Category: Technology: Phone/Tablet/Computer

Parts Is Parts

Today was sort of an ‘eye day’. Spent most of my day talking about vision or dealing with my ‘toys’. “Mama said there would be days like this.” [Lin/Linda: I don’t know if Sue intended this but this song came to mind!]

Toys first: my CCTV is broken again.

Apparently when they say portable they don’t mean what I mean: hauled everywhere and set up and torn down twice or three times a day. I lost another pop rivet so my document tray does not slide properly.

Also, my vertical hold comes and goes. Remember Outer Limits? “We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical.” Whoever is controlling this is not me. It gets flipping enough to make me sea sick!

For future reference should you have this problem, we think it might be a loose wire. When I flipped the camera to distance viewing and brought it back, the flipping stopped.

Needless to say, it is going into the shop. It is going into the shop as soon as I get a loaner; that is…..Oh, and I am not paying the $50 diagnostic fee either. The cursed thing has a two-year warranty.

What can I say? I am hard on parts.

[Lin/Linda: if you were wondering about the title, when I read the above sentence, my mind went to the Wendy’s TV commercial where the catchy line is “parts is parts”.  Click here for the commercial.]

Today was also the vision loss support group. As anticipated, I was the youngest one in the group. I was also the most informed. I am half ashamed to admit that I ‘held court’ and lectured on my toys and some of what I considered to be AMD basics. The ladies – and they were all ladies – seemed receptive and asked me back.

I was a bit disturbed that several of the ladies admitted to owning iPads and having shoved them in a drawer!  They have no background or understanding of computers and they are afraid of them. The lack of knowledge about basic electronics – especially things that can make your life 100 times easier – was scary.

When I said you could get things in the app store I was asked if that was in this town or a town nearby! Oh my….

Which made me think some of you may be in the same boat.

The App Store is a blue and white icon on your desktop. It has a big A right in the middle.

Touch the icon/symbol and you will get a page of whatever apps they are featuring, often games. In the upper right hand corner there is a gray box that says search. Touch that and you should get a keyboard. Type in a keyword or phrase and then touch enter. Examples of keywords might be magnifiers, low vision apps, or knfbreader. Remember many apps are free but some like the knfbreader are for a fee. The ones for a fee you will need an Apple account. Actually, I think you need an account no matter. I always have to put my password in to approve the download. Lin, what do we have about opening an Apple account? [Lin/Linda: I’m posing that information below.]

That is about it for now. I have to email the group leader and remind her about passwords. Next month they are bringing their iPads!

Click here for a good place to start learning about your iPad.

Click here for instructions on how to create an Apple ID.

Click here for the ‘Dummies’ series For Seniors: Use the iPad Online User Guide.  There are also topics on this website about iPhones and Android devices (smartphones & tablets).

Continue reading “Parts Is Parts”

Funny Glasses

Hi! In real-time welcome to March, 2017. It came in like a lamb. Very mild. I have heard the robins calling although I have yet to see one. Does not mean the end of Winter, of course. I dug a robin out of a snow pile one year. Bird hypothermia.

If anyone is keeping track, the washer is done, kaput, dead. We could resurrect it for $400 or buy a new one for around the same price….yep. Going shopping after work on Friday.

The repair man said I should have run the clean washer cycle regularly. He said I should have known that from reading the manual. Read the manual? What planet is he from? Does anyone actually read the manual?

And to segue off from that, I have been reading about eSight glasses these past few days. A couple of pieces on them have been in the media. People keep giving me the articles and suggesting I look into buying a pair. For $10,000.

My friend who – bless her – cares about my welfare and has so far thought both the Argus 2 and statins would be just the ticket for me, said I should not worry about the money because the eSight glasses could give me my independence back and allow me to drive again. Wrong. No, no, no.  Although later reading I have done confirmed what she said about the image focusing on my intact section of retina, that same reading also confirmed what I said. To wit, the glasses use magnification as well. Magnification screws up your perception of distance and of speed.

You cannot use magnification and drive. Very often you cannot even use magnification and walk fast. Long paragraph short? Do not buy the eSight glasses and think you can drive. Not happening.

Otherwise, though, they sound promising. American Federation for the Blind did an article on eSight glasses, along with Smart Glasses, for the AccessWorld magazine. The eSight glasses magnify up to 14x. You can make color and contrast adjustments. You can also determine if what the camera is picking up should take up the entire display or just a part.

I refer you to the AccessWorld article for more information. The newspaper article on the glasses was for the Associated Press and written by Michael Liedtke.  The online article I was given was entitled High-tech Glasses are Helping Blind People See.

Of course, unless you have discretionary funds coming out of your ears, $10,000 is quite a bit to spend on a pair of funny glasses. While the price has been coming down, the burden of cost remains all on the consumer. Insurances pay nothing.

A possible loophole I found is clinical trials. eSight has already done one clinical study with the results due out this spring. If the company decides to do more studies, they will need test subjects and test subjects will be given glasses. Are you following my devious, little mind? Some of us may be able to get free glasses in return for being in the study. Not sure it is even remotely possible, but if you are interested, check it out.

