by Cheryl Megurdichian, CFRE
Ditching Resolutions My New Year’s resolutions were always bright and shiny, full of hope on New Year’s Day. But, by the end of the month they morphed into failures. When I set specific goals – I will walk 10,000 steps every day – one miss started a downward spiral. And just a few days […] Read More »
Tags: change, resolutions, self-improvement
by Kathy Austin
Rowan, a yellow lab, and Weller, a black lab, are two of Kathy’s guide dogs Around the holidays, I like to send a letter to my guide dogs puppy raisers. Included in the letter are photos of the dogs I have taken throughout the year. Finding those photos in the photo library has always […] Read More »
Tags: organizing photos, photos app
by Kathy Austin
Yikes, it’s a science experiment! Do you have one of these growing in your fridge? It’s so easy to miss a food item we think we’ll eat later only to have it hiding on the bottom shelf, Way in the back. Possibly dripping into your crisper drawer. Yuk! When you throw vision loss into the […] Read More »
Tags: cleaning out the fridge, expiration dates, organization
by Richard Stauder, CVRT CATIS
QR Codes in the Community QR codes are becoming more prevalent in the community. You will find them at restaurants to order your meal, get games on your phone, and obtain information about a community event. QR Codes, or Quick Response codes, have been described as a “modern three-dimensional” form of the traditional […] Read More »
Tags: Freestyle, QR Code
by Kathy Austin
Since we’re learning to live with COVID19, people are venturing out and many want to travel again. Browsing the Internet, I found dozens of practical tips for blind and visually impaired travelers, but what I felt was missing was ways to make a vacation special, enjoyable and, of course, fun. Some people with vision loss […] Read More »
by Siobhan Midgley, CVRT, COMS, TVI
It’s a blizzardy Saturday in Chicago; sidewalks slick, visibility low, fingers and toes frozen. I get a text from my client, and he has a conundrum. His usual route to his book club is just one stop away on the L. He knows the route well and normally has no difficulties traveling it. But he […] Read More »
Tags: Independence, interdependence, Mobility
by Siobhan Midgley, CVRT, COMS, TVI
Helen Keller visited the Piney Woods School in 1945, from the website Hall of Fame: Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field: Laurence C. Jones, accessed 13 June 2022, <https://sites.aph.org/hall/inductees/jones/> What is Juneteenth? When we learn about the end of slavery, we usually learn about the 1862 signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. But this […] Read More »
Tags: Disability Rights, Juneteenth, Laurence Jones
by Cody Froeter, CVRT
Back in December of 2020, Microsoft’s Seeing AI released an update for the app that included a brand new channel. The new channel, called World, uses an iPhone’s LiDAR sensors to gain a spatial, 3D depiction of the environment in the phone’s camera lens. Using 3D spatial audio, the app notifies the user of […] Read More »
Tags: iphone 13, Mobility, Seeing AI
by Siobhan Midgley, CVRT, COMS, TVI
This post is the second in a series by Siobhan Midgley, CVRT, COMS, TVI, on blindness disorders occurring in the brain. Legal blindness is defined as having central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with correction or field of vision less than 20 degrees. During my grad school days, if […] Read More »
Tags: Akinetopsia, Brain Blindness, cortical blindness, motion blindness
by Brian Marchetti
As a random disruption in my genetic code has replaced my vision with a constant series of swirling lines and exploding dots, I miss two things the most. I haven’t seen a human face in a decade. I have no idea what my wife looks like though I sleep next to her every night and […] Read More »
Tags: billiards, pool, retinitis pigmentosa