Do You See What I See?

The snow storm which came through this region yesterday brought bone chilling temperatures with it. Today I had a table at an information fair over at the blind center. For this reason I drove the van into work today which is good because it is freezing out there. I got back from the Info fair about a hour ago and I still have not warmed up. On top of this my throat seems a little scratchy and I am feeling a little sickly. I am feeling tired and achy. I am sure I’ll perk up by the time I get home.

Luckily for me the Info Fair at the blind center was just over lunch. So just about three hours gone from my desk in the middle of the day. Unlucky for me the Info Fair was showcasing assistive technology for people with vision impairments i.e. blind and none of the information I have is readable by those of low-vision and with out sight. I did a lot of talking today. Actually I was pleasantly surprised to have a steady stream of people come up to my table and either ask good questions or ask for literature even if the literature was not brailed. However, I was interested to find a piece of software being sold at the fair capable of printing brail tape which can be affixed to business cards and brochures. This software might be the best way to work on the problem of no brailed materials. I passed out cards, brochures, refrigerator magnets, can openers, and lots of pencils. Today’s main item of desire was the can openers. Actually, the device is a key ring hooked to a small plastic can opener. I will take an image of the can openers and up load the device with this posting. The opener is used to lift up the ring on a pop top cans like soft drink and beer cans.

I have a buddy named Sachin who works for a university up North of this city. Sachin works for the Center for People with Disabilities (CPD). Sachin is quite blind and is their Assistive Technology(Blind) guy. He uses a black Labrador retriever for a guide dog. Sachin was at the table right next t mine. On the other side of Sachin’s table was a guy named Earl from back East somewhere and this guy was also blind and had a huge beautiful cream colored Labrador. The dogs were separated by the table. Something happened mid-afternoon and for reason or another these dogs suddenly went after each other. Massive barking and growling, quite unsettling but the two blind guys pulled the dogs apart and that was that. Sachin said something about territories are something. There must have been atleast eight other guide dogs in the room and they were all cool. I wonderful if blind folks have to deal with this kind of dog behavior often. What a hassle.

I have known a lot of blind folks, cane users and dog users they are interesting folk. I tend to like them. Like the deaf the blind are a culture unto themselves and I like visiting their worlds every now and then but I am always glad to come back to my comfortable disability. It's like coming home.