#Vision Impairment

[reasonsforhope]

By the time Sue Shusterman turns away from the bench at the overlook and back toward the trailhead, she knows the paddleboarders are out in force 300 yards away on the gleaming blue surface of Chatfield Reservoir.  

She knows the high runoff waters have flooded the roots of Chatfield’s willows and cottonwoods, and that the first spring-green layers of the foothills rise to the west like soft fabric. 

How she acquired these life-affirming memories is at first a mystery, since Shusterman is blind and is heading back toward the parking lot making her usual sweep of the path in front with her ever-present white cane.  

But then a friendly voice emerges from the phone that Shusterman is pointing toward the path from her other hand.

A little to the left to stay on the paved path. Looks like there’s a trail all the way down to the beach, about 75 yards, if you wanted to go. I’ll just be here watching, let me know if you need anything. 

The voice is from a live, trained human guide FaceTiming through Shusterman’s phone camera on the Aira ability-assist app. Sight-impaired people have been using Aira’s guides to make it easier to do anything from navigating an airport to filling out an online job form. Now, all 42 Colorado state parks like Chatfield are geofenced to allow any visitor to use Aira for free to stroll the trails with a helpful set of eyes. 

The Aira guides seemingly effortlessly offer what a blind hiker either needs, or wants. If there’s a dangerous steep drop-off on the right, they warn. If the hiker would rather know if the sneezeweed is in bloom or the sailboats are luffing through a turn, Aira offers that instead.

For Shusterman, trying Aira as an outdoors adventure for the first time, the allure was simple: “Independence.” 

“So she’s doing, I think, a phenomenal job of including the necessary safety things, but the perks of the scenery, too,” Shusterman said, as she paused during a conversation with an Aira guide based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “She’s doing great.”

State accessibility officials recently announced the expansion of Aira to state parks grounds, after previously providing Aira free for other state-related functions such as navigating a government building or getting help on an online site or filling out forms. Colorado cannot control the cellphone signal, though, so parks officials encourage visitors to try Aira at a familiar or close-in park space before ranging farther afield with it. Popular parks like Staunton or Golden Gate contain pockets where signals are not strong. 

For consumers buying access on their own, Aira costs about $50 for 30 minutes of assistance a month. Private employers and governments often buy package access to Aira and other accessibility apps for all employees to use. State accessibility coordinator Theresa Montano, who is blind and accompanied Shusterman on her Chatfield walk, said Amazon buys access so that sight-impaired shipping center employees can navigate steps to pack orders.

Montano uses Aira at her state job, saying the guides on the app can share her computer screen and help her get through an online task in 30 minutes that might take her four hours without help or through older accessibility tools. 

Adding Aira for state-owned lands was wrapped into the overall $250,000 budget for free Aira use on state property and with state websites. The additional utility is an obvious plus, Montano said. 

“This gives blind people the same opportunity to come and enjoy it by themselves or with their family if they want to, and be independent,” she said...

Shusterman walked away taking more from the big picture experience, rather than any particular scenic detail. 

“For me, it was, you know what, I could go for a walk on this path, and I could feel completely safe, and I would enjoy a nice walk and get some exercise, in an unfamiliar area,” Shusterman said. “It’s definitely a real confidence boost for me.”  

-via The Colorado Sun, June 11, 2024

[feelingthemode]

disability pride month userboxes part 1/5

posted these on insta throughout the month :3

[the-delta-quadrant]

i need the time blindness people and the gender blindness people to finally understand that you're not fucking exempt from

"stop using vision impairment as a metaphor"

[zebulontheplanet]

I want people to understand this, not every person who is blind or can’t read uses a screen reader. Some people don’t use them. Some people rely on other people to read for them, some people rely on magnifying apps. Some people just avoid the internet. There are multiple reasons for this, some people don’t like screen readers. Some people don’t find them helpful. There are so many reasons someone doesn’t use a screen reader.

