Editorās note: Gabby Abeyta, a sixteen-year-old with low vision, reflects on her first overnight journey without her family, an organized college preparation trip. She encourages others with blindness or low vision to take calculated risks to gain independence and meet their goals. It may seem simple to travel overnight on your own; people often do … Continued
Lisa Lloyd has plenty of personal experience with blindness and low vision. She has retinitis pigmentosa that causes her night blindness, and within her family there are 16 people across five generations with some level of blindness or low vision, including one of her daughters and her father, who are both blind. Sheās a volunteer … Continued
The story of Helen Keller has been told so many times ā in so many ways ā that it might be hard to believe that some younger generations donāt know about Helen and her achievements. Even more important, countless people probably arenāt aware of the significant influence Helen Keller had on the lives of others, … Continued
Itās here again āsummer! Many students are excitedly anticipating and planning for the possibilities that the next couple of months may hold. Freedom from the normal routine and deadlines. A break from learning and reviewā¦right? If youāre a recent high school graduate, you may want to consider working in a little (or a lot) of … Continued
Joseph Burton knows what a significant difference it can make in someoneās life when they have the support and encouragement they need. Thatās because he spent the first 15 years of his life struggling to find the kind of love and guidance so many young people have. And itās his own experience that ultimately motivated … Continued
Are you a teen who is blind or low vision and is interested in utilizing (āhandlingā) a guide dog? If so, what an exciting goal! As much as you may want to jump right into the application and matching process, you arenāt eligible to handle a guide dog until equipped with the skills to do … Continued
Editor’s Note: This post was written by VisionAware Peer Advisor, author and guide dog handler, DeAnna (Quietwater) Noriega. To learn more about the ins and outs of working with a guide dog, please join us for a Q&A panel discussion webinar on April 29, 2021 at 3:00PM ET. Click here to learn more and register. … Continued
It was nearly 13 years ago when I picked up the harness and I was forever a changed person. Throughout my career as a rehabilitation counselor and later the statewide transition specialist for blind services in California, one of the essential functions of my job was to travel up and down the state conducting outreach and hosting seminars in front of audiences often in large auditoriums. Initially, my understanding … Continued
Lessons learned the hard way: In the first blog of this two-part series I wrote about planning and perseverance and that theme carries into this post: You can check out Part 1 here. Not only was I the first person in my immediate family to attend college and graduate, I did so as a blind Latino living in southern California. As with many high school students, dinner … Continued
Editor’s note: This guest post is written by Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum of the American Foundation for the Blind The other day I was sharing a memory of my favorite Lyft ride with a friend from my perspective as a nondriver. It was a night I felt independent and carefree. I had gone to a … Continued