re like me, you spend much of your travel time streaming some podcast or music over your phone or daydreaming. All the while, your driver keeps in touch with home base about his or her whereabouts, gets directions through an unfamiliar part of town, or is rerouted because someone on his manifest canceled their trip. So who is this driver anyway?

The writer in me loves hearing good backstory. So  when meeting the newest pair of hands steering me through town, I love getting a glimpse at who they are. Since so many people lost their jobs due to the COVID pandemic, many new-hires are people simply needing to make ends meet at home. They’re single parents to retired office workers who needed something to keep themselves active. Some drove kids on a school bus or delivered a company’s packages cross-country. Especially here in Fort Wayne where I live, many long-standing driverstalk about how the area’s changed while the people have kept that small town vibe.

In any case, paratransit drivers have usually passed two levels of their CDL test and taken special classes on best practices when assisting people with many types of physical disabilities. They learn how to strap a wheelchair in place so that it won’t slide at every stop. Many transportation companies train their drivers in how to lead a blind passenger on their elbow (sighted guide) when showing him to a building’s front doorway. Most have received proper etiquette for respecting the rights of passengers who use service animals. And every conversation they have with us is potentially their latest on-the-job training since we riders each have our own preferences, pet peeves, and personal space.

A paratransit driver’s hours may string together in one long shift or come in two shorter stints. In either case, their pay usually doesn’t reflect the toll that driving so many miles along with leaving and returning to their seat takes on their body. Some might call their work thankless. While some enjoy the work in between two more lucrative careers, others have driven the specialized vans for decades. Like any other county or city worker, they do get a good health benefits package, paid time off, and a chance to move up the ladder into being supervisors. Some take overtime hours to drive the public city buses.

For all this, we say, “Thank you,” to our paratransit drivers who take us to themall, to work, to church and so many other places we need to go when navigating life’s contours.

WE often think about legislative advocacy as being for our betterment in the blindness community. That is true, fine and good. We do want to express our needs for better accommodations in the workplace, school, and elsewhere. But, advocacy even with government leaders goes further than that.

When discussing accessibility for education or medical portals on the web, we have in mind what society might look like were such measures to be in place. With the push of a button on a treadmill, a screen reader like the ones on our cell phone could speak the options for changing speed and incline, start, stop, and even a program’s variation. If medical devices like glucose monitors and COVID tests were more blind friendly, we wouldn’t need to ask a neighbor or friend to drop in just to help us manage the care we could give ourselves on the go. With the amelioration of education portals, students on a college campus or in distance education could read their books and class handouts while keeping pace with anyone else learning alongside them.

Of course, much progress has taken place in all these areas of life. Many of us who are web junkies or computer nerds can find our way through the maze of complex PDF tags or links to find ways to get things done. But not everyone is so tech savvy. Hence, many companies, schools, and medical device producers can use some guidance for improving their services.

Today, my colleagues from the American Council of the Blind of Indiana and I had the privilege of meeting with Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) on his weekly Hoosier Huddle. We talked about several pieces of legislation I’ve highlighted here before that deal with better access to medical devices and web accessibility. Of course, the good Senator and his staff listened, asked a few questions, and noted our main talking points. Along with that, they got to witness us who are part of the blindness community in action.

That last point often escapes us when doing advocacy for ourselves or others. Yes, we’re seeking better accommodations for ourselves and to raise awareness of our capabilities. More than that, we seek to change perceptions so that we may have the equal opportunity for success beyond just the rules, regs, and written codes.

After all, what are the images many people have of us who are disabled? Many think first of their grandparents who love someone coming by for a chat while helping them read the mail, go shopping, or clip their nails. They’re the folks who call when needing help cleaning house or getting a ride to the doctor.

That’s because, though one fourth of all Americans have some form of disability, many people whose conditions are more profound stay off the social grid. Hence, few people see the active guide dog user heading to his office to work the nine to five. Not many people get to exercise next to someone who’s blind one treadmill to the left. Many people lack the experience of going to class with us who take notes on a laptop equipped with a screen reader. With such limited contact, the long-standing perception of someone who’s blind (or otherwise disabled) is that they always need helped, cared for, or admired for their bravery in stepping out into mainstream society.

Such stereotypes have led some to erect unspoken barriers around jobs that don’t fit the billing for someone who can’t see. When a professor says to his student he’d feel uncomfortable in a congregation led by a blind pastor or a class taught by a blind teacher, he sells himself short of embracing someone’s accommodations as just another part of life in the real world. Still others have stepped up the belief that because charity and benefits for people who are blind exist, they are the most proper income someone who can’t see should receive instead of that which comes from honest work.

Such postures as these show pity toward rather than acceptance of people who are blind or visually impaired. Certainly, we do uphold programs like Social Security, food stamps, or Missouri’s State blind pension from which many in our community draw a substantial income. Such benefits serve as a cornerstone upon which a person who is blind can build his or her livelihood. Some who have other health conditions may remain on this fixed income while many of us use it to supplement what we earn.

Let’s go again to envisioning some outcomes of better web accessibility, audio components to exercise equipment’s touch screens, blind friendly at-home medical equipment, and even better audio description. Instead of asking for help navigating a treadmill, a man might talk current events with the runner to his right or bury himself in the audio described movie on his iPhone. The student of psychology reads handouts downloaded from his professor’s portal before collaborating via Google Docs on a project with his classmates. Instead of scheduling a paratransit ride to the doctor’s office just to get a cancer symptom test read, a middle-aged woman traces the appropriate indicators on a given surface for herself.

Of course, such changes will take place over a matter of months and years. But are they too good to be true? No. For as our boldness and confidence in being blind members of everyday society grows, so will the awareness of those around us and vice versa. Advocacy, accessibility, and awareness form fertile common ground where we can do blindness daily.

CBS gets it when describing their programs for us who are blind or visually impaired. Are you a fan of “Blue Bloods, “Survivor,” the NCIS series of shows, and even the latest “Star Trek” episodes? You can press a simple button and a voice will set the scene for you when characters on screen aren’t talking to each other.

The fact that CBS outpaces the Federal Communication Commission’s mandate for hours per weak shows their vested interest in having as many viewers as possible. Not only is this a good service for people who cannot see, it’s good for economic competition as well. You would think that since CBS has set the bar for hours of audio described programs, other networks would follow. After all, which big TV corporation wouldn’t want to take the lead in viewership over the others?

Here’s a video from the recent American Council of the Blind’s leadership meeting held on March 13 of this year. Joe Turrets, Vice-President for caption and descriptive services of Paramount Global, leads off this hour-long presentation. You can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt-4KsGrxKI

The readings for the second Sunday in Lent are Jer. 26:8-15, Phil. 3:17-4:1, and Luke 13:31-35.

When Jeremiah spoke plainly about the judgment coming on Judah, the priests and other leaders refused to listen and told him to stop. How often do we get told the same thing when warning about the consequences of faithlessness? We so quickly become ashamed of our own words and clam up. Nevertheless, our Lord Jesus, who persisted on to His self-giving death on Calvary for us, restores our joy in His Word. He reminds us that because He didn’t waver on route to dying for our sins, we are citizens of His heavenly reign. So in the public square when defending our God-given liberties and His moral will for us, we uphold the truths that have been revealed even as we speak the certain hope we have in Him to anyone who calls us to account.