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Top 3 Organizations That Provide Assistance for the Blind

July 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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There are many organizations that assist people with disabilities. Blindness can be especially hard to cope with, but there are some top-notch groups that work hard to assist those with sight disabilities.
While many groups are based in the United States, there are organizations for the blind in other countries, such as the National Federation of the Blind United Kingdom. For blind advocacy groups in Canada, search with Canada 411. Here is additional information about three of the top groups for the blind:

 

The National Federation of the Blind

Founded in 1940, the National Federation of the Blind has gone from 16 members to more than 50,000. The NFB has worked to ensure that, unlike in other blind assistance groups, blind members hold the power and the priorities of sighted members never overtake those of the blind. The NFB also works to encourage laws and politicals moves that will benefit blind people.

 

American Foundation for the Blind

This organization seeks to open doors for the blind, specifically with technologies that provide assistance to sight-disabled people. The AFB is based in New York, but maintains centers around the United States, most notably the Public Policy Center that lobbies Congress for laws that to benefit the blind.

 

American Council of the Blind

What started as a magazine for the blind, the “Braille Free Press,” became the American Council of the Blind in 1961. THe ACB focuses mainly on media for the blind, a salute to their Braille Free Press roots. This group draws much attention to Braille publications, radio, and now, with the advent of Braille computers, Internet-based content.

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Charities and Non-Profits that Fight Blindness

February 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There are many non-profit organizations and charities hard at work everyday to find a cure for blindness and make improvements in the lives of the visually impaired.

Fight for Sight

Fight for Sight has been doing vision research for over 65 years.  This institution continuously raises money to do research to make advancements in the visual impairment world.  They continue to do experimental treatments that have helped the visually impaired.

Prevent Blindness America

Prevent Blindness America is a charity that encourages annual eye exams and blindness prevention.  The agency educates the public about vision problems in adults and children.  They continue to be a voice for the blind in hopes of getting more government support in eye care protection and research.

Sight Savers

Sight Savers fights vision loss in third world countries. Their team members travel to Nigeria to do eye exams on people who desperately need medical attention but have no money or access to doctors.  Sight Savers have saved the lives of thousands of people by healing health issues that could have eventually caused blindness as a side effect if they were not diagnosed.  They have saved 21 million people from river blindness,  common cause of vision loss in poor nations.

The Seeing Eye

The Seeing Eye is a non-profit organization based in Morristown, New Jersey.  At the Seeing Eye they train canines to be seeing eye dogs.  In addition, they temporarily house blind individuals and train them to work well with a furry companion before sending the person and the dog home together.

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The Importance of Appearances for Blind Teens

December 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Parents of blind or partially sighted teens will be aware of a constant struggle for their offspring to be seen as one of the crowd. As parents, all that we want for our children is for them to feel confident and accepted. With the turmoil of the teenage years and the problems of popularity and peer pressure, this can be a hard enough task for teens who have it all going for them.

But for teens who are, in some way, different, the quest for confidence and acceptance can be one that is even harder. For this reason it is important that the parents of teens who are in some way vision impaired keep their finger on the pulse of teen culture and help their teens to integrate, if that is what their children want.

While we would all like to believe that appearances do not matter, it is an unfortunate truth that nevertheless is true  during those teen years. And, while parents should continue to be conscious of not placing too much importance on superficial qualities, it is important to maintain an awareness of the things that are important in the world of a teenager.

Buying for blind teens is an important part of helping them integrate into the world around them and parents should not fall into the trap of assuming that, because a teen cannot see the labels or logos attached to their clothes, that what they wear does not matter.

Blind teens may be more keen than their seeing counterparts to appear as one of the crowd, so don’t discount the idea of investing in big brand clothes or Philip Stein watches on their behalf. Asking a trusted friend along on shopping trips can help offer a contemporary perspective and determine peer acceptability of purchases.

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Web-Braille Important Tool for the Blind

October 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Web-Braille Important Tool for the Blind

Web-Braille is an innovative web-based resource that gives the blind vital access to many thousands of magazines, books and even musical scores as produced by the NLS (National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped) division of the Library of Congress. It also includes an ever-expanding collection of locally transcribed titles produced by cooperating partner libraries. One must have a password in order to access the Web-Braille website, and the files offered are in an electronic form of contracted braille that requires that the user have special equipment in order to make it functional.

Web-Braille Content Provides Blind With New Vistas

Since 1992, close to 10,000 titles have been produced by the NLS for downloading from their website. These can also be read online at the Web-Braille library. These titles are added to the collection at the same time that printed braille-books are shipped to libraries serving the blind. Magazines are also available in the Web-Braille format. Generally they can found on the website within a week or less of when the printed-braille version is made available. For the blind who are musicians or composers, there’s also great news. Several thousand braille scores are currently found on the Web-Braille website, with new ones being added each month by the NLS. These scores cover the gamut of musical instruments and styles. Both instrumental and voice compositions are included. This is one of the most popular features on the NLS website. Piano compositions in particular are one of the more prevalent resources.

