Flipping Foods

Welcome to the blog. Anita here with you. In some future posts, we plan to discuss a few kitchen techniques, but today, we’re talking about flipping foods. Remember, there is often more than one way to accomplish a task. The key is to first consider safety and then to consider how to accomplish it efficiently and effectively. Also, you might want to gather ideas from many sources and to modify techniques to suit your needs. Again, please remember that we are only providing you with how we do things and are not trying to tell you how you have to do them. We are only sharing our knowledge, and we are not responsible for any misinformation or injury resulting from anything we write in this, or any, past or future posts.

Now, let's focus on flipping foods using non-visual techniques. You should read this entire blog post before following its directions, and you should also do this with other recipes or directions for doing other things. Flipping is sometimes scary when you can't see, especially if grease is involved. Like with learning any new skill, start with what you know and at a beginner level. Since I cannot assess you, I shall start from the beginning. First, you need a recipe, which you can obtain from a family member or friend. Or, you can search for a recipe online. I recommend a cookbook or an online recipe because it will give you exact amounts whereas someone else might be more general, for example, say a chunk of cheese, which isn't always as helpful. You can always experiment with a recipe after you become comfortable with doing this. Try something simple, like grilled cheese.

To make grilled cheese, first gather your ingredients and the things you will use for preparation and cooking. You need butter, sandwich bread, and a slice or two of cheese. You also need a paper towel or plate, a butter knife (I prefer a spoon.), a spatula, a skillet, and a clean surface. You will want to preheat your skillet on medium heat. Place a slice of the bread on the paper towel or plate. Then, spread soft butter on one side of it; laying out your butter ahead of time will soften it. Always wash your hands before cooking. Remember safety rules, in this case, always make sure the handle of your knife is toward you and the blade is away from you, regardless of whether you are spreading or placing the knife on the counter. Newer cooks will want to touch food in order to check accuracy or to see if it is finished cooking. For example, if you use a fork to spear a potato and then lift it out of the pot, you can touch it to see if it is done. Likewise, in today's example, you can try spreading the butter without touching it, and then use your fingers to check your work. Next, place the slice of bread with the buttered side down on the paper towel or plate. Now, place the cheese on top, making sure you arrange it so the two slices of cheese cover the entire surface of the bread as much as possible. Then, butter one side of the other slice of bread and place it, butterside up, atop the cheese. To see if the skillet is hot enough, place a tiny amount of water in a measuring cup. Dip your finger into it and then fling some of the droplets from your finger into the pan, (not your finger, the water.) :) If you hear a sizzling sound, the skillet is ready for your bread. Flipping time will be two to three minutes after you place the bread in your skillet, and so check it in two minutes. By the way, food.com tells you to butter the top slice of bread while the bottom slice is browning, but as a newer cook, this might be more challenging for you. Anyhow, when you slide your spatula beneath the bread, it will feel bumpy and make a different sound if it is ready to flip. Also, your sandwich will move around in the bottom of the skillet easier when it is ready to flip. If it does not move easy, you might wait a few more seconds to allow it to finish browning on that side. To flip it, first use the backside of the spatula to locate the sandwich. Then, slide the spatula toward you until it is touching the skillet on the side of the sandwich closest to you. With the edge of the spatula pointed toward the bottom of the skillet with its backside lowering toward the bottom of the pan as it slides, slide the spatula toward and then beneath the sandwich. To make it easier, keep sliding until you feel comfortable the sandwich is on the spatula or until you bump up against the backside of the skillet. Then, lift the spatula up so that it is slightly above the height of the top edge of the skillet. Then, move the spatula toward either the left or right edge of the skillet the flick your wrist to flip the sandwich off the spatula and toward the center of the skillet. You should do this flicking motion quickly. Your palm starts out facing the ceiling, and ends up facing the bottom of the skillet. Remember, this is approximate, and so do not get all hung up on worrying about if your palm is exactly parallel to the ceiling or the skillet. To get back to the direction in which you should flip, if you went toward the left edge of the skillet, you will flip right. If you went toward the right edge, you will flip left. To see if you were successful, use the backside of your spatula to locate the sandwich and then slide it gently over its top. If this side feels bumpy and sounds right, then congratulations; otherwise, try again. By the way, a double spatula can also be another way to flip bread because one side of the double spatula slides beneath the bread and the other side slides atop the sandwich. Then, you won't be as likely to loose the sandwich off of your spatula. I prefer this when I first started cooking, but now, I prefer the first way described here. Shannon feels more comfortable with the double spatula, though.

