The Adventures of the Blind/Low Vision/Visually Impaired (BLOVI) Girl-Volume 21
This week my blog focuses on what I can and cannot do as a legally blind person. I have had so many people ask me what I can see and how I do certain things, that I decided to share some of the things I can do and do well, as well as those things I just can no longer do. But first…..
My WTF of the week is a recording I heard that was made from a tape I made with my friend Leonore and my sister when we were 13, 12 and 10 respectively. Leonore, who I just reconnected with after over 20 years, found it and a DJ in Tampa actually played it on a radio show. Some background- we were all latchkey kids and it was the summer and we needed to find various ways to amuse ourselves and one of the ways we did so was making these tapes (for you youngsters I am referencing cassette tapes and a recording device for making those tapes). We used to do interviews and the Barbara Wa Wa show and go on rants about people we did not like. I can’t really talk about the other things we did to amuse ourselves because my mom reads this blog. So, Leonore and I listened to our 13 and 12 year-old selves on the tape and it was beyond funny and surreal. My 13 year old voice is the voice I have today, except that for some reason I sound like I am in a gang. The tape was made to send to our across the street neighbor, Chris, as he had just moved to Texas. So we are asking him what he is doing, had he gone to Gilley’s or had he had a Lone Star beer (the effect of the fact Urban Cowboy had recently come out) and apprised him of the latest gossip on the block. Leonore is saying how she is annoyed I did not go to her birthday at Adventure Island because I had to go to my eighth grade graduation. We are talking about making stained glass windows at her grandfather’s shop and mine has the initials of the first guy I kissed (which means we are dating). Then she and my sister get into some side fight. At one point in the tape I say “What the hell are you talking about?” and it is me, exactly me sounding like me now and saying something I say all the time. How little we change.
This week I can’t get enough of my Kindle and all the books I am reading. I am currently enamored with the books Freakonomics and Superfrekonomics. The authors apply economic theory and use data to answer really interesting, and sometimes bizarre questions, hence the use of freak in the title. I am a “what does the data say” freak myself who thinks regression analysis is sexy (they had me at spurious correlation). What is great is that they use data to look at things like the economics of prostitution and the Pimp effect, the gender gap in wages, and the gap in test scores for African American and white populations at the 1st and 3rd grades. And since I am a data driven, evidence-based kind of person I totally get it, but it will sure make people crazy who hold all these beliefs that are fear based or “popular wisdom”. They talk about the problem of people thinking correlation equals causation, something I have always talked about. The best thing is the application of data to random subjects such as the crime and crack epidemic and why crime rates dropped in the 90’s, cheating in sumo wrestling, the basis of altruism, and the characteristics of the best ER doctors. The only unifying theory is that people respond to incentives. I think most people should read these books. And I am also over the moon that my Top Chef crush, Richard Blaise, is in the finals. And did you see his wife on the show, they are both so super-competitive-love it!
Now a primer on the things I can and cannot do and how I do them. Some I just did right away, others I had to figure out.
1) I can exercise and I run in the street alone: Even though I was injured exercising, I still do it. And, gasp, I still use exercise bands, not the tube ones with handles, but the other kind. And I have taken up running. Because I have peripheral vision I can run in the street. I can see larger objects like cars and yard debris without running into them. What I can’t see are small rocks, so I have kicked a few. I recently purchased the running socks by Vibrum so my feet would be more in touch with the ground and I could spring off objects without rolling my foot. I bought the super bright hot pink and orange ones to enhance the ability of cars to see me running. So, if you see someone who has fallen wearing brightly colored running gloves (I think they look more like foot gloves) it is me and call for assistance. I will say it is hard getting your toes into the foot gloves, but I also heard this was tough for sighted people.
