conuly

In similar thoughts, it's occured to me lately that if we lived in a world without glasses, I'd be actually pretty disabled for that.

This is something I've had to think about more often than I'd like. I was horrified to discover, when I turned 19, that although as a student in full time education at 18 had entitled me to NHS assistance for my eyes, turning 19 suddenly counted me as an adult who could afford hundreds of pounds every 6 months. And there was no university offered support either.

So despite the fact that without my glasses I would have been completely incapable of completing my degree, there was no support for the fact that I needed them. (I'm as good as blind without them - I can't even read a book. My field of vision is about 3 inches, and that's only if I have one eye closed.)

Then one day at work last year a lens spontaneously popped out of my frames. I realised that unless we could somehow get the lens back in, I would have to go home - my entire job revolved around being able to use the computer screen and I couldn't spend the rest of the day with one eye closed.

I think a lot of people with lesser myopia (or hyperopia) underestimate how much some of us rely on glasses.

From:

Seconded! I live in envy of people who can actually forget their glasses. There's a scene in Minority Report where the guy actually manages to get all the way out of the house to his car and partway down the street before returning to get them ... and then has the nerve to say "I forgot my glasses, I'm as blind as a bat without them." No, you're not. If you're capable of walking more than three feet without realizing you've forgotten them, you are not as blind as a bat.

I mean, I can have a moment of panic because they're one foot to the right of where I normally put them and have to call in my husband to look, but I can't be far enough away from them to lose them!

My last job offered "vision coverage" of $35 every two years for an eye exam and $35 every two years for a set of glasses or contacts. I worked out that this came out to about 8% of my total biannual expenditure of a $75 exam every six months, $400 contacts once a year, and $300-400 lenses for my glasses every six months (I can't see as well with the glasses as the contacts, but I also can't not have glasses, since my field of vision is also about 3" and I can only wear my contacts so many hours per day).

From:

I have a friend who's a children's librarian and I once heard her talk about a series of children's books about a ... rabbit? I think it was some sort of animal... who is deaf and the point of the books is about him going to the zoo or the circus or whatever, but as a side effect of this, it shows how people who are deaf would do those things. Probably you should ask your local librarian.

From:

mortaine.livejournal.com

Helen Keller is your friend. There are several kid's books about her life, some very good which explain how she learned to read (there was one that had a page of braille at the back and the alphabet in braille, so kids could figure it out). This one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440404398/sr=8-6/qid=1154800721/ref=pd_bbs_6/104-2968258-6863943?ie=UTF8) has good reviews and might be the one I remember. This one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0590479636/ref=pd_sim_b_4/104-2968258-6863943?ie=UTF8) has a page of sign language in the back.

Also, the Little House on the Prairie books (and TV show) can be helpful-- Laura's sister Mary was blind, and it was just part of their life.

Here (http://www.kennedykrieger.org/kki_misc.jsp?pid=2518) is a list from an institute. And another list (http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/books.htm).

From:

conuly

I actually stopped reading the books right before she went blind, if you can believe it. I got the whole set for Christmas one year during our book-buying spree, and I got into some other book right then. But I do intend to lend them to Deniz for bedtime reading right after she and her mom finish Prince Caspian. Lend, I said, lend! Though, knowing Deniz, this may be just her thing to keep - she's a bit of a girly-girl, and as I recall, the Little House books are very popular among kids who are just a little bit girly-girly.

(There's nothing wrong with that, I might add, so long as she's happy that way, but it does mean she does distressing things like choosing the teaset over the gardening kit, and wearing an awful lot of pink and purple. Ah, well, can't be helped, she should be who she wants to be.)

From:

Well, I know stuff about blindness. :) And I know a fair bit about deafness, given that two of my housemates studied ASL until they maxed out the courses available in our area on them. (ASL, Deaf culture, etc.)

