I just had about a one hour telephone conversation with a reference librarian at my local public library, and I learned a lot about accessing eBooks, audiobooks, and digital copies of other stuff that I didn’t know before, plus about other helpful library services. The librarian was much more helpful than I expected too (e.g., she spent quite a while patiently helping me find my way around their not so great – or friendly for the visually impaired – website). So I thought I’d mention it here in case other people haven’t thought of bugging their library for help. Obviously, your experience will vary, depending on your library, but I for one wish I’d called them a few years ago. On the basis of this experience I’m very happy with how they are using my tax dollars

Im a security systems engineer trying to find a solution for a child that is visually impaired. She inadvertently wandered out of an exterior door at school and could not figure out how to get back in. She's 11 years old and mom would like for us to help her come up with a solution that would alert us if this happens again.

My first thought was a cellular phone with an emergency button that will notify a list of people including our SRO and school administrator. It would need to give us gps data so we can locate her position and would be nice if we could communicate with her. I don't think iPhone or androids are a good option because its a little too complex to get to the SOS feature.

I see a lot of options but im looking for experiences that others may have had with some of the options out there.

A local barista always draws art on the foam on various coffee. He always tells me something like "today I drew a teddy bear on your coffee." I adoor this, it's so awesome. most baristas either don’t let me know the art is there, or figure I don’t care because I’m blind. I just wish it wasn’t so delicate so I could feel it with my tongue.

Hello. I still have a very decent chunk of central vision right now but my peripheral vision and night vision are atrocious and I have horrible photosensitivity. I have a neurological condition that affects the eyes and we're positive I have Retinitis Pigmentosa, but that's unconfirmed at this moment (insurance difficulty).

I got a new job a few weeks ago, it's my first job in years. At the same time, I'm going through a stage where my vision is decreasing again. In addition, I can't make out details at night without bright light to reflect off the object. I shouldn't be driving at night but I haven't been approved for alternative transport yet so for now I drive to work and home.

What my problem is, is my coworkers don't take me seriously when I say I'm visually impaired. I'll wear my sunglasses and get made fun of and joked about by my coworkers. I don't think they're trying to be mean but it's not a fun time to be made fun of for a disability by people you barely know yet, ya know. It's not like these people are close long term friends, then my disability is fair game but... I don't know. It just rubbed me the wrong way.

I also struggle with some aspects of my job, like seeing the flashing light on the machine, or seeing how bad the line has gotten because I can't see out of my peripheral very well. I get told off from customers because the check out line will get a little long and I don't notice right away because the queue is to my right and, my right is the worst, I only see directly in front of me on that side.

I just want to know how to advocate for myself in regards to all this. It's making works beyond stressful and anxiety inducing.

RP here. I have some central vision left.

The other day, I had this situation happen. Not the first time a situation of this type happened, since I started walking around with a mobility cane.

So, here's the situation:

I was at a hospital by myself, and I was a bit lost, trying to find out the right procedure to reach the admin staff (getting a queue number, finding the display with the numbers, finding the right counter, etc.)

Immediately, somebody from staff reached me, and stated: "I guess I need to read you the numbers from the display". I explained that I just needed help finding the display. Found the display, went to the right counter, sorted out the paperwork, then I needed help to find the exit. At that point, I could notice how BOTH that person, and the other people at the queue (patients) were actively avoiding eye contact. Only after a few unsuccessful attempts at find the exit, somebody offered help.

My question for all of you is: how do you approach such situations? I find it very hard to interact with strangers in such dynamics. It's like, after they discover you are not fully blind, you are not registered as a person who is actually almost completely blind, and that unless stated otherwise, this person WILL struggle with visual stuff.

