I am presently following my latest obsession towards my goal of self education, I am learning about how blind people get along in the outside world.
Dogs, computers, daily things like that. How their senses are affected and how they travel. News information, surfing the web…etc. What jobs they hold …y’know. Anything, really.
(Next up, brace yerself, will be the exciting world of prothetics ( legs and arms.) But that is the next level, whence I am satified with this.
:dubious:
Don’t you see a problem with having blind dopers?
I’m sorry, I don’t have anything to add. I want to subscribe to the thread but I can’t figure out how to do it with this new version :smack:
Shirley run a search through MPSIMS I think on Heloise. We had a long discussion about Guide Dogs in a thread about a Wal Mart employee trying to keep her sister’s guide dog out of the store.
Well it took a few but I found it!
There’s quite a bit of information about Guide Dogs and their training, behavior and lives in there.
My older sister lost the sight in both eyes in separate unrelated incidents in 1993 and 1996. She travels by getting rides, but she does have a cane that she can navigate familiar areas. She has no job, and lives off $614 per month Social Security. Because of her lack of mobility and being stuck at home all the time, she has put on about 100 pounds since her blindness. Tomorrow I am taking her to the hospital to undergo stomach stapling, paid for by Medicare. In a related note, there are two main ways to perform the surgery: the laparoscopic procedure, and the old-fashioned way of cutting the person’s belly open. The laparascopic procedure is obviously a less traumatic surgery, with a quicker recovery time and (I believe) a lower cost. However, Medicare considers it an “experimental” surgery, and only covers the old-fashioned surgery, with the attending higher cost and longer hospital stay.
She has no computer or internet access, but she does stay on the phone a lot.
[QUOTE=Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]
My older sister lost the sight in both eyes in separate unrelated incidents in 1993 and 1996. **
Wow, Earl, I am so sorry to hear about your sister . Watching my brothers try to survive on medicade ( a joke) I’ve always thought that some kind of law ( or something) should be done for the home bound ( elderly and permanently disabled) to allow them to have at least basic cable and basic internet for a lower fixed price. When you are trapped inside your body a/o home, you become an island…an island of depression. As your sister probably knows.
I hope her surgery goes well. She’s lucky to have you.
Krister thanks for the link. 
Shirley: My grandfather is not legally blind, but his eyesight has been failing steadily for about the last five years due to macular degeneration. Although he can still walk around safely, he can no longer read or prepare food for himself. It’s unfortunate, since reading, research, and writing were always the big passions in his life. The good news is that he’s discovered the wonders of books on tape, and he’s been working on various great classics such as Dickens, Galsworthy, and Trollope. Also he has several assisstants who come in and help him with his research, and he’s actually currently working on writing another book.
You’re certainly right about the negative impact that blindness can have on mental health. He’s struggled with that quite a bit, especially in recent months. I think he especially dislikes the fact that he can no longer travel, since he also has some breathing problems. He is currently being considered as a test subject for some sort of new procedure that involves inserting an artificial lens into the eye, but it isn’t clear how much this would actually improve his vision even if it worked.
I train guide dogs/service dogs, so I know a little about how the blind get 'round and about… and am more than happy to answer any questions.
One of my most memorable profs at Ottawa U was blind and used a guide dog (who was a bit of a dud, but her heart was in the right place) named Vienna. Vienna and Valen were good buddies. The prof was a linguistics professor, and had the greatest “ear” in the world, I swear. He used a funky reader machine that scanned student papers and read them back to him n’ such. In the last few years, he had students send things in electronically so he’d skip the scanning step. He also relied on TAs for some of the funky phonetics stuff that the reader couldn’t handle, but he had such a phenomenal memory that you could just read exams out to him and he’d remember each and every mistake, detail, and such… 
E.
I also forgot to add that my ex was blind. My mother in Law is legally blind due to macular degeneration. So I would be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability.
I had a good friend in college who was legally blind. “E” was able to differentiate between light and dark, and could navigate around our large campus pretty well, as long as it was sunny. At nighttime, or on overcast days, she relied on one of her friends to navigate her around campus. When I met her, senior year of college, she had spent a semester abroad, and was getting ready to graduate with a double major of Spanish and psychology.
Most of her textbooks were on tape (our disability studies office provided these for her). For stuff not available on tape, she had a sort of overhead projecter thing that enlarged the text enough for her to read. Her computer had a magnifying program, which enlarged text on her screen large enough for her to see–something like an AOL IM window would take up 1/4 of her monitor, just to give you a comparison. She emailed and used IM regularly, and seemed to be one of the most self-sufficient people I’d ever met.
I’ve had three blind people in my life:
Mike–neighbor. We carpooled for years. (And got REALLY tired of jokes about how he drove when it was his turn.) Mike lost his sight when he was 21 (he’s 50ish now). He has a guide dog, is employed full time as a professional with the State working with disabled people. He is an avid movie fan, and we’ve all learned to enjoy movies that are “dubbed” for the blind with this nice soft voice telling what action is taking place. He handles his own money (using various folds) and writes checks with a template that keeps his signature straight. He uses braille tags on his clothing and is a snappy, well-coordinated dresser. Mike is very frustrated by his blindness. His first guidedog was killed by an inattentive driver; the 2-year wait for another dog was a very very depressing time for him.
Professor S. who taught my daughter in college. My daughter was her reader–she spent 10-15 hours per week reading professional literature to the professor and assisting with correspondence. She is amazingly self sufficient, owning her own home, teaching college, etc. She also uses a guide dog. Dr. S. is accepting of her disability, but gets frustrated because she would rather not have to rely on others as much. She uses braille tags on clothing, but mostly relies on remembering where she put things.
