Whether a blind student is transitioning to college or a middle-aged woman wants to find work after a long time unemployed, rehabilitation counselors for the blind can help. Yes, I know the reputation some get for doling out the hands-on work to the teacher or mobility instructor. But, many rehabilitation counselors do a lot of home visits themselves along with managing big case loads. They have acquired a Masters in Social Work, a certification in Rehabilitation Counseling, and may also be a Certified Vision Rehabilitation Therapist.

It may seem to be a roadblock for someone who is blind and wants to blend in with his peers to work with a rehabilitation agency. Yet, the good counselor will have her resources at the ready for job coaches in your area. Whether thoroughly acquainted or not with assistive software or hardware, she will have a working knowledge of the devices that will accommodate someone entering college or the workforce.

I’ve work with many rehabilitation counselors over the years wherever I’ve lived and found most to be hard working, though often swamped in a sea of paperwork that can tire even the most energetic among us. My experience is to be cordial but up front with them about your needs. It’s not their individual fault that the system may move at a glacial pace or miscommunication between you and other workers in the blindness field happens. Yes, the layers of approvals and codes for everything seem mountainous-and they are…for your rehabilitation counselor, too.

If you’re seeing them for the first time, write an email thanking them for taking on your case and being willing to work with you on gaining your independence. Perhaps, as you look toward self-advocacy when barriers arise, your rehabilitation counselor will be able to meet them head-on with you instead of playing the reputed “no” game.

Where we who are blind or visually impaired get in trouble is forgetting appointments, forgetting to let our counselor or her supervisor know we can’t make a scheduled meeting, or we get caught up in the us-vs.-them tug-of-war.

I know. Sometimes, the rigidity of beginning your case or working relationship with a rehabilitation counselor may seem dry and taxing on your patience. For us who have spent a lot of time alone, isolated from the workaday world, long delays in service make you feel as if the system, you know the ever present “they,” ought to move faster. Sometimes, it needs to. Believe me! Yet, the rehabilitation counselor often has to follow the rules and budget set by their supervisors who may or may not be in the same office as they are.

I love finding out little tidbits about people’s lives and like using that info in conversations, even with a rehabilitation counselor. Small talk-and I speak as one who struggles with it-helps break the ice even during a subdued or somber appointment.

Currently, my regular rehabilitation counselor is out on medical leave. So, along with communicating with the people replacing him for now, I ask how he’s doing. If whoever works with you mentions something going on during their day or a matter about family, engage in this small subplot. Especially if you’re going into teaching or another helping vocation, it will show your rehabilitation counselor they mean more than just a vocal grab bag or roadblock on your way to independence. If you’re looking to make advocacy your career, you may gain some common ground in terms of learning from one another about caring for people with any number of disabilities.

So, today we say thank-you for rehabilitation counselors and their efforts to help us be boldly blind.

Note:

Your State’s chapter of Vocational Rehabilitation or Department of the Blind employs the vast majority of rehabilitation counselors that work for the government. You can meet similar case workers through the National Industries for the Blind, the Lighthouse for the Blind, Braille Institute of America, and other similar centers for daily living.

For more details including salaries for rehabilitation counselors and where you may train to be come one, visit http://www.afb.org.

The confrontation happened just days after I had to retire my second guide dog in 2005 when I lived in Santa Barbara, California. I was riding the city bus from my home to teach computers at our local affiliate of Braille Institute. The driver’s voice jerked me from a brief nap, but he wasn’t announcing my stop.

It turned out that he was locked in a heated argument with a passenger who wanted to bring her little dog on the ride. Now, the riders’ guide for local transportation made it clear that only service dogs could accompany a passenger.That passenger claimed she needed the dog to help her stay calm around loud noises. Ironic? I thought so. The driver saw no markings, harness or leash indicating that her pet was trained to perform a specific task for someone who’s physically or psychologically disabled.

After turning the woman away, the bus driver asked me if he’d handled it well and I let him know his back-and-forth dispute made sense but it wasn’t needed. I still had my card from Guide Dogs of America listing a number of Federal and California laws pertaining to what a service animal is. Showing that information with the driver helped him be further informed.

Seventeen years later, the emotional support animal movement has gained some social traction. After all, who doesn’t benefit from that cute face and set of four furry paws sitting nearby. Dogs are called man’s best friends for a very good reason. But, anyone can have such a service animal and many are not even trained for performing a given task that compensates for some degree of loss or limitation.

