One year ago today, Roja and I graduated as a team from Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, CA, and life hasn’t been the same since. In addition to getting Roja, this past year has been full of both amazing and difficult changes. From moving across the country and being apart from dear family and friends to growing in confidence as a mom, writer and teacher, Roja has been a constant companion who shows unconditional love (and licks!). Continue reading “Better Place: A Year With Roja”
As soon as I started connecting with Ashley Nemeth from Mommies With Guides, I immediately noticed something refreshing about her: she is completely matter-of-fact about her blindness and her accomplishments. She is almost totally blind, so as soon as I heard that she is an avid snowboarder, I of course, had to ask how she does it. I think you’ll find her response quite interesting!
Continue reading “Blind Snowboarding: How She Does It and More”
When you have a guide dog, you sometimes feel like a famous person getting stopped frequently to sign autographs, minus the actual signatures and paparazzi. When I first got Roja last year, I loved it when people stopped me to ask questions. I didn’t mind if it turned into a longer conversation, as long as I was able to share all about Roja and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
So much has transpired in the last 5 years of blogging together. Our perspectives have shifted dramatically. If you look at one of our very first posts, “To Tell or Not to Tell”, about whether to disclose our vision loss in public, to more recent posts about guide dogs and canes, the shift is obvious. But it didn’t happen overnight. And it didn’t happen without a lot of input and support from friends we met in the online community.
2011-2012: We’re not alone. Between our readers, Facebook groups and fellow bloggers’ posts, we discovered a whole new “blogosphere” of people with Retinitis Pigmentosa and other conditions. It was this connection that pushed us to keep writing, keep exploring, and keep discovering new things about ourselves and the unique world of vision loss.
2012-2013: There’s a lot more to life than going blind. If you look at our archives, you’ll notice this is the year we took a little hiatus. Jenelle had her second baby, Joy started working on other writing projects, and life got busy. We took a little break from both writing and reading vision-related blogs for awhile, realizing that there are so many more aspects to our lives than vision. But when we picked back up and started writing consistently again, we were once again greeted with enthusiasm and encouragement.
2013-2014: The blind community is as diverse as the general population. Blindness is something that crosses all cultures, age groups, genders, and socioeconomic levels. Consequently, the personalities, likes, dislikes, hobbies, views, etc. are extremely diverse. This was the year we really began discovering the wide array of people in the blind blogosphere. We have had the privilege of connecting with a multitude of interesting, yet often very different friends in the online blind community, including blind active mama friends, crafty comrades adventurous, witty intellectuals, artsy, clever New Yorkers, blind Canadian advocates, bold blind fashionistas, and let us not forget our guy-friend blogger and his amazing TEDtalk. And this just scratches the surfaces of interests, personalities and geographic locations. 
Even among assistive devices, people have their things; some like dogs, others canes, still others echolocation, some nothing, some braille, some hardware, some software. Under the umbrella of “blindness”, there are a select few who are in complete darkness (10 percent, like our friend and Youtube talent Joy Ross), others who have light perception, some shapes, some puzzle pieces, some just in daylight, some just at night, some large print, and even some who “drive blind“.
2014-2015: The blind community has a strong, growing voice. There is a growing voice in the blind community that is influencing culture. This is the year we really started noticing an explosion of public awareness in the media: bloggers started popping up left and right (blind mamas, blind papas, blind professionals, you name it!). These people have always existed, but it seems they have been growing in their public presence and confidence. A major magazine, Real Simple, feature spread on blind moms with guide dogs, and reality tv producers have been seeking out blind talent.
Most of these efforts are positive and have the intention of educating the public, though this rise in media attention has created some controversy over whether people are overdoing it in regard to “inspiration”. We in the blind community are, after all, just living our lives, and humans have a way of adapting to most anything. It can be confusing when simple daily tasks are hailed as “amazing”. On the other hand, there are unique challenges when it comes to sight loss, and the human capacity to overcome and move forward is, in itself, inspiring. From our perspective, if it can help inspire others to do the same in their own lives, whatever their unique challenge happens to be, then it is noteworthy.
2015-2016: Shame is a common theme. We used to think that we were the only ones who tried to hide our vision loss. We have since discovered that this is actually a common phenomenon among people losing their eyesight. Fortunately, amazing organizations such as the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind, are recognizing that this is an issue and have training, counseling and other programs available to help people get past the stigma. “For those with changing vision, the daunting part is not usually the fear of darkness, but.the fear of admitting that you’re different.” – San Francisco Lighthouse For the Blind & Visually Impaired
I was reminded of Benjamina last night when a cable salesman came to our door. Fortunately, we now use Netflix and don’t even have to deal with Giant Cable Company any longer, but friends still teasingly call me Benjamina from time to time, especially when there is trickery involved. Please enjoy the legendary tale of Benjamina..]
45 minutes on hold.
5th phone attempt this week.
Just want to downgrade my cable.
Please, Giant Cable Company, hire just one more person. I’ll forgive you for routing the call to India. Please, just someone pick up the phone. I hate taking the phone into the bathroom with me. Please just pick up. Continue reading “The Invention of Benjamina: A True Story of How I Outwit the Cable Company”
I said to my supervising teacher, “You gave me such stellar reviews from my student teaching, and I feel like I described my teaching style and goals really well in my interview. I have a 4.0 GPA, and the students loved me! Did the principal say anything to you about why he didn’t hire me?”
Originally posted on Bold Blind Beauty on May 3, 2016
View, comment on and share the original post here.