Before trying this recipe, you might want to practice in a cold skillet. First, make some toast in the toaster. In a clean skillet, spread just enough butter to coat the bottom. Place your already done slice of toast in the skillet. In this way, you can feel the texture and hear the sound that indicates  it is time to flip over your grilled cheese, but you can practice flipping and feeling and listening with no heat. Note I am not referring to listening to a cooking sound, but the sound your spatula makes when it scrapes across a regular slice of bread vs. a slice of toast. Then, you can still eat the toast. Cats eat their prey after they play with it, after all. :) Did we ever tell you I have two cats, Whiskers  Elizabeth and Tiger Lee?

Now, go ahead and try your hand at making grilled cheese as described in this blog post. Remember to take your grilled cheese out of the pan after the other side has its turn of two to three minutes cooking time. :)

For a cleaner version of the recipe, check out the recipe on food.com.

We hope you have enjoyed this post about flipping foods. We also hope you have learned something and are excited about trying out this new skill. Have fun, but remember to be safe. Have a great weekend, and be sure to come back next Thursday.

Blessings.

Interviews to Empower Presents Jonathan Milam

S. J. Wells here, welcoming you to another edition of Interviews to Empower. Today, we are talking to a longtime friend of mine who has never learned the phrase, “I can’t.” Allow me the privilege of introducing Jonathan Milam.

Q: Are you totally blind? If so, when did your parents learn you have an eye condition?A: I am completely blind, and have been since birth.  Shortly after I was born,

I was diagnosed with Aniridia, which is a medical condition that prevents the iris of the eye from developing.

Q: Are you the only one who is blind in your family?

A: Yes.  We have never been able to locate anyone else in our family history who may have also been completely or partially blind.

Q: Did your family make exceptions for you because of your blindness?

A: Fortunately, I was treated no differently than my older brother.  In fact, I really never "thought" of myself as blind as a child.  I was certainly aware of it, but it never prevented me from doing anything that any typical sighted child would do.  My parents  are definitely the foundation of my independence, which is something for which I will be eternally grateful.

Q: Did you go to a residential school or public school?

A: I attended public school, but did take some independent classes later in life.

Q: When did you learn braille?

A: I learned Braille at a Head Start center when I was 3.  It is still such a valuable part of my everyday life. I have unending respect for those who teach it, and I think it is something that all blind people should learn. Synthesized speech is great, and I use it all the time, but it should never take the place of Braille.

Q: When did you receive Orientation and Mobility training?

A: I began my O&M training in the fifth grade.  I had such an opposition to the

cane when I was younger, and it is something that I deeply regret to this day. I appreciated it a little more in High School, but still wasn’t comfortable using it.  I felt that it drew attention to me and clearly pointed out that I was "blind".  I took some independent living classes at the state Center for the Blind when I was 19, which created a turning point in my life.  I realized that if I wanted to learn the campus and navigate independently, I needed the cane to make that happen.  This realization,

while amazingly profound, was very clearly confirmed in an actual mobility training lesson.  While learning to use the local public transit system, I was to meet my instructor at an apartment complex along the bus rout.  When I got off the bus and stepped up onto the curb, she wasn't there.  I was completely alone at an apartment complex I knew nothing about, with only my cane for company.  This was before cell phones were popular, so I had no cell phone either.  Traffic had delayed my instructor’s arrival at the complex, and she arrived shortly afterwards.  However, I knew that as long as I had my cane, along with my extensive mobility training, I could find help if it became

necessary. That was an experience I will never forget, as it showed me just how critical O&M training really is.

