by admin | May 28, 2018 | Program
My name is Kath and I lost my sight in 2009 to Diabetic Retinopathy. I got my first glimpse of the value of Vision Loss Alliance of New Jersey’s tech program a few years ago while enrolled in the organization’s Better Health and Wellness program in Montclair.
I was using a flip phone at the time and couldn’t imagine any reason for switching to an iPhone. My phone allowed me to dial numbers vocally, and really, what more did I need?
In the Better Health and Wellness program, I was surrounded by classmates whose knowledge and wisdom I admired and trusted. I heard them using amazing applications. The first app that really grabbed my attention was one called “BlindSquare.” It worked in a manner similar to that of a GPS in a car, but this one enabled a blind or visually impaired person to know exactly where she was standing on a block or in a mall! What freedom!! Another app that drew my interest was called “TapTapSee.” This one identified items photographed with the phone. Ah! The joy of finding peas in the can when you opened it, as hoped for.
I decided to sign up, buying an iPhone just before classes started at the Denville location.
The experience wasn’t easy at first. There I was in an unfamiliar space that offered a frustrating set of classes that had me wanting to throw the phone out the window — or at the least across the room. But I was surrounded by classmates who understood where I was coming from, and who both commiserated with me and taught me to laugh at the experience. I found teachers with enormous knowledge of these highly technical topics and even greater patience with people like me who were groaning students convinced they’d never learn.
Over time I did learn, and I went on to use the iPad and a Bluetooth keyboard. These days, I volunteer as an assistant teacher, where I get the great blessing of sharing in and cheering on my students’ successes!
by admin | May 28, 2018 | Blog
When Charlene began to lose her sight she was struck by how much her life was going to change. For her entire life she had been a voracious reader “I would sit up all night, holding my eyes open to finish a book,” she said. This was my whole life, to read.”
As her sight diminished, she stopped reading. “I was devastated,” she said. “It was horrendous. To think that someday the lights would go out and it would be dark until the end.” It was at this point that she heard about Vision Loss Alliance of New Jersey. “I heard wonderful things about wonderful people. They were painting, They were cooking. They were having fun.”
Charlene made the decision to attend the one day Essential Low Vision program to learn more about living with vision loss. She immediately felt welcome. “I walked in and I met other people. There were no sad sacks here. There was too much laughter, too much humor, too much comaraderie.”
She joined the Better Health & Wellness program and came every week to Denville, where she learned to paint. She painted so much that after her pictures lined the walls of her home she began to give them as gifts. “I had to come here at 71, and going blind, to find out I like to paint! And people like what I paint,” Charlene said.
Charlene now tells everyone she meets how Vision Loss Alliance changed her life, and encourages everyone living vision loss to call and register for classes, She tells them “Vision Loss Alliance changed my life… I may have lost my sight, but I have not lost my vision.”
by admin | May 28, 2018 | Blog
Diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease at age 8, Bergen County resident Debbie skillfully adapted to her deteriorating vision through young adulthood, marriage and motherhood. But in 2015, at age 53, the loss was so dramatic that it drove her into a severe depression.
“I felt like I couldn’t take care of my kids. I couldn’t drive. I couldn’t go anywhere. I just sat on the couch for a year and a half,” the married mother of three said. “Every other time my vision dropped, I was able to adapt, but I knew this was a final thing. I just kept crying.”
Debbie has degenerative myopia, the seventh leading cause of legal blindness. Her right eye suffered a retinal detachment and sees only light and darkness, while objects viewed through her left eye appear to be flashing, and she lacks depth perception and peripheral vision, she said. There are areas of total vision loss in both eyes.
Fate brought her to Vision Loss Alliance of New Jersey. At the Elmwood Park Diner, Debbie met Dennis, whose wife, Lori, attends Vision Loss Alliance’s Better Health & Wellness program. Noticing Debbie’s cane, Dennis told her about how Vision Loss Alliance helps people with vision loss reclaim their independence.
“When he mentioned an art class, I perked up,” said Debbie, who had studied design in college.
Dennis drives his wife to Vision Loss Alliance in Denville on Thursdays and offered to drive Debbie too. She enrolled in immediately, taking a full day of classes and participating in peer support counseling. The depression soon lifted.
“This place saved my life!” exclaimed Debbie said. “It awakened me, and I feel good.” Art therapy, not surprisingly, became her favorite class, as well as time speaking one-on-one with the art therapist.
Debbie looks forward to spending Thursdays at Vision Loss Alliance. She takes an energy class, two sessions of art, yoga and music appreciation. “They feed my mind, body and soul,” she said. During lunch, she chats with the other participants. “I help other people, some who can’t see at all, and that makes me feel good too,” she said.
Joy has returned to Debbie’s life. She recently celebrated her twin daughters’ b’not mitzvah.
“This place is what pulled me out of depression,” Debbie said. “I enjoy everything here – especially the people.”
