The Blindfold is available in Braille and in large print upon request. To go green, and receive yours by email please send an email to
vision@blindandlowvision.org and put Blindfold in the subject line.
Blindfold Update
We have received a couple of responses regarding the name, Blindfold. One person expressed that the title Blindfold is limiting. Another person felt it was a clever name and easier to remember. Other suggestions for a new name were Spectacle, Spectator, In Sight, Seer, Telescope, Kaleidoscope, and VisionQuest.
Do you want the name to remain the same or do you think it is time for a new name for our newsletter? Share your views by calling us at 649-3505 (leaving a message is fine) or sending us an email at vision@blindandlowvision.org .
Available Now!
(Thank You Old Capitol Lions)
A 1985 Cadillac Biarritz coupe, 52,000 original miles. Gold with a tan interior and all the luxury features available in 1985. Asking $2,950. It has been smogged and safety checked as usual. For info or if you have a vehicle in good running order that you would like to donate, call Russ at 595-1871 or the BVIC at 649-3505.
Save the Date! We look forward to seeing you at
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Using CCTV's
Many readers of this newsletter use desktop reading machines, known as CCTV’s. In researching information for one of our clients, I came across these Helpful Hints When Using Your CCTV:
Lighting
Some people see better with less lighting and some with more lighting:
Positioning
Reading
If you are interested in trying a CCTV, please give us a call and I will be happy to demonstrate them to you.
Stay tuned for more on writing and viewing photos using a CCTV. Have a happy autumn!
Ken Kraska, Low Vision Services Coordinator.
(Tips courtesy the Canadian Regional Assessment Centre)
About Caregiving
Most of us have provided care to an ill or disabled loved one or know someone who has. In fact, it has been estimated that 44.4 million Americans provide care for adult family members and friends who, because of illness or disability, have limited ability to carry out the activities of daily living such as bathing, managing medications or preparing meals.
Seventy-eight percent of adults receiving long term care at home rely exclusively on family and friends to provide assistance.
(courtesy of Family Caregiver Alliance)
Caregiving can exact an emotional, physical, and financial toll on those who perform this vital role. In an effort to “do it all”, family caregivers (so-called informal or unpaid caregivers) often end up putting their own needs last. But caregivers need not go it alone. Resources for caregivers are growing; the following are general caregiver support groups currently active in Monterey County:
SALINAS:
The VNA and Hospice services in collaboration with the Salinas Adult Day Service sponsor a support group for “any caregiver”. It meets on the first and third Wednesday of the month, 1:30 – 3:00 PM at:
Salinas Adult Day Services Center
45 Plaza Circle,Salinas, CA 93901
Call 424-7930 for more information
The Del Mar Caregiver Resource Center sponsors a walking group for caregivers. It meets every Wednesday at the Hartnell College track from 10:30 - 11:30 AM.
Call Carina Jansson-Toner at 424-4359 for info
MONTEREY PENINSULA:
The Carmel Foundation sponsors a caregiver support group on the second and fourth Monday of the month, from 1:30 – 3:00.
Call 625-7866 if you would like to attend.
If you are unable to attend actual groups, there are many on-line resources and opportunities to connect with others. www.caregiving.com offers support groups, education, book reviews, blogs, and helpful links and much, much more.
Caregiving is often frustrating, stressful and challenging, but can also be extremely rewarding. Meeting with others to exchange insights, information and inspiration can improve the quality of life for the caregiver and the care receiver. Share the journey!
BVIC has joined forces with a group of experienced and caring gardeners from the Cypress Garden Club of the Monterey Peninsula to create a sensory garden for all to enjoy. We are very fortunate to have the expertise of this wonderful club. Look for more garden news in our next newsletter. In the meantime, if you are interested in working with us on this fun and exciting project, please contact Jacquie at the center.
Sensory Garden Members & Volunteers
Are Dog-Guides Part of O&M Training?
Orientation and Mobility instruction provides a foundation for the blind person who is considering learning to use a dog-guide instead of a cane. The three most common modes of mobility for a visually impaired person are: (a) sighted guide, or walking with a human guide; (b) using a long cane to detect obstacles and steps; and (c) using a dog-guide to go around obstacles and find steps.