Cooking isn't as hard as most people think it is. First, it's trivial to add dots to a microwave to tell you where the buttons are. They make little plastic sticky bumps you can feel and stick on stuff. I have one on my washer to tell me where the dial is turned to. Stuff on the stove isn't that hard either, because lots of stuff is just boil for this long, then drain. There are plenty of timers that make sounds (and talking thermometers, scales, watches, etc.). If you want to make sure you know when something is boiling, you can buy a pot boiler, which is a ring of glass that will vibrate up and down when the water boils such that it bangs into the bottom of the pot audibly. Cutting, chopping, and mixing just aren't that hard to do by feel; it's just a matter of getting used to it.

For the not all blind (which is most blind people), there are high contrast everything (measuring cups, chopping boards (both light and dark so you can use whichever works better for what you're chopping). There are countless devices that most people aren't aware of that make blindness much easier. If you go to the memories for

i_l_brl you can see some sites with various stuff for blind people. Seeing the tools gives you a fair idea of how stuff can be done.

If you have time with her, you can teach her to walk with a cane; it's not hard and with an adult watching should be safe. The trick is to really use the cane, not just try to walk around with no vision. The way to use a cane is to hold it ahead of you and down and tap the ground to the left or right of where you want to walk, swing it in a little arc to the other side, and tap it on the right or left (opposite of what you last did) of where you want to walk. This lets you determine depth and make sure that the space you intend to take up is clear. The only danger is low-hanging branches or other things that hang down from above. And you want a long stick. I'm 5'2" and use a 50" stick. But it doesn't need to be a fancy stick to try it out. Sure mine is an awesome folding 4-part aluminum cane with marshmallow tip (to do less damage to things I tap) that self-expands when I shake it out, and has a comfortable grip, while being light-weight. But any long stick will work. I am quite proud that given a stick, I can safely navigate with no vision.

Also, you tend to learn your routes and the places you go. You learn about that annoying bump on the way to the train station or whatnot. Being blind generally means a lot of route memorization. Although a lot of blind people are getting into GPSs. (I think that's the right acronym for those things that tell you where you are.)

From:

conuly

I was thinking specifically of you when I told her I'd ask around, and I did make a point of telling her that most blind people can see a little bit, even if it's just light and dark.

Thank you for the information... actually, teaching her to navigate unsighted would probably be a really good idea. We all know that it's only fun and games until somebody loses an eye, so this way she can have fun even if that should happen!

From:

conuly

And yes, GPS - Global Positioning System

From:

I'm as good as blind without them - I can't even read a book. My field of vision is about 3 inches, and that's only if I have one eye closed.

Some of us don't even have that much. I have astigmatism in both eyes -- I can't see anything clearly, regardless of how near or far it is. I have hyperopia and presbyopia, so my distance vision would be fine and I would only need glasses for the computer, reading, sewing, and other close work. But I can't see a damn thing at any distance -- it's all blurry. I'd be completely helpless without my glasses.

From:

For anything to do with deafness, ask

woofiegrrl or

eyes_of_cyrene.

From:

Oh, I know people have got it worse than me. Although I just realised I misrepresented mine - I have about an inch of good vision, about 3 inches in front of my face. So it's completely and utterly useless really. I expect that by the time my eyes stop deteriating, I'll have lost even that. I had hoped I'd have settled down by the time I was 21, but it seems not.

(I've got myopia + astigmatism, though my astigmatism is relatively mild, just a couple of diopters in each eye.)

From:

conuly

That *is* bad.

My eyes got really bad during my teen years, and I worried that I'd actually have problems even with glasses, but they settled down when I hit 19 or so.

From:

conuly

Saint Patrick's Breastplate! Referenced in An Acceptable Time by Madeline L'Engle and in one of the Professor Childermass books by John Bellairs, damned if I can remember which one it was.

And, of course, A Wind in the Door, if I recall correctly.

From:

Yeah, mine are about as bad as you get (I believe) without actually having anything exotic wrong. I was 12 when I could no longer read without them (and even at that age I had to hold the book close to my face.) Not long after that I was at the stage I'm at now - I won't even shower without my glasses on. Sleeping is the only thing.

