Good morning. I don’t have to be anywhere until 10 this morning so I thought I could write a bit first.
First of all, I put something light-colored at the bottom of the steps. I need to get a nice rug but at the moment what I put there will do. I decided it was better to ‘turn my mind’ towards acceptance rather than turn an ankle as I nearly did the other day when I missed that last step. The contrast – just like my Vision Rehabilitation Therapist (VRT) said – helps me to see there is a change there. In this case the change is from the step to the floor, but it could be anything.
My VRT also suggested I put a white sheet of paper on my dark table at work. I am supposed to put anything dark – like my pens or my stopwatch – on the white sheet of paper. That way I will be able to find things I have put on the table a lot easier.
Tip 1: To provide contrast where there is a dark background, I put down a light-colored rug so I don’t miss the last step. To provide contrast on my dark-colored table at work, I’ll put down a white sheet of paper where I will put anything dark so I can find things easier.
Another thing the VRT suggested was ‘dots’. I saw these when I was looking through the visually impaired section at Amazon but I had no clue what they were. Apparently these dots are to place on things to get you oriented. The VRT said I could put them on the number pad for the microwave. Really anyway I would want to do it. Maybe a different color one each on the 1, 2 and 3 so that I would know where they were and then go down the columns from there. I don’t know about you, but when I first got ‘bad’ (‘bad’ being a relative term, of course), I incinerated a fair amount of stuff. These would have been helpful then and I suspect I will find a use for them in the future.
Click here to see an example of ‘bump dots’. You can get them in various colors and there are ones that are clear, too.
Tip 2: Get some ‘dots’ on anything that requires you to orient yourself. For example, I might get different colored dots to put on the numbers 1, 2, 3 on the microwave pad so I would know where I was & can go down the column of numbers from there.
Another thing she suggested was something we teach intellectually disabled students at school. It probably has a real name but I just call it the “1 plus” method. You put something in the microwave for one minute and then check it. If it is not hot enough, you put it in for another minute. It may get a little tedious but it can save on the grocery bill by keeping things from being burnt.
Tip 3: To avoid burning things in the microwave, I can use the ‘1 plus’ method which is to put something in the microwave for one minute and then check it. If it is not hot enough, you put it in for another minute.
My VRT wanted to give me a bunch of other stuff for getting around the house and doing the – gasp – domestic goddess routine, but since a) domestic goddess I am not and b) I am still able to do just about everything I need to do anyway, I asked her to hold off on that discussion until later. She said that her services would be available again as needed. Good to know.
Oh, one more thing, my VRT told me about a ‘pin code’. Telling me if the colors match has become a job for my husband but if you don’t have a handy person to make the call, my VRT suggested you get a consensus on whether something is black or navy and then ‘pin it’. She suggested one vertical and one horizontal but I suspect you could pin one right leg, one left or however you wanted to.
Tip 4: Since it’s harder now for me to tell if colors match, I can ask my husband to tell me if a piece of clothing is black or navy and I can ‘pin it’ by putting a pin in horizontally if it is black and vertically if it is navy. Or you could pin the right leg if something is black and the left leg if something is navy.
That’s about it for now. Have a good day!
Ps She gave me pens that won’t bleed through the paper (on a previous page, I had mentioned I’d been looking for some) but all they say on them is BVS. We don’t know the manufacturer but we are still trying to find out.
Click here for more tips on how to adapt your home.
Written March 2016. Reviewed September 2018.