Category: Low Vision Aid

A Day in the Life

  1. Hello. Lin told me she has a number of new people in the Facebook group and that many of them may not be aware of the variety of assistive devices available to those of us with vision loss. Lin suggested I review the things I have and use in a typical day. I will do this here. Some things to keep in mind:
  • Please read with the understanding this is a cursory review only. More information is available in past pages. I will remind you how to search our website at the end of the page.
  • Also, I’m not specifically recommending anything since choosing these devices is a very personal thing based on the status of your eyes and what you want/need to do with the vision that you have.   What I use was selected for me by the counselors with Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) Bureau of Blindness and  Visual Services (BBVS or BVS) so that I could continue to work.
  • We don’t get any money or services for what we include in my pages.

Here goes…. A Day in the Life

Disclaimer: I am not recommending any particular service or project, just reporting on what works for me.

One option for a low zinc AREDS2 supplement.
One option for AREDS2 supplement

Today is Sunday so I can afford to be a tad lazy. When I get up I take my medication including my low zinc AREDS2 formula vitamins. There is not much help from taking these supplements in the advanced stages but the minor disease slowing they found at other stages is better than nothing if they do occur.

one source of low vision aids

Being the dutiful granddaughter of Welshmen, I have toast and tea (with milk, of course!) for breakfast. Simple preparations do not require great accommodations. However, if I were ‘Becky Home Ecky’, I would own all sorts of nifty, kitchen gadgets from the MaxiAids catalog.

iPad Mini
iPad Mini

Since it is Sunday, I grab my iPad Mini and plop down on the couch. My iPad has been my salvation. I can check my email by using the pinch and zoom feature. I also have larger text turned on. If you go to settings – general – accessibility you can find a dozen other things that may be helpful.

 

Apple App Store
Apple App Store

My Vision Rehabilitation Therapist (VRT)  Blindness and Visual Services literally stuffed my iPad with apps. The ones I actually use are Magnify and Freeze and a large button calculator. It is also sort of fun to demonstrate the wonders of technology to people using the KNFB Reader. There are about a dozen others on there. Some of them are for people with much worse vision than mine at present. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst; you know.  Today I have been carrying my iPad around while I do chores. I am listening to an Agatha Christie novel on my BARD app. Hercule Poirot is such a clever, little man.

ipadtotv
iPad screen bottom left of photo, enlarged onto TV

 

I can plug my iPad into the TV so that I can see everything on its screen.  I don’t use it much since I can use the Zoom feature on the iPad. Click here to find out how I connected them.

 

 

Magnilink Zip 17 portable CCTV
Magnilink Zip 17 portable CCTV

Since I start teaching again on Wednesday I have my portable CCTV setup which is the MagniLink Zip 17 (photo on left). That way I can review my notes and actually be able to see them! If the CCTV breaks (bite my tongue!) I can always fall back on the iPad with Justand V2 (photo on the right).

 

Ott flip light
Ott flip light

I’m going to need to put together an outfit to wear but I need extra light to make sure I’ve got the color right.  I put my little Ott flip light on the “ironing board in the bedroom to help with that.  I also have an Ott floor lamp in the bedroom for extra light.  I can put the little Ott in my purse if I need extra light to find something.

Speaking of my purse, I carry my iPad Mini, Smartlux reader and MaxTV lenses in my purse.

 

We did not go out to lunch today but if we had, I have my Smartlux reader/magnifier in my purse to read menus.

 

 

Glasses to cut down on glare
NOIR glares glasses
Small monicular
small monocular

Later when I take the Beastie Baby for her walkies I will have my glare glasses on and my monocular around my neck. Since the old darling and half of the other dogs get to run off lead at the dog park, it is good to be able to see which of our friends is across the field.

 

Sue's Telescopic Glasses
Max TV Telescopic Glasses

This evening if I want to watch TV, I have my Max TV telescopic glasses. I use those to do classroom observations at my school job. The little kids like them because my eyes look huge when I wear them. They can be handy in a store when I’m trying to find something.

 

 

Those are the basic, low vision tools I use at home. If this were a workday I would also tell you about the zoom text app on my work computer. Absolutely essential if you are using a standard PC.

Hope that quick review helped. Don’t give up hope. With technology, things can be a lot better. Remember, comparatively speaking, you are losing your vision at the best time in history thus far.

If you want to review the pages where I talk about these devices, you can use the 3 ways to search our website: 1) search website; 2) categories and 3) tags/keywords. You can find these either in the right-hand column or at the bottom of the page.
Continue reading “A Day in the Life”

My Wish List

Hi! Saturday afternoon here and I can count on one hand what I have gotten done today. Exercised, fed myself,  bathed. Wow. I sat down to pay bills and got sidetracked. I know, so what else is new?

Anyway, first thing that came in the mail was my cell phone bill. It is huge! Not the charges, the print. Not sure what the story is, but Verizon is making their bills large print. The easier to see you, my dear. Good development.

The next thing I found in the mail was the visually impaired version of the Sears toy catalog.

The MaxiAids sale catalog is here! The MaxiAids catalog is here!

MaxiAids is a great source of all things adapted or modified for the handicapped. If you cannot find it at MaxiAids, good luck finding it anywhere.

Rubik’s Cube with Tactile Markings

Want to give blood and play rugby – simultaneously, of course – they have a rugby ball that emits a tone so you can find it. Want to waste a day playing Rubik’s Cube? They sell a tactile one.

MaxiAids has cooking utensils and appliances with tactile markings on the dials. They sell Ott lites and just about every type of magnifier imaginable. [Lin/Linda: also spelled magnifyer.]

Some of the things we have talked about are on sale in the MaxiAids holiday catalog. [Lin/Linda here: of course the holiday sale is over now.] ZoomText with a text to speech feature included is $300. They have handheld readers/ magnifiers starting at $300 or you could pay $1,000 for one. Up to you.

New Trekker Breeze
New Trekker Breeze

The Trekker Breeze + is on sale for $700 in the MaxiAids catalog. [Lin/Linda here: Sue wrote this last November and since then, it has been discontinued.  It is still being supported by the manufacturer.] That is $100 less than I have seen it other places. Remember the Trekker Breeze + tells you where you are and what landmarks are around you. Sort of like your basic GPS on steroids. It is what I want if I cannot get into a study and my vision seriously, as in really seriously, goes south. Put it on my future wish list.

There are also some other, extremely neat things on my future wish list. Right now they are not in the catalog. Truthfully the only people who have them now are the cool kids with rich dads but in several years, should I need them, they will be for general distribution.

The first one is the OrCam. There is an article in the October 31, 2016 Daily Mail that some of our British friends may have seen. The OrCam clips on your glasses. It can read books and menus and can even recognize the faces you have taught it.

I looked up the price and the first I found was a prelaunch estimate for the UK. That was £2,200 which translates to approximately $2750.  A price quote from 2015 said $3,500. Like I said: cool kids, rich fathers. But the prices will come down eventually. [Lin/Linda: check the current exchange rate. These are based on November 2016 rates.]

Google's Self-driving car
Google’s Self-driving car

The second one is a Google self-driving car.  I know they only go 25 miles per hour.  I know they look like something out of a cartoon. I would just like to be able to get myself around on my own again.

