Remembering by smell

Sometimes, I use my sense of smell to help me travel down memory lane. It's something that I enjoy doing when I have difficulty sleeping at night. So, here is what I do.

I lie quietly and allow my mind to roam around. I can conjur up the scent of roses to help me remember their vibrant red color. I can bring back the smell of fresh cut grass to help me visualize fields of lush green and I can even manage to smell the salty sea to help me remember the sight of lazy white capped waves breaking gently against the golden sand and me frolicking with my dad and brothers in the breakers.

I can even visualize an ice skating rink by conjuring up the smell of the ice; yes, there is a distinguished smell to a rink just as there is a specific smell to a swimming pool. Then there is the unique smell of a hotel, the scent of pine to remind me of Christmass trees, the baking of cake and cookies to remind me of happy times, baking bread to remind me of granny, Old Spice cologne to remind me of dad and my brother Robert who have now passed on, and the scent of Oil of Olay products to remind me of mom.

Yes, using smell to remember! One of my favorite ways to help me fall asleep. I'm Donna j. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and try my strategy. Visit www.sterlingcreations.ca to learn more about me.

When things are out of place

I am normally a very organized person. Everything has its place in my home. Every room is well organized but this does not mean that I am a neat Freak so to speak. I do allow for slippage from time to time but Heaven help me when things somehow manage to go out of place. When something is out of place, I become confused and frustrated because I need to trace its whereabouts and then proceed to put it back into its proper place.

I have mental pictures of how things are placed, where they are in relation to other things and how they look. When I had enough vision to see things, it was practically the same, but now that I do not have very much sight, it is even more important for me to keep things in place at all times.

My dear mom is so good at letting me know when she moves things around. She tells me and then takes the time to show me. Of course, I do not expect everyone to be like her; it would be absolutely foolish of me to expect this but on the whole, my family and friends are pretty good about this.

I depend on mental pictures to help me find things. Everything is pictured in my mind and it sure helps.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and share my blogs with others. To learn more about how blind persons cope when things are out of place, visit www.rnib.org and www.cnib.ca.

The joys of no noise

So many people would love to live in a world with much less noise, but for me as a blind person I believe that my appreciation for less or no noise may be much greater. Noise distracts me when I am trying to do such things as listen to the TV, hear what my access technology voice software is speaking from the screen, and crossing a street or traveling around.

Of course, I will never be able to achieve a perfect balance of less noise, but I do my best to make the best of things. If for example I find myself in a situation of having large trucks with their engines idling around me or blaring horns beside me, I wait until the noise has retreated before crossing the street. Or if I am intently listening to a program on TV, I make sure that the noise around me is at a minimum. So, I do not do my laundry while working at my computer. Just a few things that I try to avoid when dealing with noise levels.

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 deal with noise. Visit www.afb.org to learn more.

Dealing with broken pieces

At the best of times, dealing with broken pieces and/or shards of glass could be a real challenge for anyone, but for a blind person it is even more of one. Broken pieces are probably one of my greatest challenges, sometimes turning into a nightmare for me.

So, how do I deal with broken pieces? Well, here goes. If something falls and shatters, the first thing I do is to ensure that I am wearing slippers on my feet. Next, I carefully back away from the area and then go hunting for the hand broom and dustpan. As I am doing this, I have to concentrate very hard to remember where the shatter took place. When I am sure that I know where it is, I gingerly get down on all fours, taking care to ensure that I do not do so with broken pieces in my way.

I then take the hand broom and begin to gently sweep around until I hear the broom knock against something and then I guide it to the dustpan. I repeat this action until I am sure that I have gotten everything but there is no way for me to know that I have gotten everything.

If the broken pieces are on my counter, then I use my hand broom to guide the pieces towards my sink taking care to place my dustpan in the sink before doing this. I allow the broken pieces to fall into my dustpan.

Of course there will always be other places where broken pieces will be if I break something. In the bathroom or anywhere else in my home, but these are my first ways of dealing with broken pieces. I am usually careful enough not to cut myself.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and tell others how I deal with broken pieces. Visit www.nfb.org to learn more.

Not because we are blind

In the normal scheme of things, there are many who feel that being blind prevents us from doing many things. Truth be told, there are some things that our lack of sight prevents us from doing, but on the other hand there are many things that we can do. The big difference is this: Whereas the sighted person almost always uses their eyes to do something, we as blind persons use our other senses to compensate.

There are many sighted persons who have difficulty comprehending that we can surf the Internet. We can do it and we do it with the help of software that is generally referred to as access technology. Screen readers, screen magnifiers, and Braille displays are just some of the more popular pieces of access technology. We can use iPhones, iPods, and iPads as well! Thanks to Apple, special software has been installed in these devices to make them usable by blind persons.

There are other gadgets and devices that make it possible for us to do things despite being blind. The Icon; one of the best PDA devices on the market for blind persons. The Victor Stream; which we can use to listen to music and read digital books. Various talking devices that make it possible for us to be masters of our kitchen. Various scanning software that we can use to help us scan documents.

So you see, because we are blind does not mean that we are unable to function independently. We will always need help to execute certain functions but the world for us is slowly improving. May it continue in this way.

I am going to give you a few websites to check out so that you can learn more. Here goes:
http://www.humanware.com,
http://www.levelstar.com,
http://www.independentliving.com,
http://www.maxiaids.com.

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 blogs.

The heartache of hoping

I am probably one of the most positive persons that you will ever hope to meet. I am always hoping and encouraging others to do the same. However, hoping does have its drawbacks, heartaches and big letdowns from time to time. Nevertheless, I keep on doing it.

I do my best to be realistic. I know that in my case, one of the few things that may help to bring back my precious vision would be a huge medical breakthrough. I lost most of my vision about seven years ago when I experienced a retinal detachment. My retina detached in three places and the doctors told me that it was one of the worst ones that they had ever seen. Still, I continue to hope but in order to avoid heartaches, I need to manage and temper my hopes. I need to keep my hoping under control. If I can manage to do this then I can avoid the devastating heartaches, but if I can’t then here is where I get myself into big trouble and eventual letdowns that are oh so hard for me to overcome.

I’ll keep on hoping; it’s what keeps me going and I encourage others to do the same. It never hurts to hope but it does hurt to hope beyond hope.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and share my blogs and thoughts with others. Never give up hoping.

A blind person's perspective

Whereas the sighted world mainly uses their sense of sight to help them perceive things, I and my fellow blind brethren use additional senses. We use the senses of smell, taste, touch, and sound to help us along. Here are some of my personal experiences.

Whenever I first walk into an unfamiliar area, I listen for sounds around the area to try and help me determine the size of the area. Next, I use my sense of smell, and if taste and touch could be applied, then I bring these into action as well. Of course, I could never use any of these senses to help me determine whether or not someone’s home is untidy or cluttered. So many times I have missed knowing whether or not someone’s place is in a tidy condition and I have to depend on my sighted buddies to tell me.

It is often said that one is judged by their immediate surroundings and I truly understand this but in some cases I can help my sighted buddies to make a judgment when I am able to point out things that they may have missed through my other senses.

Sometimes we get to exchange perspectives but on the whole I ca easily say that we come from different perspectives. The sighted person using their eyes to perceive and form judgments and I using my other senses to do the same. All in a day’s living.

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