Content Creators who are Blind and Visually Impaired

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Content Creators who are Blind/Visually Impaired you should be watching, reading, and listening to

While everyone has a little bit more free time at home, we wanted to share some content creators who are blind and visually impaired you should check out. From blogs to podcasts To YouTube channels, there is a wide array of content you can connect with. And whether you lost your vision recently, have had vision loss your entire life, or you know someone with vision loss, these creators make content that can help us get through it by sharing their stories.

1.     Molly Burke

Molly Burke is probably the most well-known blind YouTube sensation with over 1 million subscribers! She creates content specifically about being blind but also about all kinds of topics from beauty, fashion, and life as a 20-something living in L.A. She even wrote an e-book chronically her life growing up with vision loss and creating an audience of over 1 million!

2.     Bold Blind Beauty

Bold Blind Beauty is a blog that is committed to changing perceptions and inclusion for blind women all over the world. They also created the “2020 Year of Vision” campaign that celebrates men who are blind and visually impaired. The blog focuses on a wide variety of topics from inspiration to beauty to empowerment.  

3.     James Rath

James Rath is a legally blind filmmaker who chronicles his journey of being a filmmaker while legally blind. He shares his experience growing up legally blind, assistive technology reviews, and life as a legally blind person who loves to travel!

4.     JC5 Productions

JC5 Productions is a YouTube channel that creates short films about his vision loss and life. He creates content raising awareness about accessibility and vision loss. He is also a filmmaker and makes a lot content about creating films while legally blind.

5.     Life of a Blind Girl

Life of a Blind Girl is a blog focusing on exactly what it sounds like – Living Life as a blind girl! She writes posts all about disability from making your social media accessible to how she is surviving lockdown in the UK as a person with vision impairment.

6.     Suddenly Sightless

Suddenly Sightless is a weekly podcast focusing on a range of topics relating to sight loss from mental health issues to accessibility. It can be found on SoundCloud and Apple Podcasts.

7.     Blind and Beyond Radio Show

Blind and Beyond Radio Show is a national commercial talk radio show for the blind and visually impaired community. They host a show every Sunday evening on a wide range of topics from Guide Dogs to interviews with our CEO, Sharon Giovinazzo!

8. How Casey Sees It

Casey creates content all about being legally blind. She talks about what it’s like first using a cane, living in NYC and blindness, and her specific vision loss experience sprinkled in with some funny moments she’s had as a person who is legally blind!

Favorite Products for the Blind and Visually Impaired

photo of a computer and iphone with text “Products for blind and visually impaired wsb staff love”

Products WSB Staff Swear By

This week we wanted to share some products for the blind and visually impaired that our staff love! Many of the staff at World Services for the Blind are visually impaired or blind themselves and we wanted to take this week to share some of their favorite products! We have a mix of physical products and Apps for your phone.

Here are the top 5 products they use all the time.

1.     OrCam

Our CEO, Sharon Giovinazzo, loves her OrCam. If you haven’t heard of OrCam, it is a small Bluetooth device that can be attached to any pair of glasses. They work by providing the visual information orally whether that is a book, email, or even recognizing people.

2.     Tiles

We mentioned Tiles in our blog post on travel tips for the blind and visually impaired. But they are so helpful in finding things around your house! Our online Assistive Technology Instructor, Everett, loves his Tile to find his violin.

3.     Sunu Band

Another favorite product by Sharon and Everett is the Sunu Band. Everett provided a great review of the Sunu band that you can watch in the video below:

4.     SuperVision App

Another instructor loves using the SuperVision app, which we did not mention in our post about the Best Apps for the Blind but we should have! He loves it for the activate stabilization, large visible buttons, flashlight, and double tapping screen maximization

5.     AIRA

Another app we love at WSB is Aira. Aira is an app that can help you with any visual task like filling out paperwork, grocery shopping, or even if you need help seeing something on the computer. Aira is completely confidential as well. It is free for the first five minutes of use or free in Targets and airports!

What products have you found the most helpful in your life? Let us know in the comments!

Activities for Blind and Visually Impaired Social Distancing

Man sitting on bench alone with text “activities for the blind and visually impaired while social distancing”

Activities for the Blind and Visually Impaired Social Distancing

Social distancing can be especially difficult if you are blind and visually impaired especially when it comes to activities you can do from home that are accessible. In our last blog post, we mentioned ways to stay safe and healthy but for today’s post, we thought we’d give you a few ways to pass the time.  With an influx of free time, we wanted to share some activities you can do while social distancing if you are visually impaired and need some accessible ideas.

Catch up with friends

Social distancing doesn’t mean you have to be alone all the time! Give your friends a call. Start a virtual book club. Zoom is very accessible and a great way to stay connected with people.