 

 

So, that is it for now. Get you catalogs and make your wish lists. Santa will be here before you know it!

Lin/Linda here:  I had already published this page today 3/16/2017 when I got a Facebook post from the company with this limited time offer!! It wasn’t to me personally but the timing IS interesting!   It’s for 10% off purchases of $75 or more, use VISION10 at checkout.

Continue reading “My Wish List”

Bingo!

I just came from a three-hour, Bingo benefit for the teacher who has cancer. It was an excellent turn-out. 150 people. There were 75 items for the raffle. This is a good area with good people.

Comparison skill. Remember ACCEPTS of distress tolerance?  People do not have to help me pay my bills so I can concentrate on trying to save my life. I am a ‘mature’ (yeah, sure) adult who could retire on state teachers’ disability and social security now if needed. Life waited to bite me in the butt.

And compared to what she has going on, AMD is a little nip. Comparatively speaking, I am just great!

Second distress tolerance skill: contribute. I paid my $20 and played Bingo. I spent $10 on raffle tickets. The same raffle tickets I had actually purchased and donated. Contributing is a way of forgetting things are not so great for you either. It also makes you feel like you are in the fight, even if it is not your particular battle. In other words, I cannot cure my eye problems, but I can help this teacher get travel money and grocery money and whatever she might need to pursue her cure.

To quote from the Mental Health Foundation, altruism is associated with all sorts of positive things. They include a decreased sense of hopelessness, less depression, increased self-esteem and better physical health. Altruistic people even have better marriages.

Berkleywellness.com tells us altruistic people have longer lives than people who do not practice helping and giving. Some of the theorists thought this was due totally to the social engagement factor.  Not so. Just the interaction is helpful, yes, but at the end of day, being the one doing the helping has the greater benefit. Something to do with having a purpose in life. We circled back around to Viktor Frankl again. Remember “if you have a why, you can tolerate any how”?

So altruism is good stuff. Now moving on to perhaps more frivolous topics, I put an Ott light at the end of my ironing board. I think I am doing better in seeing colors with the increased illumination. At least I matched today. Hopefully this fix will work for a while. I hate being mismatched!

Bingo. I had not played in years but it went OK. Most of the time I was playing four cards at one time. My friend was sort of looking over my shoulder. In 20 games she corrected me one time. Not too bad.

We used the disposable, paper cards and dabbers. I could see the numbers with bare eyes but I experimented and my handheld reader would have been an option as well. Not so much the magnifier on the iPad. For that I would have had to bring the Justand. Too many wobbles over three hours.

One of the issues I had was dealing with the different layouts of each card. Having a few cards that were consistent game to game would have been nice. I looked guess where [Lin/Linda here: starts with an a, followed by amazon.com ::smile::] and large print Bingo cards are about $4 apiece. You can also avoid the Bingo chips sliding dilemma by paying significantly more and getting a plastic board with sliding panels on each number. I cannot believe anyone would object to your bringing your own cards. It is not cheating.

So how did I do? I did not go “Bingo!” but I did win a turkey fryer in the raffle. I brought it home to my husband but he doesn’t want it. Probably re-gift it to another raffle. Does THAT come under the heading of altruism? Maybe not. Continue reading “Bingo!”

I Have Macular Degeneration…Now What?

June 2023 There’s an announcement that since Sue has not written any new journal pages for some time, the site has been archived until we can decide if the work necessary to make sure all information is accurate and up-to-date can be made. In the meantime, you’ll get some pages ‘not found’ or ‘private’ until that decision has been made. The emphasis for several years has been on the Facebook group.

Where can I quickly find information about AMD?

One of the best resources available is from the Prevent Blindness organization’s website called Guide Me.  You answer a few questions and you will get a personalized guide with important aspects of AMD based on your answers:

Click here to go to Guide Me.

Click here to watch a 4-minute video that explains what AMD is, what causes it, and what can be done about it.

Click here for a good list of Frequently Asked Questions.

Click here to go to a great site maculardegeneration.net where you will find articles written by people with macular degeneration and caregivers. They also have a Facebook page.

What other websites are helpful?

Here are some of our favorites:

Click here to find out should I take the AREDS or AREDS2 supplements?

Click here for a video that covers important information about AMD

Click here for a description of dry vs. wet AMD (we are not recommending any products in this article, but be aware that the site may profit from some products they advertise.)

Click here for an explanation of the stages of AMD (we are not recommending any products in this article, but be aware that the site may profit from some products they advertise.)

Click here to read about what happens if you have AMD in only one eye

Click here for some answers to common questions about depression after diagnosis

Click here for an article about how vision rehabilitation helps prevent long-term depression

Click here for a very comprehensive page about wet AMD

Click here for a very comprehensive page about dry AMD

Click here for an article about how fast AMD progresses

Click here for 10 questions to ask your doctor

Click here to find a support group (I’ve been told that this site may not be up-to-date. Ask your eye specialist for a referral.)

Click here for eye-healthy foods including a Healthy Vision Grocery List (2/14/2022 site wasn’t formatting properly.) Click here to read the answer to the question ‘What should I be eating or not eating to hopefully slow the progression of my AMD?’

Click here to find out what vision changes/symptoms to look for (we are not recommending any products in this article, but be aware that the site may profit from some products they advertise.)

Click here to find out about the people who can help you (what are the differences between the types of eye doctors, do I need to see a specialist, etc)

Click here for tips on how to make the most of the vision you have (section toward the bottom of the page; lots of other good information on the whole page)

Click here for a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) from the Macular Disease Foundation Australia.

Click here for a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) from our Facebook group.

Where can I do more research?

You can do searches on the Internet – there is a LOT of information there.  We have done a lot of research and here’s how you can find it.

Click here to go to How to Navigate and Search Our Website.

Join our very active Facebook group Our Macular Degeneration Journey. There’s lots more information there as well as support whenever you need it.

How do I move around on the website?

Click here to go to How to Navigate and Search Our Website.

To find about more about me, about Sue, about our project, go to the menu at the top of the page.

Reviewed 02/14/2022

 

 

 

 

Talking Labels

Ott flip lightHello again. I just sent Lin a snapshot of my new, flip light from Ott Lite. It is tiny, palm of my hand tiny. It takes three AA batteries and has a clip on the back so you can hang it up for hands-free use. It can also lie flat on the table.

 

I just got batteries into it this morning so I cannot tell you much more about it. It is cute. Actual functionality? No real clue at this point. I will take it along with me when we travel and see if it has a good use.

Keep it in my purse with some of the 10,000 other things I have acquired since I became visually impaired….Do airlines give the visually impaired a greater weight allowance because of all our STUFF? They should.

At least a lot of the assistive stuff I have is assistive technology and does not add any weight. My vision rehabilitation therapist (VRT) had been messing around trying to get my last ‘present’ downloaded. It was a chore and she was not exactly successful.

I gave up on it and just purchased it myself. It was $10. When I cannot afford $10 you folks will know. The website will suddenly be asking for donations?! Just kiddin’.