So, that’s that. Who wants to be in the Geordi LaForge look-alike contest?!? Continue reading “Funny Glasses”

Call Tech Support!

Hey, there! Hi, there! And the sun sets on another Wednesday.

Had a small crisis today. My ZoomText went down. Just about gave me heart failure and put me out of commission for over an hour. I just get so much done when these things happen!?

Apparently they were hacked and a slew of certificates (proof you purchased the product and are allowed to use it) were stolen. They told us weeks ago and I thought our techs and I had put the proper things in place. No such luck! Today they pulled the plug and my ZoomText went ‘poof!’ Arrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

Note to self: write the tech support number in BIG numbers and file it. When they wrote their contact and help pages, they apparently assumed ZoomText would be working for that consumer to read them.

Honey, if I need help, my ZoomText is not working and I cannot see that teeny, tiny font on the support page. I mean, really. These people make software to support the visually impaired. Don’t you think they should think of these things?

Anyway, once I scouted out the support number and waited on hold – long distance and no toll free customer number; fix that please – for about 20 minutes, I got a lovely person who took over my machine and fixed my problem. Yippee!!!!!!

Made me stop to think, though. I had a minor panic attack and I have resources. I have techs at both jobs and I know enough to search for support numbers. What do people with no ready tech people do?

Granted I pay for the – nom de plume here – Nerd Brigade to consult with me when I have a tech crisis at home, but they cost $$$$$. Lots of people do not have money to pay for tech support.

Maybe we could get some of the colleges to set up free, tech support for the visually impaired. Maybe they could get a grant to set it up and man it!

Maybe I see the germ of a great, new project here for somebody. Anyone know somebody who knows somebody who would like to take this on? Free idea! Service project! Someone has to know a college sophomore somewhere.

So that was part of my day. Teaching our absolutely wonderful DBT group was my morning. Can’t exactly say the day improved as it went on but all is well that ends well. I got my ZoomText back in commission.

Get to do the one at school tomorrow. One delightful challenge after another. Oh well, keep on keeping on. Somebody’s got to fight the dragons! Continue reading “Call Tech Support!”

Can An Old Dog Learn Braille?

A reader made a suggestion I could learn Braille. At first it sounded sort of fanciful. I am 63 years old and she wants this old dog to learn new tricks! I am sure it is REALLY hard. I am sure it will take me FOREVER.

Then I thought I should practice what I preach. Turn the mind and be willing. I could at least look into it….besides, it is good for a page and I am running out of ideas. Anyone else out there willing to share? I could use a little more, wonderful help like we got from Lara, Jennifer, Rick and Andrea.

VisionAware has a page on All About Braille. They tell us Louis Braille invented the system in France in the mid-1800s. Braille ‘cells’ are made up of two columns of three rows. Each letter and symbols is made up of a pattern of one or more dots.

The letter ‘s’ is dots in the second column-first row, 1-2 and 1-3. U is 1-1, 1-3 and 2-3. E is 1-1 and 2-1. There! I spelled my name!

I probably would want to learn alphabetic Braille first. That is letter by letter Braille. There is also a form called condensed Braille in which whole words are represented by one cell of dots.

Being part of the special education system, I know a little bit about sign language for the deaf. American Sign Language is not just standard English you ‘speak’ with your hands. It is its own language with its own rules and specialized characteristics. Condensed Braille reminded me of that. It is also just one of a number of systems, just like ASL.

Problems with learning Braille as an older adult include finger sensitivity. Some people are blind because of complications of diabetes. Diabetic nerve damage may interfere with learning Braille.

Right now, I really don’t see Braille as an option for me. Not totally because it would be difficult and time consuming to learn, although those are factors. The major reason is right now I have options that work for me just fine.

I have magnification through my CCTV, reader and iPad, as well as ZoomText on my work PC’s. My computers and my phone also have options that allow me to be read to. I don’t use those options simply because they are so dang irritating! However, if I get to the point I cannot navigate around my desktop or my phone, I may be happy to have them.   [You can review how Sue uses these by going to her pages A Day in the Life and A Day in the Life: Work Day.]

And speaking of being read to, don’t forget my KNFB Reader. Then there are BARD books and the newspapers on my phone.

If I want to write as opposed to read, I do have a few touch typing skills. Speech-to-text is also available to me. Of course, we all know some of the things that happen there.

For example: I tried to speech to text the text “we find our adventures where we can” and the message my friend got was “we find our dentures where we can.” Took a while for her to stop giggling.

OK. Gotta go. I have a staff party tonight and I still have no idea what I am going to wear. Could be worse. At least I don’t have to find my teeth!

Click here for an article on how Braille is useful on the job in case Sue changes her mind. ::smile::

Continue reading “Can An Old Dog Learn Braille?”

About the ADA

There was an interesting comment this week on the website in response to my page One Year Anniversary: Part 1 What I’ve Learned.  I was asked why I would have to quit my job when my vision got worse. The reader asked if the school was not obligated to accommodate me. She cited ADA.

