While you wait out COVID19 here’s a great list of books about adjusting to vision loss and blindness compiled by vision rehab professionals earlier this summer. Many of these books are memoirs and reading how other people have worked to create a whole life is an important part of personal recovery.

VisionAware has a post on Audio players and talking books. The Library of Congress will provide a book player and cartridges by mail, or you can use their online app called BARD. The woman in the photo is showing Voice Dream Reader an app that allows you to choose the kind of voice you like to hear.

I have put my own book at the top – it is the latest and most practical. I have added an oldie but goodie”. It dates from 1947 but gives an unmatched description of the first few months of sudden blindness. As you will know from the title he became a great lover of guide dogs.

Nearly all of these are available on Talking books and their NLS number is included.

When you can’t believe your eyes: vision loss and personal recovery, Hannah Fairbairn. Talking Books DBC11619, Charles C. Thomas, 2019.

With a special emphasis on the challenges faced by seniors, a practical “how-to” focused on social and personal recovery

for adults losing sight. Available in 4 formats including free accessible copies.

Blindness, What it is; What it does and how to Live with it; Fr. Thomas Carroll DB 20473

https://carroll.org/product/blindness-what-it-is-what-it-does-and-how-to-live-with-it/

While dated, it does heavily address the adjustment issue.

Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man’s Journey to climb farther than the eye can see by Erik Weihenmayer DB51505

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140053

Thriving Blind Stories of Real People Succeeding Without Sight by Erik Weihenmayer et al DB97202

No barriers: a blind man’s journey to kayak the Grand Canyon by Erik Weihenmayer et al DB 87291

Hope Unseen: The Story of the US Army’s First Blind Active-Duty Officer by Scott Smiley DB71909

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9315614
My Eyes Have a Cold NoseDB DB0857 Hector Chevigny. Published in the 1940’s this is worth reading especially for an excellent description of the first months after total sight loss.

Planet of the Blind by Stephen Kuusisto DB45500

Now I See You a Memoir by Nicole Kear DB80131

Confessions of a guide dog: the blonde leading the blind by mark Carlson DB75126

Self Esteem and Adjusting with Blindness by Dean & Naomi Tuttle DB66055. An oldie but goodie.

White Coat White Cane-this is about a blind gentleman who became a blind psychiatrist and went to medical school DB14631

If you could see what I hear Tom Sullivan DB35991

A Laugh a Day Keeps the Blues Away: Humorous Stories From People with Low Vision, Blindness, and Deaf Blindness DBC11031

Coping with vision loss: maximizing what you can see and do DB55481

Invisible: my journey through vision and hearing loss DBC04170

These below do not have NLS BARD codes but are still available from other sources.

ON the following page is a book that can be downloaded in Word format, “how to Have A Happy life”.

http://ccbnet.org/drupal7/node/16

The Life We Got: Losing Sight and Gaining Vision by Allison and Neil Taylor Neil Taylor was a young teacher and athlete when the discovery of a brain tumor catapulted him into a life of blindness. A monumental step in his journey toward acceptance and wholeness was the writing of this memoir with his mother Alison. Told from both of their perspectives.

Fighting Blind: a green berets story of extraordinary courage by Ivan Castro

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31177641