So what was this she was trying so hard to get for me? It is an app called Digit-Eyes. If you want to look at it for yourself do a general search and the App Store will pop up with it. Do a search in the App Store and it will tell you they don’t have it. Go figure. Technology is weird.

According to the ad, Digit-Eyes allows those who are visually impaired to identify objects by reading their UPC (Universal Product Code) and EAN (European Article Number) codes. You can ‘often’ also hear product ingredients and preparation instructions. Digit-Eyes also must be European because it speaks 10 languages! (Americans are not stupid, no matter what has been suggested to me. The reason I don’t speak fluent French is because the closest community of native speakers is five hours away! Zero practice opportunities. Really.)

Digit-Eyes is supposed to allow you to print audio labels. You’ve packed away grandma’s china? Record “grandma’s china” on Digit-Eyes, print an audio label and stick it on the box. Next time you are rummaging in the attic, use your Digit-Eyes app to read the label to you.

Now, according to my VRT, those boxy, scanny things that are appearing in magazines and such are actually audio labels and this app can read them to you. I don’t have a lot of interest in hearing product information from a magazine, but what my VRT told me was attractions are now posting audio labels! Use Digit-Eyes to read audio labels at the zoo and learn all about the animals. You don’t have to struggle with the signs any more! Too cool.

Back to the CYA stuff: I am not recommending this stuff. Purchase at your own risk but if you do purchase anything we would love to hear a product review.

Which reminds me: I have been ‘graduated’ from BVS services. I no longer have experts feeding me ideas. Please, please, PLEEEEZE start feeding us and everyone else your ideas. We are in this together. Help one another. Continue reading “Talking Labels”

Graduation

I am officially ‘graduating’ from all sorts of services. The tech guy cut me loose long ago. I would absolutely love to have more toys but I cannot get too greedy. Leave some money for other people to have neat things.

The O&M guy graduated me after the third meeting. I have to say I did not see the need to meet again either. Most of his stuff is ‘white cane stuff’.  I do not yet need a cane but I got the lessons when the proverbial getting was good. Never know when I will work my way to the top of the list again. Might be a long wait.

I don’t think the O&M guy actually MINDED working with me but I think I was a bit if a challenge. Saturday we went ‘off-roading’ on a tractor path in the pouring down rain and Sunday we walked around town nearly two solid hours. I am not thinking your ‘average’ visually impaired person does those things in mobility lessons ?.

Walking in town I learned some things like always use the signal button and wait for the traffic to pass even when they are yelling for you to cross. If you need to find the walk/don’t walk sign with a monocular you can follow the zebra striping of the cross walk to find the pole and then look up the pole until you can see the signal. I also found out that the walking directions on my phone’s GPS won’t let me go more than 15 yards or so out of my way before it corrects me. That was reassuring.

The habilitation person (we should have been calling her a Vision Rehabilitation Therapist or VRT; sorry!) brought the last of my presents from her today. Not seeing any needs there right now so I have been cut loose from her services, too. I asked if she has any ideas I could pass along to you folks to please email me.

The habilitation person/VRT did share a couple of gems today.  One was the
Light Angel motion detecting lights. The habilitation person/VRT said some people mount these close to the floor and use them to light the way back and forth to the bathroom at night. The lights are battery-powered and cost about $13 each. You know where you can get them.

Ott flip lightThe Ott Flip Lite opens like an old flip phone. This one is $14.00 you-know-where. I just ordered one for in my purse so I will let you know.

Purse! That is what else I wanted to say. Get a fashionable backpack and wear it on your back if you are planning cane travel. Purse in one hand and cane in the other was a bit much.

OK. Gotta roll. See ya! (Maybe?)

written 8/27/2016 Continue reading “Graduation”

Bells and Whistles and Geegaws

Hi! Happy wet Sunday! I was just out in the rain doing cane practice with the O&M guy. I had a lesson in climbing stairs, too. Remember to find the edges of the steps and check for the depths of the stairs. If you Google cane travel on stairs you will find several different videos.

One more time: I have not viewed these. I would not know the good ones even if I had. It is up to you to be the savvy consumer of the information. If you decide to use the skills from one or more of the videos please get someone to also watch it and to go with you a few times. We only have 82 subscribers and we don’t want you breaking your necks!

OK. Enough for the public service/CYA (Cover Your Ass) announcement.

Small monicularMonoculars: we compared my little $20 one from Amazon to the O&M guy’s $600 one and there was not a lot of difference in quality of what you are seeing, whatever that is called, view? Mine is fixed magnification, 7x.

That may be a problem for some people but the more options, bells and whistles and geegaws the more confusing it is; yes? We are trying to eliminate confusing.

Monoculars are not only good for bird watching like I want to do but they are also good for orientation. The O&M guy said I could use it to locate the street signs so I can walk towards them. Once a little closer I could use my monocular to actually read the signs. Maybe even figure out where I am. Yippee!

Oh, the one I have is from RoXant. $19.95 on Amazon. It is teeny tiny and you can wear it on a cord (provided) with everything else that seems to be hanging around your neck since you started to lose your vision.

Man! It is really raining!

Oh, OK. Mindful of what I am doing here, I also want to mention a couple of other O&M things. First if all is the Trekker Breeze +. It is from Humanware and is $800 but if it is as cool as the O&M guy says, it may be on my Christmas list. One of his other clients has the Trekker Breeze+. He really likes it.  The Trekker Breeze + webpage says it has a GPS and verbally announces names of streets, intersections and landmarks as you walk. It also can tell you what is in the local area. The Trekker Breeze + would appear to be good for finding your way around in unfamiliar territory.

A couple more things and this page will be long enough. First thing: in orientation use landmarks; don’t count steps. If you are on your way to the neighbor’s house, know you have to cross the broad driveway, go to the bank of mailboxes and turn right, for example. Landmarks are generally always there. Cues are useful but not always there. A cue would be a yappy dog.

Second thing is coastlining. Coastlining is hugging the side of the road when you walk. That way your cane can let you know where all those landmarks you are supposed to be paying attention to are.

OK. Back to you later….it is really raining.

Written 8/21/2016

Continue reading “Bells and Whistles and Geegaws”

Is This the Hill?

Good morning. Another Monday ‘off’.  I had saved the day for my third place of employment but they did not have an assessment client for me.

That is OK. I can survive. Over the weekend I wrote several reports. The time that took was probably a work day.

I can be flexible. Flexible is good. The Oak and the Reed was one of Aesop’s fables. I never knew that until a few minutes ago. Sometimes it really is better to bend than break.

Depending upon the issue, of course. In one of the DBT lessons I taught recently we talked about the phrase “is this a hill you want to die on?” One of our clients had grown up with her father, a military man, using that phrase and she never knew what it meant. What does it mean? It means there are some battles we should decide not to fight. The victory is not worth the cost. When you don’t want to die on that particular hill, you skirt it. Go around.

So I am being flexible. Doing that a LOT these days.

I did not tell you about the transportation debacle I had just getting to my yogini to get to the yoga festival. I found out transportation will not only take me to work and medical appointments, it will take me just because I want to go. I decided to try it to get to my yogini’s house. Needed to be there at 9:25, so I told them I needed to be there at 9:15. They picked me up at 7:50! I sat nearly 90 minutes in the park because I did not want to impose on my yogini.