I know someone with alexia who doesn’t use a screen reader because she doesn’t like them. She depends on other people, and she’s happy with that. That’s great!

[sunnysam-my]

"Hazbin Hotel palet isn't that bad" "They just wanted to keep the theme of crimson red"

Dude, during beginning of "Happy Day In Hell" I had to put on my old glasses (my glasses were broken) and keep them, because Alastor literally disappeared into the carpet and walls of the hotel and Angel's hands into the sofa. I don't even want to know how hard this is to watch for people with eye disorders that can't be corrected with glasses.

What I saw:

BTW Charlie is in both of those pictures. Can you spot her?

And those edit aren't even that well made, in reality it blends even more, just not in a way blurr effect does it, but it's hard to make a stimulation of bad eyesight with a simple, free editing program and no experience.

Clear screenshot:

I couldn't find any online simulator that would allow me to change my own picture, but I found this good simulator of myopia (nearsightedness). That's not all I have, but you can see what I mean when I say it blends more without being blurry.

[lemony-ink]

reminder that copy/paste fonts break screenreaders and are inaccessible for people who need them to use the internet!

do not use font generators that are copy and paste, put it as an image and have alt text

[the-rest-is-silenc3]

i'm sad because whenever i'm looking for resources, videos, etc about blindness on social media most of the stuff is about "time blindness." (the correct term is time agnosia by the way)

[sheepinwolfcountry]

PUT ALT TEXT / IMAGE DESCRIPTION ON YOUR IMAGES

IM FUCKING SICK OF CRIPPLEPUNK BLOGS NOT PUTTING ALT TEXT/IMAGE DESCRIPTION

[razzek]

Top 5 MOST useful tools for blind people just starting out

Top 5 most fave tools for the blind overall

Top 5 least useful

Top 5 fucking weirdest and/or funniest

This is a big ask and I will do my best to answer, with the caveat that I am just a single blind person with memory issues who doesn't remember everything my blind friends have told me. XD I am counting other people as tools in this list because a person with eyes sometimes is a handy tool for us. XD

Top 5 MOST useful tools for blind people just starting out 1. White cane 2. Blindness skills training through centers, government programs like Vocational Rehabilitation, Orientation & Mobility specialists, and anywhere you can find it 3. Membership with the National Talking Book Library aka NLS in your state (US); I think the UK is RNIB and Canada has one, not sure about other countries 4. Supportive family and friends and other blind people if you can find them 5. Screen reader (NVDA is free for Windows, iPhone has VoiceOver, Android uses TalkBack)

Top 5 most fave tools for the blind overall 1. White cane and/or guide dog 2. Text to speech, screen readers, audio books, audio described movies and tv 3. Accessible smart phones (often iPhone but Android is catching up) 4. Bump dots (stick-on tactile dots you put around your home) 5. Braille and refreshable braille displays/notetakers

Top 5 least useful 1. Sighted people inventing crap without talking to any blind people ("smart" canes, "smart" shoes, dangerous devices you hold in your only free hand that claim to tell you what's in front of you but actually don't, screen reader breaking "accessibility" overlays, etc...) 2. That ring which only shows one braille cell at a time (that's not how anyone reads) 3. Strangers giving/yelling vague directions ("It's right over there!", "Oh my god watch out for the stairs (that you are halfway down)!", giving directions to the guide dog who doesn't speak English or any language because they are a dog...) 4. Hot liquid measuring devices (always broken, the noise they make is so fucking loud it's caused me a lot more injury than just sticking my finger in the hot liquid, will wake up the neighbors) 5. All but one use case of AI claiming to be for the blind, at least as far as I've seen

Top 5 fucking weirdest and/or funniest 1. Ping pong balls (good for measuring hot liquids) 2. Funnels (really helpful for pouring liquids) 3. The lanyard strap that sticks to the back of your phone so you can wear it around your neck (looks silly, is incredibly useful) 4. White cane holster (yes it's a thing, I have at least three XD) 5. Things being organized Very Specifically (close your eyes and YOU try to find the remote after someone put it in a random place! XD)

[glimblshanks]

All my love and appreciation to small local book stores but there has got to be a way for y'all to sell digital audiobooks

[brettdoesdiscourse]

Yall. By definition, glasses ARE a disability aid because vision impairment is (by definition) a disability. Anything that aids a person's disability is a disability aid.

