It can be hard to grasp how different speech is for someone who has always been blind compared with someone who has always been sighted, when both are referred to simply as speech. The vast majority of people who live with low vision or blindness lose sight in middle or later life. The great change […]
Read more "Speak Up Skills: The Big Hole in Education After Vision Loss"
Description: A woman with a white cane puts her credit card into the gloved hand of a cashier. People who see well (and maybe you in the past) use their eyes, faces, and bodies all the time to add to what they say. They make eye contact, turn towards you, or smile, but to you […]
Read more "Speak Up Skills: How to Speak Up When You Can’t See Faces or the Visual Cues Coming Your Way?"
This hot summer is not over yet, and there may still be travel, family visits, parties, or shopping for a bigger hat! It’s 4 years since the worst stage of the Pandemic yet the effects (and the virus) linger on. We who live with low vision or blindness were severely affected even though many of […]
Read more "Retrieving Your Speak Up Skills Post-Pandemic"
All I have learned since falling over a parking block six months ago: It’s not so much the broken arm; it’s the staying home effect! Isolation has been the scourge of the pandemic especially for anyone with a disability, and isolation has affected many people with vision disability severely. The Covid situation is better now […]
Read more "Balance, My Broken Arm and Blah: The Effects of Staying Home"
I have been legally blind with the same little bit of vision for more than forty years. For many of those years self-advocacy seemed a good idea, but distant! It was my students at the Carroll Center for the Blind who realized that speaking up for what you need is a vital skill after you […]
Read more "Self Advocacy When You Can’t See"
People just say “Hi” when they meet. They recognize each other’s faces, and connect with their eyes, smile and maybe nod too. All things you probably can’t see. It’s socially awkward when you can’t respond; can’t do the conventional thing. Some people can recognize close friends by the way they hold themselves or how they […]
Read more "How To Find Out Who You Are Talking To, a Short Video"
You need to talk about what has happened to your sight, but you also need to protect yourself especially at first. Here are tips on who to talk to and who to stay silent with, as well as how to “manage the message”. Here is a section from Chapter 4 of my book: When You […]
Read more "How To Talk About Your Vision Loss – A Short Video"
This article was first published back in February which was a different world. Now group meetings are online or on the phone, but role-playing is still a great way to practice speaking without visual cues. Here’s an update: Why does speech without visual cues have to be different? Without good sight non-verbal communication, which begins […]
Read more "ROLE PLAYING ASSERTIVENESS Update for Phone or Online Meetings"
“When someone wishes to avoid conflicting or embarrassing communications, they express their feelings non-verbally,” says a researcher in Non Verbal Communications. On Sunday I was at a socially-distant picnic. There was a red cloth on the grass, I anchored it with my purse against the gusty breeze. Everyone in the circle was a friend of […]
Read more "Missing the Meaning Part 2: Negative Reactions"
Backyard in summer, About 15 people are standing in groups ho Following up on the May 19 After Losing my sight Struggling to Be Seen, Repost from the New York Times Modern Love At this time of loss and heart ache there could be a small advantage to people with vision loss. As the country […]
Read more "Independent Socializing: When to Change Your Operating System"