Chris, a co-worker. He is an Info Tech specialist. He has a special computer that reads to him–it recognizes words; when it doesn’t recognize them, it spells them out. Chris lost his sight at age 2. He went to a school for the blind–tells wonderful stories about the soccer games they had in the dorm hallways. They would blind fold the “partially sighted” kids so it would be fair. Actually, this gave the truly blind kids the advantage and they usually won. Chris uses neither a cane nor a dog–with the exception of his computer, I’ve never seen him use any accommodations. He has memorized the steps to go where he usually needs to go–restrooms, meeting rooms, cafeteria. For other activities, he relies on the arm of his wife or co-workers. He asks for help reading the lunch menu, lets us wait on him at potlucks, and is notorious for taking really really brief minutes when it’s his turn. He buys all his clothing to be interchangeable because he consideres tagging/labelling it to be too much of a bother. As a result, he’s pretty much monochrome blue and gray. He has travelled all over the world and is recognized as an expert in restoration of old radio tapes. Chris has a very positive, upbeat attitude.
I’ve been very fortunate to have known these successful individuals who have coped well with their disability, although with very different levels of peace about it and relying on very different strategies. It saddens me so to hear about the individuals in this thread who are struggling so hard to cope.
Yes! Dr.Who is what we call him. He is a very good friend of mine, and teaches at the school I teach at. He’s Associate Professor of Music and has been for 15 years. One of the most amazing violinists’ I have ever heard, and can play instruments I have never even heard of. His hearing is so acute he can differentiate notes from a staticy radio in a crowded room. He is married with 2 children…
I consider him my equal in everything but sight…he and I have rock-climbed together, and have been hiking for the better part of 8 years…He’s a great guy! He has taught me the finer points of reading brail, and he and his wife come over quite often for dinner. And he drives!!*
*just kidding! ;)
A friend of mine from church has been totally blind since birth. He lives off of social security, food stamps, and lives in an apartment building that was built for the disabled, where rents are subsidized by the govt. He uses a cane to get around, and knows his way around downtown pretty well. He’s very intelligent, and particularly interested in anthropology, although he doesn’t seem very motivated to do anything with his studies. We hire him from time to time, to babysit. He gets along well with our 12-year-old daughter. He couldn’t watch the 4-year-old very well, so it usually goes like this: the 12-year-old keeps and eye on the little one, and Dave holds down the whole fort. This came in very handy a couple of weeks ago. Hubby and I had gone to a party (a dopefest, in fact), and our 12-yr-old was heating up something for dinner on the stove. She didn’t see a problem with the fact that there was an empty dishpan near the burner. Well, before you knew it, there was a fire in the kitchen! In her panic, she forgot where the fire extinguisher was, and didn’t know what to do. But Dave kept his cool, and said to call 911, and that they should all get out of the house. Fire dept. came, but by the time they got there all that was left was smoldering plastic. No real harm done (well, the little one was kinda traumatized, but, that’s about it. And we needed a new dishpan), but it could have been bad if he hadn’t been there.
He does have a computer that someone gave him, but has never gotten around to setting it up for internet access (he also has a reader gadget for said computer). He plays keyboard pretty well, too, and when the mood strikes, he shows my daughters a little bit about how to play.
I’ve known several blind people. I think one of the biggest things to get out is that you ASK if somebody needs help, you don’t ASSUME it. Chances are very high that the blind person you see on the street knows where they are and where they are going. This also applies to people with other disabilities.
My mother is blind from retinitis pigmentosa.
She has a screen-reading program called Jaws that reads her computer screens out loud to her. It even has a selection of different types of voices you can use.
She gets books on tape from the Library of Congress. They use a special tape player - I cannot remember if she had to pay for that or if it is loaned as well, but she uses it all the time. You can also make requests to have tapes made from books that aren’t yet on tape. My uncle also makes tapes for her. Not being able to read on her own is the most frustrating thing for her.
It is possible to buy a scanner that will read any book for you, but they are pricey (in the thousands) so finding things that are already on tape or getting someone to record them is much more reasonable. She does not read Braille and does not want to learn.
She has a phone number to call for a line that has a recording of the daily newspaper. They even read the ads.
She has a watch and a table clock that will speak the time and date when you press a button on them.
She’s gone for some training at a place called the Sight Center where she lives. They sell products specially adapted for use by blind people as well.
When she wants to go somewhere, she has to rely on my dad or a friend to take her there. This is probably the second most frustrating thing for her.
At restaurants we have to tell her the location of her plate, glass, etc. and how the food is arranged on the plate. At home she still cooks, but not as often as she used to.
Fortunately for her finances are not an issue. Her sight was not severely affected until after she had decided to stop working and my father has always had a good job, so they don’t have to rely on government assistance.
She still has a tiny bit of sight left, so she can tell a bit by what she can see and what the feel of the fabric is what clothes go together.
For comparison - my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer about 10 years ago and went through surgery and treatment. Her blindness has been much more of a burden for her, because once she was done with the cancer treatment, it was essentially over and she was able to put it behind her, though of course she still has to go in for screening tests periodically. The blindness is something she has to deal with every minute of every day. I think the fact that she could do something to positively affect the outcome of the cancer kept her from being depressed about it - there’s nothing that can be done for the blindness and the last little bit of sight that she still has, she knows can be taken away at any time.