Q: What was school like? How did your teachers and you communicate, and what assistive devices did you use in school? Which ones do you use today?

A: School overall was a great experience.  I learned to write my name in print, and I know most of the print alphabet by feel, but I was never really able to learn it well enough to be fluent.  I couldn't get a grasp on the spacing that was required for the letters for whatever reason.  High School was somewhat more difficult from a socialization standpoint, because being blind somewhat isolates you from the general population.  However, I did have a

few good friends I hung out with, and also my weekend job at a local radio station kept my schedule pretty well filled.  As far as assistive technology, I primarily used a conventional Brailler throughout elementary school.  In Middle School, I briefly used a "Braille N Print System", which physically connects to the bottom of a Brailler and uses rods to interpret its keystrokes.  This device connected to an actual printer which prevented the need for a human transcriber.  However, it didn't always work, and it

was eventually replaced by a Braille N Speak.  I used it through the ninth grade when I was provided with a Braille Lite.  Since I had to know the time to the second with my job, the Braille Lite became an absolute necessity.  I did have an Itinerant teacher while in school who orally read written tests for me, or transcribed my written Braille into print when needed.  Today, I have both a Humanware Brailliant 40, and a Focus Blue 80 that I use in my current job.  I use the Focus while at my desk and the Brailliant connected

via Bluetooth to an iPad for meetings.  I primarily used Window-Eyes for

many years, but it is not the screen reader it used to be.  As a result, I switched to JAWS a few years ago, but have also recently started using NVDA,

which is a superb screen reader.  I also have a Mac and use Voiceover as well.

Q: Were you involved in extra curricular activities? If so, can you explain?

A: I really didn't participate in many after school activities.  While I did well in school, I really didn't like it, and so I would rather be at home riding my bike, playing outside, or creating recorded radio shows in my bedroom.

Q: Do you have any hobbies?

A: I love listening to audio books and watching crime shows on TV.  I've always been fascinated by police work, and if I could see, I think I would be a state trooper.  When I was a kid, the father of one of my brother's friends was a local cop, and I've been hooked ever since.  I also love swimming and bike riding.

Q: Did you go to college? If so where? If not, what did you do after graduating high school?

A: After graduating High School, I worked part-time at Wake Forest University’s public radio station WFDD.  In August of 2000, I began also working part-time at their IT Help Desk as well.

Q: What types of jobs have you had in the past, and where do you work now?

A: In High School, I worked at a small AM NewsTalk radio station on weekends, which ended with the job at WFDD.  I was offered a full-time position at the Help Desk at WFU in 2003, which turned out to be a very rewarding career.  I discovered an interest in computers and internet technology that I really never knew I had.  I am still employed within the Information Systems department at Wake Forest University, but my role now primarily focuses on evaluating both University software and web applications to determine the current level of accessibility.  I then provide suggestions and guidance on

the appropriate methods that should be used to resolve the inaccessible aspects of each application.  It's truly an awesome place to work and I honestly don't think I could be treated any better by an employer.

Q: Tell us about your love for radio.

A: As early as I can remember, I've just somehow had this endless fascination with radio and knew that it was the career that I wanted to pursue.  I believe my fascination with it developed due to the fact that audio was my major source of enjoyment as a child.  Since 2000, I have been heavily involved with the local radio reading service for the blind here in Winston-Salem.  I started out by being its volunteer coordinator, but now

manage its technical operations.  In 2013, I also became a remote software engineer for the Mountain Area Radio Reading Service in Asheville, NC.

Q: So, you’re a husband and dad. Can you tell us more about what that is like? What challenges have there been in your role as a family man?

