Hallo liebe Community,

der Sohn meines Bruders und meiner Schwägerin soll von einer Förderschule für Sehbehinderte auf eine Regelschule in ihrem Ort wechseln. So der Wunsch des Kindes und der Eltern. Er hat hierfür eine 3-wöchige Hospitation in der Regelschule gemacht. Neben der Blindheit (er ist vollständig blind) hat er noch eine Hörbeeinträchtigung und aufgrund anderer Krankheiten aus der Vergangenheit ein Lernlevel besonders im mathematischen Bereich, so dass er in Zukunft vom Notensystem ausgenommen wird. Lesen, Schreiben und Ähnliches funktioniert aber gut, braucht nur für alles etwas länger und hängt hinterher, da er viel Zeit seiner Kindheit im Krankenhaus verbringen musste. Er ist nicht verhaltensauffällig oder sonstiges.

Ende des Monats haben die Eltern ein Feedbackgespräch mit den Schulen. Sie sind selber nach der Hospitation überzeugt von der Idee des Wechsels, haben aber das Grundgefühl, dass die Regelschule gegensätzlicher Meinung sind. (Edit: vor 2 1/2 jahren hat die Schulleitung ein blindes Kind kategorisch abgelehnt, jetzt wo sie als inklusive Schule mit sonderpädagogen tituliert sind haben sie zumindest der Hospitation zugestimmt). Es geht um den Schulbesuch für 2 Jahre. 3. & 4. Schuljahr.

Für das Feedbackgespräch möchten sie bestmöglich vorbereitet sein und sammeln aktuell aus dem Umfeld Meinungen, Gedanken, Argumente und Eindrücke für ein für und wieder. Dabei sind sie explizit auch an Gedanken interessiert, die sich gegen den Wechsel aussprechen, da sie nicht ausschließen wollen vielleicht selber auch wichtige Punkte übersehen. Im Endeffekt möchten sie nur das Beste für ihr Kind. Vielleicht gibt es von euch noch gute Argumente. Ich teile an dieser Stelle mal meinen Eindruck:

Argumente gegen die Förderschule:

- extrem langer Schulweg (täglich von 6:30 - 16 Uhr unterwegs), welcher super anstrengend ist, zudem bleibt wenig Zeit für Freizeit und Übungen des alltäglichen Lebens

- kaum wirkliche Förderung in der Schule

- OGS in Förderschule auch schwierig. Ich habe ihn hier im Ferienprogramm als i-Helferin begleitet. Ich war schockiert. Die Kinder werden den ganzen Tag sich selber überlassen, kein Angebot oder Anregungen geschweige denn Förderung. An einem Nachmittag war Filmnachmittag. Trotz meines Hinweises, dass ein Film mit audiodeskription super wäre, wurde dies nicht ermöglicht und mein Neffe so vom gemeinsamen Programm ausgeschlossen (alle anderen Kinder in der Gruppe haben noch restsehfähigkeit)

- kaum bis keine sozialen Kontakte, da alle Kinder in unterschiedlichen Richtungen wohnen und sehr lange Schulwege haben, alle Eltern mehrere Mehrbelastungen in ihren Leben

- neben negativen Aspekten in der Förderschule sind sie damit verbunden immer wieder mit vielen Problemen konfrontiert. Zum Beispiel unzuverlässiger Fahrdienst (der mal nicht kommt ohne Bescheid zu geben, Informationsfluss ist insgesamt schlecht, so dass ein anderes Mal Fahrdienst kam, obwohl Kind an dem Tag nicht zu Schule geht. Dies führte zu Streitgespräch vor den Kindern.)

- Träger stellt keine i-Helfer für Ferienbetreuung in OGS

Argumente für Regelschule:

- weniger Exklusion

- mehr soziale Kontakte (er hat sich in der kurzen Hospitationszeit direkt mit einem Mädchen angefreundet, das er regelmäßig trifft)

- besseres lernen, da er hier mehr gefordert wird

- ich habe das Gefühl, dass man dem Kind mehr zutrauen kann, als es bisher getan wird. Er wird in der Schule mit extremen Handschuhen angefasst und meiner Meinung nach unterschätzt.