The answer to that question is yes, and no. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to employees with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations are defined as “necessary and appropriate modifications and adjustments that do not impose a disproportionate or unfair burden upon the employer.” The burden can either be financial or it can be in efficiency of getting the job done.

On the job I am already being given reasonable accommodations. If you look back in the pages, you will discover I have accommodations in pretty much all aspects of the job. When I do classroom observations, I wear telescopic glasses. I use my CCTV to do file reviews and learn my kids’ educational histories. When I test, I have my testing manuals loaded on an iPad so I can zoom in and read the questions easily. The tech department took days to do that for me! I use my CCTV again to record answers on the answer sheets. When I write reports with the assessment results I use ZoomText. Lots of reasonable accommodations in my work day!

When I become unable to see my kids to do observation, unable to read test questions to them or record their answers, I will have to stop working. Requiring the school to hire someone to do all that for me so I could ‘sort of’ do my job would be an unfair burden. I would not be doing my job, my helper would and the school would be paying two salaries. That is not fair not appropriate.

In basic terms, ADA does not require an employer to carry the dead weight of a disabled employee when she cannot do the job. What it does is allow those who can still function pretty well to keep working by changing just a few things.

The reader asked if learning Braille would not allow me to keep working. That is an intriguing idea and I may research and write a page on learning Braille as an older adult. Braille, however, would not let me keep my school job. Braille will not help me see what types of mistakes Johnny is making on his math papers. Braille won’t allow me to see how Susie is daydreaming in class. Those are integral parts of my job that require sight.

So, to summarize, ADA moves barriers off the playing field so the disabled worker can run down the field himself. Under his own power. ADA does not require the employer to carry the employee down the field on his back. I have reasonable accommodations per ADA but when I cannot fulfill my job duties using them, I am done. ADA cannot help me.

The learning Braille in my 60s idea? I will get back to you on that.

Continue reading “About the ADA”

A Day in the Life: Work Day

Sunday evening and I am getting ready to start another week. Wow. I was always told time goes faster as you get older but sometimes it is ridiculous!

I was also told time flies when you are having fun, so I guess I am having fun! And, yes, it is possible to have fun with AMD.

Maybe we can do a book or an infomercial on that: Fun with AMD. Sort of like Fun with Flags from the Big Bang Theory. Any thoughts on content?

Anyway, I went to my exercise classes and wrote a couple of pages yesterday. Walked Beastie Baby. Today was a haircut and a trip to the local warehouse store. Also actually wrote that report I was putting off. Sorted some laundry. Found an audiobook I want to listen to. Busy, busy, busy.

But for me, busy, busy, busy is better, better, better.  Not only do you distract yourself with activities, but you get to use your talents.  Sometime in Sunday school I learned we are supposed to use what we were given. It was never said you use what you were given until you start going blind.

So onward! Lin suggested I do a page on a normal weekday. Okey dokey. Monday.

The time I get up is determined by what time the crazy transportation company says it is going to pick me up. I have learned I also need to be ready about 15 minutes before they said they would be here because they are frequently early. Jeez. Flexibility is a virtue.

Monday is different from a weekend day because I have to really be sure my clothes match. I cannot slink home in humiliation in an hour or so because colors I thought were one thing are another and clash….badly.

OttLight

I have a small OttLite on my ironing board but the best bet is still natural light. If all else fails, I ask my husband “what color is this?”

If we were talking Thursday for the weekday, I have to make sure I have everything I need for the entire day. That means I get on transportation with CCTV, purse, briefcase, lunch, yoga mat and workout clothes. Having a good memory and a strong back are also virtues.

Justand V2

Back to Monday. At school I set-up my portable CCTV. I turn on my computer and ZoomText is soon up and running. These things are invaluable. At home I often crank the font size up to 28, but all that magnifies is the text. ZoomText does everything on the screen. If you are on your computer all day, ZoomText is worth the investment. Also LOVE my CCTV, but the price on that is salty and you can get similar results with an iPad and Justand.

Sue’s Eschenbach Smartlux Digital Magnifyer

I check for lunch choices with my handheld reader. I also read anything I cannot get to my CCTV with the reader. Something nice about the reader is I can hold it up to something slightly above my head and take a photo of it. Nice little feature.

Since I was always dropping my reader – slippery little devil! – we put a lanyard on the arm on the back. I can wrap the strap around my hand. It has gone on the floor much less since.

 

To review some of these devices, check out Sue’s page A Day in the Life.

Sue’s Telescopic Glasses

My telescopic glasses help me do student observations. I look like an alien, but the kids are used to it.

Books such as testing manuals have been scanned onto my iPad. My tech person at school did 90% of the work but I also scanned. It was a bit labor intensive but it allows me to read questions and score.

That is pretty much a work day. Questions? Continue reading “A Day in the Life: Work Day”

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”

Hyper What?

Morning! Yesterday I was picked up before 7 to get someplace 4 miles away before 8:30. Today they are picking me up after 8 to get 11 miles away before 8:30. You cannot win for losing!

Anyway, if I bounce up and leave you suddenly, forgive me. The van got here.

Looking at GuideMe again, I noticed one of the things they suggested is self monitoring with a hyperacuity chart. A what?