A: Being a husband and dad are absolutely the two loves of my life. I married Ashley, the woman of my dreams in 2013, and our daughter Hannah was born in March of 2016.  They are truly my world.  Before Hannah was born, I had considered taking a course on blind parenting, but just somehow never got around to it.  Looking back, I'm glad I didn't, because learning how to do things your own way is quite often the most practical and beneficial.  Being a parent is a life changing experience, and it is unbelievable how much you learn in a very short period of time.  Like everything I do, I jumped into it with both feet and embraced it.  I wanted to be able to do everything a

sighted parent could do, as I don't want Hannah to see me as less of a dad just because I am blind.  That hasn't come without challenges, however.  I don't get the convenience of seeing to change a dirty diaper, which can be an adventure in itself.  Hannah usually makes sure I  have at least one to change if Mommy isn't home.  Now that she is crawling and beginning to walk, I may not always know where she is at any given time, especially if she is sitting quietly, so listening is key to figuring that out along with most

everything else.  Even when a little wiggle room would be nice, Hannah makes sure that I don't get any special treatment! :)  She is definitely our miracle!

Q: If you were to give any advice to someone facing loss of sight, what would it be? What advice would you give to a high school student who is blind and hoping to have a job and family someday?

A: Never give up on your goals and lifelong dreams.  We as blind people are just as capable as the sighted.  We work in NASA, we are doctors, and some of us have even driven race cars.  I am constantly amazed by the professions many choose, but I am never doubtful of the success.  “Can't" never could do anything, and blind people should never let anyone or anything stand in the way of living the life he or she chooses to live.

Q: One Final question. Is there a favorite quote or Bible verse that has helped you cope that you would like to share? A favorite motto for life?

A: Luke 1:37 - “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” Even though I have taken the initiative to live as independently as possible, it all came from God.  He has blessed me in so many different ways, and continues to do so. I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for Him!!

Jonathan, thank you so much for allowing me to interview you. My favorite quote of yours is “Can't never could do anything”, and you have always expressed this conviction, even when we were children riding the bus to school together. :)

Thanks, dear readers for being with us today. We hope you’ll drop us a comment below. Be blessed and have a fantabulous weekend.

Accessible Appliances

Welcome. We're so glad you could join us today. This week's post was written by Anita, and her topic will awaken your adventurous spirit and make your tummy grumble . :) That's right; we're talking about kitchen appliances.

Summer is upon us. Usually, summer is when I do a lot of cooking since I am a teacher and have more free time now than I do during the school year. About a week ago, I purchased an electric skillet to add to my kitchen  collection. What I like about it, aside from the fact it only costed around $30, is that it is very big. They had smaller ones, but as a blind cook, I like things bigger and deeper. It is deep enough, but not as deep as I thought it would be. Anyway,  I also like the fact that I do not have to worry about it moving as I am frying my potatoes like I do my skillet on the stove. My house is older, and some of the floors in it are slightly inclined, meaning my stove was at an incline, and so things wanted to slide toward the front of my stove. Recently, a family member made an attempt at leveling my stove using some sort of board, and so now at least things are more likely to slide toward the back instead of the front. Anyhow, the counter beside the stove is level, meaning my new skillet does not move when I use it. When purchasing this appliance, I made sure it did not have a digital display. I placed a bump dot on its dial so I could mark the temperature I like for my potatoes. What I like about using the stove or the electric skillet is that even when I don't mark them, I can use the rate at which food is cooking to confidently set my temperature whereas the oven, while it can be done in this way to an extent, is best made accessible through labeling.

Aside from my electric skillet, I also have an air fryer, which I likely have mentioned before. It is a healthier choice because grease does not need to be added to most foods, and when it is, only a small amount of grease is required. Also, it is safer since the shell and basket slide completely inside the unit and the machine does not begin working until the unit locks into place; consequently, grease cannot splatter on the cook, and newer cooks can feel more confident at using it.

In addition to the electric skillet and air fryer, I  have a rice cooker, which, it turns out, is  a pasta cooker, as well. I am not a big fan of rice, but I wanted to use this to steam vegetables. I bought it when I purchased the electric skillet. I also made sure it does not have a digital display; they had one that did. Mine has six buttons shaped kind of like a braille cell lying on its side. The top row of buttons are for cooking pasta and the bottom three are for rice. When you push the button, it cooks for a given amount of time. I will ask a friend or family member which setting might be best for my cooked vegetables. It has other tactile markings, a 1 cup and a 1/2 cup are raised and easy to feel. Very accessible.  Years ago, I used a rice cooker that had a basket with it. I put water under the basket and placed the vegetables inside the basket. In my new rice cooker, there is no basket. I did not realize this until I brought it home, but I shall experiment with it. Also, its middle pasta setting should cook macaroni good for macaroni and cheese since it is a ten-minute set time.