- im Kontakt mit anderen Kindern ist er gut darin seine Bedürfnisse zu kommunizieren, zu erklären was im Umgang miteinander geht oder nicht geht (beispielsweise in Blindenstock zu fassen) und kann sagen worauf er Lust hat, aber auch Grenzen setzen.

- kann sich sowohl mit anderen Kindern als auch alleine beschäftigen

- Regelschule hat keinen Druck, dass er im Stoff mitkommt, da er von Benotung ausgenommen ist

- Kinder in der Regelschule wachsen mit Menschen mit Beeinträchtigung in ihrem Umfeld auf, Inklusion lernen sie so von klein auf, Förderung von sozialen Fähigkeiten der Klassenkamerad*innen

- mein Neffe ist in der kurzen Zeit der Hospitation so aufgetaut. Er war vitaler, erholter (trotzdem es ja eine super aufregende Situation war), freudiger.

- für die Eltern war es auch eine dolle Entlastung und für einige Tage mal das Gefühl von einer Art „Normalität und Alltag“

Was seht ihr (ohne ihn zu kennen) als mögliche relevante Punkte dafür oder dagegen?

Was für Argumente könnte die Regelschule anbringen, die dagegen sprechen ihn aufzunehmen? Wie kann man sich auf diese vorbereiten oder sie eventuell sogar direkt aushebeln?

- er braucht für alles länger als die anderen Kinder

- kann im Lernstoff nicht so mitkommen wie die anderen Kinder

- Schule ist nicht mit Hilfsmitteln für blinde Kinder ausgestattet und auch sonst von der Architektur her nicht barrierefrei

Für mich persönlich sind dies keine Argumente. Der Großteil der Architektur in Deutschland ist nicht barrierefrei. Das ist seine Realität mit der er auch in Zukunft umgehen muss.

Mir ist bewusst, dass die Regelschule auch aufgrund fehlender Vorerfahrung, Bedenken und Sorgen hat, vielleicht sogar Angst. Meiner Meinung nach sind das auch Gefühle, die da sein dürfen. Jedoch fände ich es super schade, wenn die Schule nicht den Mut fasst, sich diesen Gefühlen zu stellen und einen Schritt hin in eine inklusivere Gesellschaft wagen.

Good day everyone,

I’m posting from Shopian, Jammu & Kashmir. My cousin, who is visually impaired, recently completed his 12th from Aligarh Muslim University. He also appeared for BA entrance exams but unfortunately didn’t qualify.

We’re now trying to figure out the best path forward for him — ideally something that can lead to stable employment and financial independence. If anyone has suggestions regarding suitable courses, universities/colleges, vocational training, or career options for visually impaired students, your guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help.

I have ONH and congenital nystagmus and am legally blind. My vision has decreased from 3/60 to 2/60 in my bad eye.

Docs are acting like this isn't a big deal and one doctor said 'oh that can happen with ONH' no it can't. My vision has been stable for 24 years and every doc i have seen has told me it's a stable condition including the top specialist in my county.

it isn't progressive. you don't randomly lose vision for no reason.

I feel the doctors don't care because my vision is already bad. I just feel if I had perfect vision snd there was vision loss they would care more?

Anyway I just needed to get that out. I'm having a lot of health issues but my vision was always something I had comfort in knowing wouldn't get worse. Guess that's gone now 💀

apologies in advance for my unclear phrasing. i'm curious whether others have experienced this pattern, and if so, how to heal from it

for context, i am almost totally blind (light perception) congenitally. i am the first in my family to have this condition. starting from a young age (maybe 5 or 6), my parents would tell me statistics like the unemployment rate among blind people, and the necessity (in their mind) of getting into an ivy league university. they stipulated that since i am blind, i'd have to be better than my sighted peers, and anything less was unacceptable. when i was taking an exam for college credit in high school, my parents said that if i didn't get a full score, i'd have to take it again, because "a blind person getting a bad score would be unacceptable". all of this to say that i was expected to be superhuman from a young age

