Kestrell

From the Carroll Connector newsletter

Kes: The Braille Institute courses typically take place over Microsoft Teams, and using braille is not involved, so anyone can take these courses.
1. Braille Institute Announces More Than 200 Free Courses for Fall Semester (Desert Sun)
https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/2021/09/03/braille-institute-announces-more-than-200-free-courses-fall/5690365001/?bblinkid=253728718&bbemailid=33532450&bbejrid=2073405940

2. Making Your Website ADA Compliant Webinar Recording
Taking measures to ensure your business’ website is accessible can help your organization retain and gain consumers, meet ADA and other compliance mandates while also doing good. During our recent “Making Your Website ADA Compliant” webinar, Bruce Howell, accessibility services manager for The Carroll Center for the Blind, provided an overview on accessibility, an outline of regulations, as well as guidelines and technologies with clear action steps your organization can take to optimize web accessibility. If you missed the exciting webinar, don’t worry!
View the recording of “Making Your Website ADA Compliant” here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FnZmwHtVQo

3. Boom, bang, pop: WSU app developers get $100K to help visually impaired read comics - Wichita Business Journal
https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/news/2021/08/26/wsu-vizling-app-visually-impaired-comics-graphics.html?bblinkid=253728613&bbemailid=33532450&bbejrid=2073405940

4. Behind the Bow with a Visually Impaired Archer (Fox Illinois)
https://foxillinois.com/news/local/behind-the-bow-with-a-visually-impaired-archer?bblinkid=253728673&bbemailid=33532450&bbejrid=2073405940

5. How Vision Loss Can Affect the Brain (The New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/well/live/vision-loss-brain-health.html?bblinkid=253728704&bbemailid=33532450&bbejrid=2073405940

6. Join us at the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB) Virtual Job Fair
on Friday, October 1 at 9:00 A.M. EST which will be held via Zoom.
Meet with employers who are committed to interviewing and hiring qualified individuals who are blind and visually impaired.

If you would like to request an ADA accommodation, please contact MCB ADA Coordinator Kamilia Drogosz at 617-279-3332 or kamilia.drogosz@mass.gov.
Kes: The registration form has a field to upload your resume.
Register for the MCB Virtual Job Fair here.
https://massgov.formstack.com/forms/mcb_job_fair_for_individuals_with_visual_impairment?bblinkid=253728185&bbemailid=33532450&bbejrid=2073405940

February is Low Vision Month, and AccessWorld, a publication of the American Foundation of the Blind (AFB), has an article featuring resources for people who are adjusting to vision loss.
https://www.afb.org/aw/22/2/17391

This is a great, basic emergency kit-type article. If you're working in health care, but visual impairment isn't your speciality, keep this link as a resource, along with your state's equivalent of the next one.

In Massachusetts, any person, adult or child, who wishes to request services, needs to register with the
Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB)
https://www.mass.gov/orgs/massachusetts-commission-for-the-blind#main-content

Since the pandemic, MCB has set up
The Virtual Blindness Registry
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/mcb-virtual-blindness-registry
which is available via Zoom or phone Monday thru Friday from 10 am to 1 pm ET.

Important: Your ophthalmologist or optician is supposed to inform you when your visual acuity has reached low vision or legally blind, and when you have become eligible for low vision services
**but many do not know or do not care**
so individuals need to be proactive about being knowledgeable and seeking services if they feel they are needed and would make life easier. Please do not underestimate how much easier learning to adapt to low vision can make your life, or how connecting with other people who share the same experiences can make what seemed a depressing weight something you can deal with and even joke about.

You're never too old to learn new things and find new friends.

from
Check eligibility requirements
https://www.mass.gov/how-to/check-eligibility-requirements-for-mcb-services

block quote start

Definition of “Legally Blind”
Vision with correction of 20/200 or less in the better eye; or
Peripheral field of ten degrees (10º) or less, regardless of visual acuity.

*Legal Blindness does not mean total blind.

The Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB) oversees the registration process for the reporting of legal blindness. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 6, Section 136 requires that all eye care providers report within 30 days all cases of legal blindness to the MCB.

block quote end
Kes: Right. The ophthalmologist I had from the time I was 3 until I was 20 never told me I was legally blind, even though I had been blind in one eye the entire time, and read with the book touching my nose, and neither did my family. I fell down a lot of stairs, got a couple of concussions, flunked a lot of math classes, and I just want to say, no one needs to go through that kind of shit.

Go discover the secret language of braille. Find your inner geek with smartphone apps or a computer. Go listen to interviews with blind photographers or podcasters.
.

In my opinion, being low vision is way harder than being blind but, in part, that's because most people can't understand what low vision is and it's hard to explain. But if you are just beginning to need to deal with this, or you know someone who is dealing with it, I encourage you to connect with these services and technologies: these things do make life easier.