2) I can pick out outfits and get myself ready and still look good. I can pluck my eyebrows and put on eyeliner and mascara. Some people have told me that they can’t do this with sight, but I can do it without seeing my face in detail and I think I do my makeup well. I also blow dry and straighten my hair and can even put in my clip on hair extensions (obviously my hair did not grow from steroids, but I can say it is real human hair and I own it). I also know my clothes and can coordinate outfits. I have some problems with dark colors, but if I put something up against something else I know is black I can tell what color it is. Sometimes I have a slight problem with earrings so I usually have two choices and let whoever is driving me decide which look best.
3) I can learn lots of new things. I am taking salsa classes and learning the steps has not been a problem at all. I am taking voice lessons and just memorizing lyrics. I will also take drums and maybe piano because you don’t need sight for those. After that I may even live out my dream of having an all-girl band that is kind of a mix of Sleater-Kinney/L7/Bikini Kill/luscious Jackson/Tegan and Sara. All I will need is a bass player. I am also going to learn to rock climb (on an inside beginner wall) because I am imagining it is a strategic thinking endeavor, and also a feel around thing and I can manage to feel things that are sticking out. Plus I am afraid of heights but now when I look down I can’t see anything past 10 feet, so heights are no longer a problem.
4) I can cook and clean and maintain my house and fix things like a clogged sink and have also managed to use plumbers tape to stop a leak in my hot water heater. I snaked a toilet. It was probably good I could not see that well during the toilet episode. I have this fantasy that I am like Handy Manny and have a toolbox where the tools juts jump out and do all the work (while speaking a few words in Spanish). As for cleaning, sometimes I miss the smaller objects that build up in corners, but don’t we all. Cooking on a gas stove is easy because of the sound and the visible flame. I marked the rest of the appliances with raised dots so I can use them with ease. I tried to fake the not cooking for a while so people would bring me meals, but soon realized that picky eaters need to cook for themselves.
5) I am running my business and can use the computer, all its software, and other technology. I can also shop on the Internet, although it takes longer to scroll through the items because everything is blown up, so there are only three or four items on the screen at one time and I really have to work hard to see the detail in patterns or the size of something (maybe this is how I ended up buying such a skimpy bikini). Sometimes it takes me a minute to find the place where I need to sign in or hit continue or next. With practice I am getting better at navigating the web.
6) I can text and receive text messages (cause you know how much I love texting as a form of communication-NOT). The first time people text me I like to send out a text back to them that says-hey, brainiac, you just texted a blind person. But my phone reads the text messages aloud and tells me what I am texting. All the screens on my phone are talking so I know who is calling- no more need for individualized ring tones so I know when to ignore the phone. And as a blind person I get 411 for free, so I can look up numbers and I am really abusing that privilege.
7) I can still design and visualize a space and help people pick out things for their home. I use my peripheral vision and sense of form and shape and color and a sense of what things look like in my head. Right now I am conceptualizing a totally new bedroom for myself that I will design when I move with some dark gray walls and white furniture. Then I can say, would you like to see my graphic design concept in my bedroom as sort of a pick-up line (of course, I would never actually do that).
There were plenty of things I could not do when I was sighted (like knit), but there are a few things that I just cannot do as a legally blind person.
1) I cannot drive legally, but I can see enough to navigate the people who are driving me and in case of emergency I so think I could drive familiar streets. But since my prop car has a blown engine I don’t think that I will be making any grocery store chocolate runs. What most people don’t know is that I drove my car around the block a few times before I turned it in and I did fine. I even backed up into my driveway and most sighted people can’t seem to pull that one off.
2) I can’t ride a bike. When you are moving quickly on a bike it is like being in a car and you need to have central vision to see what is coming up in front of you. I had dreams of being able to trail someone and use a flashing helmet and signs to let people know I was coming, but I really don’t think it is safe.