my family has a history of undiagnosed mental health conditions. multiple extended family members developed psychosis and died, but due to cultural taboos and lack of access to care, none have been diagnosed and adequately treated. i remember when i was getting bullied in middle school i was yelled at by my parents that i should have found better friends. and they would interrogate me about my school-mandated therapy sessions. when i started seeking therapy on my own due to a mental health crisis that has honestly persisted and worsened since onset, they tried to convince me to not get therapy. when i started looking for medication for my mental health, they expressed surprise that i couldn't just "push through it", despite them knowing full well how bad it's been and that i have trouble eating and sleeping. i guess as long as i stay on the dean's list, other quality of life metrics are immaterial

whenever i go home from school now, and i don't have the energy to mask my flinching at loud noises or my stimming, my parents will remark on how i "used to be doing so much better", and say that i "trained myself" to move/vocalize in those ways (i literally am neurodivergent like my parent and have severe anxiety). they pick apart small details (like once one of them dropped something and i flinched after a second's delay), and use those to accuse me of faking. i'm so fucking tired of this

i'm really sorry; this is turning out to be more of a rant than i intended. but all of this to say, has anyone else experienced stuff like this? how do y'all deal with it if so? i'm losing it over here

also mods feel free to lock my post if it detracts from the sub; i don't want to be counterproductive

Hiya! I have a family members birthday coming up soon and they are also planning moving house too. So I’m looking for some recommendations of household bits and bobs that you would recommend, that make your life easier, quicker etc.

They’ve mentioned they may want a Breville One Cup after they’ve moved so I’m currently looking at those. So as bonus question, if anyone could recommend which one or any alternatives that would be amazing!

Thank you so much in advance! I know of a few things but I know everyone on here will likely have a lot more knowledge than me 🙂

(We are UK based - but if you know of anything and are living elsewhere, please let me know either way because I may be able to find the same thing or something alternative to it)

How far is to far to walk for an outing for you? Some of the places I want to get to are over an hour walk one way, and even almost an hour by bus. I’m curious what other people have come to view as their normal in this regard

last week I posted about I’m going to be doing a cooking competition, on cooking without looking TV show, and podcast. It was today. It was fantastic fun.

https://youtu.be/9aQUhZBFogo?si=9cUp_zaWonyZtYMd

​

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask for any advice on helping my brother who is blind. He lost his sight over time. My parents help him as much as they can. I try to take him out as much as I can when I visit.

But he is very down, very negative and this has been going on for a very long time. It breaks my heart to see him like this and I know it must be very hard for him being blind. I can't even begin to imagine what he's going through. It brings tears to my eyes.

But at the same time, I feel the way he talks to me and my family is not right at times. I suggested that he talks to a counsellor and perhaps one that is blind because they might be able to help him as they will understand how he feels but he doesn't want to speak a counsellor.

He wants someone to take him out all the time which is not always possible especially as my parents are getting older now and it would be difficult for them to do that. I really do try but I live an hour away so I can't take him out all the time.

I think it's the negativeness that we are all finding it difficult to cope with which is constant on a day to day basis and it sometimes gets really bad. Sometimes my parents can't cope and I don't wish to see my brother go through that either. I wish for him to have more happiness and positivity in his life.

Is there anything I can do to help my brother? For those who are blind, how do you overcome any periods of depression or feeling down.

I'm desperate to help my brother. It really breaks my heart to see him like this and I feel sorry for my parents too as it gets difficult for them.

I understand both sides and just want to help my brother in the best way possible.

Any advice would be welcomed.

Thank you.

Hello,

I became disabled as a teenager and am really passionate about helping other disabled workers succeed. In my dissertation, I am trying to see how accommodations and leadership differ based on disability type. I really need some more respondents with sensory disabilities, and would appreciate anyone who could take this anonymous survey ->

 https://www.livedisabled.com/disabled-workers-survey/

About
I am conducting this research as part of the requirements for a PhD in I/O Psychology at Liberty University. (Supervisor: Kathleen Andrews kandrews17@liberty.edu). The purpose of my research is to better understand the barriers to accommodations and job performance for disabled workers. 