Acuity is sharpness or ‘goodness’ of a sense. Hyper as a prefix means it has been amp’ed up. That is a good try but it turns out I am not exactly right.

According to Wikipedia, spatial discrimination can be made on a finer scale than what we are capable of with visual acuity. The good folks writing for wiki say misalignments of borders can be detected with 10x more precision than recognition of figures can be made. We are better at lining things up than we are at seeing what they are. Very interesting. Let me read some more.

OK. Hyperacuity appears to be the ability to identify the location of individual things in space particularly as they relate to one another.

So far not exactly coming together here. Let’s check Scholarpedia. They say hyperacuity is used to judge curves and sharpness of edges. Also to judge small differences in depth.

Now that sounds useful. I use hyperacuity to keep from walking into walls on curves and to see if pavement is uneven or just broken. Sounds like a good thing to have.

Apparently though hyperacuity is something you really start to lose quickly when you develop wet AMD. On medblog a doctor posted he was using the preferential hyperacuity perimeter, a test, to detect the start of wet AMD when it was still highly treatable. According to Regillo right now about the best chance you folks with wet AMD have is fast detection and fast treatment. That is where regular testing for hyperacuity comes in.

And that is why the home testing market is starting to boom. If you are able to test twice or three times a week from home, changes can be noticed very quickly.

I heard of an app for self-monitoring of vision functioning in patients with AMD and diabetic retinopathy. There is supposed to be a smart-phone based system that incorporates 10 vision tests in one app. It is called myVisionTrack Vision Monitor.

Looking it up in the app store, I found it in among dozens of other vision measuring apps. I am in the process of downloading it onto my iPad for free. However, an article in Retina Today says the app won’t sound the alarm to you doctor without your paying a fee. Maybe $9 a month.

To actually use this thing and have any results shared at all, it appears you both have to pay the fee and have a prescription. (I just discovered that without the 10 digit code it won’t even allow you to ‘play’ the ‘games’!) The developers don’t want people getting the results and trying to diagnose themselves. All results go to your doctor.

Party poopers. Some of my most accurate diagnoses have come from myself and the ‘Mommies’ at school. (Want to know something about health? Ask a lunch table full of Mommies!)

The Retina Today article also said something about the app not having all the bugs out (nearly impossible when dealing with a variety of people using a variety of devices under a variety of conditions.) It has not been FDA approved. Translation? Don’t expect your insurance to pay the monthly fee.

So this has been my contribution to our understanding of hyperacuity. I have still not found a paper hyperacuity chart. Anyone find one, let us know. Continue reading “Hyper What?”

When I Am Old

Hi, yoga outside last night was great. She kicked my ass as usual and I love it. Not saying what that might say about me but remember sensation is a distraction skill. Huffing and puffing and distorting your body into strange positions keeps your mind off of other concerns. When in yoga I spend a lot of time worrying about keeping breathing and not falling over!

I think you folks knew my yogini bought my car when I decided I was going to be too dangerous on the roads. My husband came upon two tires that fit that car when he was straightening up the garage.

I took them to yoga and told everyone I had come to exercise to get rid of my spare tires! Giggle. Giggle. Get it? Exercise? Spare tires? Oh, well…..

Moving right along…

This morning I put on what I thought (“what I thought” being the operative phrase here) were brown pants, brown shoes, a pink top, a pink sweater (one without chocolate on it….I think) and a brown, pink and red scarf. I got out into public and I had on plum pants and a burgundy, pink and red scarf. Crap!

I was able to ditch the scarf but all day I still felt like a fashion dunce. I have always color coordinated. This is not good.

I have already talked about the app I got for identifying colors. I may have to start using it. Although they put out a disclaimer saying it is not a scientific test, this and that, I did not do so well on the color perception test at igame.com/eye-test. There is also a link through the Popular Photography site (www.popphoto.com/whats-your-best-score). My best score was a 9. That suggests only moderate skill in perceiving color. I had not realized I was so bad. I may have to get myself a personal dresser.

Anyway, I was thinking the Red Hat Society might have the right idea. Make a virtue out of deficit. The Red Hat Society is a group of ‘mature’ ladies who have adopted a poem by Jenny Joseph. The poem is entitled When I Am Old but I don’t think people remember it that way.

How does the poem go?  “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple with a red hat that does not go….” I suspect you have heard at least part of it.

I would like to propose a theory: the old woman in question had macular degeneration and could not see the difference between red and purple. She thought she was color coordinated! When someone pointed this out to her, she said she knew that (yeah, right) and she was purposely exercising her age-given right to be eccentric!

How do you like that for a theory? I like it. I am not going color blind, I am a delightfully eccentric old woman. That is my story and I am sticking with it.

Now all I need to do is find a chapter of the Red Hat Society.  [Lin/Linda here: Sue and others, click here to find a chapter of the Red Hat Society near you!]

Continue reading “When I Am Old”

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

 

 

 

 

Merrily Down the Stream

My O & M guy asked if I had ever heard of something called the Victor Reader Stream. Nope. How about you?

I did a search and the first thing I learned is it is about $370. OK. What do you get for your $370?