My microwave is also a useful kitchen tool for me. There are microwaves that are talking, like the one at Blind Mice Mart, but I simply use bump dots to label the one I purchased at Walmart a while back. I also have a toaster, a coffee pot used by Shannon, AKA S. J. Wells during her visits since I don't drink coffee and am too lazy to make tea in it, and a hotdog maker that I got at some sort of yard sale and never use. I have several crockpots that I do use quite often. One thing to realize about a crockpot is that there is a crockpot which cooks faster, but there is also a slow cooker, which cooks slower. Both units have settings for low, medium, and high, but the difference between the two is the crockpot will get a meal done in four hours on low whereas a slow cooker will get it done in eight. Therefore, those of you like me who want to allow your food to cook for long periods unattended will want the slow cooker model. 

So, as you can see, I have many different kitchen appliances, not all listed in this post. We are all unique, and so we don't all have to have the same ones. But some help us to eat healthier, and some help us to just enjoy food. Some help us to build cooking skills as blind cooks more easily than others, but many can be' or are already, accessible to the totally blind cook. If you are a new cook, but you do not have access to someone who can directly teach you non-visual cooking techniques, start by learning safety tips, such as keep handles turned toward the center of the stove, know how to store foods, etc. Also, you might want to start with the toaster, microwave and air fryer appliances since they are probably the units that are the easiest to work with. SHANNON and I do not accept any responsibility for any injuries or damages to anyone or any property due to anything written on these posts. Sometimes experimenting is the way to build skill, whether it be cooking or any skill. And remember, with summer upon us, learning to prepare salads and drinks can be a great way to start your kitchen adventures. Lots of practice will build your confidence and skill level in the kitchen.

By the way, like everyone else, blind people have all different interests. So while we do intend to teach and discuss issues related to blindness on this blog, sometimes, we may share our other interests as well. For example, I love reading, writing, and exploring. So don't be surprised if you read a post, and wonder: "What does this have to do with blindness?"

And now, put down your technology so you can go dig out that swimsuit. :) Have a great summer, but please remember to stop by each week to visit us here at the blog. Next week's post is another edition of Interviews to Empower. The gentleman we will be featuring is someone you won't want to miss.

Be blessed.

Accommodating Ourselves

Last week Anita spoke at length about making accommodations. She described many different ways teachers, parents, other family members and friends can make learning, games, outdoor activities, and even participation in church accessible for those without vision. Today, I want to focus on ways we who are blind can make accommodations for ourselves, rather than relying on the public, teachers, employers or family members to do it for us.

A couple of years ago, a friend with sight drove me to hear a gentleman who is blind speak about the book he had written. This gentleman put an emphasis on how the world needed to make things more accessible for the blind. He said there should be braille labels on office doorways, braille on restroom doors and changes in the textures of sidewalks so the blind will get a better understanding of their location. My sighted friend said, once we got back out into the car, “I agree that in a perfect world, these things would be done to accommodate blind people, but what about accommodating other people with disabilities? I mean, I have chronic pain, so why couldn’t an accommodation be made for me by having more comfortable chairs?”

This got me to thinking. Perhaps, instead of trying to force a sighted society into accommodating me and my needs, why not rig up what I can to accommodate for myself? After all, who is more aware of my needs than I?

How do we do this? First, we must adjust our thinking. As I just said, no one knows you and your needs better than you. We must become advocates for ourselves and speak up to ask for what we need.

Examples

The restaurant you are visiting does not have braille menus? Ask a server to read it to you and tell them you want to speak to a manager about putting their menus into braille.