Access to Web-Braille Website Secure and Blind-friendly

In order to use the website, a user must work with their local coordinating library to set up their account. This includes an email address and user-created password. The library then finalizes the process of activating the blind person’s account. An email is sent once this process is completed. Upon admission to the website, the user will discover that the site is designed with their unique needs in mind. With access, the user can now request items to either be mailed or downloaded at no charge.

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Digital Talking Books Opening New Worlds to the Blind

October 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Digital Talking Books Opening New Worlds to the Blind

For many years, the only format of talking books available to the blind were those recorded onto cassette tapes. This analog recording process has been a proven and affordable technology, but also one with limitations. These include degradation of audio quality over time, a time-consuming process for recording and transferring the data, and limited length of recording time. The great news is that in recent years, digital recording onto media cards, CDs, DVDs, and the Internet have eliminated most if not all of these analog tape obstacles. Digital offers a wide variety of improvements versus analog, including the ability to use a recording in a wide variety of mediums, greatly improved audio quality, and the flexibility of rapidly sharing the information recorded to many more blind users.

New Machines and Tools Created to Help Blind Readers

With the rise of digital as the predominant medium for blind readers, there has also been improvements in the machines used by the blind to read these new and improved books. For many years, there was only one device available for users to choose from for reading books. There are now many exciting features for blind users to choose from, including such things as being able to jump back and forth in a book, bookmarking, being able to vary the speed of the playback, and even keyword searches within the text. These and other advances are making for exciting and untapped worlds to be opened to the blind.

Braille Still Vital to the Blind

One may wonder if these advances have rendered the learning and usage of Braille as unimportant. Just the opposite is in fact the case. Both the machines and the media used to use these technologies commonly use Braille to provide instructions for usage and customization. Braille is also still considered a superior technology for reading books, especially for the reader looking for a greater catalog of material to read from. Users of Braille can be confident that it will be a vital part of the landscape for years to come.

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Many Benefits to the Blind From Learning Literary Braille

October 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Literary Braille and Reading for Pleasure

One of the important considerations that should be made when deciding whether or not to learn Braille is to determine if you only need to read and write basic information like grocery lists, telephone numbers, and other simple lists. If this is the case, then alphabetic Braille or as it used to be called, Grade One Braille, will be adequate for your needs. This is the version of Braille that requires you to write out an entire word, letter by letter. For example, the word “dog” would need to have the separate letters “D-O-G” written out.

However, if you desire to read books, magazines, or newspapers in Braille, you’ll need to learn what is termed Literary or Grade Two Braille, also known as “contracted” braille. This is a form of braille that is condensed in order to allow more characters to be printed in less space. It uses only one cell to represent an entire word, unlike Alphabetic braille.

Many Benefits to the Blind From Learning Literary Braille

Most Braille users would opt for learning the alphabetic and literary versions of braille, for obvious reasons. Knowing only Alphabetic Braille would place a significant limit on a blind person’s ability to discover the world and to make their way through life. It’s important to remember, though, that learning the literary version will take significant time to study before one has achieved mastery. In many instances it may be a year or more before this is accomplished. It is also essential that the blind Braille reader have good sensitivity in their fingers, as the placement of dots on a page in a book, magazine, or newspaper will be much more condensed.

Decision to Learn Braille An Important One

Once you have determined which version of Braille you want to learn, the next step is to decide how you’ll go about learning it. It is recommended that a blind person first have an assessment done of their finger sensitivity to determine whether or not they’ll be able to discern the dot placement of the literary version.

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Technology Opening New Doors to the Blind

October 10, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Technology Opening New Doors to the Blind

For those who are blind or who suffer from low vision, this is an exciting time to be alive. Advances in technology are rapidly and permanently opening new doors that have long been closed to these individuals. In some ways this can be overwhelming to someone who has had to live with some degree of imposed limitation for at least some portion of their life. Now that these limitations are disappearing, a blind person must begin to view the world in a new and at first unfamiliar way. People that haven’t had to face the everyday struggle of living in a sightless world may sometimes lack empathy for these individuals, which is understandable. It is ultimately up to each blind or sight-impaired person to determine how they will employ technology in their lives.

Assistive or Adaptive Technology: What is it?

One of the more exciting developments in recent years has been the emergence and incremental improvement of assistive or adaptive technology. There are many different types and categories of tools available, including such things as electronic braille readers, digital book players, computer software and computer scanners, large print calculators, and others. These items can range in cost from a few dollars to a thousand dollars and up. The most basic definition as to what one of these devices are is this: Any tool or device that provides greater ability and freedom to someone who otherwise would lack these things. it is important to note that with many of these tools, first having a basic understanding of braille makes them much more effective and helpful.