According to the ad, the Victor Reader Stream is a “handheld media player for the Blind and visually impaired.” It plays DAISY books,” ….stop, DAISY books?

According to their website DAISY stands for Digital Accessible Information System. DAISY is supposed to be superior to the regular talking books because it has search and navigation features. In other words, you don’t have to listen to every word on every page to find what you are looking for.

I searched for ways of downloading the app or signing up for the service or whatever you have to do.  Unless you could consider me a small country, I did not learn much that would be useful. It appears your nation joins and then allows its citizens with print disabilities free use of the service. If anybody knows anything about it, let us know. I will try asking around.

Back to the ad “[It plays DAISY books,] MP3 and 4 as well as EPUB file formats.” …stop again. EPUB?

Not surprisingly, EPUB is short for ‘electronic publication’.  It is file format that allows all sorts of things. These include bookmarking, highlighting and re-sizeable font. It may already be on many of your devices.

The Victor Reader Stream allows for accessing Internet Radio. it is possible to listen to thousands of radio stations from all over the world on this device.

The Victor Reader Stream also has an audio recorder. It is possible to record class lectures and meeting. This feature and all of the rest are supposed to be on a device the size of an old style transistor radio.

And that is what I found out about the Victor Reader Stream. I vouch for nothing I wrote. I do not own one and I never used one. It was mentioned to me. It sounded interesting. I am mentioning it to you.

We are getting nothing for mentioning this product. Once again, we make no money on this site but we stand ready to promote things we have tried and believe in. This is especially true should there be a cash reward?.

If you buy a Victor Reader Stream and you don’t like it, don’t blame me. I heard about it and did a search. I did not tell you to buy one.

If you buy one and – like it or otherwise – want to make a comment about it, we would love to hear it. Remember our purpose here is to disperse knowledge. We also try to support one another on this crazy AMD journey. Feel free to share what you know.

“I shall pass this way but once; any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not deter nor neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.” – Stephen Grelletj

Continue reading “Merrily Down the Stream”

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”

Good Enough

The Cambridge English Dictionary actually gives a definition for getting one’s act together. Go figure. The good lexicographers offer the following as a definition: “To start to organize yourself so that you can do things in an effective way.”

Well, that is pretty much what I have always thought it meant. That is how I know I am not accomplishing it! The outcomes of my actions are not leading to my being effective at all.

I had plans to do great things this weekend. Friday sort of went to ‘holy hail Columbia’ because I spent all day shall we say “discovering the joys” of the new computer system at the office. I was sure I would rally and get lots done this weekend. Did I mention I am a cockeyed optimist?

First of all, my CCTV betrayed me. The battery went dead and refused to power back up. My husband thinks it is the transformer. That is the black box on the cord for us uninformed.

The replacement CCTV is supposed to be here Monday. That gives me several days to work under my back-up system, the iPad on my Justand. Not too bad. I fussed around until I got it so I could write under the iPad. Finding where I was supposed to be writing was ‘fun’. There seems to be a spatial distortion between where things are in reality and where they look to be magnified on the iPad screen. There were times I was using both hands to figure out where I wanted to write! Reading notes to type from was easier.

The other problem was the iPad kept going to sleep! Somehow it had been set to go dormant after two minutes of inactivity. In case you don’t know, you go into Settings to fix that little problem.  [Lin/Linda here: click here to go to instructions on how to change the auto sleep option on the iPad.]

I got the iPad set so it goes to sleep after a half an hour now. You can also set it so it never sleeps if you wish. I did not.

I had five psychological reports to write this weekend. I have one finished. Another almost done, another one is half done. I keep discovering I don’t have what I need to complete the job. For years I drove a station wagon or a hatchback. The cargo spaces were always full to overflowing with tests and scoring manuals. Now, if I am working at the office, half the time what I need is home. If I am home, it is at the office.

I find myself constantly changing direction because my original plan had been thwarted by not having the right materials for the job. Very frustrating.

So, to sum up, it appears I need to stop expecting great things. I have to stop thinking I should have it all together. Things break. There is a learning curve for every new skill and mastery takes time. Having duplicates for everything is just plain expensive and I cannot practically do that. This is my dose of my ‘new reality’.

Therefore, today I will finish what I can. Four half-done reports? So be it. At least I am closer to the goal than when I started. That will have to be good enough. Progress now. ‘Perfection’? Maybe later.

Continue reading “Good Enough”

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”

Highlight: Where can I get podcasts?

Do you know what a podcast is?  Click here for a great article that explains what they are and how you can find and access them.  It also has a great list of podcasts for those with low vision including ones from RNIB (UK) and several about technology for people with low vision.

For the purpose of this page, I’m not including sources for audiobooks.  That’s a topic for another page!