3) I can’t recognize people at a distance or tell if someone is smiling at me or looking at me. When I go out, if I don’t say Hi to you it is because I can’t see well enough to know who you are, so you will have to approach me. I am not blowing you off; I just cannot tell who you are. People have to get within about 2 feet of me and preferably a little to the side so I can use my peripheral vision to recognize them and sometimes I also use the voice. When I go out I use what I call “spotters” to help me know when people are looking at me or smiling at me so I know when to look at people back. Although I need better trained spotters because they are usually so busy people watching they forget I need some help. I also use my spotters to assess how good looking people are. I can tell when people are super-hot or super not, but everyone else looks the same, which is a good thing. But I can’t tell at all how people are reacting to me and I guess sometimes I care about that and sometimes I don’t. Soon I will be writing a training manual for my spotters so as to increase their performance. I will also be using incentives so that they actually get someone to approach me or manage to help me avoid offending too many people.
4) I can’t pick up a book, even a large font one, and read it. With my 6X reading glasses I can read font at about 20 or 22 points. Most written material is at 12 points. And when I do try to read with the super magnifiers I have a little double vision. The computer and my portable Pebble and CCD TV work better, but they are just not convenient.
Overall I find I am more daring and willing to try new things. In a way, I think that I have had my one big freak accident, so I am done. I sometimes will get in the middle of things and think, maybe this is not such a good idea, but I usually end up grabbing some glasses to protect my eyes and keep going. I think at the core of it all is that I have remained true to myself and have tried to live my life no differently than I did before. This does not mean I have not had to make changes, it just means that for the most part I have carried on with my life and work and in many ways have become more resourceful, stronger and take myself even less seriously than I did before. I called this blog the adventures of the BLOVI because life is an adventure and each day brings challenges, but it is in those challenges that I continue to grow and learn. So to you I say that you never stop learning and growing and you can do and take on anything, no matter your age, no matter your abilities. As Nike says “Just Do It” and live without fear of failure or of looking stupid.
1. Next week, I may talk about a concept I have for a t-shirt line, my experiences filming videos for my YouTube channel and how I plan to get on Oprah’s new network.
Keep Moving Forward,
Beth (BLOVI) Medlock
This week my blog focuses on what I can and cannot do as a legally blind person. I have had so many people ask me what I can see and how I do certain things, that I decided to share some of the things I can do and do well, as well as those things I just can no longer do. But first…..
My WTF of the week is a recording I heard that was made from a tape I made with my friend Leonore and my sister when we were 13, 12 and 10 respectively. Leonore, who I just reconnected with after over 20 years, found it and a DJ in Tampa actually played it on a radio show. Some background- we were all latchkey kids and it was the summer and we needed to find various ways to amuse ourselves and one of the ways we did so was making these tapes (for you youngsters I am referencing cassette tapes and a recording device for making those tapes). We used to do interviews and the Barbara Wa Wa show and go on rants about people we did not like. I can’t really talk about the other things we did to amuse ourselves because my mom reads this blog. So, Leonore and I listened to our 13 and 12 year-old selves on the tape and it was beyond funny and surreal. My 13 year old voice is the voice I have today, except that for some reason I sound like I am in a gang. The tape was made to send to our across the street neighbor, Chris, as he had just moved to Texas. So we are asking him what he is doing, had he gone to Gilley’s or had he had a Lone Star beer (the effect of the fact Urban Cowboy had recently come out) and apprised him of the latest gossip on the block. Leonore is saying how she is annoyed I did not go to her birthday at Adventure Island because I had to go to my eighth grade graduation. We are talking about making stained glass windows at her grandfather’s shop and mine has the initials of the first guy I kissed (which means we are dating). Then she and my sister get into some side fight. At one point in the tape I say “What the hell are you talking about?” and it is me, exactly me sounding like me now and saying something I say all the time. How little we change.