Although there are formal sighted guide techniques, many visually impaired and blind people develop their own styles of walking with a family member, friend or co-worker as a guide. However, formal instruction is necessary for a visually impaired person to learn not only how to use a cane to consistently find obstacles and steps, but also how to analyze and cross streets safely, and maintain orientation. Formal instruction at a dog-guide school is also necessary for a blind person to learn to use a highly trained dog to negotiate the environment.
Orientation and Mobility Specialists teach many things in addition to long cane skills. We teach techniques to systematically negotiate different types of environments, such as residential versus commercial or downtown areas. We teach how to use auditory skills for alignment to parallel traffic, or to follow a building line without touching it. We teach, for example, how to determine whether an intersection has a traffic light or stop sign or no traffic control. We teach specific street crossing techniques for specific types of intersections. We teach how to interact with the public to obtain or confirm useful information for orientation. We teach how to use public transportation when you are blind or have limited vision. We give our students supervised practice in applying orientation and cane skills or in moving through various outdoor and indoor environments before we okay them to travel completely independently in different types of settings.
Dog-guide schools do not teach street crossing skills, orientation skills, or use of public transportation. They teach their students how to handle and care for the dog-guide, how to use correct techniques and commands for walking with a dog that is in harness, and they give their students practice using the dog-guide in many different environments and situations. For this reason the dog-guide applicant must have a foundation of orientation and mobility skills in order to successfully complete the dog-guide training program. The training to use a dog-guide is intensive. It is physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding. If a person cannot learn the correct use of the dog-guide before the program ends, he may have to leave without a dog and beef up general mobility skills before re-applying.
From time to time a person seeking O&M instruction is referred to us because she contacted a guide-dog school before she had any mobility training. She or he was under the assumption that somehow getting a dog was easy, and the dog would know how to take him or her from point A to point B automatically. The dog guide school informed the person that O&M training was the first step, and to contact the school when O&M instruction was completed or nearly finished.
Dog guide schools generally have an extensive application process to weed out candidates for training who are not yet ready or who may not be suitable candidates for using a dog-guide. Applicants must not only have O&M instruction first, but must demonstrate the ability and responsibility necessary to care for the highly trained working dog. Health issues may prevent a person from being a good candidate because of lack of stamina and ability to consistently use the dog on a regular basis. People who are seeking only an animal companion but are not really serious about getting around independently are also not good candidates. Some people think getting a dog-guide will be a form of protection like carrying a weapon. Dog guides are not trained as attack or guard dogs. In fact, dog guides are pre-tested (usually) for any tendencies towards aggressiveness or instability, because only well-socialized dogs are suitable to be working dogs in any environment. Also, if a dog-guide user or handler is ever hurt and lying on the ground disabled or unconscious, rescuers need to be able to get to the injured person.
The general skills the dog is trained to take the person around obstacles, stop at steps and curbs, and indicate by body language such as walking slower, if there is a very congested or unusual situation ahead. Dog guides, for example, may pause if a car in a driveway is completely blocking the sidewalk. The dog waits for the command of left or right, or takes the handler towards the street and around the end of the vehicle protruding into the street. The handler is motioning and commanding left or right to the dog to get back on the sidewalk. Since some practiced dog guide users or handlers give quiet, subtle commands, often people observing at a distance do not realize that the dog is being directed by the person. At street crossings the person has to line up to traffic sounds and determine when to give the dog the command to move forward. If the person wants to stop to talk to someone on the sidewalk, the person will give the dog the halt command. If the dog is “daydreaming” or distracted and steps over a curb instead of stopping, the person gives the dog a quick, efficient leash correction so that the dog realizes it must continue to consistently stop at curbs. The dog-guides are highly trained but are as effective as the handler is effective at reinforcing the training the dog has been given. Well-timed praise and correction is needed to help the dog stay in top form. Sometimes observers see a blind person do a leash correction and do not understand why. Some dog guide schools do also teach the dogs to be aware of overhead obstacles such as a tree branch protruding over the sidewalk. If this training is consistently reinforced, the dog can lead a person to the side of the overhead obstacle. However, sometimes dog-guides do not travel in many environments with this type of obstacle, and they lose the skill. A visually impaired person may give the dog a leash correction for a leafy branch or bush brushing his or her face, to re-teach this skill to the dog. Then the handler will take the dog back a few steps before the face-high obstacle, pass the obstacle again, and praise the dog profusely if it remembers to pull the person away from the face-high obstacle.