It's depressing when your friend has "really bad eyesight" and you realise his prescription is 'half' yours (of course, I'm fairly sure diopters aren't a linear scale) and that once upon a time you actually had the same level of eyesight. But that was ten years later and his have done nothing since, whilst yours have just kept getting worse.

Glad that at least yours have settled down though.

From:

marveen.livejournal.com

It's interesting that you prefer a folding cane; I work for a lady who's been blind since birth (glass eyes, too, so no high-contrast stuff) and she overwhelmingly prefers her full-length cane over a folding model--metal tip, too.

And you neglected to mention the part where you stick your forefinger down the side of the glass/cup to tell you when you've poured enough to fill it.

(She has a marvelous cookbook in Braille, "Cooking Without Looking", in several volumes.)

From:

A Swiftly Tilting Planet, actually. A Wind in the Door is the one with the dragon; A Swiftly Tilting Planet is the one with the unicorn. :-) Now, this icon is from A Wind in the Door.

How is her stuff for adults? I've read all the Wrinkle in Time series and all of the Austins series (which may be the weirdest series ever, since it was written over the course of decades and the setting is always "present" day but the kids never get older).

From:

*g* I do that too if I get up in the middle of the night to pour myself a glass of water. My vision isn't good enough to see the distance to a cup sitting on the countertop.

From:

conuly

Haven't read much of her stuff for adults. The Young Wizards series has a similar problem - over the course of a single summer, the kids don't age, but all their technology and political situation updates by a decade or so.

It's fine when you're expecting it, but really weird.

From:

Sorry for the late reply. I've been having net connectivity problems.

I'm multiply disabled, so my cane has to compensate for more than just blindness. I use it also for support and balance. As such, I need something able to hold my weight, but light enough to be able to switch uses around easily. The folding aluminum cane works wonderfully for this. Plus, I have enough vision that often I really only need it to probe for depth and do a simple, am I missing anything right in front of me, which simply putting it down in front of me and using it for support lets me do. I'll probably eventually move to a wheelchair-cane combination.

My comment wasn't meant to cover everything, just give a bunch of basics. Plus, the web sites have liquid level indicators that people can use for drinks, if they want to. So, some info on that was available. I dunno if it'd mention putting your hand on the outside to feel the level for hot drinks. There are likely countless little details about being blind, but if you get a good smattering of them, I think it gives enough of the idea that there are ways and it's just a matter of learning them.

From:

In similar thoughts, it's occured to me lately that if we lived in a world without glasses, I'd be actually pretty disabled for that.

This is something I've had to think about more often than I'd like. I was horrified to discover, when I turned 19, that although as a student in full time education at 18 had entitled me to NHS assistance for my eyes, turning 19 suddenly counted me as an adult who could afford hundreds of pounds every 6 months. And there was no university offered support either.

So despite the fact that without my glasses I would have been completely incapable of completing my degree, there was no support for the fact that I needed them. (I'm as good as blind without them - I can't even read a book. My field of vision is about 3 inches, and that's only if I have one eye closed.)

Then one day at work last year a lens spontaneously popped out of my frames. I realised that unless we could somehow get the lens back in, I would have to go home - my entire job revolved around being able to use the computer screen and I couldn't spend the rest of the day with one eye closed.

I think a lot of people with lesser myopia (or hyperopia) underestimate how much some of us rely on glasses.

From:

Seconded! I live in envy of people who can actually forget their glasses. There's a scene in Minority Report where the guy actually manages to get all the way out of the house to his car and partway down the street before returning to get them ... and then has the nerve to say "I forgot my glasses, I'm as blind as a bat without them." No, you're not. If you're capable of walking more than three feet without realizing you've forgotten them, you are not as blind as a bat.

I mean, I can have a moment of panic because they're one foot to the right of where I normally put them and have to call in my husband to look, but I can't be far enough away from them to lose them!