This week I can’t get enough of my Kindle and all the books I am reading. I am currently enamored with the books Freakonomics and Superfrekonomics. The authors apply economic theory and use data to answer really interesting, and sometimes bizarre questions, hence the use of freak in the title. I am a “what does the data say” freak myself who thinks regression analysis is sexy (they had me at spurious correlation). What is great is that they use data to look at things like the economics of prostitution and the Pimp effect, the gender gap in wages, and the gap in test scores for African American and white populations at the 1st and 3rd grades. And since I am a data driven, evidence-based kind of person I totally get it, but it will sure make people crazy who hold all these beliefs that are fear based or “popular wisdom”. They talk about the problem of people thinking correlation equals causation, something I have always talked about. The best thing is the application of data to random subjects such as the crime and crack epidemic and why crime rates dropped in the 90’s, cheating in sumo wrestling, the basis of altruism, and the characteristics of the best ER doctors. The only unifying theory is that people respond to incentives. I think most people should read these books. And I am also over the moon that my Top Chef crush, Richard Blaise, is in the finals. And did you see his wife on the show, they are both so super-competitive-love it!
Now a primer on the things I can and cannot do and how I do them. Some I just did right away, others I had to figure out.
1) I can exercise and I run in the street alone: Even though I was injured exercising, I still do it. And, gasp, I still use exercise bands, not the tube ones with handles, but the other kind. And I have taken up running. Because I have peripheral vision I can run in the street. I can see larger objects like cars and yard debris without running into them. What I can’t see are small rocks, so I have kicked a few. I recently purchased the running socks by Vibrum so my feet would be more in touch with the ground and I could spring off objects without rolling my foot. I bought the super bright hot pink and orange ones to enhance the ability of cars to see me running. So, if you see someone who has fallen wearing brightly colored running gloves (I think they look more like foot gloves) it is me and call for assistance. I will say it is hard getting your toes into the foot gloves, but I also heard this was tough for sighted people.
2) I can pick out outfits and get myself ready and still look good. I can pluck my eyebrows and put on eyeliner and mascara. Some people have told me that they can’t do this with sight, but I can do it without seeing my face in detail and I think I do my makeup well. I also blow dry and straighten my hair and can even put in my clip on hair extensions (obviously my hair did not grow from steroids, but I can say it is real human hair and I own it). I also know my clothes and can coordinate outfits. I have some problems with dark colors, but if I put something up against something else I know is black I can tell what color it is. Sometimes I have a slight problem with earrings so I usually have two choices and let whoever is driving me decide which look best.
3) I can learn lots of new things. I am taking salsa classes and learning the steps has not been a problem at all. I am taking voice lessons and just memorizing lyrics. I will also take drums and maybe piano because you don’t need sight for those. After that I may even live out my dream of having an all-girl band that is kind of a mix of Sleater-Kinney/L7/Bikini Kill/luscious Jackson/Tegan and Sara. All I will need is a bass player. I am also going to learn to rock climb (on an inside beginner wall) because I am imagining it is a strategic thinking endeavor, and also a feel around thing and I can manage to feel things that are sticking out. Plus I am afraid of heights but now when I look down I can’t see anything past 10 feet, so heights are no longer a problem.
4) I can cook and clean and maintain my house and fix things like a clogged sink and have also managed to use plumbers tape to stop a leak in my hot water heater. I snaked a toilet. It was probably good I could not see that well during the toilet episode. I have this fantasy that I am like Handy Manny and have a toolbox where the tools juts jump out and do all the work (while speaking a few words in Spanish). As for cleaning, sometimes I miss the smaller objects that build up in corners, but don’t we all. Cooking on a gas stove is easy because of the sound and the visible flame. I marked the rest of the appliances with raised dots so I can use them with ease. I tried to fake the not cooking for a while so people would bring me meals, but soon realized that picky eaters need to cook for themselves.
5) I am running my business and can use the computer, all its software, and other technology. I can also shop on the Internet, although it takes longer to scroll through the items because everything is blown up, so there are only three or four items on the screen at one time and I really have to work hard to see the detail in patterns or the size of something (maybe this is how I ended up buying such a skimpy bikini). Sometimes it takes me a minute to find the place where I need to sign in or hit continue or next. With practice I am getting better at navigating the web.