  • For topic-specific podcasts such as the ones related to blindness or low vision in the article above or the list below, go to their website for information about availability across devices.
  • For podcasts on a variety of subjects, use one of the software websites or apps that have gathered podcasts from a variety of sources such as TuneIn, iTunes or Stitcher Radio which are listed below.
  • For topics specific to a service such as NPR, CNN, Time Magazine, etc, go to their webpage or tablet/smartphone app.   Many of their programs can also be accessed through TuneIn, iTunes or Stitcher Radio which are listed below
  • To customize your own playlist, use what is called a podcatcher where you can search for and follow specific podcasts. You might use this if you find podcasts that you like that are not found on the same services such as TuneIn, iTunes or Stitcher Radio.  This is a little more complicated in that there are various programs to do this (I won’t be talking about that now but here’s a link to a list of podcatchers).   Some are also capable of catching video, news feeds, text, and picture.  Here’s a link to some of the best of them as defined by Tom.
Sources for podcasts related to blindness or low vision

This is NOT a list of all of them.  If you don’t find what you are looking for, I suggest you do a search using your favorite search engine with keywords such as ‘blind, low vision, podcast, audio’.

RNIB Connect Radio From the UK, they not only have podcasts but they have news and other programs/programmes, but though RNIB Connect Extra you can listen to various programs through the day. They also have a Facebook page.

Blind Living Radio is hosted by Harley Thomas with the help of special guest hosts.  They say: “We will cover topics ranging from life with a guide dog to advances in assistive technology. Nothing is off limits on Blind Living Radio.” From iTunes (see below) for Windows and Mac.

BrightFocus Foundation has a list of audio files. It is listed as Macular Degeneration: News You Can Use.  This app allows you to access the podcasts from the BrightFocus Foundation. Currently, there are 40 of them. You can play them on their website or though iTunes or through the App Store on your iPad, iPhone and iPod.

This website called Newsreel Magazine files that you can download.   The 3 hour monthly magazines consist of contributions from subscribers, often in their own voice. Formats available: instant download (mp3 file), NLS (National Library Service digital cartridge, audio CD (mp3 files), and 4-track cassette. They also have a Facebook page.

Talking Computers is a free monthly audio magazine about using computers with low vision.  Available as a download to use with iTunes through the App Store on your iPad, iPhone and iPod.

Mystic Access is packed with podcasts regarding the use of computers. Available to play from webpage or download.

Audio Internet Reading Service of Los Angeles (AIRSLA), an Internet-based radio station that broadcasts to those who have limited or no vision.  The range of topics they have is amazing, everything from periodicals to using technology to cooking.  Click here for list of categories of podcasts. You can click and listen for free to them on your computer, iPad, iPhone or iPod.  They also have a Facebook page.

Blind Planet has a variety of types of podcasts including tutorials and reviews of technology topics. Available to play from webpage or download.

Most popular sources for a variety of podcasts

TuneIn Site says that it “enables people to discover, follow and listen to what’s most important to them — from sports, to news, to music, to talk. TuneIn provides listeners access to over 100,000 real radio stations and more than four million podcasts streaming from every continent.” There are local stations as well. They have a Facebook page.

  • You can play the show directly on your desktop/laptop or download them.
  • Apps available for iPad and iPad (App Store) and Android (Google Play)
  • free and premium (subscription) options available.

Stitcher Radio for Podcasts  Here’s the description: “Listen to your favorite news, comedy, sports and talk radio shows and podcasts ON DEMAND from your iPhone or iPad. Discover the best of NPR, CNN, Fox, BBC, WSJ, Adam Carolla, Joe Rogan, Rachel Maddow, Rush Limbaugh, Fresh Air, Freakonomics, Radiolab and over 25,000 shows, podcasts and live stations. Change the way you listen to radio – on your schedule, not the schedule of traditional stations.” They have a Facebook page.

  • You can play the show directly on your desktop/laptop or download them.
  • Apps available for iPad and iPad (App Store) and Android (Google Play).

iTunes They say they have hundreds of thousands of free podcasts and that you can create your own. This link will get you to the ‘How to’ about podcasts.

  • You can play them through the iTunes software that you download onto a Windows or Mac computer.  On your iPad, iPhone or iPod, if you are keeping your version of IOS up-to-date, there is an app called Podcasts. If it’s not there, you can download it from the App Store.  To be honest, I do not know if you will be accessing the same podcasts or not.  I do know that you can sync them between your Apple devices: click here for the instructions.
Other podcasts and audio file sources

NPR This is a link to the podcasts on their website.  There are also iPad & iPhone apps to download from the App Store.  Their podcasts are also available through iTunes, TuneIn and Stitcher.

NY Times This is the link to the podcasts on their website where there are podcasts for music and book reviews.  There are iPad and iPhone apps by subscription.

CNN This is a link to the podcasts on their website.  There are also iPad & iPhone apps to download from the App Store.  Their podcasts are also available through iTunes, Tunein and Stitcher.

Time magazine This is a link to the podcasts on their website. The subjects include entertainment, politics and more!

Coming eventually: How can I keep up with my reading with e-books and audio files?

Do you have a favorite podcast or source for podcasts?  We’d love it if you’d share it.

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.

Books and More Books

I just set up my BARD account. It was actually pretty easy.