I work in an assisted living, and a wonderful woman just moved in who has very limited eyesight. I believe she can only see bright contrast (ex. Neon yellow 1.5 inch dot stickers on a black surface like her home phone were visual enough to allow her to be able to hang the phone up on her own) I’m looking to make her transition from home to our facility a happier one. She seems to navigate her room fine, but she is not able to come to activities without someone pushing her chair due to being unable to navigate the halls alone, bumping into walls and other people (at low speed). Are there any accessibility tools to utilize when using a manual wheelchair? She has to use both hands to push the wheels. I think she was more successful at home because she had a mental map of the smaller apartment, but we have wide hallways and some pretty open intersections she would have to navigate. I feel sad knowing she has spent most of her time alone in her room apart from meals and medical appointments. She mentioned to me that she has not been outside in a long time because she is afraid she won’t be able to get back in and that is just heart breaking to me. Any and all advice is welcome!

I have trouble using JAWS screen reader to read PDFs so I normally convert PDFs that people send me into word documents. However, sometimes I run up against two problems that do not allow JAWS to read the converted word document. The first is that there are ligatures throughout the document. These ligatures are usually combined letters into one character such as fi, if, ti, and it. The second problem is that sometimes the word doc will replace letters with Question mark boxes like this. Is there any way to avoid these outcomes when converting PDFs that people send me into word documents? Are there better PDF conversion tools than Adobe Acrobat that do not have these problems? Is there some way to ensure that JAWS will be able to read a PDF without having to convert it into a word document like a special e-reader?

Hi guys. I’m just looking for some advice. If you have gone to college or have taken a private online course for acting or voice acting, for things such as animated TV shows, movies, video games or audio dramas, I would love to hear your thoughts.

I’m in Canada. I need to take a course online because I am on palliative care. I am both visually impaired, and losing the ability to do things physically.

I’m looking into either a one time college course, or a private lesson class. But I have no clue where to start.

Should I focus on degrees in Canada where I live? If so what colleges or studies would you recommend? I’m currently looking at George Brown College in Ontario. And also, gravy for the brain as a private lesson. If you think I can do well in the US or other places which sessions and techniques/courses would you recommend?

I have an iPhone 15 Pro, an iPad mini, a Bluetooth microphone, and a Bluetooth headset. I know that a lot of programs used in the audio industry are for either windows or Mac computers. But because of my physical disabilities I cannot use keyboards or mouse.

Have you had any luck with editing MP3 files or recording them on iPhones? What about networking and finding job opportunities? Should I start as a freelancer and work my way up to pay work?

Since I’m on palliative care I would most likely like to do this as a hobby just to pass time and hopefully make some people smile. So I’m just looking for some advice.

Thanks for any help that you can give me. Have a wonderful week :-)

hi y’all. I am not very fluent in braille, I’ve had the basics. Let’s put it that way, lol. I got an opportunity today that came across my desk, to read a short braille commercial for a company, on the Blind And Beyond Radio Show. The producer will send me the paper the braille paper then what we will do is go over it because she has one as well cause she is sited. Her husband is the one who’s blind and we will go over it together during this week and next week next week on Sunday, the end of the month, then the commercial will be on the Blind And Beyond Radio Show and they are based in Orlando. It’s really a bunch of good people and good music. It’s my type of music oldies. It’s an oldies radio station. I love it.

Hi there! I was hoping to get some feedback on how best to setup ADA PDFs for those using screen readers.

I work at a university and we occasionally need to share information in PDF format. These are typically documents that we originally printed but need share instead of linking to web pages.

We use software to help tag and order the PDFs but wonder what is most important when it comes to setting up an ADA PDF. Do you make use of tags to quickly navigate a page? Do you prefer to read in order just listening for the content of that section or div? When it comes to pictures, if it is general and doesn't add any information, do you still want to have the description included or should that be omitted.

Lastly, what is your preferred screen reader? Acrobat, NVDA, another?

Really appreciate any feedback!

Disclaimer: I am sighted and trying to help my also sighted friend, I'm here because I feel like visually impaired and blind people have the most valuable experience with this topic.

