When I was really young, I knew I was going to grow up to be the next great Boston sports athlete. I was thinking Mo Vaughn or Drew Bledsoe. Mind you, this was back when we loved our teams but they never won anything. My dreams changed when I was eight years old and I began to lose my vision. It started in my left eye, then moved to my right. By the time I reached middle school, my dream of playing professional sports came to a sharp end. For…
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While sitting with a good friend one day enjoying her company, she asked me about my phone and to how much I was able to use it. She wondered if she were to send me a web link to something, would my phone read it to me. At the time of our talk, I just responded with a simple explanation that my phone reads any text on the screen, and that I can navigate all of my phone’s apps, settings and features. It was a rather short conversation and we…
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I vividly remember the incessant hammering of the MRI machine, the seven vials of blood drawn on two separate occasions, the car rides to and from the appointments, preliminary testing by an ophthalmologist that seemed right out of a sci-fi novel, and my parents leaving the pediatrician’s office in tears after hearing the initial findings and dire possibilities of disease. We weren’t prepared for the psychological sh*tstorm that would ensue after the diagnosis of optic nerve hypoplasia was delivered at the age of 9. I began to really suffer psychologically…
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Trigger warning: this post contains mentions of drug/alcohol use, suicide and self-harm My name is Ashley. I’m 21 years old and I became blind at the age of 17 from a drug overdose. On November 1, 2016, I attempted suicide and was officially dead for 17 minutes. Ever since then, I’ve been learning how to be a blind person and cope with the reality of what I did to myself. As the years have gone on, I have started to understand and accept myself. I have begun to realize…
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During a recent Zoom meeting with our team, a colleague joked that her biggest concern in the current crisis was that she was having a hard time getting wine delivered. While we all laughed at her comical cry for help, the underlying message was a wake up call for me. That colleague, like many of our colleagues here at Perkins, is blind. If anyone should have been clued into what she, and others in our community, may be needing help with during this crisis, it should have been me. Yet…
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I am a blind traveler and scientist and I am just trying to do my own thing. I stand in a crowd, surrounded by the noise of luggage rolling past, different languages being spoken, and the feel of a slight breeze on my face as people pass me by. I have just landed in London and have chosen to decline the assistance that is offered to blind individuals, like myself, although I do not know the way. I stop for a moment and focus on the sounds around me, identifying…
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People with visual impairments are navigating the Covid 19 pandemic right alongside their sighted friends and family members. At the same time, they’re also faced with some unique challenges of their own. To raise awareness of some of these issues, and to learn how communities can support their blind neighbors and loved ones during this uncertain time, we caught up with Perkins School for the Blind’s Jerry Berrier and Kate Katulak. Answers have been lightly edited for clarity. What are some of the challenges you’re facing in day-to-day life as…
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This past April, I started my 50th year of working with and for persons with disabilities. With a goal of becoming a teacher out of undergrad, I started out as an O&M instructor at a state rehab center Kentucky, and then went to graduate school to become an O&M Specialist. From there, I moved on to private rehab services in Charlotte, the Veteran’s Administration in Texas, state rehab in NC, then to UNC Chapel Hill. I retired from UNC in 2013 and now consult for the Association on Higher Education…
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The Ramble Tag is a guidance aid, designed specifically to improve the experience of guided walking and sport for visually impaired people. It was invented April 2018 by Laura Maclean and Tom Forsyth. Here’s their story. Laura: Tom is my neighbour, and because he is visually impaired, I’ll help him walk his dog when his partner is away. During these walks we have built a fun, creative friendship – always sharing a love for problem solving. We are “chalk ‘n’ cheese,” but we inspire each other and make each other…
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I work at a non-profit organization that trains guide dogs for the visually impaired. As a “puppy Kindergarten manager,” I coordinate with dedicated volunteers and staff members to create a good foundation for our puppies who will grow up to be companions and guides. We expose them to body handling, different surfaces, and different noises in order to prepare them for the world outside the kennel environment. Then, at about 12 weeks old, our puppies go home with volunteer puppy-raisers for just over a year to be exposed to a…
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