They made me swear on my soul I would not allow anyone – and especially anyone without a disability – to use my password and listen to BARD books. I guess I will have to make sure no one is lurking in the bushes under the windows when I listen to my books ! ☺

I have checked out the new offerings. There is a serious range of them. They have everything from last month’s Seventeen magazine to science fiction by Isaac Asimov to a work about the great extinction of the dinosaurs. There is also a load of French language books.

There is a list of popular titles. It looks like my favorite authors are the favorite authors of a lot of other people. Top of the list are Kellerman, Deaver and Patterson. Even better, there are several titles I have not yet read. All together, an excellent collection of stories for me.

I have not yet checked out the professional or reference works. However I would expect the offerings are extensive.

Now I probably missed the directions, but it took awhile for me to figure out how to download a book. I was not able to download from the BARD website. Obviously doing something wrong; or maybe not. I am not sure. I instead went into the BARD app that I had downloaded from the App Store.

I browsed through the titles and put one on my wishlist. When you open your wish list there is an ‘i’ in a circle on the right hand side. Hit the ‘i’ and your book will download. Once it is download, tap on the title and a representation of the player they sent me comes up. Hit the green button and the book starts to play. Sit back and enjoy.

Of course, now comes the not so good part. While BARD looks pretty good to this dedicated consumer of murder mysteries, it may not satisfy the needs of all. If you are a newspaper reader you are out of luck here. There are obviously no local dailies included. Wall Street Journal did not come up on a search and there were only a handful of old articles taken from the New York Times. No ‘scandal sheets’ as they were called at our house when I was young. If you want to know how the yeti is getting along with his alien abductors you will have to look somewhere else.

If you qualify for BARD it appears to be a nice option for those of us who enjoy a good book. Happy listening!

Continue reading “Books and More Books”

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”

Toy Story, Too

This is Toy Story, too. Sequels are not just for the movies.

Just like all roads led to Regillo, pretty much all ‘toy’ recommendations being given to me are for Eschenbach products. I am not telling you they are the best. I have absolutely no basis for comparison because I have tried very few other low vision products. I am just telling you these are the ones I have tried and so far, I like them. I like them. (This is not a paid endorsement but if anyone out there is with Eschenbach, we could talk business!)

My reader is a Smartlux Digital Video Magnifier. It is easy to use. The reader has 5x, 7x, 9x and 12x magnifications. You can hold it in your hand or prop it up on its little ‘kickstand’.

Sue's Eschenbach Smartlux Digital Magnifyer
Sue’s Eschenbach Smartlux Digital Magnifyer

There is no handle on the Smartlux like there was on the first reader I tried. That reader was all right, but as many products I have had to endure over the years, it was prejudiced against the left-handed. I could hold it in my right hand and there was no problem but the instant I switched it to my left hand, it would collapse on me.

Now, this is fine because, like I said, I have endured the effects of prejudice against us ‘sinister’ people and I am stronger for it. Just remember, when the lefties of the world take charge – as we rightfully should – the reader, the scissors, etc. will be made for the other hand. You have been warned! 🙂

OK. Moving right along….my reader has stop action. In other words, it takes a picture of what it is seeing. This is good in the grocery and a variety of other places. For example, you can stick the reader in the frozen foods case and not have to stick your face in there. Take a picture and you know what you are reaching for. Helpful considering I bought three pot pies I did not like the other week. Oooops.

The reader also has different colors and contrasts. I am uneducated about other eye disorders but I would assume seeing a yellow or a red background, for example, is helpful for some people.

Oh, by the way, most CCTVs have the contrast feature, too. I tend to mention what is relevant to me and gloss over some of the other stuff. Mea culpa, again.

The other thing I want to cover in this post is the pair of telescopic glasses I am trying. These are also called MaxTV but they are not clip-ons (clip-ons are available). I think the clip was bad on the MaxTV clip ons I was trying because they kept falling down every time I moved.

Sue's Telescopic Glasses, view 1
Sue’s Telescopic Glasses

One of the cool things about these seriously funny glasses is that they are adjustable. There are little wheels on the sides that move the lenses closer or farther away from one another.

I have been practicing with these telescopic glasses. I was using them to try to find my husband and the cart in Giant Food. When I found him, though, I had a little accident. I dropped six cans of tuna fish on the floor. Six different cans going in six different directions. It is important to remember that things appear closer than they really are when you are using telescopes. I really thought I was dropping the cans in the cart. One of the indignities of visual impairment.

It is important to remember that things appear closer than they really are when you are using telescopes.

Remember, as my father used to say, “do as I say, don’t do as I do.” The telescopic lenses are not for moving around. You are supposed to be stationary. Bee-bopping around the market is not the proper use for them…even if you have been running up and down the aisles with your hands full of tuna fish for the past 15 minutes and think you will never find him.

If anyone tells my optometrist/low vision specialist I have been doing this, I will deny it! I repeat, “do as I say, not as I do.”

That is it for my toys for now. Recognize that all of these products are rather expensive. I would refer you back to the post about the App Store for free and inexpensive alternatives to these. While the magnifier apps on my iPad mini are not as good a quality as the products I mentioned here, the price is right – often free.

It has come to my attention from the Macular Degeneration Partnership that most devices are not paid for by Medicare.

