Surviving on the Blind Side

I've noticed more than one of my TF family is experiencing vision loss. This article is for you.

• Get training early. For your own sake, don't wait until you've lost all your vision to learn how to cope without it. If you can afford it or get funding help, get a professional to teach you coping (otherwise known as activities of daily living) skills. Because I planned to reenter the workforce after my accident, I was able to get funding through the Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired (BSVI), a division of the Rehabilitative Services Commission.

Advertisement


• If you can't afford to pay a pro, ask a retired pro or blind friend for advice. You'll need to know how to do basic things like getting around, cooking and cleaning, just to name a few. However, if you're as big a computer geek as I am, you'll probably want to learn about assistive technology, too. There are even residential training centers, if that works best for you. I went through a short "personal adjustment" course at a residential training center in Columbus, OH. Most areas these days have organizations serving the needs of the blind. Check it out via your favorite search engine.
• Be ready to create your own solutions. Even the best adaptive-skills professionals can't teach you everything. No one taught me the money-folding system I use. However, in conversation with my friend and mentor, Debbie, I discovered she has her own system. Hers is similar to mine, but not identical.
Advertisement


• Get support. Your support system should start with your family - your spiritual family as well as your natural one. They may not understand exactly what you're going through, but no one ever said they had to understand your situation to listen. (My older daughter's Educational Psych prof just recently helped her understand the level of vision I have, after almost nine years.) If talking to a counselor helps, do it. From sighted to blind isn't an easy transition, but it can be easier with support.
• Make transportation plans a priority. Even though hubby continually promises he'll be my transportation, I know to have a "plan B" in mind. That is, if he's suddenly unable to take me to an appointment, I try to have at least one person in mind whom I can call on fairly short notice. I'm still working on the grocery issue, that is, how I'd stock groceries and household necessities in a worst-case scenario.
  Advertisement

  
  
  I have friends who deal with this daily; some do as I do and just stay home. Others pay for rides, either by cash or the barter system. I can trade my dish-washing services if nothing else, lol!
• Learn Braille. This is a skill I still don't have, although classes begin soon. Knowing the Braille code before you have no choice will help later. The NFB's position is that Braille readers have a better chance of obtaining gainful employment. Sighted people also have an annoying habit of assuming a blind person will automatically know Braille. I'm still using audio and simple tactile markings. Sometimes I feel as if I'm reading in Roman when the rest of the blind world is reading Greek, grr!
• Begin adapting your environment now. If you already know you'll be blind soon, why not start making things accessible now? It'll save you some aggravation later. Even simply using longer pull-cords for my ceiling fans than for the lights has made me less dependent on sighted assistance. There are all sorts of shopping sites marketing to the blind, but I've been known to use a rubber band or bread tie as a cheap tactile cue to the contents of a jug or package.
  Advertisement

  
  
  I know which jug in the fridge is milk and which water, just by where they're placed, which is more than hubby noticed recently.
• Store up memories. My blindness happened suddenly, but I still have about 40 years of visual memories to draw on and enjoy. Sunsets, rainbows, colors, my family's faces and yes, even beautiful celebrities.
• Never settle for second best! Eleanor Roosevelt once said "No one can make me feel inferior without my permission." Hers are words I live by. Helen Keller graduated Radcliffe, was a published author and public speaker, once Ann Sullivan opened the world to her via the one-hand manual alphabet. Louis Braille devised his tactile writing/reading system after an accident with his father's awl left him sightless. Don't let anyone look down on you or think you're less worthwhile just because you don't have 20/20 vision; I don't. We are ambassadors to the sighted world whether we like it or not; people judge all blind people by my actions. I don't know about you, but I love "changing what it means to be blind!" (That's the NFB tagline.)
Advertisement


• Don't pity yourself! Blindness is a pain in the neck, but far from a tragedy. I know people who are living full and rich lives, some with zero vision. I have a little residual vision and feel I'm gaining a tiny bit more every day, but it isn't physical sight that makes my life whole. It's the friends, the experiences and my relationship with my Creator. If you don't pity yourself, others will be less likely to do so.
• Pay it forward. Just like a sponge gives back the water it's absorbed, please give back the support you've received. You don't have to take up public speaking. I hear it's people's greatest fear, even greater than the fear of dying. If you don't want to blog or write essays as I do, or join Facebook just to show the online world that blind isn't equal to inert, find a way you're comfortable giving back.
  Advertisement

  
  
  Teach a small class at your church, synagogue or mosque. Help at your local thrift store, food pantry, or soup kitchen. Answer phones for a non-profit. (A couple of my friends do just that.) Even going out with friends and not spilling your food or drink can be a testimony, lol!

I hope I've lifted your spirits and your confidence level today "be blessed, my friends."

Source: Lessons I've learned over the past almost-nine years

By Lelia Jo Cordell from Springfield, OH