O&M specialists are sometimes asked to familiarize blind persons who are new to the community to the area that is new to them. The visually impaired person usually already has mobility skills but just needs to get a mental layout of the area and any particularly important hazards such as dangerous intersections or areas where there may be a lot of face-high obstacles that the cane will go under and not detect. Sometimes the new resident has a long cane; sometimes the new resident has a dog-guide. Since O&M specialists work with people in public areas, it may appear to the public that the O&M instructor is teaching the person how to use the dog. The truth is that the O&M instructor is just familiarizing the person to the new area and maybe following the person with the dog-guide as they practice a new route. So, no, we do not teach people how to use their dog-guides!
I have consistently referred to the dogs as dog-guides because the Seeing Eye and Guide Dogs are names of schools that train the dogs and dog-guide handlers. Dog-guide is a generic name, and that is why it is used here.
So, traveling with a cane or a dog-guide is a matter of personal choice. Some visually impaired people do not want the extra work and responsibility of caring for a dog-guide. Others like using a dog-guide because even though they may not get as much tactile information about the environment as with a cane, they are physically active people who like the brisker pace of using a dog-guide.
Some dog-guide users find themselves going back to using a cane after having used a dog until it was retired. Others continue to go back for refresher courses for a new dog-guide when the old one is retired. Whether one uses a cane or a dog-guide, it requires alertness, concentration, and a certain level of skill only reached by training and practice.
Have you ever had the experience of seeing things that are not really there? Many people with low vision do or have at some time in their lives. Actually about 30% of people with low vision are affected by this. Charles Bonnet Syndrome or CBS was named after the Swiss Naturalist who in 1760 realized the hallucinations his grandfather saw were associated with vision loss from cataracts.
This side effect of vision loss is reported most commonly by people whose eye disease is associated with central vision loss like macular degeneration. Images can be patterns, people, animal or plants. Often they are smaller than normal size and are usually pleasant or entertaining. People see them in their every day surrounding and are aware that they are not real. They are usually seen in addition to what is actually there. Somehow when the eyes lose vision they are still able to provide their own images. This is more likely for someone whose visual acuity is in the range of 20/120 and 20/400. This phantom vision is similar to the phantom pain or phantom limb phenomena.
People with CBS do not have any cognitive impairment, but often are reluctant to share their experiences thinking that others will view it as a mental issue. However it is always important to discuss the matter with your primary care physician for a diagnosis as other disorders can also produce hallucinations.
People are normally relieved to learn that CBS is not a psychiatric problem, but a side effect of vision loss. If you have had this experience and would like to speak to others with similar experiences at a Low Vision Support Group please call Jeannie at 649-3505.
We are proud to introduce Joshua Karanis as our newest Board of Director. Joshua brings his experience of being involved in the non-profit sector for a number of years. He is currently involved in the electrical field. Joshua has a longstanding relationship with the BVIC. His mother, Cindy Karanis, was instrumental in creating the Low Vision Clinic and was also an Orientation & Mobility Instructor for the BVIC. We all look forward to working with Joshua.
Golfers get ready for a beautiful day at Rancho Canada in sunny Carmel Valley on Friday September 18. Through the years Blind Centers have benefited from contributions exceeding $214,000 from this event. Call Joe LoManto of Monterey Host Lions, at 373-3106 for registration information. The BVIC appreciates the Lions ongoing support!
Come enjoy an evening of fun!
Bowling Tourney, Silent Auction & Raffle.
September 26, 2009, 4:00 pm check-in.
Monterey Lanes, Fremont St, Monterey
Call Diana Ingersoll for info at 899-7495.