There was an older woman on the same run. She wanted to go to the drug store that opened at 9. They dropped her off at 8:10!

I was flexible. I was able to find a place to sit and do some research for a possible trip. I decided not to complain. Just made a note to myself to avoid taking transportation any place I cannot get out of the elements, any place I cannot use my time productively while waiting. I have the resources that will allow me not to have to take transportation to activities all that often. I don’t have to use my energy to fight that battle.

If I had been the woman going to the drug store? I believe I would have raised a serious stink as the phrase goes. She was a woman in her late 70s being left to stand in the heat. Oh, yeah. I would have fought that battle.

So I try to be flexible. I pick my battles and decide which ‘hills’ I will ‘die’ on. I try not to cut off my nose to spite my face – another great, old saying. I adapt to this new reality. When necessary, I am the reed.

Written 8/15/2016

Continue reading “Is This the Hill?”

Mishmash

A couple of pages prior to this was a hodgepodge. This one may be a mishmash. I wonder how many different words we can come up with for a mixed up mess!

Friday evening. I saw six counseling clients back to back to back. I am better at the psychological assessment piece of the work but it is good to know I am good enough at counseling to make it my professional plan B. It will extend my professional ‘shelf life’ to be able to do something without as heavy a visual load.

I guess my question to you younger folks out there – and I am hearing about AMD hitting people much earlier than it ‘should’ – is this: what do you want to be when you grow up? Grow up visually impaired, that is. Remember, if you are willing and able to keep working, vocational rehabilitation will not only supply tools, they will also pay to have you retrained. And they love intelligent, strongly motivated clients!

This brings me to two, different streams of thought. First of all: I got my “welcome back” letter from school! (Remember in real-time it is August.) Quite frankly, it was a real relief. On one level I knew I was going back. I had not had ‘the talk’ with administration and I trust my immediate supervisor enough to know she would not launch a stealth attack.

On another level I was concerned. Has the work been good enough? Are they looking for reasons to let me go?

It is a hell of a note that at the start of my 39th year there are a lot of times I just don’t feel competent.

The other train of thought I want to follow is this: I went to my first training class since my sight loss. Since this was an ‘experiment’, I took stuff! Reader, telescopic glasses and my iPad on the Justand. It turned out the telescopic glasses were not that great for reading the PowerPoint. I probably needed to be in the very first row.

Another complicating factor was we were in an auditorium with no tables. Last year at this time that would have been no big deal. This year I was moving my telescopic lenses up and down on my nose trying to shift focus from the PowerPoint to my note taking. I was also trying to focus my reader on the handouts and shuffling the handouts to figure out what the presenter was referring to. Add a coffee cup and a bagel to that to make the picture complete. Needless to say, I discovered I did not have enough hands!

My solution in one session was to very unceremoniously plop myself on the floor at the front of the room. There I set up my Justand with the iPad and my paper tablet under it so I could take notes. I used my telescopic lenses to see the PowerPoint and spread the handouts around me on the floor.

Not your usual conference behavior but I am no longer your usual conference attendee! (The real question may be was I ever??)

I guess the lesson in that little story is retrain, learn but don’t expect it to go quite the way it used to go. You may need to modify and some modifications may not be standard or politically correct.

And so we move on. When God closes a door, he opens a window. You just might have to shimmy a bit to get through it!

written 8/5/2016

Continue reading “Mishmash”

Have Cane Will Travel

‘Chapter 13’ of something I found online suggested orientation and mobility tricks and techniques have been around for a very long time. After all, it is not like vision loss is a new thing and, if nothing else, we are an adaptable species. Images from as far back as the 13th century showed people using canes and guide dogs. They also probably used sighted guides, a strategy still taught today.

Perkins School for the Blind in England was said to have informally taught orientation and mobility in the 1880s. The Germans advanced the use of guide dogs after World War I and the Americans appear to have gotten into the game during World War II.

According to the PowerPoint, after the Battle of the Bulge in January, 1945 Valley Forge Army Hospital received 17 blinded servicemen in one day. 17 sightless GIs all delivered in one day apparently served as an impetus for somebody to do something! What they did was to establish the War Blind Program. This appears to have been the formal beginning of orientation and mobility training in America.

800px-ID_cane
folding white cane

So far I have had one O&M lesson. The O&M guy brought me a white cane! I want to get across the street on my bike and he brings me a white cane????

While we were not apparently on the same page for my current needs and capacities, there remained some basic truths. 1) AMD is a progressive disease. 2) Someday I may be that impaired. 3) He is here now and when I actually need to use a white cane, it may take six months to get him back! I took the cane.

Cane fitting is something like fitting for ski poles or canoe paddles. My O&M guy said it should reach to the middle of your chest. My cane comes up to about my breastbone.

He also gave me a choice of two tips for my cane. It appears the way you travel determines which tip you should use. People who move more slowly might do better with the constant contact technique. For the constant contact technique the red, roller ball tip I was given might work better. If you move a little faster, you might want to use the standard cane tip and use the two point touch technique.

What I was given is a folding cane. It has an elastic cord inside of it. You pull on the sections and the cord allows you to straighten the cane or fold it up. My cane already ‘bit’ me so I would suggest you keep your fingers out from between the sections when you are opening or folding one of these.

There are also collapsible or telescoping canes and rigid canes.  The National Federation for the Blind (NFB) has a program through which they supply what I was told are rigid white canes free of charge. Let me repeat that.  NFB supplies white canes free of charge.

Now, I would not suggest you get a cane and go charging out the door with no training. However, I am also realistic enough to understand there are not a lot of O&M people out there and someone has to pay the ones there are. You might not be able to find anyone or get him funded.

That said, the “University of YouTube” has instructional videos on basic cane travel techniques. Get someone to watch them with you and be your ‘coach’.  Just be VERY careful. While United States laws give the right of way to persons traveling with a white cane, you can still get run down. Remember: no roadkill allowed!

written 8/5/2016

Continue reading “Have Cane Will Travel”

Loose Associations

This page may be a hodgepodge so bear with me.

First of all, I am meeting my friend the artist to transfer our show from one venue to another this afternoon. Yesterday I took three more photos to the framer so I can be ready for this year’s contest. My friend wants me to print some 5x7s for a sale she takes prints to, too. Try my luck.

I think my involvement in my ‘art’ (and I use the term loosely) has become greater since I have been visually impaired. Maybe I am being defiant. Maybe I value the ability to take photos more now that it is threatened. Dunno.

What I do know is I am still pursuing my hobby, a visual hobby, and many of you could still do it too.

Anybody remember Dylan Thomas’s Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night? Thomas was talking about death but the line “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” could apply to vision loss.

Of course, I just found out Thomas was in his late teens when he wrote that, his most famous poem. Probably not a lot of experience with loss at that time, but the kid did have a way with words.

Like I said… hodgepodge. Also, you learn something new everyday.

Two days until the orientation and mobility appointment. I am sort of excited about that. When I said my goal is to get across the road without being road kill, the OM guy said that is his goal with all of his clients. No road kill. Sounds like a goal we agree on.