Get Active

There are so many accessible workouts happening daily now for the blind and visually impaired. The Northwest Association of Blind Athletes even created a 30-day challenge on youtube. The USABA is offering free workouts daily as well on the USABA Facebook page. The workouts don’t require any equipment and you can complete them in your living room!

Work towards a new career

We recently launched a new limited time offer to help you reach your career goals. Stimulate Your Career provides four hours of instruction in the following areas: resume building, mental health counseling, financial literacy, and assistive technology for only $75! You can choose which areas you want to focus on. And if interested, if you open a case with Vocational Rehabilitation, you’ll get your money back!

Audio Games

Audio games are fun and accessible! Applevis is a great resource for a lot of audio games you can play on your phone or computer using VoiceOver. Audio Games are a great mindless way to pass the time if you are feeling especially stressed.

Try a new recipe

With all of the free time, why not try some new recipes? If you aren’t as confident in your cooking abilities, VisionAware has some great tips for keeping yourself safe while cooking as a blind or visually impaired person.

Get Outside

As long as it is safe for you to do ( for example, your state laws allow it, you aren’t immunocompromised, and you don’t live in a busy area), get outside! Even if it is just a quick walk around your block, take your cane or guide dog for a spin outside! Getting some sunshine is even more important now that we are stuck inside the house all day. If you were working with an O&M instructor before this, you don’t want to lose those skills!

And if all else fails, you can watch or listen to 6 hours of sheep on Youtube! It is surprisingly relaxing.

What have you been doing to pass the time? Let us know in the comments!

COVID-19 and Blindness: Staying Safe and How to Help

Can of Clorox wipes and folded cane with text “COVID-19 and blindness: Staying safe and how you to help”

COVID-19 and Blindness

Blindness and vision impairment aren’t on the list officially of at-risk factors when it comes to COVID-19. But as individuals with disabilities, we should be prepared, proactive, and act as they are on the list considering how much we use our sense of touch. If you aren’t disabled, we also have plenty of ways you can help the blind and visually impaired during these uncertain times. 

If you are Visually Impaired/Blind

COVID-19 and Blindness: As low vision and blindness individuals, we use touch much more than the average person.  Whether it’s using a sighted guide, carrying a cane/using a guide dog, or touching tactile signs and braille, we rely on activities that aren’t exactly conducive to social distancing. What can we do during the pandemic to make sure we are staying safe and healthy?

Wipe down your cane/guide dog harness

If you are still leaving the house and use your cane or a guide dog, make sure you wipe down your cane or guide dog harness with a Clorox wipe or some good old fashion soap and water. Be extra cautious and wash your hands directly after if you need to use braille while out now.

Use Delivery Services

The best thing we can do right now is to stay home, especially if you’re in the blind or high-risk community. But what about groceries? Medications? The blind and visually impaired community are no stranger to grocery delivery but this just gives you another reason to use them! Instacart is a great option as well as Whole Foods delivery on Amazon.  CVS also offers delivery on medications. 

Limit riding Public Transportation, Uber/Lyft, Paratransit If you can

The CDC recommends you limit your time in crowded areas such as public transportation, if possible. With so many people riding public transportation, it can be a huge risk to ride it when it comes to COVID-19, especially considering the touch factor. If you can, walk where you need to go or have a trusted person (who you might be social distancing with) take you where you need to go.   

 In the same vein, using shared-ride services can be just as dangerous when it comes to being in contact with someone who might be infected. During this time, it’s best to avoid rideshare apps to be on the safe side.

Follow the CDC Guidelines

The CDC has a handful of great guidelines but a few general guidelines that can help you keep you safe are the following:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow. Throw used tissues in the trash and immediately wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol.

• Practice social distancing by avoiding large gatherings and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or 2 meters) from others when possible.

ZoomText and JAWS offered for free

If you are having trouble completing your job or school at home, Freedom Scientific is offering ZoomText and JAWS for free until June 30th, 2020. This is a great resource if you don’t have your assistive technology at home with you.  

What you can do to help those who are Blind/Visually Impaired impacted by COVID-19:

The blind and visually impaired are an especially vulnerable population not only when it comes to COVID-19 but to the isolation that comes with it. Many blind and visually impaired individuals already feel isolated even before the pandemic. It is more important than ever to check on your friends with disabilities who may feel isolated and alone. The effects of COVID-19 and blindness can be detrimental on those with disabilities. Here are a few ideas of ways you can help:

Become a Be My Eyes Volunteer

Be My Eyes is one of our favorite apps and it is always looking for new volunteers, especially now! Be My Eyes is a free app where a sighted volunteer is connected with a visually impaired/blind person to help with anything from reading a label on a can to identifying the color of a shirt to anything else they might need help with.