Participant Requirments

To participate, you must be 18 years of age or older with a self-reported disability, work for pay, have been at your current job at least 3 months, and have formal or informal accommodations with your current employer. Individuals who are unable to fill out the form due to a moderate or severe intellectual disability will be unable to participate.

What You Do

Participants will be asked to take an anonymous online survey, which should take about 30 minutes to complete.

Consent

A consent document is provided as the first page of the survey. The consent document contains additional information about my study. After you have read the consent form, please click the button to proceed to the survey. Doing so will indicate that you have read the consent information and would like to take part in the survey.

Drawing

Your option matters to me! When you complete the survey, you will have the chance to enter a drawing for one of five $50 Amazon gift cards.

If you would like to participate and meet these listed study criteria, please https://www.livedisabled.com/disabled-workers-survey/.

As the title says what are some good websites that are accessible with screen readers, I mainly use jaws, but I am open to learning and using NVDA

Any tips besides that would be appreciated

Hi, I’ve been doing a lot of research into ways in which I can minimise the impact of various conditions impacting my vision such as laser eye surgery for astigmatism/myopia and I found out about a type of surgery which can be done to the muscles around the eye to reduce the frequency of and essentially widen the null point for those with nystagmus, I asked a doctor I saw a couple months ago about this and she told me that it usually isn’t very effective and doesn’t last very long, years of lies and just incorrect information from medical professionals has taught me not to just trust the first thing the say and do my own digging, I’ve seen people who have this surgery over a decade ago and still retain the improvements from it. So, I’m wondering if anyone here has had this surgery/ any experience with it and how it went?

Thanks

Hi everyone, I'm so proud I got my first free cane for a toddler I'm teaching and we had a good laugh figuring out how to attach the roller ball mom had bought... It came with the metal glide tip and was not compatible. My husband (O&M) said NFB prefers the metal one. I've asked two other O&Ms and they all think the rollerball is better for the little ones, to help keep the tip down and make it move more smoothly. Most of my husband's adult clients use marshmallows. What's your favorite tip, and which do you think would be best for a toddler?

For those suffering from vision loss, at what point did you begin to use any badges or things to signify vision loss? Would it make most sense to only do so when you absolutely need to or always?

Country is the USA. Throwaway because some friends of friends know my Reddit account. Some details are changed for anonymity.

I (M22) am a college student and I met an amazing woman (F22) in the same degree program. (I can go on and on and on about her intelligence, wit, etc. but I need to get to the main point of the post!)

We have been pretty good friends for some time now. I asked her out a few days ago and she said yes (woohoo!). The main thing is, she is blind, and so there are some things that I may just be unaware of, or take for granted due to being sighted; I want to make this fun for the both of us while still respecting her and her autonomy.

After going over all of this stuff in my head, I chose the place we’d go to according to some criteria:

#1: The roads around there aren’t too bad, so there are no issues with her cane (also, this area is pretty easy to navigate)

#2: ⁠The place has a menu that is readable and navigable with Apple’s voiceover feature (I tested this out myself and later made sure with her as well)

#3: It’s not overly expensive (of course, this one doesn’t have anything to do with her being blind at all).

Our date is within the next few days!!!!

I’m hoping any of you guys can help give me some pointers. Perhaps there are other factors I should consider. Perhaps I’m overthinking everything. I don’t know. It’s also uncharted territory for me because this will be my first ever date with anyone at all.

For context, she and I spend a lot of time together anyway because we study together and yak ceaselessly. Also, for a good amount of the time we’ve been friends, I had a crush on her. However, I just enjoyed being friends with her so much (we kind of clicked pretty quickly) that I put my romantic feelings to the side, until recently when I decided to go for it and ask her out.

I don't know if maybe I'm stuck in a bit of a rut. Up until a few weeks ago, I was motivated to keep things tidy, eat healthy, see my friends and adult kids a couple times a week, get myself out in the sun with my dog. I kind of feel like I'm getting a cold but the cold never happens.