Last topic: the Free Library of Philadelphia. They sent me a brochure. It appears they are affiliated with the national service. Remember those are the people who bring us talking books and BARD…which reminds me; I have a book to finish.

Anyway, I looked them up on line. The Philadelphia Free Library is  at 919 Walnut Street. Wills Eye is at 840 Walnut Street. I think I detect some urban planning here.

The Free Library has the usual: Braille, audiobooks and large print books. What piqued my interest was something they call Access Technology Workstations. At these stations they offer resources to people who have no resources. They offer the use of CCTV, ZoomText, and Kurzweil readers. They also offer JAWS. That is a program that will read the text from the computer screen. You know, like the Macular Degeneration Partnership newsletter reads itself to you if you wish.

If you are a Braille user, the Free Library has machines that not only allow you to type in Braille but also will ‘translate’ what is on the screen into a Braille document. Sounds like a Braille ‘printer’ to me. They also have a ‘refreshable Braille display’ that lets people ‘see’ what is on the computer screen. Very cool.

They are seven of these fantastic Workstations located throughout Philadelphia. Good going, Philly!

A quick search turned up libraries for the Blind in Maryland, Connecticut and South Carolina. Also New Mexico and Tennessee. I am starting to suspect there is one in every state. Go ahead and check out your state. I gotta get movin’ here. Have a good day! Continue reading “Loose Associations”

To a Good Home

This page is bad news, good news. First the bad news: my CCTV popped a pop rivet. For those of you who are as woefully ignorant of all things mechanical as I am, a pop rivet is a little piece of metal that goes through two holes to hold two pieces of metal together. They differ from screws in that you don’t screw them in and they stay in place because the tool used flattens them at both ends.

The pop rivet came out of the metal track my document tray rides on. The track kept sliding and allowing the tray to pull out a lot farther than it was supposed to. The whole machine nearly toppled into my lap a couple of times.

Looked like a fairly easy fix to me, but then what do I know?  I was raised on “good enough for poor people” when it came to home repairs.

That was my father’s version of DBT’s ‘effectively’ concept. If it gets the job done, who cares about right or pretty?

Anyway, I called my BVS case manager. I was thinking someone locally could pop in a $.03 pop rivet. He in turn called the equipment sales guy and the sales guy wanted me to send my machine back!

Hold on! Wait! Why don’t we just chop off an arm here? I NEED my machine. I am able to work because I have this machine!

We compromised. I get to keep my machine until a new one comes. Apparently there is a decent warranty on these things and it covers popped pop rivets.

I feel bad about it. Quite frankly I love my machine. It made me functional again. I feel sort of disloyal sending it back for a lousy missing pop rivet. Just the same, the new one is on its way. The company is making good.

Having this happen made me wonder if once they put a new pop rivet in my machine would it still go to a good home? I decided to look on line and see what the story is.

I went on line and found four or five places that sell “pre-owned equipment for the visually impaired”.  They were all companies and not individuals.  Most of the same sites came up when I also searched for “refurbished” equipment for the visually impaired.

You might, however, want to be careful searching for the word refurbished. When I looked at the sites that came up under that heading most of what I found looked new and had ‘new’ prices. Check things out well.

About the best selection I found was New England Vision and Blindness. They had a list of equipment with the age and a rating of the condition of each piece. The problem with this list was it was last updated nine months prior to my search.

On the other hand New English Vision and Blindness offered a link to – where else? – Amazon and the five or so pieces listed there were available for immediate shipping. The prices for used CCTVs were about $1200 less than my new one had been.

Again, no endorsement. I am reporting I found the site, not saying to shop there.

So, for what it is worth, my CCTV company is honoring the warranty. My CCTV is going back and hopefully will be repaired and sold to another good home. Pre-owned equipment is available. It is a tad cheaper. There might be something for you through a reseller. If it is my CCTV, give it a good home, please.

Continue reading “To a Good Home”

Good Stuff Cheap

There is a discount store called Ollie’s.  Their motto is “good stuff cheap”. I am going to steal that motto to talk about my new toys!

standnew1The first thing I got yesterday was the Justand V2e.  It is made in China and distributed by Procomputing, Grapevine, Texas. My BVS rehabilitation therapist said they paid $120 for it.

What the Justand does is hold your iPad steady. That way you can use the free magnification app you downloaded from the App Store and turn your tablet into a magnifying reader just like a CCTV! If you are not really mobile, your Justand and iPad can also take the place of your regular reader. My reader was $600.

Justand= $120. iPad = $450. Magnification app = free. This set up is $570.00 as compared to the $3500 paid for my CCTV. Add the $600 for the reader onto that and we are talking about saving some serious money.

The second thing I got today was the KNFB Reader. The KNFB Reader is for sale in the App Store for $100. Watch out for this one when shopping. I saw something that looked the same on Amazon and the price was $1,000. Of course I may be wrong. We all know what it is like to not have the sight be what it used to be. Maybe what Amazon is selling is more than software???? Anyway, caveat emptor.  [Lin/Linda here: what Sue found on Amazon is indeed not just software, it is a phone which is only sold in Florida and costs $1,325.]

KNFB Reader is apparently made by Kurzweil, the people who were pioneering the technology in the 70s, in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind. K and NFB; get it?

You take a picture of a page, hit a button and the machine reads to you. For some reason my iPad voice is an Aussie. Doesn’t matter. I understand her.

There are a variety of other languages available besides dialects of English. My habilitation person had a page written in English read in Turkish. Since my Turkish is, shall we say weak – OK, nonexistent – I had no clue how good the translation was. At least it sounded Turkish-ish.

The last thing I got was another app, AudioNote. The idea is to record lectures, etc., at the same time you are writing or typing notes on a page of the iPad.  I haven’t had a chance to play with it since I only received it yesterday. I will let you know if I get an opportunity to use it. The INDATA Project of Easter Seals has a how-to video on YouTube if you want to see what it looks like. Audio Note is $5 in the App Store.

I still have one more app coming. My habilitation worker thinks I need it. I have no idea what it is. I guess I will be surprised.

So, there you go. Good stuff cheap. Hope some of this is more in your price range. Continue reading “Good Stuff Cheap”

Increase Sleep, Reduce Glare

Morning. Hope you are all well. I am well rested this morning. Finally. After all of the insanity of the last few weeks I needed to take a nighttime pain reliever and go to bed early. Eight hours later.

Voila! A new woman. Well, actually an old woman in better shape than yesterday but you get the drift.

A couple of points there. OTC (over the counter) medication is good in the short-term. If I had persistent sleep problems I would need to see a doctor.  The issue could be something more than situational stress.

The second point is this: caregivers need self-care. I still had plenty to do last evening but sleep was the most important thing I needed to do. WebMD lists 10 effects of sleep deprivation. Among other things, sleep deprived people have more accidents and do not think as clearly as well rested people. Lack of sleep can cause heart problems and age your skin. I don’t know about you, but I ‘sag and bag’ more than enough now! I need those zzzzzs.

These fit over my eyeglasses and reduce glare.

All of which has nothing to do with the photo. The photo is of my new glare glasses. One of my late presents arrived!

The glare glasses are from a company called Noir, as in French for night.  I glanced at their website. I admit I did not look in-depth. I have sort of developed this effort versus benefit ratio thing. Since reading is so much harder, things of casual interest are skimmed at best.

Anyway, I have my glare glasses and that is where they are from. That is a statement of fact. It is not a recommendation. We get no kickbacks for mentioning these things but if the price is right, we might be bought…..er, we would consider running advertisements for true quality products ?.

The glare glasses fit nicely over my regular glasses. I don’t think they look too bad. They have some style. I have only had them for a couple of days but they seem comfortable to wear and seem to do the job.

Price? No clue. Check the website. Remember I have a Daddy Warbucks in the guise of Blindness and Visual Services. They paid for the glare glasses as well as my other toys. [Lin/Linda here: it’s hard to tell how much they cost since I don’t know the exact configuration of frame and lenses. There are other companies who make similar glasses. You can search for the keywords ‘fitover glasses reduce glare’.]

Once again, I have been very happy with the support I have received from BVS. I would encourage you to look into state support for your vision needs.  Maybe your organization will purchase you glare glasses too.

Continue reading “Increase Sleep, Reduce Glare”

DaVinci and Others

I saw an advertisement for the daVinci CCTV. My low vision specialist had initially suggested a daVinci but the daVinci is not portable. That would not have worked for me.

davinci-electronic-magnifier
DaVinci is a high performance desktop video magnifier (CCTV), featuring Full HD, selective text-to-speech (OCR) and a 3-in-1 camera.

davinci-woman-applying-makeup

The da Vinci has some other, cool features such as self-viewing with the camera. With up to 77x magnification that probably makes it the world’s most powerful make-up mirror.?

 

 

It also has built-in ‘OCR’. If you have no idea what that is, you are not alone. Or at least you were not alone until about half an hour ago when I looked it up.

OCR is optical character recognition. According to Wikipedia, OCR is most widely used in scanning documents. Big Business and Big Brother use it in data mining. It is also used in – wait for it – text to speech. In other words OCR is what allows a machine to read to you. In fact, creating reading devises for the visually impaired was an impetus for the creation and improvements in OCR. Cool. Nice give and take, huh?

Of course, the beginnings were pretty modest. In 1914 (Wow! Really?), a guy named Emanuel Goldberg invented a machine that ‘read’ individual letters and converted them into Morris code. Another guy, Edmund Fournier d’Albe invented a machine that ‘read’ letters and produced corresponding musical tones.

Hang in there; just a bit more on the history lesson. The little bit more is the Kurzwell Reader. That product was unveiled in 1976. If you were working in special ed, or getting ready to work in the field as I was at that time, you may remember the Kurzwell Reader. We thought it was amazing. Unfortunately it was not portable and it was not cheap.

So fast forward to 2016. The daVinci has OCR. The KNFB Reader my habilitation person wants me to have for my iPad has OCR. In fact, a lot of things have OCR in their software. When I searched for OCR in the App Store I got dozens of hits. Some of them were expensive, like the KNFB Reader for $100, but some of them were free……and some of them translate Japanese and Lithuanian, but we are not interested in that at the moment.

Stray thought: if your iPad can read and translate multiple languages, can the universal translator a la Star Trek be close behind? Live well and prosper. Look for products that say OCR. Might help.

Continue reading “DaVinci and Others”

Highlight: Why should I be concerned about ‘blue light’?

There’s been a lot of talk lately about ‘blue light’.   You’ve probably heard that it is bad for those who do not have AMD and also for those who do.  The question is what is it and what evidence is there that it is bad for us?

Click here for a very extensive article that:

  • explains the visible light spectrum and tells how it affects our eyes.
  • provides references to blue light research.
  • points out that our cornea & lens (refer to the illustration) filter some of the blue light and that the yellowing of the lens in the development of cataracts helps to filter out blue light.  For that reason, when the natural lens is replaced with an intraocular lens (IOL) in cataract surgery, we lose that protection.  Some doctors insert an IOL that is tinted to block blue light.   Some say that if this is done, it cuts down on our ability to adapt to dark conditions which causes some to have poor night vision.
  • explains the terms used to refer to visible light.
  • discusses the difference types of lamps with pros and cons and gives specific descriptions of what’s available.

Click here for another great article about how the violet and blue light of the UV spectrum can worsen AMD.  The article says that the sources of violet/blue light are “sun (main source), computer screen, phone & other mobile device screens, full-spectrum lighting (ie, used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), fluorescent lighting, LED lights, high intensity mercury vapor lamps (for night sports and high-crime areas), and xenon arc lamps.”

Click here for a more technical article that addresses the effects of blue light on sleep and eyestrain.  It also answers the questions:

  • How does blue light affect eye strain and sleep?
  • Should I block all blue light?
  • Are my eyes just sensitive to blue light?
  • What are software solutions and physical blue light filters?

What can we do to block blue light?  Here are some suggestions:

Do you spend a lot of time on the computer and other electronic devices?  

Click here for an article that describes some ways we can be protected from the blue light emitted from them. It also describes the new feature called Night Shift for the iPhone and iPad that filters some of it.  For Windows devices, there is an app Windows f.lux.  Click here to find out how to download and install it.

You can also get screen protectors and ‘computer glasses’.  I talk about them below.

Do you spend a lot of time outside?

You need to wear sunglasses that filter out the blue light from the sun. Click here to go to a post about how to choose sunglasses.

Do you need eyeglasses or contacts?

Even if you have IOLs (the lenses implanted when cataracts are removed) that block blue light, my eye doctor told me that the amount of blue light filtered isn’t that significant so additional blocking is advised.

You can get the lenses coated to filter out blue light.  Kodak Bluelight Reflect is one. Crizal Prevencia is another.  Click here for other products. Talk to your eye doctor or optician about what they offer.

As far as coating for contacts, that’s available also.  This article talks about tinting for cosmetic reasons but there is also a section that talks about adding a UV coating to them. At the time this article was published, they said none of them should replace sunglasses with good UV filtering. To be honest, I don’t yet know if you can have blue light coating on contact lenses.

Do I need special ‘computer glasses’?

If you do not wear eyeglasses or wear them but don’t have a good protective coating on them, you might consider a pair of glasses with protective coatings but no prescription to reduce glare and blue light transmission.  Even if you have IOLs (the lenses implanted when cataracts are removed) that block blue light, my eye doctor told me that the amount of blue light filtered isn’t that significant so additional blocking is advised.

Click here for a good article about what computer glasses are and how they work.

Can I filter blue light from my electronic devices without specially coated eyeglasses, contacts or ‘computer glasses’?

Yes, you can buy screen protectors for your devices.  Click here for a very extensive discussion of them.

Do you need cataract surgery?

Talk to your doctor about the tinted IOLs that can be inserted (refer to first article above or click here).

What kind of indoor lighting do you have?

Again, the first article above gives a great overview of the terms used to refer to visible light & discusses the different types of lamps with examples.

  • Neither Sue nor I get any commissions from any of the products included here.

Highlight: How do I use Zoom for Apple products?

Many of you use Apple products such as an iPad and an iPhone.  They both have some very good accessibility features built-in.  Zoom is one of them. It allows you to magnify what’s on the screen.