My last job offered "vision coverage" of $35 every two years for an eye exam and $35 every two years for a set of glasses or contacts. I worked out that this came out to about 8% of my total biannual expenditure of a $75 exam every six months, $400 contacts once a year, and $300-400 lenses for my glasses every six months (I can't see as well with the glasses as the contacts, but I also can't not have glasses, since my field of vision is also about 3" and I can only wear my contacts so many hours per day).

From:

I have a friend who's a children's librarian and I once heard her talk about a series of children's books about a ... rabbit? I think it was some sort of animal... who is deaf and the point of the books is about him going to the zoo or the circus or whatever, but as a side effect of this, it shows how people who are deaf would do those things. Probably you should ask your local librarian.

From:

mortaine.livejournal.com

Helen Keller is your friend. There are several kid's books about her life, some very good which explain how she learned to read (there was one that had a page of braille at the back and the alphabet in braille, so kids could figure it out). This one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440404398/sr=8-6/qid=1154800721/ref=pd_bbs_6/104-2968258-6863943?ie=UTF8) has good reviews and might be the one I remember. This one (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0590479636/ref=pd_sim_b_4/104-2968258-6863943?ie=UTF8) has a page of sign language in the back.

Also, the Little House on the Prairie books (and TV show) can be helpful-- Laura's sister Mary was blind, and it was just part of their life.

Here (http://www.kennedykrieger.org/kki_misc.jsp?pid=2518) is a list from an institute. And another list (http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/books.htm).

From:

conuly

I actually stopped reading the books right before she went blind, if you can believe it. I got the whole set for Christmas one year during our book-buying spree, and I got into some other book right then. But I do intend to lend them to Deniz for bedtime reading right after she and her mom finish Prince Caspian. Lend, I said, lend! Though, knowing Deniz, this may be just her thing to keep - she's a bit of a girly-girl, and as I recall, the Little House books are very popular among kids who are just a little bit girly-girly.

(There's nothing wrong with that, I might add, so long as she's happy that way, but it does mean she does distressing things like choosing the teaset over the gardening kit, and wearing an awful lot of pink and purple. Ah, well, can't be helped, she should be who she wants to be.)

From:

Well, I know stuff about blindness. :) And I know a fair bit about deafness, given that two of my housemates studied ASL until they maxed out the courses available in our area on them. (ASL, Deaf culture, etc.)

Cooking isn't as hard as most people think it is. First, it's trivial to add dots to a microwave to tell you where the buttons are. They make little plastic sticky bumps you can feel and stick on stuff. I have one on my washer to tell me where the dial is turned to. Stuff on the stove isn't that hard either, because lots of stuff is just boil for this long, then drain. There are plenty of timers that make sounds (and talking thermometers, scales, watches, etc.). If you want to make sure you know when something is boiling, you can buy a pot boiler, which is a ring of glass that will vibrate up and down when the water boils such that it bangs into the bottom of the pot audibly. Cutting, chopping, and mixing just aren't that hard to do by feel; it's just a matter of getting used to it.

For the not all blind (which is most blind people), there are high contrast everything (measuring cups, chopping boards (both light and dark so you can use whichever works better for what you're chopping). There are countless devices that most people aren't aware of that make blindness much easier. If you go to the memories for

i_l_brl you can see some sites with various stuff for blind people. Seeing the tools gives you a fair idea of how stuff can be done.

If you have time with her, you can teach her to walk with a cane; it's not hard and with an adult watching should be safe. The trick is to really use the cane, not just try to walk around with no vision. The way to use a cane is to hold it ahead of you and down and tap the ground to the left or right of where you want to walk, swing it in a little arc to the other side, and tap it on the right or left (opposite of what you last did) of where you want to walk. This lets you determine depth and make sure that the space you intend to take up is clear. The only danger is low-hanging branches or other things that hang down from above. And you want a long stick. I'm 5'2" and use a 50" stick. But it doesn't need to be a fancy stick to try it out. Sure mine is an awesome folding 4-part aluminum cane with marshmallow tip (to do less damage to things I tap) that self-expands when I shake it out, and has a comfortable grip, while being light-weight. But any long stick will work. I am quite proud that given a stick, I can safely navigate with no vision.

