March 16 - Grandchildren

Grandchildren are such a joy, and last week Lyle and I were fortunate enough to have our two little ones come and stay with us. What fun it was to see these two cousins together after the two-year COVID drought. Of course with the technology of zoom, they have seen each other on the screen, but in person was surely a different story. I am still recovering a bit from the constant activity.

I have also come away from the week with a new respect and admiration for young parents. As adults, our own children have demanding jobs and there always seems to be the rearranging of schedules with a busy life style. Both families live in the city and distances to work and school play a part. Lyle and I were lucky in that when we were raising a young family we lived in a relatively small rural town. Both school and work were within walking distance.

During this past week, I also came away with an increased admiration for parents who are blind or partially sighted. Our children were six and seven when I became legally blind and so they had some understanding of what I could and couldn’t do and of what they should or shouldn’t do. This scenario isn’t necessarily true for couples who are without sight and who choose to have a family. The early years of infancy must be quite a challenge.

On the plus side, I do think that our children grew up with an added sense of responsibility and an awareness of the needs of others. Learning to read was one example. In the early days, bedtime stories took a twist. Instead of me reading the story, our children read to me. This tradition has now carried through to our granddaughter. As she is able, Lexi reads her library books to me and spells out unfamiliar words.  She knows that I am unable to see the print.

I also remember the teen years when there was a push to get a driver’s license. I looked forward to this event equally with our son and daughter. Yes, they could learn to drive as soon as the age requirement was met, and yes they could use the family car. The codicil, however, was that they would drive Mum around whenever she had need of a personal chauffeur.

Those were the big issues. The little issues of being a blind or visually impaired parent were likely more challenging. How to answer questions such as the following! How does this transformer work? Where is my lunch kit? Can you pull the splinter out of my finger? I fell down and is my head bleeding? Can you help with homework? I need a whatever for school tomorrow. Can you take me to the store?  These were just a few of the small but frustrating stumbling blocks of daily living. Just as parents and grandparents with limited or no sight learn to be resilient, so do the children and grandchildren.

We are looking forward to spring break when we will have another opportunity to spoil our granddaughter. This is one of the joys of being a grandparent. At the end of the week, we will give her back to her parents. While our children might give us a few gray hairs, our grandchildren keep us young.

There is a picture with this post. Do you remember the game, Barrel of Monkeys? In the picture, Benji and Lexi are standing holding up a chain of red plastic monkeys. 

 

Benji and Lexi playing Barrel of Monkeys

 

 

March 5 - Seeing or Hearing Print

Many years ago when my sight changed, one of the biggest challenges I faced was not being able to see print. Until my vision loss, I had never even contemplated the idea of not being able to see to read. Learning how to listen instead of seeing was a huge adjustment and a major learning curve.

In the first weeks of the loss of my central vision, I relied heavily on family members to assist with the interpretation of printed materials. It was enough that I needed to concentrate on the practicalities without venturing further into leisure time reading. To a degree, I still struggle somewhat with print accessibility, but I have come a long way and technology has played a big part in my small successes.

Even as I type these words, I continue to be amazed by the advances in technology. I am using an audible screen reading program. As I type each word, I can hear the words as they appear on the screen. Unlike the old manual typewriter, my JAWS program enables me to review what I have typed and to make corrections as I go along. I can send emails and listen to the messages sent to me by other people. I can look up information on the Internet. I can also adjust the speed and voice from the computer to suit my own listening  ability and preferences.

Leisure listening or reading has also come a long way. Back in the beginning, for me that was 1986, I listened to books on a cassette tape recorder. It was sometimes a slow process. The tapes would arrive in the mail in a bulky postage free package from the CNIB Library in Toronto. I know of other older friends who used to receive their reading material on 78 rpm player records. These days I am able to listen to a fairly wide variety of books and magazines using a small device called a Victor Stream Reader.

This brings me to what has prompted me to write this particular post. For the past couple of months, I have been part of a pilot project using an even smaller device – the Envoy Connect. With this device, I can make my own selection of books and download them directly from the library. I am definitely in the learning stages with this. So far, Lyle has needed to lead me through the downloading stages.

The one flaw I have found with this new device is that I haven’t been able to adjust the reading speed. Perhaps that particular function is there and I simply haven’t found it yet. With my Victor Stream Reader I am able to speed up the narration. Just like speed reading when you can see the print, it is possible to speed read when you listen. At the end of this month, I will participate in a survey where the pros and cons of this new device will be analyzed. I am excited to hear what other readers have discovered with the Envoy Connect.

Next month it will have been thirty-six years since I made my first foray into accessible printed materials. I still think of myself as a bit of an amateur in all this, but that doesn’t stop me from being grateful to those people and companies who have initiated advances in the field. If you would like to take a peek into some of the equipment that is currently on offer, I would recommend that you check out these two web sites:

Humanware: https://www.humanware.com/en-canada/home 

Freedom Scientific:https://www.freedomscientific.com/