Click here for detailed instructions to get you started.

Here’s a video that may help as well.

Technical Difficulties

Hi! Taught my first class today. First DBT class since my vision loss. Took a lot more preparation and set up, but then preparation seems to be the name of the game for the visually impaired.

I had gone over my notes and had what I was going to teach in mind. Made sure I had all my tools and materials and everything was in order. It is sort of hard to wing it or to keep talking and rifle through your notes when you have to bring things to your nose to see them! Rather hard to be casual about that.

Of course there were technical difficulties. True to my word,  I fumbled with putting the CCTV camera on my students and then back to my notebook. I got some help with that.

There really are many kind people in the world.

Of course, just to make things really interesting, when we got the camera back to the page, the image was upside down! What was with that???? It was first suggested I turn my book upside down which worked except that sliding it up it went down and sliding it left it went right. I am spatially challenged as it is so that was a treat. Someone finally suggested turning it off and back on again. Reset, of course. I should have thought of that!

I could not see the faces of my students. I had expected that. It is going to be harder to learn names. I expect they will sit in the same places anyway but I made a point of asking them to do so.

Old joke: how do you punish Helen Keller? Answer: Rearrange the furniture.  New joke: How do you confuse your DBT instructor ? Switch seats!

The lesson went reasonably well. There was a lot of participation. When I was futzin’ about with the CCTV, I had some people read the slides to me. Asking for help can be hard at times but we are all in this together. Better to ask for help and keep the class moving than fumble around. Fumbling is just frustrating. Enough frustration in this world.

All told, good class. One more hurdle behind me. I know I can teach for a while longer. Continue reading “Technical Difficulties”

Christmas in May

Today was Christmas in May! My habilitation person brought my new iPad. Tomorrow my work materials will be downloaded onto it and one more hurdle will be behind me.

The iPad case did not fit and my glare glasses are somewhere in transit. That sort of stuff happens at Christmas. Something doesn’t fit or it is not delivered on time. It’s OK.

Besides the iPad, I got a cute, portable OTT light. I also got an OTT floor lamp that my habilitation person took directly to the other office. That can be a nice discovery the next time I am there. Remember I have an OTT light at home. They are awesome…and I am not getting a cent for that endorsement.

Guides for writingI am including a photo of writing guides that my habilitation person gave me. They are for letters, notes, checks and envelopes. The guides keep you from going all over cockeyed on the page. I am able to use the CCTV to help me write checks and address envelopes but these might be good for other folks who have not been blessed with help from an organization like BVS.

Another thing she brought was colored, acetate sheets. Years ago there was a movement to use colored overlays to help people with dyslexia. Not sure that movement went too far  – we don’t use the sheets in our classes – but the acetate sheets are still sold.

One source is – guess where! – Amazon. Unfortunately, we are not getting kickbacks from them either.?

Anyway, Amazon sells packets of 12 sheets. They are four, different colors. There are packs with different colors available from other vendors as well. It would appear that different colors work for different people.

I ended up taking a rose sheet and an orange sheet. I did not like the blue or the yellow at all, but that does not mean your choices will be the same as mine.

What the rose sheet did for me was increase contrast. It also reduced glare. I tried it on some text I had trouble seeing and there was some improvement.

It appears I will be looking at the world through rose-colored acetate! Sorry. I could not resist.?

Christmas will happen again in June for me. My habilitation worker still has to bring me an iPad stand so I can use the magnification app I have to read – light weight version of my CCTV. She also has several other apps she is authorizing for me. I will let you know what I get. Remember several of them are free or inexpensive.

So that is it for now. Things are progressing and I am very happy with my gifts. Hopefully some of this information will be helpful and make you happy, too.

Merry Christmas!

Continue reading “Christmas in May”

As If By Magic

Hi! Just wanted to let you all know I hooked my iPad up to my TV. I am not a techie. I impress myself easily when something like this actually works. Many of you won’t think much of this, but I think it is cool.

Here we go! Step by step.

As we talked about before, I bought a connector to go in the iPad. It connects where the power cord connects. This is the expensive piece. It was $50. Hook that up.

Click here to go back to the page where I describe the connector & cable.

The cable hooks into the iPad connector. The end looks like a USB connector only larger. There is the same kind of hardware on both ends of the cable. What you want to have purchased is an HDMI cable. They come in different lengths. I got one that is 12 feet.

usbhdmi
Difference between USB port (left) and HDMI port (right)

Get behind your TV and look for what looks like a larger USB port. Some TV models have them on the left hand side. Some are on the back. That is your HDMI port. There are probably two or more. Notice the number of the port that you are plugged into.

Somewhere on your TV is a menu button. In my TV it is on the left hand side. The TV we use at the office for PowerPoint presentations has a menu button on the front. After you locate your menu button, set it to the same number as the HDMI port you are hooked in to. It will say HDMI 1, 2 etc on your TV screen.

Turn everything on and what is on your iPad should now be on the TV screen. Voila! Magic! What is on your TV screen is – depending on how big your TV is – several times larger than what is on the iPad screen. Ergo, it should be several times easier to see. Easier to see is a good thing.

ipadtotv

Here’s the difference between my iPad mini screen & my TV.

 

 

 

Thus endeth the lesson.

Continue reading “As If By Magic”

Beast of Burden

Some of you may recognize the title as the title of a Rolling Stones song Beast of Burden. Can’t help it, I love music!

This is going to be odds and ends. Hopefully a theme will develop. Then again, maybe not!

I just ordered a rolling cart. I took my CCTV and some work materials and a full-size iPad and my purse with several low vision toys in it across the parking lot to the other school building today. I carried them all and nearly broke my back.

I don’t know if anyone else out there has this problem, but I have acquired a lot of stuff and it is heavy!

Apparently, that is something they don’t tell you in visually impaired school: having all of these toys can turn you into a pack mule!

Another thing they don’t tell you is what to do with all the cords. In addition to all of the usual things that need to be plugged in I now have a CCTV and a reader and a Books for the Blind player and an extra tablet and the list goes on.

Not only do you have all of these electronic toys that need cords, but they need the correct cord. The smart phone wants nothing to do with the iPad charger and the iPad wants nothing to do with the reader charger, etc. You get my point? All the more fun for a disorganized, visually impaired lady.

Of course, life would be a lot nastier without my toys. I just used my iPad to look up a Talking Book to play in my cute little player. I found the new Jeffery Deaver novel available to borrow for free. That is the same novel I just saw available in hardcover only for something like $16. Not sure how many Lincoln Rhymes fans get Talking Books so I might have to wait a bit. However, it will probably be less time than I would have to wait for it to come out in paperback. I am cheap that way.

I am wondering how long you can keep these tapes. I am also wondering how much listening to audiobooks some visually impaired folks do. The order form was old-school, paper to complete with a – gasp – pen. The thing of it is, it was three columns wide and maybe 20 lines deep, front and back! If your average audio book is something like 12 hours, that is a whole lot of listening.

I just ordered one. I love to ‘read’ but I am not good at sitting that long. I am also trying to stay involved and get back to work full-time. AND I want to check out the BARD offerings. I got the acceptance very quickly but have not gotten around to setting up my account. I seem to be very busy these days – doing visually impaired stuff; ya know?