She's a mom that has gone back to school and is pursuing post secondary for the first time in her life. She's trying really hard, has had some diagnoses in the course of starting all this, and really wants to succeed. Unfortunately, really needs textbooks transcribed to speech so she is able to "read" and still get mom and home duties done. She texted me this morning during a meltdown because she can't find any legitimate apps.

I know she might be just stress clicking and searching poorly but I don't have all the time in the world myself to look for apps and screen them myself to help her. I figured this community would surely have the resources. I checked the sidebar and couldn't seem to find anything in specific so I'm asking here.

If I did miss something in the sidebar, I apologize, I'd gladly take a link to a list. I'm also a busy mom trying to juggle everything and get out of the house this morning lol

Thank you so much!!

As the title. I've been asked to tutor someone, just wondering if anyone knows how fast I should be able to type, either on a brailler or on a software program such as Perky Duck?

Hello everyone! My name is Tyler and I am reaching out on behalf of Inclusive Communication Services (ICS), a provider of accessibility services for the Deaf, Blind, and non-English speaking.

ICS is hosting an accessible gaming space at this year's New York Comic Con from October 17 to 20. We are seeking 1 or more DM/GM's to host TTRPG's during the con. Games will include live audio description, captioning, and sign language interpreting to ensure equal-access for all players. We are providing a day pass to the con for any interested and available DM/GM's. If you're interested, please email me at tyler@inclusiveasl.com. Thank you for your consideration!

I (17) am in California and finally have an optometry appointment. I am really nervous, as my dad will be there instead of my mom (I do not have a good relationship with either of them). I have never felt comfortable telling the doctors what is bothering me other than my myopia. I want to tell them about how painful sun is, how hard it is for me to read, how I start crying from using my eyes, and how I keep getting hurt and running into people while walking. I can pass a simple eye chart, as it has enough contrast, so most things have been missed or hidden due to my parents. My school is asking for documentation on why I need large print before I get it. Do any of you have advice on how to communicate what I am struggling with without seeming desperate? Sorry if this is rambly, I am really tired.

This is probably mostly a question for people who are a bit practiced at traveling independently through their community. I worked up the nerve to take the bus to a place I hadn’t gone to independently before. Part of the route is that I have to cross a side street that meets the main road at a roundabout. There is no crosswalk, just ramps down and back up on the other side of the street. The problem was that there was an extremely loud machine right there. It was constant and in one spot and sounded big like it was part of a truck. No idea what it was, but it wasn’t going to stop making noise or move. I was only 20 meters from my destination, but had to cross that street to make it.

Fortunately, there was a very slow-walking person ahead of me and they had shorts that were just dark enough for me to sort of see them, so I followed that person across the street.

I’m guessing that the safest thing would be to follow the side street for several blocks to get out of hearing range of the machine, but it was so loud, I may have had to divert a quarter mile, crossing several more streets along the way. Basically, I don’t think there was a workaround route that wouldn’t have involved crossing more little streets while still in the loud range of the machine.

This sort of thing seems to happen a lot, and I’m wondering how many other people deal with this and if you’ve found anything to do about it? Will apps like Be My Eyes and Aira help with street crossings or is there too much liability?

Also, to be clear, there are simply no marked crosswalks in my area. The council is convinced that there are more pedestrian accidents at crasswalks, so they refuse to put them in. It’s poor logic in my opinion because all it means is that the deaths will be more spread out geographically since there are no official crossings.

I have a service dog in training for issues unrelated to my low vision and recently, my trainer and I have been entertaining the idea of training him for guide work. Him being my dog. We started training foundation behaviors. Foundations being commands like faster, slower, stop, left, right, automatically stopping by stairs etc. Through this, we realized he has a natural inclination for guide work. He’s been guiding me around obstacles and keeping me in the middle of roads without me even realizing. We’re hoping that the timing of him being fully grown (this coming up July) could coincide with me finally starting O&M. States and doctors are weird with recognizing brain based blindnesses as blind so it’s been a very long process. (Don’t worry, we’re aware that you need to be very proficient in cane skills before you start with a guide dog)

In summary, my service dog in training is showing a natural tendency for guide work and with my vision only getting worse, that makes me very excited.

