Who is the blind one?

This is the question that many of my sighted friends continue to ask me and they do this after witnessing something like this.

We are in a store or supermarket or just walking along and someone is walking towards us. They are sighted and it is clear to my sighted companions that they see me walking with my cane. Yet, what do they do? They walk right into me! No, I'm not exaggerating! They walk right into me as if I did not exist and keep on going. Or here is another picture for your consideration.

I am standing out of the way against a wall chatting with others. Someone is coming along towards me and instead of going around me they walk right into me. So again I ask: Who is the blind one? Is it really me or the one who sees me but feels that it is appropriate to walk right into me?

I am confused and maybe someone could help me to understand what is it that I am not doing correctly.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and asking that you go out there and share my words with others. You can visit www.acb.org to learn more.

How do I convince them?

What am I asking today? Well, I am wondering out loud: how do I, along with so many other blind persons, convince the sighted world that, "Yes! We are persons who can take our places in society and be contributing members to the economy."

Just like the sighted world, we too have the ability to think for ourselves, speak for ourselves, and we have the power of reason and logic. We can understand and listen when spoken to and we can also hear very well; we do not need to be shouted at. We can learn just like anyone else and we can enjoy everything that the sighted world enjoys. That is, those things that we choose to enjoy.

We can enjoy shopping, cooking, reading, outdoor activities, and going to movies and watching TV like anyone else. We may do it all a bit differently because of our lack of sight, but never the less, we enjoy it anyway. We can enjoy traveling, surfing the Internet, and making friends through social networks. We can play lots of computer games and so much more.

I hope that I have convinced you in some way that, yes! Blind persons can also enjoy!

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and share my words with others. Visit www.nfb.org to learn more.

My body language

At any given time we all need to pay close attention to our body language, but for a blind person it is even more important for us. Why is this? Because we need to make sure that we communicate exactly what we wish to convey given that we cannot see the recipient’s reactions and we want to make sure that their reactions are what we can decipher, understand, and in turn react to.

Many blind persons have told me that, unfortunately, they were never taught how to use body language when they were growing up. This is probably why so many blind persons are amazed when they are told that they can communicate through gestures using various parts of the body.

They can use their heads to nod. They can use their hands to emit emotions and feelings. They can use their shoulders to shrug. In addition, they can learn that they do not need to stare straight ahead of them all the time. They can move their heads from time to time to vary their gestures.

Many blind persons are often unaware of the world of body language and it may only be because they honestly do not know. So maybe you can go out there and help blind persons to learn more about how to use body language.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to come by and visit me at www.sterlingcreations.ca.

Listen to our kids

In the normal scheme of things, we feel that it is our kids who need to listen to us, but sometimes we need to listen to our kids. Whenever we think that they are not paying attention, then guess what? They are and much more than we think. Whenever we think that they are shutting us out, it is we who are doing it, not them.

In November of 2010, I was invited to visit the Grove Community School by two teachers of a grade one class. Shannon and Velvet wanted me to meet a group of my youngest supporters in my present court case against the Canadian Government. Before I visited, Shannon told me that these little ones had sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to make the government of Canada websites accessible to blind persons.

Just imagine my surprise as I sat among these young minds listening to their questions. They were not afraid to ask me anything. Their questions were intelligent, intuitive, and you know what? They had not been coached by anyone. Straight out of the mouths of babes, so to speak! Such bright stars and who knows! Maybe our future prime minister could have been among this bunch of enthusiastic youngsters?

As I walked out of the school on that crisp fall morning I looked up to the Heavens and shook my head with relief. I felt that we were in excellent hands! All we need to do now is to listen to our kids.

Note: In May 2011, I received an email from Shannon Green informing me of the following: These little gems managed to convince their parents to take their message one step further. To a Congress of Labor conference in Vancouver where over 1000 delegates voted to pass a resolution asking their over two million workers to demand that the government drop their appeal to my court case!

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and tell others about me. Come visit me at www.sterlingcreations.ca.

Connecting the wires

This is probably not one of my favorite activities or tasks. If I have to connect wires to a single unit or do a simple hook-up, it is okay. But when I need to do this and it includes wires going to and coming from various devices all at once, then here is where the fun begins.