The book you need for school is not in an accessible format? Find a volunteer reader, someone perhaps who might be taking the same class. You could also talk to the school’s administration. Inform them of your difficulty and offer to help them come up with suggestions to fix your problem.

Do you find yourself passing up a certain destination on your walk down the block? Use a GPS app on your phone to save that location.

Are you constantly forgetting where you put things? Develop a habit of either noting it down or putting things back in the same place every time.

Do you wish your town or city had audible buttons so you would know where to cross the street? Call your town or city officials and talk to them about it.

Above all, don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself. Also, research what you want to advocate about so that you will appear knowledgeable and in control when you approach others about accommodations.

Now, let’s be real. There are just some things in life that we must put up with, grin and bare, a movie without description, for instance. We need to use our ears and knowledge to guess what is going on or ask a sighted person to describe. Print papers come in the mailbox, and we just have to find a sighted reader or use an app to take a picture and read it to us. Difficult intersection? We need to rely on the training we got from our orientation and mobility instructors and our common sense to know when it is safest to cross or ask for assistance. As for paper money, again, we need to ask for sighted help or use a money identifier. Of course, you could always pay in change. After all, American coins are totally accessible without sight. However, your purse or wallet might get a little heavy if you carry around all that change. LOL When at the cash register, ask the cashier to help you when paying with your credit card. Remember, though, most tactile buttons have a dot on the number 5, so practice entering your private information, rather than giving it out.

My true point for this post is that we should rely less on others to make every day tasks accessible and more on ourselves. Yes, there are laws in place to protect certain rights, but it is not up to the government to make our life easier; it is up to us. We cannot please everyone all the time, but perhaps, if we put less effort into fitting the world into our expectations, this might be a more pleasant place to live.

On Tuesday, I was sitting at a Wendy’s with my mom and two daughters. My youngest who is nine wanted a bag to put her left over chicken nuggets in.

“Go up front,” I told her, “and say to the lady behind the counter, ‘May I please have a bag to go?’.”

“I can’t do that,” my daughter said. “I’m socially awkward.” LOL

“Then, you can’t get a bag,” I said, “because, I’m not doing it for you.”

After much discussion, she ended up going for it. They gave her the bag, and she was able to bring her food home. In order to get the help she needed, she had to ask. So, even children with sight need to learn how to speak up.

In closing, I want to say that I do understand how difficult it can be to speak to perfect strangers. When I was a child, I would sit back and wish for help but never speak up. Then, I would be frustrated and disappointed that no one put forth an effort for me. As I grew older, though, I realized that no one would advocate for me like me. Now, I am in my upper thirties, and I rarely care what others think. This embarrasses my daughters, but I rarely have difficulty making my needs known and getting them met. Disabilities are obstacles, sure enough, but they are not barriers. Just like Grover in “The Monster at the End of This Book”, you might get scared, but like the reader, you just got to keep turning pages until you  untie those pages and knock down that brick wall.

Questions? Feel free to use the contact form on this blog to get in touch. We love to hear from you, so don’t be afraid to comment below. As always, we thank you for being with us this week. Take care and be blessed.

Making Accommodations

Welcome. Today Anita is going to talk about accommodations. An accommodation is when an activity is modified or accomplished in an alternative way so that a person with a disability, such as blindness, can be included  in it. For example, say the activity is viewing a microscope slide. The accommodation might be to have a person orally describe what he is seeing on the slide. Hopefully, the person who is blind knows guiding questions to ask that can provide him with the type of description required for him to come away from the activity with the same information as people with vision do. Another way to accommodate for this activity might be to have a tactile model that simulates what the student would see under the microscope, great for understanding the concept, but not the same as observing it oneself.

Another example of providing an accommodation for an activity, say riding a bike, might be to use a tandem bike, a bike that holds two riders. Yet another might be for the rider with vision problems to ride the bike at a time of day when his vision allows him to see the contrast between the road and the grass. When we were kids, my brother and I used to ride our bikes at dusk because that is when we could tell the lighter sidewalk from the darker grass in front of our house. But, this would not work in gym class because we were not as familiar with the area and because it was too bright during the day for us to see.