An approximately $400 iPad mini and free apps may do you well as an alternative if the price of other assistive devices is prohibitive.

Written March 2016. Updated September 2018.

Continue reading “Toy Story, Too”

Welcome!

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.

You are here to follow the journey & misadventures of a woman named Sue who became visually impaired with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD or ARMD) seemingly overnight.   Join in the tears and laughter. Join in the discussion. Learn more about Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Find resources for your own journey or that of someone you know.

We’re going on a bear hunt….can’t go over it, can’t go under it, got to go through it.

Sue is a psychologist trained in Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT) and is using it to help her cope with this vision loss. Her trusted and invaluable friends bring computer, research and occupational therapy skills to this endeavor. Yeah team! We hope you benefit from the fruits of our labors.

We are not offering free psychological therapy.  We are not medical people.   Please read the disclaimer.

This website is divided into 4 parts:

  1. If you have just been diagnosed or if you are beginning your research, here’s a place to start in I Have Macular Degeneration…Now What?
  2. Sue’s journal pages which are like chapters in a book
  3. Highlights & News which are basically blog posts
  4. Links to helpful resources (still under construction)

For those of you who aren’t familiar with websites or blogs like this, to ensure that you will be notified when information is added to the website, you must subscribe by email.  On a laptop & most tablets, you’ll find the place where you can do this in the right-hand column.  On a smart phone, you will find it below the content for the page that you are looking at.

We are still learning, we don’t know everything about this challenging disease.

Courses Coming Soon!

Thanks!

Thanks to Lesley B., Sally R., Dave M. and Gerry M. for going through the website looking for links that didn’t work, things that didn’t read well and typos.  We couldn’t have done it without you.

 

Tech Talk

On one of my ‘out to lunch’ ladies’ excursions we stopped at our local cellular store. I had been having difficulty with my cell phone. Or perhaps I should say my cell phone was having problems with me. I was unable to read my text. I was calling people I had no intention of calling. It’s amazing how similar some names appear when you really can’t see them well.

I was unable to read my text. I was calling people I had no intention of calling.

Tyler took my friend and me under his wing. He got into the accessibility menu of my telephone and tried to make the font big enough for me to see. He tried to point out all sorts of exciting things that could be done with my Android phone. It’s rather amazing what is on such a small machine.

Tyler wanted to put TalkBack on my phone. I demurred. I had already had it on and had a devil of a time getting it back off again. A sweet young woman in Maine and I spent 10 minutes laughing together. We could not shut the TalkBack lady off! Every time the phone was jostled that accursed voice would tell me the time! Things got so bad I suggested the young lady make a house call to help me out. After all Maine is only 8 hours away and this was an emergency! Thank heavens, I was finally able to quiet the TalkBack lady before we needed to go to these extreme measures.

There are accessibility features on both Android and Apple phones. Some are more trouble than they are worth.

So why am I talking about my interactions with the cell phone people? Well for one reason, these encounters once again prove my point that there are wonderful people in the world. I truly believe most people will help if you give them the opportunity. It makes people feel good to help. This is particularly true if the person they are trying to help maintains a sense of humor. A strong sense of the absurd is helpful, too.

I truly believe most people will help if you give them an opportunity especially if you maintain a sense of humor.

Another reason I have for highlighting these encounters is they gave me an opportunity to use the DBT Comparison Strategy. You remember: that is the Distress Tolerance Skill that basically says “hey, things could be worse. Look at that poor guy!” OK, maybe not those exact words, but you get the point.

“Hey, things could be worse. Look at that poor guy!”

I was thinking about what my father had to help him when he had AMD. He made do with a hand-held magnifying lens. Twenty years ago that was pretty much the state of the art.

Comparatively speaking, now is a great time to be losing your vision. Probably the best time yet in the history of the species. How do you like that for cockeyed optimism?

There is so much more to help people with low vision than the hand-held magnifier of 20 years ago.

I mentioned that I have always been an avid reader. Right now I cannot pick up a book or a magazine and get much out of it. However, I have read The Secret Garden in the last few weeks. How? Amazon has free classics to download on a tablet. I have a zoom feature on my tablet that allowed me to magnify the text. I may have had to turn the page at every paragraph, but I read the book.

I even solved the problem of ‘mystery novel interruptus’ that happened when I had to stop 30 pages shy of the end of a new releases paperback I had. Joy of joys, the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services tech guy loaned me a CCTV. That is closed-circuit TV. You put a paper or whatever you want to read under the camera and it shows up HUGE on the screen. It will have to go to the office when I go back to work, but right now I can get away with trying it out on some things here at home.

The tech guy loaned me a CCTV which makes things you put under the camera HUGE.

The bottom line for this post? You have technical resources. Get yourself to your friendly neighborhood tech or phone store and ask for help. Devices you already own – a cell phone, a tablet – have accessibility settings. Ask someone to help you use them. We have more resources to help us than any generation before us. Comparably speaking, it’s a pretty good time to lose your sight.

You probably already own a device that has accessibility settings.  Ask someone to help you use them.

Written in March 2016. Reviewed September 2018.

Continue reading “Tech Talk”

Accessibility by WAH