If a person with a vision impairment is not wearing their glasses, they will have a harder time navigating the world around them. If a person with a physical disability that requires a cane does not have their cane, they will have a harder time navigating the world around them.

Disability definition for anyone who wants it: a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities.

a disadvantage or handicap, especially one imposed or recognized by the law.

[picturebookshelf]

A Girl Named Helen Keller (1995)

Story: Margo Lundell -- Art: Irene Trivas

[the-delta-quadrant]

i'm so fucking tired of the "i'm legally blind without my glasses" crowd.

they insist of labelling themselves as a shitty gatekeepy term and can't even be bothered to do actual research.

there's no such thing as "legally blind without glasses".

"legally blind" doesn't mean "vision is corrected with glasses". legally blind doesn't mean "can't drive without glasses". legally blind doesn't mean "having slightly less vision than 20/20".

legally blind means having a visual acuity of 20/200 (or 6/60 or 10%) or less WITH glasses or another correction.

like bitch, i most likely have less vision than you and not even i would fall under legally blind. shut the fuck up.

these people literally always, always, always end up using their supposed legal blindness to talk over vision impaired folk. they're always like "i'm legally blind but my glasses help me see like everyone else". bitch no. you're sighted and you need to stay in your fucking lane. if your glasses help you see "like everyone else" it sounds like you got 20/20 vision and aren't VI, let alone legally blind, for fuck's sake. yes, the fact that you can't see without glasses makes you disabled. no, you do not get to speak over VI people.

i'm fucking tired of this "legally blind but can see fine with glasses" crowd acting like because they're "legally blind" that they're somehow the authorities on vision impairment. they talk about how vision impairment is an accepted disability because glasses are decently accepted, completely ignoring HOW FUCKING MARGINALISED VI PEOPLE ARE, HOW WE'RE LITERALLY EXCLUDED EVERYWHERE, including probably that conversation because of how inaccessible social media can be to us.

i'm fucking tired of people insisting on using a shitty government disability word that isn't even theirs just to use it to speak over those who are struggling in ways they couldn't even imagine.

i recently saw this autistic person who said they're "legally blind but can see like everyone else with glasses". and they went on to talk about how vision impairment is so much more accepted than autism.

like yeah. yours maybe. because yours consists of wearing glasses and that's it. you have no idea what it's like to have actually low vision.

stop using your privilege to misuse terms and spreading misinfo on a) what legal blindness is and b) how accepted VI people are.

like, this person literally used their fake legally blind status to make a point about autism not being accepted.

THEY COULD HAVE FUCKING DONE THAT WITHOUT THROWING ANOTHER MARGINALISED PEOPLE UNDER THE BUS.

sighted people are gonna see that shit and believe it. and they did! most of the comments were agreeing. there were two other VI people talking about the misinformation. out of 127 comments!!!!!

and wait for it: THEY LITERALLY POSTED A REEL WHERE THEY WERE DRIVING! you are NOT allowed to drive with 20/200 vision. oh wait, you fucking lied about being legally blind

like literally so much of my trauma stems from the LACK OF ACCEPTANCE for my vision impairment. but sure sighted person with glasses, tell me more about how socially acceptable we are!!

[burntoutuserboxes]

[This user has vision impairment.]

[yellowcakeuf6]

Just had two attacks of this vision impairment which is apparently called scintillating scotoma. It scared the sh*t out of me as I also had one last week which made me feel really dizzy and nauseous. I've not had it before so I'm headed for the optician tomorrow