Is Braille Still Important?

For this and many other reasons, being “conversant” in braille is as vital a skill for the blind in today’s world as it has ever been. Although there are some both within and outside the blind community that have advocated for a decrease in the value placed upon learning and using braille, the evidence is clear that this is still a critical capability to have in the world today.

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Braille in the 21st Century

October 8, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Braille in the 21st Century

The world is an exciting place to live in at the dawn of the 21st century. Technology is making life more favorable but also more complex. This is also true for people in the blind community. Technology allows the sight-impaired to do things that they’ve never been able to do before, but at the same time it has also created new challenges and anxieties unknown in earlier, simpler times. In order to thrive in such an environment, it is essential that a person have on hand a map and instructions on how to use it to find one’s way to freedom and joy.

Reading the Key to Success

Many life skills are important in a person’s journey to personal fulfillment and meaning. But of these, perhaps none is of greater value than that of being able to read and comprehend what one has read. This is equally true both for those who are blind and those who can see. Just as a person who can read is considered to be literate, so someone who is blind but that can use braille or other means to read should also be considered intelligent and capable of thought. This is true whether one is reading books for employment, education or merely entertainment. In each case, being able to read gives the blind person a window to the world that would otherwise be shut. Everyone is benefited when someone has access to enlightenment.

Books and Braille Are Keys

Every effort should therefore be made to ensure that the blind have unfettered access to the full range of books available to anyone else. Technology is increasingly making this possible, but as of today there are still countless volumes that are sealed shut to the sight-impaired. For the benefit of all, tireless effort should be exerted to achieve this important objective. Books in braille are the most powerful way for the blind to have access to an exciting new world.

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Braille and the Freedom of Thought

October 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Braille’s Most Important Freedom: The Freedom of Thought

It is commonly accepted in today’s world that the blind are equal in every way to those that can see. Although limited in sight, they have vital contributions to make toward improving life for themselves and for others. In particular, their ability to read using braille and other reading technologies provides the blind with one of the most precious freedoms available: The freedom to think for themselves, and the subsequent ability to express those thoughts to others.

The Blind and the Right of Independence

Another essential right that braille provides to the blind is the right of independence. No one enjoys the feeling of being dependent on another for providing the necessities or niceties of life. There is something inherent in the human spirit that demands that we be free and unfettered. Braille is an essential means of providing this independence to the blind, especially as it relates to understanding and living in the world of today. Through braille the blind have access to education, employment, entertainment and countless other avenues.

To Read is to See

Some have argued that as long as someone can use a machine to help them “read,” braille is an archaic, unnecessary tool. There is, however, a profound and important difference between being able to listen to a book being read on tape or CD and the ability to actually read that book. Reading is a much more immersive experience and is far more likely to lead to profound thought, as well as the expression of that thought, than is merely listening to someone else reading. Being unable to read also limits the freedom of a person in advocating for their own rights, since one must be able to internalize and understand changes to laws that relate to their civil and human rights. Without question there are exciting new alternative technologies that are emerging or becoming mainstream in the world of the blind. That being said, braille is every bit as vital a tool as it was the day the Louis Braille developed it long years ago.

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Home Appliances for the Blind

October 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Appliances for the Blind

There are many exciting new developments in the world of home appliances for those who are blind or who suffer from low vision. Whether one is looking for a new range top, a microwave, the latest dishwasher, or even a new washer and dryer combo, most appliance manufacturers are becoming more innovative in their inclusion of blind-friendly tools and technology in their products. These include specially-designed displays, raised fonts and braille on appliances, and even voice-activated controls. The blind and those with low vision have never had as many exciting options to choose from as they do today.

Choosing the Right Appliance

All this being said, these features are of little or nor value unless the user first knows how to use them and is comfortable doing so. It is therefore important to spend some time in research before making such a significant and expensive investment. One of the first questions to ask is this: “What are the most important features I need in this appliance?” It is also helpful to determine one’s comfort level with technology. A refrigerator might have all of the bells and whistles (and the price tag to match), but unless you know how to take advantage of those features, they will be of little or no benefit to you.

Braille Still a Central Feature on Appliances

It is also important to determine how critical it is for braille to be included on your new appliance. Manufacturers are including braille characters with some devices, and of course they can also be added using a braille stamp machine or labeler. For those with low vision, several of the major brands are including such things as large LED-displays or raised-print fonts to allow you to easily use their products. In all cases, remember to do your research before you arrive in the showroom. It is easier to succumb to the pressure of a salesperson if you haven’t first decided what you actually need beforehand. Happy shopping!

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