The first big plane trip with my parents

I can still remember this trip. I sat in the middle with Mom and Dad on each side of me. We were on our way to Panama and I was just so excited. Scared, not really! Dying to know what was going on around me? Definitely.

Dad took my hand in his warm and gentle grasp and then proceeded to give me a detailed description of the scene surrounding our plane as it flew on. Deep blue skies with white puffy clouds floating by. The sun shining down on our plane and sparkling ocean below. He went on to explain all about air pockets, altitude, tail winds, and so much more.

Mom sat quietly and took it all in and then she did what she always does best; she gave me a detailed description of what other passengers were wearing and doing after dad had finished his description. By the time they were both done I had had a complete description of everything that I had ever wanted to know. What terrific parents taking the time to introduce me to the world of flying and air travel!

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to visit www.nfb.org to learn more.

I Am Blind But I Can Smell

The other day I mentioned to a friend that I was thinking of traveling to Ottawa for the Tulip Festival. Every year during the first two weeks of May, Ottawa is ablaze with literally hundreds of thousands of tulips sent to the city by the government of The Netherlands. The tradition started as a result of a momentous event that took place during World War II and as part of its eternal gratitude to Canada, The Netherlands showers Ottawa each year with throngs of tulips.

According to history, during World War II the young Dutch queen of The Netherlands, who was pregnant at the time, was sent to Canada for protection from the Nazis. During her stay in Canada her time had come to give birth. In order to ensure that her child was born into the house of royalty of The Netherlands, her hospital room was declared territory of The Netherlands so that her child could be born on Dutch soil. The Netherlands has never forgotten this deed by Canada, and this is why it sends hundreds of thousands of tulips each year to Ottawa.

When I was able to see, I visited Ottawa one year for the Tulip festival and thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic sight of being able to admire all of those wondrous tulip. I vowed to return one day to enjoy it all again. This time, however, I would be enjoying it without being able to see it. So when my friend innocently asked me, "How could you enjoy it if you are unable to see it?" I was ready with a response. "I may not be able to see them now, but I can surely smell them!"

My poor friend was thoroughly embarrassed, but I quickly brushed it off and quietly told her that blind people sometimes use their sense of smell as a substitute to enjoy things that they cannot see. We both laughed it off.

If you would like to learn more about how blind persons can enjoy things that they are unable to see then please visit http://www.nfb.org/ or http://www.rnib.org/.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your accessibility and special-needs business consultant wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and educate the rest of the world that blind persons can definitely enjoy things by smell.

The Mystery of Colors

To many of those who are unable to see colors, the word color remains a great mystery and at best a great desire to discover the unknown. As someone who was able to see colors all my life up until five years ago, I can faithfully tell you that it is practically impossible to teach someone who is unable to see colors what colors look like. This is one of the things that I miss the most; the ability to see colors.

One cannot hear colors or smell colors. One cannot feel colors or taste colors. One cannot sense colors or touch colors; but one can see colors if they are able to. I often wonder if there could be a way to teach a blind person what colors are all about, but several of my friends who were born with no vision often remind me that colors do not really mean anything to them because they were never able to see them in the first place.

Colors mean the world to me and will probably always mean the world to me despite my loss of vision. You see, when I hear a word or think of something, I think of it through color. Whenever I smell or touch something I put a color to it. Whenever I play or compose music, my thoughts are covered with colors! I dream in color and I think in color!

Whenever I take those joyful jaunts down memory lane, I can see a sunrise as pure as gold, a sunset that is a soft pink, the placid sea that is a shade of royal blue and a sky that is a much lighter shade of blue. I can see a big silver Air Canada jet bird and the fast flowing silver water of the Niagara Falls. The big fat white snowflakes and the smiling red rose. My favorite color is yellow with blue running a comfortable second and red coming in third.

Colors will always play a very important part in my life. I used to depend on colors to identify objects but sadly no more. Now I use colors to remember persons and things and even as I write this there are some special memories that will forever remain imprinted on my mind such as my beloved dad, who passed on 21 years ago, in his light grey suit. My beloved brother, Robert, who passed on two years ago all decked out in his pilot's uniform: a handsome black uniform adorned with gold stripes. My beautiful mom standing before me in a turquoise dress forever and so much more.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your accessibility and special-needs business consultant wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and enjoy your world of colors. If you would like to learn more about how blind persons function without color then please visit www.nfb.org.

What Does Blind Mean?