It's Apple update day, with the release of iOS and iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia.

Are you updating? Have you? What's the good and the bad.

Let's discuss here and maybe support each other through the OS' growing pains.

I have no friends so someone hype me up please. I did it guys! I think everyone’s nice words and support broke me out of a fog and I contacted a support group in my area! I also had a routine ophthalmology appointment and I finally did what I have been dreading for months. Figuring out if I am legally blind womp womp womp. My vision is finally in a stable place so I have a field of vision test scheduled on Thursday! Im excited to get the ball rolling as this will open up many more resources to me. Things are starting to look up a bit guys. I cannot express how thankful I am for this community I thought it was over for me a few days ago but HEY IM DOING IT!

My mom lost her vision some months ago, due to uncontrolled diabetes. She has my 2 younger adult siblings around but they’re not very responsible so my older sister and I are going to move her to live with us instead. My mom fears leaving our family home in California and coming to us in Nevada, that she won’t be able to learn the layout of both our homes, everything completely new etc. My mom is also not tech savvy at all, she couldn’t create an email account when she had vision (I suspect this might have to do with her vision as well, but she won’t admit to it). My biggest questions are how get and teach her about accessible devices, what activities can she get involved with, what can I change in my house to make things easier for her? She will be spending more time with me because I don’t have children yet and my older sister does. My mom is reluctant to change, this situation has her very depressed. She and I use to watch tv shows and movies as our bonding time, she apologized to me for ruining our special thing. I love my mom so much, I just want her to know she can still have fun and enjoy her life. Any advice is very appreciated, it breaks my heart seeing her like this. I’m willing to learn, teach her, put her in school, anything.

Hey guys! We're running a medical screening camp at a school for blind children in Pakistan who are mostly in the 9-14 year age range. We are going to get Braille books printed for them but are struggling with more ideas as gifts for them. The school hasn't given us much direction on what they think would work out but any ideas would be very welcome. We are a non-profit so our budget is extremely tight so we can't get anything too expensive.

Hi everyone, hope that you're doing well and that your week will be full of great sings

I wanted to share an opinion/advice that hope will help at least someone on the sub

I'm personally very visually impered due to a congenital glaucoma, i'm legally blind

Sport has always been a source of anxiety and stress for me, in school many of the sports that we did were completely shit for someone like me (here we're talking about football, basketball etc), so for my first 20 years on this earth i wasn't really active or anything

Until i started weight lifting, first by watching some contents on YT (Jeff Nippard, Renaissance periodization etc), i decided to start a home gym, i bought some dumbels, a rack and some weight

I never stopped weight lifting since, it's really one of the best sport that we can do as people with visual disability i believe

You can do that at home with minimal equipment, nobody need to assist you and let's be honest, the physical gains are quite nice

So i strongly (lol) recommand that you give it a try, you could really appreciate the all sing, and i would be happy to help if i can

Hello!! I hope it's alright to ask here:

Ok, so.. I've found I have a central scotoma in my right eye like late last year [Im 19], but my left is still proper, and my opthamologist had already reassured me that I really have nothing to worry about after examining my eyes, especially as its been stable the different times I've visited his clinic.

But, I fear the blind spot in my right eye can overwhelm me sometimes, especially in rooms with bright fluorescent lights, that like earlier this afternoon in my class I had to stare at this girl's waterjug on the ground cause it was overwhelming me to look straight at the whiteboard, as even if I could see the board properly there was a vibration in my vision where the big large blind spot is supposed to be.

If anyone here had encountered the same problem as me, how did you get over it or did you just eventually get used to it??