Just never realized this visually impaired business could be so demanding! Aha! A theme!?

Continue reading “Beast of Burden”

Toy Story, Again

My habilitation person came yesterday. I was hoping she would have my iPad so I would be one step closer to being able to work full-time but nothing was delivered. We are hoping it will all come in next week.

My habilitation person wants to load up the iPad before she gives it to me. She wants me to have something called the KNFB Reader. The KNFB Reader is recent technology (2014) for Apple and Android phones and tablets. My habilitation person says you can take a picture of any text and the KNFB Reader will read it to you. Sounds pretty cool.

The KNFB Reader is available for purchase in the Apple App Store. Again, not a recommendation and not making a cent on any kick backs. My habilitation person wants me to have one so I am getting one. Just want to let you know it exists and is available for $100.

Since we recognize the iPad shimmies all over the place when I am trying to read with it, we also talked iPad stands. Another option for an iPad stand would be the Just Stand V2e. This one looks very much like the one we talked about before.  Only this one is only $140. You know the drill: not a recommendation. Be aware it is an option. The end.

The habilitation lady did bring sun glasses. Or, more accurately, she brought glare glasses. We spent time running in and out of the house seeing which pair she had brought would reduce glare for me the most.

I could have had two pair. One would have been for inside. Never really thought of indoor sun glasses, or glare glasses but apparently there is a lot of glare inside too. Glare is bad business when you are trying to see with AMD. Anyway, could have had two pairs but the same pair worked best both indoors and out.

The frames on the glare glasses were not too awfully bad. Some of them looked like those black things that I refuse to wear because I have no intentions of looking like I am 107. However, there were several that were acceptable to the fashion conscious. They were also big enough to fit over eye glasses.

[Sue doesn’t have the glasses yet but when she does, she’ll take a photo of them for us to see.  In the meantime, click here for examples of glasses that reduce glare indoors and out.]

The habilitation person also helped me register for BARD. Again, registration for Talking Books is required before you are accepted to BARD. The BARD folks warned they screen each application individually before they accept you. They said it would be days but I got my approval in hours.

This time I am responsible for the lack of progress. I did not make up a password yet. The weather is nice and it is time to be outside. More later! Continue reading “Toy Story, Again”

Keeping in Focus

My reader ran out of power the other evening. Since I only had a few pages to read, I grabbed my iPad mini and started to use that as a magnifier. I made a discovery: I could not keep that thing still and in focus to save my life!

I had been told – and I wrote – that the free magnifying apps could make an acceptable substitute for my $600 magnifier, but I am going to have to qualify that. When handheld, the iPad seems good only for a paragraph or so.

I asked my husband if he could do some tinkering and make a stand. I also asked Lin if she had ever seen a stand. Lin came up with two possibilities off the web. My husband says he could probably not make them any cheaper and have them be as stable.

So, disclaimer: I have never used either of these stands. These are not recommendations. I do not know the people who make these stands and I have no financial interest in them. Ditto for Lin. What I do know is my mini iPad wiggled and went out of focus when used as a reader. It needs a stand and these are available.

Check them out but caveat emptor because we only know what we saw on the internet.

That said, the first one was featured on a site called Simple Smart Skills. As of the time of the post the cost of this iPad ‘document stand’ was $166. Again, could be the same, could not be. The Simple Smart Skills site (try saying that ten times fast! Then “Sister Susie sitting on a thistle.”) also includes a link to the inventor and marketer, Kazunori Asada. That stand is one possibility.

A second option can be found on the IPAT ND assistive technology blog (IPAT stands for North Dakota Interagency Program for Assistive Technology). This is a do-it-yourself project. If you cannot do it yourself or find someone to do it, this is not the option for you. According to the website, the materials cost $90. Again, not a guarantee.

If you cannot get free labor, the price for the DIY stand may exceed the price for the first stand. Your choice. If you want to go with this option, the directions are posted on the web for free.

One more thing before I go: I noticed on the second option they have the iPad hooked into a TV. That setup was recommended to me by the Blindness and Visual Services tech person. He recommended a digital AV adaptor for the iPad and a HDMI cable to connect the iPad to the TV. I paid about $50 at Radio Shack for the adaptor and I have no idea what I paid for the cable at Walmart. It wasn’t crazy, though, because my husband picked it up and he would have commented.

Once again, no gain here from name dropping. Pretty sure they are available at most electronics stores. I just happen to know they are generally available at those two spots. After all, many of us no longer have the option of zipping from store to store on a product hunt.

Oh, P.S. I haven’t hooked that up yet so I cannot comment on how it works. That can be another post. Continue reading “Keeping in Focus”

Talking Books

My ‘talking books’ player came yesterday. It was ordered several weeks ago. One more incident of the wheels turning much too slowly for me, but at least it is now here. I am an impatient sort but I can still read regular text with my CCTV and handheld reader. Hopefully they served some other poor, impatient soul without my resources while I was waiting.

But I kvetch too much….

The player is this cute little thing with all sorts of big colored buttons. The first time you press each of them it gives you a description of what it does. After that, it is supposed to work normally. I suspect I will remember about half of what it said to me. There are some Braille directions but nothing else printed about the player.

I am thinking the visually impaired are supposed to have great memories. Either that or there is a lot of trial and error.

But again I kvetch. Not really complaining, just noting rather judgmentally, which I am not supposed to do a la DBT.

I just started to read the booklet they sent me. Not a lot of authors I recognized but then I read the explanatory page – when all else fails, read the directions, right? – and discovered what they sent me was the new titles for March and April. Access their website and there are tens of thousands of offerings. Click here to go to that site.

I just checked that link and it is good. Maybe even better than good. It contains all sorts of info including who is eligible and how to sign up for the service. Check it out if you can.

Another thing I want to check out is BARD. That stands for the National Library Service Braille and Audio Reader Download. I had seen the App for this in the Apple App Store but this was before I was a registered user and I was not able to download it. The lesson for you there is this: don’t waste your time on BARD until you are registered. It won’t let you on.

According to the literature from National Library Service (NLS), BARD can be downloaded not only from Apple but from two other sources. These sources are Google Play (Android) and Amazon’s App Store. I know it is free on Apple and I suspect it is free the other two places as well.  Click here for links to both versions.

But back to talking books. The player is easily portable. It has a battery if you are away from a power source. You can speed the voice up or slow it down without distortion. If you also have hearing loss in a specific range, you can alter the pitch of the voice. James Earl Jones to pretty much Mickey Mouse.

I also have to compliment them on the packaging. I got the player out of the box by slicing one piece of tape and opening the lid. No playing around trying to get the accursed thing open, breaking something or accidentally slicing yourself.

Also, the tape boxes are cool. They are hard plastic with simple latches. The tapes will only go in one way. Ready to send a tape back? Flip the address card on the front and slide it into the slot. The card even has a hole punched in it. Upper left hand corner punched? Return address is up. Good going packaging people!

So that is it for now. My habilitation person is coming tomorrow. If she can get me on BARD, I will pass on the info about how it was done. Continue reading “Talking Books”

Accessibility by WAH