That is the first major contrast between service animals and emotional support animals. While neither need registered with the local City Hall, the definition and responsibilities distinguish whether a dog can accompany someone in public places like restaurants or movie theaters or airplanes.

Service animals-guide dogs, hearing ear dogs, wheelchair assistance dogs-undergo several rigorous months of training to gain the skills necessary for being of help to their handlers. Watch two videos and you will get a glimpse at the work guide dogs do prior to being matched with their blind or visually impaired teammate.

And check out this one.

On the other hand emotional service dogs don’t receive such specific training at all. Instead, they are little more than well-behaved darlings who’ve gone through basic obedience classes and have a calming demeanor. A person in need of one gains more of an understanding of how to react to the dog’s reactive cues. After all, when someone triggered by an anxious thought or acted-upon fear, the dog will exude a predictable behavior. The trick is for the person to coordinate his or her responses to the dog’s reactions.

That’s much different than the discipline that guide dog must learn in order to make those street crossings while keeping his person walking in a straight line. He’s got to have the self-control so as not to morph into a vacuum cleaner when leading the way through a food court. And though many people out in public love dogs’ cuteness and want to pet them, they rightly get embarrassed or grossed out if a dog of any kind excessive licking, loud barking, relieving themselves while wearing the harness, or becoming aggressive in public.

Yes, perception matters as it should. Handler and trained service dog are a team functioning as one single unit. Emotional support animals, however, vary in their individual relationships with their caregiver. Since they are primarily present to support someone’s emotional needs, their actions may give mixed messages to bystanders watching them. Service animals, by the very nature of their harnesses and leashes convey the fact that their handlers call the shots.

That’s why, for instance, I always emphasized with people that met Lali that he was a guide dog, not a guard dog. His job was taking me where I commanded him to lead, not get all nasty at the first impulse of danger. In fact, if a guide dog does feel danger in the air, his learned reaction is to back his handler away from harm as best as possible. Of course, perceptions to the contrary do arise. Many cab drivers are still fearful of transporting a service animal due to the fear of messing up their car’s back seat. In those instances, what ought we handlers do? Call the cab companies and advocate for our rights. That’s true for any access problems we who work service animals experience. If difficulties with a certain driver or company exist, we do well to follow the proper channels of complaint as far as we need in order to gain equal rights when traveling with our guides.

How can we who are also blind but do not handle guide dogs help? Every State has laws in places according to the Americans With Disabilities Act designed for the protection of service animals rights and privileges. Rather than see ourselves as different or more independent than guide dog handlers, we do well to advocate alongside them. That’s why Guide Dog Users Inc. is open for anyone having an interest in supporting the public use of service animals. Check it out. www.gdui.org. There you will find the association of schools for training guide dogs and matching them with their people. Podcasts on the website inform you about anything from vet care to new laws that arise due to some trends or challenges  in society.

While emotional support animals do serve as comfort and calm for their owners, they remain pets acting according to their natural disposition. Service animals, however, are trained to meet specific needs experienced by their handlers due to a specific disability.

Sure, when out of harness, guide dogs are as much dog as the next yellow lab over, especially as they rest after a day’s work. Yet, the playing, snoozing, and friendship they provide complement the loyal service they give while working.

I don’t know about you, but I love meeting people out in public. Not that I initiate many conversations with folks unfamiliar to me; I don’t. But I love it when someone notices my laptop or hears my screen reader chattering or watches me read braille.

Of course, the inevitable observation’s going to come: “I don’t know if I could do that if I were in your shoes.” And my response: Well, given the circumstances, the patience, and guidance, I’m sure you could. After all, someone asking that question usually hasn’t seen someone doing blindness unless they’ve sat in a class with me, attended church with me, or has gotten to know me or my family in some other way.

Sometimes, the well-intended observation comes after a conversation about something else: the topic discussed in Bible class… riding on the bus together… meeting in person for the first time after years of knowing me on social media. Then, what happens when the blindness out in the open? If the default observation isn’t on someone’s lips, it’s not far away. That’s frustrating for us who hear it, but it’s completely understandable. Of course, we who are blind are tempted to repeat the same pat stuff we’ve said to countless folks in the past or to explain things away, eager to move onto something else.