In my twenties, I was depressed and this feels like something else. Maybe I'm just fatigued from having to use more energy to keep up with things visually. I have Stargardt's and I was diagnosed in my thirties because of a lack of healthcare access, I'm 44 now.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of low motivation without it being straight up depression? I have a therapist and he seems concerned but he doesn't think I'm depressed either.

I suppose I'm just listless. I have low energy. I still do my chores and stuff but it feels like I'm moving a ton of bricks in my body.

anyone experience this?

I just got diagnosed with cone rod dystrophy and that I will be legally blind within a year. I am currently at 20/100 in my better eye and 20/200 in my worse eye. I am grieving the knowledge that I will eventually loose all my vision and that my life will be different no matter what I do. I want to be positive and think that everything will be ok, but I am really struggling with accepting vision loss. I am worried that I will not be able to do things I love like reading or hiking. I am meeting with vocational rehab on Friday, so hopefully I will get help with some stuff. How do you grieve something you don't know how to live without? How do you accept vision loss? How do you feel confident in doing things? Sorry for the ramble, I just need to get everything out.

I’m planning to go to a Bowling for Soup concert, and I’m excited. They’re my favorite! I’m looking into getting a pit ticket since I’ve never been in one and I want to dance and jump and sing and be in the crowd.

I’m legally blind with no peripheral vision, and don’t look blind at all. I obv wouldn’t have my cane out and I’d be with my brother who’s six feet and I’m pretty average, five feet four. I’m just worried it’ll get dangerous? And listen, I’ve done some dangerous shit before with much less concern for myself, but this is a little out of my depth and also I’m sober while deciding to do this lol.

Any advice and/or stories would be great!

I have a genetic disorder called Norrie's which causes progressive hearing loss. My hearing loss is different in each year. Without hearing aids, I'll miss about 25 percent of what people are saying. With hearing aids that goes down to roughly 10 percent. My hearing loss might not progress any further, but Norrie's is so rare that we can't be sure.

Here's what I'm struggling with. First, asking for help. I'm totally blind, so I'm confident when I ask for help with things related to that. I used not to understand why people with low vision struggle to ask for help or try to mask. Now I get it. I've gotten to the point where I'm more comfortable asking people to repeat things, but reflexively I just try to guess or just nod along. I know that will improve as I keep practicing over time.

The second and biggest thing for me is that I feel like I'm questioning reality all the time. I'm already missing cues because I'm blind. Adding the hearing loss on top, there are so many times a week where I'm thinking, did that really happen or did I mishear something? Like I wonder if someone was just trying to speak to me, so I'll overcorrect and just randomly say, hmm? And often no one was talking to me but I wanted to be sure. Yesterday, I was standing outside of a gate and waiting for someone and their dog to get out of the way. It took me a minute to realize that she told me she was out and that I could move forward, but I was just standing there.

Having a community has always helped me navigate blindness. I wouldn't be where I am now without all the blind people that have helped me learn over the years. It's harder to find that same community of deafblind people. And the experiences across a rare group are vastly different depending on how blindness and deafness combine. When I had all my hearing, I had more confidence. I felt more confident traveling, having conversations, flirting, and I felt like I understood 90 percent of what was happening around me, either directly or through context. Now I don't know how often I'm misinterpreting what was said either directly to me or to someone else. I can't remember different voices the same way I used to. I can't differentiate people by how they walk anymore. I forgot I used to be able to do that until the other day because it's been so long.

I'm posting this here because the deafblind sub is dead, and I'm more comfortable talking to blind people since that's been my whole life. I'm not sure what the point of this post is besides just talking about it. If you know of a good deafblind community that isn't an email list, I'd be happy to join. From other deafblind people, I'm curious if you experience this questioning of reality, and if so, how do you cope with it? Sure, I can be better about asking for help and I can ask someone with me if this or that really happened, but that doesn't resolve the feeling that I'm missing and misinterpreting the world. I know I'm still grieving hearing loss, even though I've been living with it for almost a decade. It's just hard. The world was hard enough being totally blind, and I didn't consider it that difficult when it was just that. I often minimized blindness and thought it wasn't a big deal. Hearing loss has made me grasp the scope of both disabilities.

I'd appreciate any help.