When I had vision, it was much easier for me because I could see the colors and I used to color code my wires. Now I either call on sighted assistance or I use tape to mark my wires. It is more cumbersome and tedious, of course, but nevertheless I always plan to do most of it myself if I cannot find sighted assistance.

I am pretty good at figuring out how things work. I often help my mom to connect wires and plugs. I enjoy doing it if I have a fair idea as to what I am doing, but whenever it gets confusing, I get frustrated. So how do I deal with it? I do my best to be calm, logical, and methodical.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and tell others how I go about connecting wires.
Visit www.nfb.org to learn more.

When I played marbles

This was one of the favorite games of my brothers and cousins growing up, but at that time I could not fully participate so I became the bank. What was that? I was the one that kept the marbles for each player when they won them and loaned them to the player whenever they ran short of marbles.

My brothers and cousins knew that I could not participate fully so it was their way of including me in their marble games. Of course, I developed my own marble games and played by myself. I created a tiny enclosed area on a table and then arranged the marbles in a small ring. I then tried to hit the marbles out of the ring with other marbles.

Most times it worked for me and I had fun but it was also hard for me because I could not play with others and if a marble rolled off the table I had to go looking for it or seek help. In short, I had to be careful not to roll the marbles too hard. At that time, however, I could see the colors of each marble and would sometimes sit for minutes on end gazing at each of my marbles and enjoying their colors.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and tell others about my marble games. Come visit me at www.sterlingcreations.ca.

Checking out labels on packages

Bar code readers for blind persons have certainly come a very long way. There used to be a time when a blind person, including me, used to have to depend on sighted assistance to get our packages read. Over the years this has improved greatly and now we have a few sources on hand to help us.

There is the bar code reader that you can buy at the websites listed below. There is also a device called the Pen Friend and here is how this works. You record your info on a special tiny label and affix it to your package. You will need sighted assistance to do this the first time. Someone to tell you what is on the package and after recording this you have it all there. You can then go back and use your special pen to read what you have recorded.

If I receive a package in the mail and need to read it, I do this in two ways. First, I could either use the scanning software in my talking cell phone, the KNFB reading software. Or I could put it under my scanner, the IPal Solo, or any other scanner that is similar to this scanner.

Of course, with the evolution of the IPad, there are apps out there to help you with this task as well. You can find apps to do this at a very cheap price. Both the apps and the scanning software utilize a camera that takes a picture of the printed matter and then converts it to voice output. Being able to read the info is becoming more important to everyone and the blind community certainly does not want to be left out of it.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and tell others about my blogs.
Visit www.maxiaids.com or www.independentlivingaids.com to learn more.

The challenges of packing for a trip

In a previous blog, I told you about how much I depend on my color detector in my daily life. This little friend also plays a very important part when I prepare for a trip.

The challenges of packing for a trip for me are that I need to ensure that I can find what I am looking for. No different really for a sighted person but for me there is the additional challenge of ensuring that I know which tops go with which bottoms. So I take lots of time to pack my clothes and arrange them in such a way that I can easily find matching clothes.

I always pre-designate each corner of my suitcase for something specific. Shoes and slippers go in one corner. I place my night clothes and casual stuff in another corner. Another corner is reserved for my dress clothes and the fourth corner is reserved for my toiletries. I have learned to be more specific and thorough with my packing ever since losing most of my vision.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and share my words with others. Come visit me at www.sterlingcreations.ca whenever you have a free moment.

Terror without my color detector

Ever since losing most of my sight, I depend on my color detector to help me with deciphering the colors of my clothes. This nifty little gadget has the voice of an Englishman and here is how it works.

You place this hand-held gadget on a piece of clothing and turn it on. It then tells you the color. The voice is clear and has a pleasant tone. Most of the time it is accurate, and I can only guess that when it is not, it is picking up the colors of various threads in the piece of clothing itself.

This little gadget plays a very important part in my life so just imagine how I felt when it died on me a few months ago just before I had to pack for a trip. I suffered for a few days until I was able to purchase a replacement. You can learn more about the color detector by visiting www.independentlivingaids.com and www.maxiaids.com.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and share my blogs with others.