I also know its silly to be constantly anxious over my vision especially that I've already been reassured multiple times by different doctors, but I can't help myself when I remember that my vision isn't the same as literally just a year ago. Sorry, I really have nobody else in my life who I could ask about this and understand. :-( <- [That's a Sad face]

I've flown previously in my life, just not since loosing enough vision to need my cane and/or assistance to navigate. Thankfully have been to both of these airports once before, but would love to hear any tips and tricks yall have!

Didn't know what else to title it haha

I have low vision, and the front seat of the bus, to the left of the driver, is the easiest place for me to be able to see my bus stop, and landmarks leading up to it. So I usually try to get to the bus pretty early so I can get there first. (Some people are not so nice when you ask to sit there... I have an enemy at this one bus stop haha)

Today on my final bus home, others made it to the bus before me. As I headed to the line, I saw through the window that someone looked like they were about to sit in the front seat. This is where its kinda amusing to me.

I FRANTICALLY waved my free hand, hoping to get their attention. When I thought she was looking at me, I lifted up my cane so she could see the red ball, and would hopefully realise it was a white cane, (there's colourful contact on it ATM) and realise what I meant.

...and she did!! :D She like. Waved to me, or made some gesture.

I got onto the bus and she'd picked her bags back up and said "Sorry! I didn't see you!" I made sure to thank her.

Asking for the only place you can see from can be scary, and I hate doing it, but I'm grateful it went well and she didn't sound annoyed :)

So unfortunately I recently discovered I have a condition that is going to make my eye sight get worse as time goes on the only reason I found this out is due to me going to the eye doctor recently I haven’t gone to the eye doctor in years due to insurance reasons and I went recently because I got an amazing new job with great insurance and now just learning that I can’t drive to work at all after I just got the confidence and enough money to drive and buy my own car but now learning that’s not possible is horrifying and I called the public transport people in my town to drive to work but they can only drive me certain times which does not match up at all with my job I’ve tried looking for jobs closer around me but there’s none with the same wage as I make currently there all minimum wage now I can’t afford to live on that at all I haven’t worked minimum wage in a while and it’s stayed the same while everything else bill wise has gone up now currently don’t get me wrong I still do not make not enough to have live really I’m constantly struggling to put food on the table for myself and my sister food banks etc and church dinners are a blessing any less and I won’t be able to even pay bills thankfully if I stay at this job after my 90 days I get an amazing raise but unfortunately I can’t keep walking home due to me getting off so late it’s very dangerous plus it’s hard for me too see not to also say it’s 21/2 hour walk to my job so ether way I’m stuck and I can’t even move and my area has no programs to help me move to a better area with better transportation so I wonder is there any advice that can help with this

Hi! Just wondering how people go with going outside and on random walks, going to cafes, etc independently without getting specific O&M training for that route? I’m talking loading up Google maps and heading out when you just wanna go somewhere. I am located in a city with quite decent public transport but I rarely go anywhere alone without having had O&M training to the place, but would like to. Just conscious of safety and inaccurate map directions etc. I am fully blind if that helps

Firstly I'll give the context :

In a boring evening (before yesterday, I decided to do something reasonably dumb all by myself) install Linux mint in dual boot mode

Yes, j spent literal hours using be my ai to try to understand what I was doing in the bios screen (lol) Anyway, now, I'm here, in the end of the day clearly venting Is Linux so bad In accessibility? Or am I just a noob ? (I choose mint with the mate desktop) And oh boy, I won't even talk about orca, that thing.....it just made me sad Now I'm struggling to find what is the Linux partition just to delete it (so I can return to only windows)

TL;DR : tried to install Linux, and gained a dlc of tech suffering for about 47 hours by now

Any tips? Also. If any blind use Linux as your main OS You're simply a tech wizard

Welcome, it's time for show and tell. Everyone find a seat, and tell us about what you have been up to lately. Activities, hobbies, projects, or just what you've been up to big or small.