Check on your friends with disabilities, chronic conditions, and the elderly

This pandemic could have detrimental consequences for the elderly and those with disabilities and chronic conditions due to the isolation of social distancing. Many elderly people do not have the technology to use delivery apps, FaceTime with friends, etc. During this time it is even more vital to keep in contact with those who may be feeling even more isolated during this time. The easiest thing you can do is give them a quick call. And if you can, offer to deliver groceries or anything they might need.

Deliver with Invisible Hands or Instacart

Invisible Hands only applies to New York and New Jersey so far but is a great resource if you are in those areas. Invisible Hands is a free delivery service where isolated and people with disabilities can request groceries delivered for free. A volunteer will drop them off at the doorstep.

Instacart and Shipt are also great delivery services and you can shop and deliver for them while making a little extra cash!

You could also offer to pick up groceries for anyone you know who might be isolated.

Give Blood

There is a nationwide shortage of blood donations so if you can, donate! The Red Cross is looking for all blood types. If you are healthy and able, this is a simple thing you can do to help those in need.

Donate to Organizations

If you are financially able, donating is a great way to help during this time as many organizations that serve individuals in need are struggling. World Services for the Blind remains open and we are always looking for donations through our Support webpage either through direct financial support or purchasing something on our Wish List that can help students that are on our campus and in need of help.

10 Tips for Working from Home

Top 10 Tips for Working From Home

World Services for the Blind is no stranger to working from home. We offer many career training programs online, several employees at WSB work remotely, and many of our students go on to find remote work once they graduate. Working from home can provide tremendous benefits, especially for those who are visually impaired and blind. No commute, fewer work distractions, and a flexible schedule can be a tremendous benefit for those with disabilities. With working remotely becoming huge amidst the news right now, we thought we would share our top 10 tips for working from home.

1. Have a Routine

   Having a routine can be beneficial for anyone, working in an office or working from home. But it can be especially helpful if you work from home. Creating a morning routine can help jumpstart your productivity. Whether that is making a cup of coffee before you sit down at your desk to going to the gym first thing, it’s all about creating a routine that can help set the stage for the rest of your day to be productive.

2. Get Dressed

   Working in your pajamas all day might seem like the biggest perk of working from home but studies show otherwise. Even changing out of your pajama pants into a pair of jeans can help you feel more focused and productive (as tempting as it is to stay in your pajamas all day!). It can help you switch from lounge time to work time.

3. Make your workspace as accessible as possible

   When working from home, you won’t need to worry about the fluorescent lighting of an office or navigating it without ease. With your home, you can design it so that it is easy to navigate around and the light works best for you. Freshome provides some great tips and tricks on working from home (or working for yourself freelance) with a disability.

4. Find when you’re most productive

   If your job allows it, find when you’re most productive to work. Are you more productive first thing in the morning? Start work early. More productive in the evening? Work alter hours to accommodate when you get the most done. working from home can provide the flexibility to get things done when you feel the most productive.

5. Change up your scenery and experiment with your workspace

   Working from home doesn’t have to be just sitting at your house all day, every day. Try working from different settings like a coffee shop or coworking space. Find where you are the most productive whether that is in complete silence, with music on, or at a coffee shop. It’s also important to have a dedicated workspace in your home. It doesn’t need to be a fancy office but a separate desk can help keep your work-life balance. Setting up a workspace can also help in minimizing the distractions in your house.

6. Keep in contact with your colleagues on a daily basis

   One of the most difficult things about working from home is missing the daily interactions with your coworkers, especially if everyone else works in the office. When working from home, it is so important to keep up with your colleagues if they work in the office or not. Schedule a weekly meeting where you can catch each other up or if you need to bounce some ideas off someone. Keep in contact using emails more frequently or chat services like Slack or Microsoft Teams.

7. Invest in a headset

   If you decide to work outside the house, you’ll want to invest in a headset. Headsets help block out the noise for your coworkers if you have to take a call but don’t want to go back to your house to get the work done. Jabra has a wide range of different headsets in a multitude of price ranges.

8. Set working hours

   When working from home it can be really easy to forget about having a work-life balance. You can easily check your email and then continue on working when your day was supposed to end at five! So it is very important to make sure you have set working hours so you don’t overwork yourself. But this also goes the other way around, make sure you stick to your working hours and you aren’t completing house chores when you should be working.

9. Join a Coworking group

   One con of working from home can be the loneliness of working by yourself. But working from home doesn’t have to be lonely! In many major cities, there are coworking groups such as Ladies Work Remote, a coworking group for women in every field. There are plenty of coworking groups on meetup popping up all over the United States. Even if you are sitting with other people in silence working, it can help keep you focused and motivated to get the work done. There are also Coworking spaces that provide after work activities to get to know people in different fields.

