Blogs

The Instant Pot, a Magnificent Obsession By Jeannie Johnson This would make an excellent Mother's Day present. Here are some other great Mother's Day gift ideas! The Instant Pot is one of the latest cooking crazes, and with good reason! Actually, it is just one of many brands of a small kitchen appliance called a multicooker, a…

Who coined the term smartphone? It must have been a 12-year-old nerdy kid or a software developer that thought it would be a great idea to put a computer in the phone and take away the keyboard! Smart, in this instance is a very relative term! In the interest of full disclosure, this writer loves his dated Samsung Galaxy Android phone, a flat screen smartphone, so this is not a personal issue with smartphones, it’s a professional issue! For the umpteenth time in what seems like a very short while, one of the clients with whom I work went into a phone store and walked out with a new smartphone they couldn’t even…

How Myopic Degeneration Affected My Vision Twenty-five years ago, a doctor diagnosed the little spot in the center of my vision as a retinal bleed from macular degeneration. The spot could hide a stop light when looking down the road. I was 34 years old at the time, and this has since been re-diagnosed as myopic degeneration. It gradually got worse, meaning that little spot got a bit bigger. At the outset I understood this might be progressive and might affect my ability to read. At the time, one of the books in my library was the complete works of Shakespeare, in one volume of the tiniest print you can imagine. The book hadn’t been opened since my last literature class as an undergraduate,…

Caption: Peer Advisor Empish Thomas Reading Braille Bathroom Sign There has been considerable discussion in recent years about the relevance of braille in the digital age, in an age when computers will talk and audio files are everywhere—podcasts, books, broadcasts, etc. As the VisionAware (VA) Peer Advisors began preparing articles to celebrate Louis Braille's 210th birthday, this topic surfaced and stimulated a vigorous discussion among the VA Peers who have personal experience in using braille. After all, everyone, sighted and blind people, uses audio formats, and…

Caption: Writing Braille with a Slate and Stylus Trina Bassak Trina is a physical therapist. She described the results of a 3-way call between herself, Jeannie Johnson, and myself on the use of slate and stylus. "It came up because of my dismay in braille labeling and lack of options," Trina said. "I really was never taught formally the slate and stylus…" After discussing a few suggestions with Jeannie and Lynda, Trina decided to give it another go. "It turned out to be amazingly more convenient, efficient and useful for making all types of…

Caption: Older Man Reading with Magnifier In Part 1 of this discussion, several blind people of different ages and backgrounds described various ways they use braille, showing why it is essential to their daily lives. In Part 2, several sighted people describe various ways they use print in their daily lives, showing reasons they could not function without it. Sighted People Discuss the Importance of Print in Their Lives Carla Earley…