It’s 1983, and two curly-haired 5 year-old girls sit on their dad’s lap, staring into a screen of flashing lights. They hold their heads back as doctors place stinging drops into their matching hazel eyes, and they wonder what all the fuss is about. Continue reading “Women on the Move: Jenelle Landgraf (repost)”
I’m not a crafty mom. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m not even on Pinterest. I’m usually too tired for big projects that involve more than one or two steps. I also have a visual impairment, which doesn’t help. Basically, if I can do this with my kids, so can you!
Why the sudden desire to do a homemade project?
Well, I recently started homeschooling my 2 creative, amazing daughters, ages 6 and 9, and I feel like they deserve some fun, interactive projects. Continue reading “Simple Soap Making For Kids”
The bonus? It was back where I was born. In fact, we even stayed in a room that looked just like the one I first met Joy in, back in training (if I weren’t at the top of my game, I would have been nervous she was exchanging me! But nope, she needs me too much. Yep, I’m THAT good….) Continue reading “New Dog on the Block”
After a 4-day cross-country road trip, our family moved into our new home in Southern California last week. Moving into a new space is exciting, as it’s a chance to reorganize, switch out furniture and experiment with new decorating styles. It can be a tad stressful, however, especially for someone with low vision. Learning and memorizing new layouts while trying to figure out the most functional aesthetic way to set up all of your things can feel daunting, particularly when you are accustomed to having a very specific place for each item.
In our case, we had to fit all of our belongings in a 16 ft. storage pod prior to moving, which meant that we had to part with a lot of stuff, including our couches and kitchen table. Hence, we’ve spent the first week both unpacking and re-buying furniture and organizational items. I’ve definitely learned a few things this week that I’d like to pass on to our readers.
Whether you’re reorganizing while spring cleaning or moving into a new home, here are some tips to get you started:
1 – Clear the floors of all clutter. Visually impaired or not, visual clutter sucks the life out of life. During the first few days here, I kept tripping over shoes, leashes and purses (most of which were mine!), as all of these items seemed to congregate in our living room by the front door. I knew that tossing all of our shoes into the small hall closet would be disastrous when it came time to locate the shoes and head out the front door. So we just kept leaving the shoes out, but even when they were nicely lined up by the door, they were taking up coveted floor space and stressing me out (first world problems, I know!) On one particularly cranky evening, on our 4th or 5th evening here, I grabbed my purse and announced, “I’ve had enough of this! We’re going out shopping and not returning without a hanging shoe rack!” And now our shoes hang quietly in the closet, not daring to bother this clutter buster.
2 – Call in the troops! Fortunately, my parents came to town the day after we moved in, so they were with us for the first week’s transition and helped out a TON! Whether helping to set up shelving, playing with the kids, or unpacking and organizing bins, they definitely earned their “free” room during their 11-day visit! If you have neighbors, friends or family who are willing to lend a hand, take them up on it! And don’t be shy about reaching out to ask for help. Moving is not the time for prideful independence!
3 – Make shelving a priority. In an expensive, population-dense area like SoCal, every inch of space matters. Even though we were accustomed to living in a small house in Illinois and are renting a decent-sized townhouse, we lost our basement and barn storage, so we’re relying heavily on our 2-car garage here (the upside of being a one-car family!). My husband got some awesome, inexpensive shelves from Lowes, which have helped us get organized. Shelving is always worth the extra money and effort because you can’t put a price tag on sanity!
4 – Tactile bumps are your appliances’ best friend. Learning to operate my new appliances was one of my biggest visual challenge, which is probably why I waited several days before even attempting to tackle it (seriously, my parents did 5 or 6 loads of laundry the first several days here before I even ventured to find the lightswitch to the laundry room!) Once ready, however, I mastered my appliances rapidly, one-by-one, beginning with the washer and dryer. Since our previous basement washer and dryer were around 50 years old with no bells and whistles, the new sounds that chirped out of these appliances left me both intimidated and exhilarated. Fortunately, none of them are touch-screen, so tactile bumps placed on certain key buttons are the perfect accessible solution. My mom carefully went through each button and setting with me, and I scoured over them as if preparing for an exam (those pop laundry quizzes really sneak up on you) I put raised tactical stickers on the settings I would be choosing most often and memorized the buttons in between those. And then I moved on to the kitchen, where my dad walked me through the stove, oven and microwave. Since I have a double oven for the first time in my life, I felt pretty crafty putting all round raised dots to symbolize buttons that coincided with the top oven and square-shaped bumps for buttons associated with the lower oven. The microwave was a bit trickier at first, but after affixing stickers to certain numbers, cook time, and the start button, it too became a cinch. The dishwasher buttons proved to be the trickiest, as they’re located on top of the door where it closes, so raised bumps were not an option. But the buttons themselves were slightly raised, and the “normal” cycle is 3 in from the left, and the “dry” button is 3 in from the right, so those ended up being easy to memorize. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without these tactile bumps to orient my fingers and brain….such a simple accommodation that makes a huge difference!
5 – Take breaks, be grateful and have fun! Moving is ranked among the top most stressful life events for a reason. It’s hard. You’re relocating a bunch of stuff that you didn’t realize you still had, you’re grieving the loss of neighbors, friends and family that you will no longer see daily, and you’re trying to figure out how to fit things in unfamiliar drawers and cabinets. So be extra kind to yourself. I know it’s cliche, and I am probably the worst example of taking the time to enjoy such tasks, but the few times that someone was able to convince me to take a walk (or an early morning ocean trip!), made such a difference in my energy and stress level.
Gratitude continues to be the way to navigate through any stressful scenario. Yes, there is a new house to figure out, but be thankful that there is a house to figure out. Yes, there are lots of belongings to unpack and organize, but be thankful that there are lots of belongings (or be so fed up that you give a bunch of them away!) And yes, there are lots of changes and transitions to navigate, but be thankful that life would offer such adventure!