What about accessing the Bible in church? An accommodation could be accomplished by listening to the pastor read the passage aloud, by using an electronic notetaker with a refreshable braille display, a device similar to a PDA, to quickly navigate to the various books of the Bible, or to simply write down notes of the verses and look them up later on at home in a hardcopy braille Bible.

As you can see, some accommodations are simply alternative, yet effective, ways of accomplishing the activity; other accommodations replace the activity with something different or provide the person who is blind with a less quality experience.

There are more people with vision in our world than there are without vision. People who are blind need to make themselves act and appear as people who are sighted in order to fit in and to be thought of as capable. Also, because it is a world designed for the sighted person, activities and products are designed to be accomplished and/or used in a visual manner. It isn't that people who are blind are less capable; it is that alternative sensory input is not as likely to be considered for activities and products, and thus, an accommodation is likely to be required, though not always provided. Some activities or products are either accidentally accessible or easily made accessible. For example, the 5 key on a TV remote or keypad with physical buttons generally has a raised bump on it, making it easy to locate without the use of vision. A BOPIT game audibly calls out commands, and it is easy to distinguish the twist it from the spin it, pull it, or flip it controls. It does call out colors, but after trial and error or asking someone with vision, these colors can easily be memorized. Other such games in the regular market include Simon, Jinga, Mancala, and more. However, many products are not accessible, especially those that have menu systems, and this makes them unusable by someone without vision. When I bought my crockpot, my air fryer, and my washer and dryer, I made sure they did not include menu systems. Some are easily made accessible, for example, the timer on the air fryer is not accessible, but I choose to use my phone's timer. However, I could mark it with bump dots or braille, as I do other appliances.

Apple has designed their products with accessibility in mind. A free screenreader called VOICEOver comes preinstalled with Apple products as do other accessibility features. Not all apps are accessible because, again, the designers do not plan for accessibility when they create their product. A great way to find out if an app is accessible is to visit www.applevis.com and search for it. Blind and low vision users use this site to share and find accessible apps.

There are two ways to handle accommodations. One is to focus on making an activity accessible by providing the accommodations for that specific activity; the other is to build accessibility into the activity or product at its inception and also to insure that the person who is blind learns alternative techniques and advocacy skills and embraces a positive blindness philosophy. The difference between the two is that the first focuses on making the activity accessible for an individual; the second focuses on performing activities in different ways using various senses so that the widest possible audience is able to access the activity or product. Remember a technique is referred to as alternative because it is different from the "normal" way of using vision to accomplish a given task. Vision should be one method for accessing the information, but not the only method. Now that we've defined how these two ways of providing accommodations are different, let's look at an example.

In a Math class, if one focuses on providing a graph in an accessible format by having someone to describe the graph, then one is focusing on the activity. Sometimes, a less quality technique is used in such cases, for example, maybe the student is not an auditory learner, and thus, he cannot visualize the map or understand the information as easily when provided the audio description. Or maybe the student who is helping to provide the audio description does not  know the correct terminology to use or how to accurately verbalize what he is seeing. If accessibility is  provided for the widest possible audience in mind, then the Math book is provided in various formats, such as an audio format and a braille format with  tactile graphs included at the same moment students with vision receive their print version of the book. Then the student who is blind can tactually discern the graph while the student with vision can visually discern the graph.

At a blindness training center, the focus is on teaching blindness skills. Also, all students are blind and can learn from each other and share ideas. Therefore, students with blindness and low vision are  more likely to focus on learning alternative techniques, and thus, will be more able to develop the knowledge and advocacy skills to be included within society.

Thank you for being with us today. Learning to make accommodations in a sighted world can be a challenge, but it can also teach your brain how to improvise. Take a quick look around you. Can you think of ways to make accommodations for yourself? How about accommodations for those with other disabilities besides blindness?

Feel free to leave us a comment. We would love to hear your thoughts. Until next time, take care and remember we’re all in this together.

Be blessed.