6) I can text and receive text messages (cause you know how much I love texting as a form of communication-NOT). The first time people text me I like to send out a text back to them that says-hey, brainiac, you just texted a blind person. But my phone reads the text messages aloud and tells me what I am texting. All the screens on my phone are talking so I know who is calling- no more need for individualized ring tones so I know when to ignore the phone. And as a blind person I get 411 for free, so I can look up numbers and I am really abusing that privilege.
7) I can still design and visualize a space and help people pick out things for their home. I use my peripheral vision and sense of form and shape and color and a sense of what things look like in my head. Right now I am conceptualizing a totally new bedroom for myself that I will design when I move with some dark gray walls and white furniture. Then I can say, would you like to see my graphic design concept in my bedroom as sort of a pick-up line (of course, I would never actually do that).
There were plenty of things I could not do when I was sighted (like knit), but there are a few things that I just cannot do as a legally blind person.
1) I cannot drive legally, but I can see enough to navigate the people who are driving me and in case of emergency I so think I could drive familiar streets. But since my prop car has a blown engine I don’t think that I will be making any grocery store chocolate runs. What most people don’t know is that I drove my car around the block a few times before I turned it in and I did fine. I even backed up into my driveway and most sighted people can’t seem to pull that one off.
2) I can’t ride a bike. When you are moving quickly on a bike it is like being in a car and you need to have central vision to see what is coming up in front of you. I had dreams of being able to trail someone and use a flashing helmet and signs to let people know I was coming, but I really don’t think it is safe.
3) I can’t recognize people at a distance or tell if someone is smiling at me or looking at me. When I go out, if I don’t say Hi to you it is because I can’t see well enough to know who you are, so you will have to approach me. I am not blowing you off; I just cannot tell who you are. People have to get within about 2 feet of me and preferably a little to the side so I can use my peripheral vision to recognize them and sometimes I also use the voice. When I go out I use what I call “spotters” to help me know when people are looking at me or smiling at me so I know when to look at people back. Although I need better trained spotters because they are usually so busy people watching they forget I need some help. I also use my spotters to assess how good looking people are. I can tell when people are super-hot or super not, but everyone else looks the same, which is a good thing. But I can’t tell at all how people are reacting to me and I guess sometimes I care about that and sometimes I don’t. Soon I will be writing a training manual for my spotters so as to increase their performance. I will also be using incentives so that they actually get someone to approach me or manage to help me avoid offending too many people.
4) I can’t pick up a book, even a large font one, and read it. With my 6X reading glasses I can read font at about 20 or 22 points. Most written material is at 12 points. And when I do try to read with the super magnifiers I have a little double vision. The computer and my portable Pebble and CCD TV work better, but they are just not convenient.
Overall I find I am more daring and willing to try new things. In a way, I think that I have had my one big freak accident, so I am done. I sometimes will get in the middle of things and think, maybe this is not such a good idea, but I usually end up grabbing some glasses to protect my eyes and keep going. I think at the core of it all is that I have remained true to myself and have tried to live my life no differently than I did before. This does not mean I have not had to make changes, it just means that for the most part I have carried on with my life and work and in many ways have become more resourceful, stronger and take myself even less seriously than I did before. I called this blog the adventures of the BLOVI because life is an adventure and each day brings challenges, but it is in those challenges that I continue to grow and learn. So to you I say that you never stop learning and growing and you can do and take on anything, no matter your age, no matter your abilities. As Nike says “Just Do It” and live without fear of failure or of looking stupid.
1. Next week, I may talk about a concept I have for a t-shirt line, my experiences filming videos for my YouTube channel and how I plan to get on Oprah’s new network.
Keep Moving Forward,
Beth (BLOVI) Medlock
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