10. Set a timer to make sure you get up from your desk

    Working from home can leave you sitting for hours if you aren’t careful. When working in an office it can be a lot easier to find reasons to get up from your desk whether it’s going to lunch or walking to a coworker’s office. But when you’re working by yourself, it can definitely be difficult to remember to take breaks. Set an alarm when you would normally take a break in the office so you remember to take a walk around the block or grab some coffee.

Accessibility: One Greeting Card at a Time

Quilling Greeting Cards for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Image thanks to quilling cards

At WSB, we love innovated products aimed at accessibility from tiles to help us find our luggage to apps that help in our daily lives. But what about everyday items as simple as a greeting card? We wanted to share a new product from Quilling Card that can change the game for the visually impaired and blind community receiving greeting cards!

You might be wondering what Quilling even means. But it turns out it is a great solution when it comes to accessible greeting cards. Quilling Card produces hand-made, fair trade greeting cards utilizing the art of Quilling.   Quilling is the art of rolled, shaped, and glued paper that results in creating a unified, decorative design and braille for readability and enjoyment. Quilling cards now offer their unique art form in braille so it can be read by the blind and visually impaired community. They worked hard with the Perkins School for the Blind to make sure the cards were accurate and legible.

Quilling Cards are also a company you can feel good about supporting! Not only are they providing an accessible and innovative service to the blind and visually impaired community, but they also focus on hiring those with disabilities. The company hires deaf artisans to create the braille quilled greeting cards as they wanted to create a connection through touch for the deaf and blind. The founder of quilling cards, Huong Wolf, spent many years focusing on providing equal opportunities for people with disabilities, which speaks to us at WSB as that is exactly what we do.

Quilling cards can be purchased on their website for $12 and for more information, visit the Quilling Cards website

if you are interested in any of our vocational training programs, please visit our Career Training Programs Page

Travel Tips for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Traveling can be overwhelming to anyone but it can be especially overwhelming and stressful if you are blind or visually impaired. In this blog post, we wanted to share some of the best travel tips we have learned over the years specifically for the blind and visually impaired community.

Put tile on your luggage

Checking your luggage can be stressful when it comes to finding it at the other end. One way to find your luggage independently is by adding Tiles on your luggage. Tiles attach to your luggage and then you use an app on your phone, when triggered, creates a beeping sound on your bag. Using Tiles also ensures you have picked up the correct bag.

Use a distinguishable suitcase

If someone is helping you at the airport it can help for your bag to be very distinguishable for someone (or yourself) to identify. Everyone has a black suitcase so why not get one that is colorful and fun? It is much easier to spot a pink suitcase than it is a black suitcase that everyone else may have.

For the guide dog users, separate your dog food.

Separating your dog food will keep it fresh longer and will be easier when going through TSA at the airport. Another tip is to put your dog food in poop bags. That way, you can use the bags when you get done with the food.

Travel with a spare battery/charger

A common theme of traveling (especially when you’re visually impaired/blind) is that you never know what will happen. Having your own spare battery for your phone can be a lifesaver especially if you are dependent on ride share services like Uber! Anker makes some great chargers (they can be pricey but are worth it and have a year-long warranty!). Having your own battery can also be helpful so you don’t have to find a charger to plug in your phone or tablet.

Play the blind card and don’t be afraid to ask for help

TSA Pre-check is great if you travel a lot because you don’t have to worry about the security lines or taking your shoes off. But if you don’t want to pay extra (85$ for 5 years of TSA pre-check) ask for help when you check in. At most major airports there are separate security lines for those with disabilities, which can make getting through security a breeze!

Asking for help at airports is never a bad idea because airport staff can help you find your gate, your luggage, and where the Uber pick up points are. Oftentimes Uber pick up points are in difficult to find locations but don’t be afraid to ask airport staff to help you locate them.

For low vision users, use your camera to your advantage

If you are out of the country, you may not always have access to Wifi and data. If you depend on apps like Be My Eyes and AIRA but have some vision, you might want to use your camera on your phone to zoom in on street signs or train signs. This can be a cumbersome process but it’s effective if you’re in a bind (and are able to zoom in enough!).

Have a backup plan

This comes back to the theme of you never know what will happen you’re traveling. If you’re traveling with a dog, they might get sick. Your cane might break (or you might lose it in an Uber…) so always pack a spare cane! There are telescopic canes that are extremely portable and can help when you need it most.

Utilize navigation Apps

We talked a lot about great apps for the visually impaired and blind in our first post but they are also great for travel! Google maps allows you to download the map of the city you’re going to so you can use it even if you don’t have data or wifi! Other great apps mentioned in our post can help with finding grassy spots or pet relief areas for your guide dogs or restaurants near you.