I truly believe that most of the sighted world has a fixed notion as to the meaning of the word "blind." I say this based on a life-long experience, plus those of several of my fellow blind and visually-impaired friends and acquaintances. In a nutshell: the word "blind" is taken by the majority of society to mean that a person is unable to see anything. In addition, many mainstream persons would tell you that they have a very difficult time understanding what blindness really means.

As a kid growing up in a mainstream environment with two sighted parents and two sighted brothers, I never really gave much thought to this topic except to tell you that from the start I always knew that I was blind because I could not see what others saw. I had a bit of vision that enabled me to see things at a very close range but still things were extremely blurry. I was able to see colors, daylight, and I could distinguish light from dark and some objects. Then when I was in my teens I received a cornea transplant and the world really opened up for me. I was still classified as "blind" but now I could see much more. Then five years ago I lost most of it, and now I really know what it is to be blind.

To clarify the picture for you: The word "blind" is liberally used to describe a person who has difficulty seeing things. Someone who is unable to drive because they did not pass the eye test. Someone who either uses a cane or a guide dog to move around. Someone who uses specialized glasses to read and write. Someone who can only see light, shadows, but nothing more.

Someone who is totally blind means that they are unable to see anything.

So you see, there are varying levels or degrees of blindness and there are different terms to describe each common level. You may hear terms like: High partial, high functional vision, low vision, low functional vision, light perception, and totally blind. If this is all confusing to you, then there is the term legally blind.

As for me, I was born with low-functional vision, graduated to high-functional vision, and now I am back to light perception. All very confusing you say? Then try this on for size: Different countries apply these terms a bit differently.

Here are two websites to visit so that you can see for yourself:

www.nfb.org - In the United States.
www.rnib.org - across the pond in Britain.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your accessibility and special-needs business consultant wishing you a terrific day and asking you to help educate the rest of the world about what the term "blind" really means.

How Big Is My World?

In the normal scheme of things, my world should be as big as I want it to be, but in today's society it is very difficult for me to define the size of my world. You see, my world is not really in my hands. For the most part and sadly so, my world remains in the hands of society; there are days that I wish I could change this, but I can't.

One of my favorite quotations is by Robert F. Kennedy: "Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?!" And this is the philosophy that I use every day of my life in order to define my world in my own way.

You may be wondering why I would say that my world is not in my hands but rather in the hands of society.

Society has, inadvertently, continued to erect countless barriers for me and others who are blind and visually impaired. They have erected daunting barriers for millions of persons with disabilities and have even gone the extra mile to do the same for seniors. In the case of persons with disabilities, and in particular persons who are blind and visually impaired, one of the most challenging barriers that I and my cofrères face is a barrier called Attitude.

This barrier is nothing new and has been around for a long time. If we do not take steps to bring it down, then I am afraid that we will find ourselves short changing tomorrow's generation of disabled kids, preventing them from experiencing a better future. In short, if we do not start to be pro-active in stead of re-active, we will be robbing our disabled kids of their rights to a future that ought to include them as contributing members of society.

All my life I have had to battle attitude barriers from society. As early as I can remember, my parents had to battle the system to allow me to obtain my formal education. Then, as a university student I had to endure constant remarks from those professors who made no effort to hide their discontent about having a blind student in their class. In the workplace I and others have had to deal with the narrow-mindedness of managers and co-workers alike who do not believe that blind and visually-impaired persons can be productive.

This is why I am so glad that I can now use the Internet as my workplace. Most of my clients are blissfully unaware that I am blind and, frankly, they would probably not care as long as I was able to perform to their satisfaction.

I am not content to sit back and wait for things to happen and this is why I have managed to expand my world much more than many others like me. I challenged an ice skating school to teach me to ice skate; I have learned to play chess; I have written two books; I have hang glided, sailed, and even driven around in a parking lot. No, I am not showing off! Just trying to motivate others to expand their world. Nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it, but one has to be realistic.

The attitude barrier needs to be addressed. To be charitable (which I am), I can say that 99.9% of the time, this barrier is erected by those who are limited by such things as: cultural beliefs, fear of the unknown, fear of interacting with those who are different, and an unwillingness to learn new things and meet new people.

Here are two websites that you can visit in order to learn more about the world of blind and visually-impaired persons: National Federation of the Blind (http://www.nfb.org) and American Foundation for the Blind (http://www.afb.org).

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your accessibility and special-needs business consultant, wishing you a terrific day and reminding you to go out there and help us to lower the attitude barrier. You will not only be helping us but you will also be helping to create a better future for others.