After the morning at Target Field I didn’t know what to expect at Vision Loss Resources. It was actually really interesting and helpful.
There is a whole spectrum of vision loss that affects people at various stages in their lives. In order to understand the common problems we first needed to learn the basics about our eyes. Frank had a model of an eye and was extremely good in explaining the importance of each part. Some of the facts I didn’t know. The cornea gives you 2/3 of your focussing power and 1/3 is from your lens. Cataracts are when a clouding of the lens occurs. Surgery for cataracts is one of the most successful surgeries that there is. The macula is used to see the details and the rest of the retina is for object detection. Before we could learn about services, we had to understand the main causes of blindness.
Macular degeneration, Tunnel vision, Glaucoma, Retinitis Pigmentosa, Diabetic Retinopothy and Stroke are the six main causes of blindness. They had glasses that we were able to put on that simulated each of these conditions. It was helpful to put on the glasses and see what it was like. Some of these conditions have a genetic component to them. Common eye diseases are described on the website for VLR.
The part that I found most interesting was how they help people who are suffering from vision loss and how they help them to remain independent and teach them to be creative about how they do their day-to-day tasks. On example that Frank gave was how he put his socks on. When he was younger, he just grabbed his socks, lifted up each foot and put them on. Now, he sits on the bed to put the socks on. As we age, our bodies change and we have to adapt to other methods of doing the same old thing that we’ve been doing forever. I think it would be interesting to take a pretty basic task and try to figure out as many ways to accomplish that task as possible. I bet students would be pretty creative with this.
They asked us if we had had visually impaired students and most of us raised our hands. But when they asked how many of us had any training on how to deal with that, I don’t think a single person raised their hand. Now I know that if I have a student with vision loss, I can call them for ideas on how to help that student. There were many suggestions as to how to adapt our classrooms.
Proper lighting is a huge issue. Sometimes just having a light designed for a task is helpful. You can get some of those lights at JoAnn Etc. Ottlite was the recommendation. Having a pen light handy, keeping their back toward the light to prevent glare, shades for windows that cut down the glare of the sun yet still let in light, and having high color contrast were all suggestions.
Organization is extremely helpful and necessary when living with vision loss. We were asked how we would tell the difference between a can of tomato soup and a can of tuna. (size and shape of can) We were asked how we could tell the difference between a can of Tomato Soup and one of Chicken Noodle. (shake and listen) But how about Tomato soup and Cream of Mushroom? Labeling with puff paint seemed to be a favorite method. Putting a rubber binder around certain containers works well. This is also a good method for shampoo and conditioner. There is a more permanent product called Himark that can withstand the dishwasher.
We were asked how we could measure a teaspoon of vanilla if we were blind. The solution: put vanilla in a wide mouth jar, use a metal measuring spoon that has been bent as if it’s a ladle. Lower it to the bottom of the jar and lift up to a perfect teaspoon of vanilla. There were some gadgets that were rather cool. Several of them would talk to you. A One-Touch can opener seemed pretty slick. The Ove-Glove looked better to use than an oven mitt. Having a needle nose pliers handy was suggested.
Stacy is in charge of the Social and Recreational programming. It is client driven. They do various activities such as playing cards and eating out. Going to movies and plays that have audio describe services are quite interesting. Between the dialog there is someone describing what you see on the screen or during a play. Stacy is organizing a camping trip for later this summer. She also coordinates a peer counseling program and a volunteer program. People can volunteer to be a phone pal, a reader (for mail), a shopper, or someone who does physical activities like running, roller blading or tandem biking.
At the end of the presentation there was a blind woman who had agreed to answer our questions. She said that there is a color reader app for iPhone. We mainly asked about her experiences growing up and what she currently likes to do.
I wish I had known about Vision Loss Resources earlier. I’ve had several students with vision issues but one in particular. My T.A. Joe, was albino and had vision issues. I always just asked him what he needed me to do. He would tell me so it seemed to work. But now I wish I would have known what questions to ask to help me understand his vision issues and therefore be better able to make accommodations.
Certain Absurdity 