What can we do without warding folks away or casting the hail of thorns (or egg shells) spell upon which many folks feel the need to walk in our presence? More and more, I’ve begun weaving the adaptations I make in daily life as normal threads in conversation. That’s because, I’m completely at ease scanning books so that print can be turned into electronic text. Yes, by being around a TV for The Super Bowl or the latest episode of “Blue Bloods,” I’m watching TV. So, if you who read this are sighted, please use terms like “see” or “watch” with us who can’t. Use colors when describing stuff because we do care about that, especially if we’ve lost our sight later on in life.

It’s also tempting for someone who’s sighted to be thrown off-balance when meeting someone who’s blind in a college class, seminary lecture, or a chess competition. Yes, the admissions committee let me or someone else in sight unseen. But, what to do with the blindness is out in the open?

And that’s where the gap remains, isn’t it? The ADA (1990) and the Rehabilitation Act (1973) can mandate a whole lot of stuff for public settings, employment, and the classroom. But it can’t change perceptions. As we theologian types say in our circles: The Law curbs; it’s mirror reflects. It can instruct. Well, so it goes with the laws established regarding disability rights.

The give-and-take is lifelong when coping with blindness or visual impairment. So, it goes with learning to approach someone who’s blind. But if you who are sighted do see us in an academic setting, especially graduate school or if you’re with us in the workplace, remember that our story goes beyond just being disabled. It’s as much a tapestry of experiences and learning as you’ve had. We who are blind do well to expect your learning curve and should open ourselves up to opportunities for questions.

Is a blind computer programmer going to be in the lab just to doodle? No. She’s been trained to run diagnostics and script programs. Let her tell or show you how as you converse about the matter at hand rather than assuming you’ve got to tell some remedial information they already know anyway.

If you meet someone in the college classroom who’s blind, talk about the subject matter at hand first and let the matter of adaptation arise naturally. If they’re in the seminary, yes, they’ve taken Greek and Hebrew… or should have. If they’re in a secondary education program ready for student teaching, it’s not time to freak out but to speak well of them when placing them for assignment. The blindness is important but it’s a secondary issue compared to the skills acquired in college already.

I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t always done blindness in this area right. I’m pretty forward in how I present things. So, it’s my first impulse to speak about theology, history, politics, or the tax code before saying a word about my adaptations. Sometimes, that works; often, it has intimidated folks who are still learning that lack of sight doesn’t automatically translate to lack of capability to learn.

Now do we go there socially, too? I reflect on my arrival in public school halfway through my freshmen year. And I can guarantee you folks didn’t know what to think or say. “How can this guy go to the mall or movies?” “Can he relate to dating, sex, or going to a concert?” And, ewwww, “What if his cane slides between my legs?” Yes, and I say tis chuckling, we who are boldly blind have faced all of these queries in one way or another. Then, when we hit college and the workplace, we’ve faced them again.

There’s an old adage: Folks of any age ask the same questions about blindness or our capabilities, albeit in different ways. One day in my junior year at Concordia-Nebraska, I explained to someone during chapel how to guide me up to receive Holy Communion with everyone else. Later, when speaking to a bunch of first graders taught by someone from the same church I attended, these kids asked the same kind of thing. “Mr. Rosenkoetter, how do you drink the wine when your up there with my mommy?”

I always made it a practice to ask someone sitting next to me if they’d guide me to receive the Lord’s Supper, just in case they were uneasy about some guy clutching onto their elbow or walking next to a cane tapping centimeters next to their foot. Well, probably to make a joke once, a friend of mine simply said, “No,” that she wouldn’t guide me up. Of course, I knew differently and we laughed about it later.

One advantage that has come to the fore for us who are blind today is access to social media. So, we who are blind or visually impaired talk adaptive technology, help each other with ways of navigating new places like supermarkets, or how to approach a gym’s manager to see if they’d label a treadmill or two in braille.

What a joy the blind adventure is! So, we who are blind do well to be boldly blind. There’s nothing for us of which we need to be ashamed about it. And if you’re sighted, let those questions roll so we can enjoy life and our vocations together!

If you’re blind, have you been called a hero just because of some small accomplishment or positive attitude? Or, have you been compared by someone to another blind person they knew somewhere? If so, join the crowd. A lot of folks are somewhere on the learning curve of walking in the shoes of someone who’s blind or otherwise disabled.

Or, if you’re sighted, have you mentioned to someone how you can’t imagine doing things like crossing a busy intersection blind, running on the treadmill blind for a half hour to forty minutes?or even going to school blind? Yes, it’s all hard to imagine if you’re unaware of the techie gismos and other adaptations we make so as to live life to the full contributing to mainstream society.

I know. Showing admiration for what someone who’s blind can do is often well-intended. It’s good to recognize our intellectual and physical capabilities. But, it magnifies the tasks of daily life-crossing streets, riding the bus, working a regular job, or going to a public school with sighted peers to be bigger accomplishments than they really are.

That’s had two effects on me over the years. Either I felt the fear I’d not do the same task so well the next time or I felt my worth as dependent on these accomplishments and then putting added stress on each little step I’d take.

Now, check out the linked blog post about Holly where she encourages us who are blind not to compare ourselves to others. After all, being boldly blind means stepping out in our own sector of life, often beyond our comfort zone, and embracing opportunities to gain better independent travel skills, opportunities to self-advocate for our needs, and raise awareness of our capabilities among those who haven’t gotten as much exposure to the blindness community.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/12dxzkab9irkd/?&th=17f18834274327a6&v=c

The readings for the seventh Sunday after Epiphany are Gen. 45:3-15; 1 Cor. 15:21-26, 30-42; and Luke 6:27-38..

When Joseph was made second in command by Pharaoh in Egypt, he had his opportunities to take revenge on his brothers for selling him away. He didn’t do it. Instead, Joseph trusted God who worked the course of events to save many lives. He looked to the promise revealed clearly in Jesus Christ who innocently died in the stead and on behalf of the whole world gone sinful. Then risen from the dead, He saves all the lives of those who trust in Him for salvation. For in Adam, we died at the fall; in Christ, we live. Hence, we love our enemies, praying for those who persecute us, trusting our gracious Lord to work the events of our lives for His glory and our good.

One of the toughest things to distinguish when doing disability advocacy is when to use the d-word or not. Yes, I mean “discrimination”. After all, when we think of discrimination, we often think of the Civil Rights movement, which rightly put an end to those laws banning black Americans from the rights and privileges afforded to all citizens in our nation’s founding documents. For those in Rio Linda, I’m talking about the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration Of Independence specifically.

Discrimination on the basis of race was certainly systemic until the acts passed during the 1960s thankfully ended that nonsense. For people with disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) did much the same. So, on paper at least, there’s no systemic discrimination against people who are disabled.

Yet, society hasn’t caught up in all areas. The unemployment rate for people who are blind remains at 70 percent; if you toss in another disability, it’s 80: and if there’s a cognitive or mental illness in the mix, it’s 90 percent. It varies county to county whether voting machines are accessible. I’ve seen the good ones and I’ve seen the broken ones myself.

When it comes to exercise equipment in gyms, if you’re blind and can’t feel the little divots on the treadmill’s touch screen, you’re going to need a lot of help going faster or slower unless your club’s manager orders Braille or large print labels-and I’m very thankful my club manager has done that.

Thank God, the Communications and Video Accessibility Act was passed over ten years ago. But, technology’s changed a lot. So, there needs to be amendments that update the language and accessibility for iPhones, Netflix, audiodescription on the TV, et al.

But, are all these needs to catch up a matter of discrimination? I don’t think so. They and countless other aspects of life where society is catching up fall, in my opinion, in the places where increased awareness needs to happen.

After all, should we petition the government to run the mom’n pop stores and gyms out of business because they don’t have the finances to comply with bloated government demands headed up by the DOJ? No way! Smmall business and mom’n pop stores are the backbone of the American free enterprise system. Big government has no business sticking its nose into the affairs of the little workout facility on the little town square.

However, where can that little town square gym be encouraged to adapt, if need be? Well, if a couple bills in the Senate get past, Precor and other exercise equipment builders will be encouraged to make their treadmills and bikes and stairmasters accessible. Then companies as big as Planet Fitness or as small as Ah Salon and Spa can buy said equipment if the demand by consumers coming to any given franchise warrants it.

After all, we advocates need to also think like good pro-growth adherents to trickle-down Reaganomics. If the demand is there by consumers, then real competition will follow between those companies who make and market adaptive software for audiovisual accessibility.

So, no, we don’t want to say lack of awareness, lack of funding or lack of demand in a given sector of life should be branded as discrimination.

With that said, do we let people off the hook if they are unaware? No. That’s where person-to-person advocacy comes into play. Maybe, you need that audio signal on your street corner in order to cross over on your way to work. Perhaps, you know others in your area who’d benefit from that audio signal. You have every right and means to approach your city council representative or another local power that is and petition for your needs to be met. After all, where are our needs individually best heard? Locally, first. That’s self-advocacy. And we who are blind need to practice it on a regular basis with cordiality and respect.

So, please, do not drop the D-bomb when expressing what you need or advocating for others in situations where known, overt discrimination doesn’t exist. Rather, take heart in the joy of raising awareness, whether you’re talking to your local pub about getting braille menus, talking to your State Representative about the distinction between service and emotional support animals, or lobbying the U.s. Congress about any number of matters.

How many of you have had conversations with someone and later wondered who you’d talked with? For us who are blind, it happens more times than we’d like to admit. Especially when we’re meeting someone new to us, we take a while getting to know their voice.

There’s a really good article from Vision Aware that I’m posting here that features a couple folks talking about their experiences with greetings and introductions. After all, I’m sure we’ve had the conversation-turned-intimate and then realized later that they were either engaged or married. Ouch! It can be quite embarrassing when we get the polite hand to the shoulder steering us away from their personal space.

Or, some voices are just plain hard to distinguish from others. It may take three, four, or five times speaking with them to get the sound of their voice matched with their name.

When I was in seminary a few years ago, before I realized God wasn’t calling me to be a pastor, I had to learn a bunch of voices at the church where I helped the pastor lead liturgical responses and with reading passages from the Bible on Sunday mornings. Well, the big bad greeting line jitters often pounced on me. *What if I don’t recognize someone?* And their husband or wife just died? *What if I forget a name?* And they had a prayer request to share.

The other tough thing about greeting folks is knowing when to shake hands. If I’m totally blind-and I am-I won’t know where their hand is to grasp it unless I get a verbal cue first. Sometimes, I’ve gaged where their voice is, guessed where their shoulder might be and go from their.

And I’ll tell you the most humorous and yet embarrassing point for me:

I met my wife over the internet when we were both in a conversation with our pastor. Something in how we each said things got us to request FB friendship soon after. Then, low and behold, she left her number on her Facebook profile, right there for me to call, asking for a date.

It happened and we now have been married just over seven years. But that first date was awkward from the get-go. As she turned from talking with some one else, I was, too. My hand was just below shoulder level and cupped…well, you get the picture whether you can see or not. My wife, Amy, and I still laugh about that encounter because, to be quite honest, it was funny for both of us as it was shocking.

So check out these stories on Vision Aware’s page about greeting someone and getting their voice.

Do I Know You? Figuring Out Who Just Said “Hello”

Feb. 13, 2022

The readings for the sixth Sunday after Epiphany are Jer. 17:5-8; 1 Cor. 15:1-11 (12-20); and Luke 6:17-26.

What makes Christianity different than other world religions? We testify the very truth our Lord has given us in realtime history. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Because of this, our trust in Him is sure as He upholds us firm in His promised salvation. Still sophisticated lies tempt us to take the unstable word of man’s reason over the Word of God. Such sleek seduction tempts us to doubt that Jesus was born, lived, died, and was raised-all historically documented truth. Still for us who remain faithful in Him, the waters of eternal life bring nourishment even now.

I’m always encouraged by those can-do trailblazers who recover from the depths of despair to embrace their blindness. Jessi’s story is so compelling and can be a source of hope for us. In fact, let’s call her an example of being boldly blind.

Here’s the link. http://blindnewworld.org/blog/embracing-the-power-of-being-different/

After all, blindness doesn’t have to be a nuisance  when it presents us with such opportunities like speaking up for others who long for that job, those friends, that entertainment gig, or that confidence to go where so few of us have trod before.

Yes, we’ve known friends of ours who tried escaping their own depression or abusive circumstances by turning to destructive measures like illegal drugs and too much alcohol. Then, due to the intervention of a parent or teacher or friend, they grasp hold of the truth: Blindness is just part of us and life is a journey of taking its double edge blade by the handle to cut down those barriers to ways we, too,  can cope being boldly blind.

I’ll never forget the first apartment I rented after graduating from college. It had one bedroom, a small bathroom, and a kitchen whose cabinets held enough space for a month’s worth of groceries. My kitchen was brand new and, of course, unusable unless I could learn how to mark its knobs.

I’m very glad I’d bought a stash of labels similar to the ones I used when living in Connecticut for an internship. As my dad, uncle, and I hauled in heavy boxes of books and clothes, Mom adapted the kitchen for me.

After all, “home appliances can sometimes be difficult if you have an eye condition,” says Vision Aware’s website  on marking your appliances. “However, you can use products like a Hi-Mark pen (also known as a 3D pen) or bump dots (small colorful raised dots with an adhesive backing) to create bright, tactile markings that are easy to see and feel; this can help you continue to operate appliances on your own.”

 

For this post, we’ll focus on bump dots. They come in packs of twenty to eighty, depending on the company. Peel back the adhesive and you can find any number of ways to make life that much more accessible. An article on the San Francisco Light House for the Blind’s website tells of several things you can do and I’m sure you may think of others.

 

1.       “Accessorize your home appliances”

 

I mentioned how my mom went to work on my kitchen that first day I came to my apartment. She put a large dot at the off position and one on the knob’s arrow. If they matched up, then my stove was not running. Then, she put smaller dots at the “low,” “medium,” and “high” positions  so that I could correctly set the temperature for boiling water, cooking a hamburger, or scramble some eggs. She marked my oven at fifty dgree intervals, too. Much to my delight, the microwave I used on internship was still labeled.

 

 

2.  “Enhance your classroom experience”

I can remember one assignment in junior high when we had to identify Indiana’s major highways and interstates, cities, and rivers. I didn’t have an atlas that could show me all these details per se. I’d looked at maps when I was still able to see, so I still had a good idea of my home State’s shape. I was glad to have my parents’ freedom for one Saturday afternoon when we put bump dots along the Wabash and White Rivers. We used large bump dots that looked like those stick-on eyes to mark cities, cut stretches of wire, for the roads, and traced puffy paint or glue (I can’t remember which) around the whole border of Indiana on a map. Years later, as I learned mobility around colleges I attended, my mobility instructors and I used much the same materials to map out sidewalks, buildings, roads, and other scenery.

 

 

3.                    Stick ‘em on a computer keyboard”

 

Do you remember the first time you sat at a ddesktop keyboard? All the keys looked or felt the same. With the end keys in each row, not to mention that num-pad on the right, it wasn’t exactly obvious where you’d center your hands to type.

 

We’ve all learned that home row is: a, s, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, ; (semi-colon), and enter. Since your index fingers start on the f and j keys, place a bump dot on each. That way, you can always make sure your hands stay in the same place while your fingers strike whatever other keys you need.

 

This was so important for me as Ilearned to use a braille display for my job at the Internal Revenue Service a couple decades ago. I’d be typing while talking with someone calling in to resolve their tax issues. So, having little bumps on the f and j keys always refocused me, even if it meant touching them amid a flurry of writing shorthand notes that to which I’d return later when inputting the case’s result into our intranet records. Even though I don’t use those bump dots now as a freelance writer, having them in place then solidified home row in my mind so much that I go to it without a second thought.

 

4.            “Identify different colors”

 

Are you a braille reader? When labeling the colors on a board game’s surface, you can use bump dots in the shape of their initials: b for blue; w for white, bk for black, r for red, and so forth. Of course, in this or labeling your toaster oven, you can label them using dymotape..

 

5.                    “Increase the accessibility of your electronics”

It takes some time to learn how to navigate a cellphone’s flat screen. There’s no way to feel the icons on the screen. Only when you slide your fingers across them can you hear what they are. And what about the buttons on the sides of your phone? As I got used to my first smart phone, and iPhone 7, I had my wife put a small bump dot at the place where I needed to tap twice when answering calls. It was a good place where my fingers could return when checking out other apps. If you wanted, you could put a bump dot on either the up button on the left side of most cellphones to distinguish it from the down button.

 

 

 

6.            “Label bottles or other containers”

 

It’s dinner time and you’re standing at your pantry. You’ve brought out the meat, potatoes, and vegetables you want to cook for dinner. Now it’s time to spice things up. Of course, you could sniff each bottle to identify what’s in it. But that’s going to take a lot of time which might have been better spent waiting for an order from Papa John’s. But no, you do want to cook for yourself.

 

Some of us use more spices than others. If you’ve only got a few, putting bump dots in the shape of braille letters to initial them might make searching for those spices a whole lot easier. For example: S for salt; P for pepper; C for cinnamon; O for onion powder. Of course, you’ll need a sighted neighbor, friend, or someone from your center for independent living to help you mark things up. Still, having those bump dot identifiers will make you much more confident in the kitchen whether you’re cooking for yourself or having others over for dinner.