Also, you tend to learn your routes and the places you go. You learn about that annoying bump on the way to the train station or whatnot. Being blind generally means a lot of route memorization. Although a lot of blind people are getting into GPSs. (I think that's the right acronym for those things that tell you where you are.)

From:

conuly

I was thinking specifically of you when I told her I'd ask around, and I did make a point of telling her that most blind people can see a little bit, even if it's just light and dark.

Thank you for the information... actually, teaching her to navigate unsighted would probably be a really good idea. We all know that it's only fun and games until somebody loses an eye, so this way she can have fun even if that should happen!

From:

conuly

And yes, GPS - Global Positioning System

From:

I'm as good as blind without them - I can't even read a book. My field of vision is about 3 inches, and that's only if I have one eye closed.

Some of us don't even have that much. I have astigmatism in both eyes -- I can't see anything clearly, regardless of how near or far it is. I have hyperopia and presbyopia, so my distance vision would be fine and I would only need glasses for the computer, reading, sewing, and other close work. But I can't see a damn thing at any distance -- it's all blurry. I'd be completely helpless without my glasses.

From:

For anything to do with deafness, ask

woofiegrrl or

eyes_of_cyrene.

From:

Oh, I know people have got it worse than me. Although I just realised I misrepresented mine - I have about an inch of good vision, about 3 inches in front of my face. So it's completely and utterly useless really. I expect that by the time my eyes stop deteriating, I'll have lost even that. I had hoped I'd have settled down by the time I was 21, but it seems not.

(I've got myopia + astigmatism, though my astigmatism is relatively mild, just a couple of diopters in each eye.)

From:

conuly

That *is* bad.

My eyes got really bad during my teen years, and I worried that I'd actually have problems even with glasses, but they settled down when I hit 19 or so.

From:

conuly

Saint Patrick's Breastplate! Referenced in An Acceptable Time by Madeline L'Engle and in one of the Professor Childermass books by John Bellairs, damned if I can remember which one it was.

And, of course, A Wind in the Door, if I recall correctly.

From:

Yeah, mine are about as bad as you get (I believe) without actually having anything exotic wrong. I was 12 when I could no longer read without them (and even at that age I had to hold the book close to my face.) Not long after that I was at the stage I'm at now - I won't even shower without my glasses on. Sleeping is the only thing.

It's depressing when your friend has "really bad eyesight" and you realise his prescription is 'half' yours (of course, I'm fairly sure diopters aren't a linear scale) and that once upon a time you actually had the same level of eyesight. But that was ten years later and his have done nothing since, whilst yours have just kept getting worse.

Glad that at least yours have settled down though.

From:

marveen.livejournal.com

It's interesting that you prefer a folding cane; I work for a lady who's been blind since birth (glass eyes, too, so no high-contrast stuff) and she overwhelmingly prefers her full-length cane over a folding model--metal tip, too.

And you neglected to mention the part where you stick your forefinger down the side of the glass/cup to tell you when you've poured enough to fill it.

(She has a marvelous cookbook in Braille, "Cooking Without Looking", in several volumes.)

From:

A Swiftly Tilting Planet, actually. A Wind in the Door is the one with the dragon; A Swiftly Tilting Planet is the one with the unicorn. :-) Now, this icon is from A Wind in the Door.

How is her stuff for adults? I've read all the Wrinkle in Time series and all of the Austins series (which may be the weirdest series ever, since it was written over the course of decades and the setting is always "present" day but the kids never get older).

From:

*g* I do that too if I get up in the middle of the night to pour myself a glass of water. My vision isn't good enough to see the distance to a cup sitting on the countertop.

From:

conuly

Haven't read much of her stuff for adults. The Young Wizards series has a similar problem - over the course of a single summer, the kids don't age, but all their technology and political situation updates by a decade or so.

It's fine when you're expecting it, but really weird.

From: