i’ve been sighted my whole life and 2 years ago I lost all of my vision very abruptly and I still haven’t accepted it, this isn’t opposed to talk about that but to talk about now
I met a guy about a week ago and he asked me on a date to the state fair next Sunday but he doesn’t know about my disability and I feel so embarrassed to tell him because I don’t want him to think of me differently, I want him to look at me the same way he does now and it’s very scary for me
I haven’t had any mobility training so when I go places I’m guided around and of course that’s something he needs to know before I go out with him but I’m just so scared
my sister says I shouldn’t go with him at all because he doesn’t have experience with guiding me around and it would be too much in a crowded place like the fair which bums me out I just wanna live normal
I don’t know if I wanted advice or this is just me ranting but I’m just sad I guess

I had previously been using voice dream for bookshare books but bookshare sent me an email promoting their new more natural voices so I tried it out found a voice I like, but I am having some difficulties with the bookshare reader and I’m looking for feedback. There are buttons controls on the bottom of the page. I’m using an Apple 17 standard phone that do not seem to work or do what they are able to do such as skipping from section to section. I have also had instances where all of a sudden the book will change from its reading format into a fast forward mode for no reason, and I have to use a single finger swipe to stop the fast forward and get the book back into normal reading mode other buttons that say they will tell you where your reading position is do not seem to work as well, and I don’t understand why the book is described in sections rather than chapters and that it does not read the chapter headings

My parents have been abusive my whole life and my mom is all I have left in my family. I’m really worried that I will never make enough money to be able to cut her off, or make enough money to be comfortable. I still live with them. I have been hospitalized due to my depression and previous attempts. I work a minimum wage job but I don’t think thats enough to move in California. I’m pretty worried that my vision will take my life. I want to give myself the chance to move and finally live my own life, not just survive. I’m very exhausted.

I know I deserve more than to feel this way, but I haven’t experienced any different. I need to get away from her, but then what happens when I move out with a roommate. How will I get money for ubers to work? I already am not able to save much. I’m on disability but its only $550/mo. I have exhausted my resources with Dep of Rehab, and all DV housing are completely full right now, or do not accept children of abuse, only mothers.

Any tips or advice?

So last week I met up with a very sweet guide dog handler and she offered for me to take a few meters with her guide dog at first she held the leash and I only held the handle. Her guide dog is a poodle. The handle was a bit short. I was scared at first but it really went away real quickly. And then she asked wehether I wanted to walk on my own, She would be right behind us. It was honestly amazing. Her dog has a real fast walking pace but she did adjust a bit to me and of course the handle was too short but still it was so different from walking with a cane. I’m normally due to a traumatic event from my childhood really panicky for loud noises but I did not notice any of that. I felt like her dog shielded me from that. The fear I had before like would I be able to rely onna dog even for a few meters? Would I be able to shut of my brain and not think of any rough surfaces? All that went away as soon as I walked with her. I’ve been thinking about getätigt a guide dog for some time and now that I was able to try that my decision has been made. It wasn’t even a correct trial walk since the handle was too short and all but still. It wasn’t even a very happy experience!

How was your first guide dog walk? Also was very funny when I was back to walking with my cane and she with her dog. They were way faster and I was always struggling to keep up. Now I understand what she meant that it’s like floating! You still have to think but it’s so different from walking with a cane!

Does anybody know if you can switch out your headphones on the audio description boxes at the AMC theater? Wanted to see a movie and was wondering if I could switch the earbuds and then top off with my other headset which is a noise canceling one since the Dolby theater is usually too loud for me.

Hello everybody. I am 16 almost 17, and I grew up as if I was sighted, meaning that, well, I wasn't really shown how to be blind if you know what I'm trying to say there. So I'm having to catch up to every one else who's done been shown. And I feel like every one is annoied with me because they don't know this stuff about me and I don't expect them to, but that's why it's so embarrassing for me. I want to think about 17 year old and beyond stuff, but instead I'm having to learn every basic thing I should have learned years ago. I feel pathetic and like an embarrassment to society because sometimes I think, "I can't do this or that because I'm blind." Then I get instantly proven wrong by whatever youtube video I look up about it, then I'm like, well, crap, that was an ignorant assumption, so I guess it's just me who can't do it. It's embarrassing because while every other blind teen is just kickin' it, living it up, I'm over here trying to catch up before anybody ever notices I wasn't capable of doing what every one else can do. It has also messed up my mental health. I look like some angry ignorant child but I'm anything but that. I'm actually very mature but I think I've gone and made myself look like an idiot. And I feel like an alien. Anyway, please don't attack me, I'm just trying to survive here. Has any one else here felt like this?

I’m about to close on a house with multiple natural gas lines, water lines, etc in the basement. And I’m curious, how do others handle labeling the valves for maintenance?

I am trying to find a hobby for my uncle. He has pretty severe macular degeneration. He also has end-stage COPD. Anything that involves walking, bending, or carrying heavy items is no good. He can walk probably 50 feet before he is winded so something stationary or close to it is best.

He's an old school guy, been a trucker most of his life. I know he isn't interested in working with small tiny parts assembling stuff like miniature models or anything like that.

It's hard to say what his interests are as he was the type of guy to just work, work, work all the time so he hasn't had much free time to explore that side of himself. Currently, he spends most of his day watching TV because he can't do much else. To my knowledge, he only really has peripheral vision and even that is pretty bad because he has a lazy eye on the left and his macular degeneration is worse on the right... he can see well enough to read texts. It seems close up is better. As far as I know, he can't make out a face at 5-10 feet.

Please let me know what kind of information I can provide if it will be helpful. Thank you to anyone that can help.

Hello, my father recently went blind due to cataracts/glaucoma. With this being so new we been struggling with ways to keep him entertained until recently he started listening to YouTube stories. However the issue is when he’s in his room alone sometimes the ads will pop up relentlessly and having the trouble of finding the skip button has been rough. I wanted to ask if anyone knows an alternative way to skip the ads easier or maybe a better option than YouTube stories that is not expensive or costs money.

That’s it, that’s the post.

Seriously though, they need to find new ones. Oh my God, she said see. Or I guess you didn’t see it coming. Please find new ones and please do not have aneurysms when I make my own actual blind jokes

I don't know all the terms so I apologize in advance. I have a friend we play board games with who can read only slowly with the help of high magnifier devices. I'd like to find some sort of table top magnifier maybe an LED lamp or something to help him enjoy board games like he used to.

Any suggestions?

I don't know the medical issue with his eyes or how specifically bad they are, just that he has super limited vision. Can read a little bit slowly at 3 or 5x magnification, but only has ones he can hold in his hand.

Hello everyone,

I am reaching out to this community because I am feeling quite desperate and hoping to connect with anyone who has a similar experience.

I have been struggling with a severe corneal condition for over 20 years. During this time, I have undergone multiple eye surgeries, including previous corneal transplants. Unfortunately, I have now completely lost all vision in one eye, and my other eye has less than 0.25% vision left. I am currently facing the reality of needing yet another corneal transplant.

Has anyone here gone through a second (or multiple) corneal transplant on the same eye? How was the recovery process, and what were the outcomes for your vision?

Any shared experiences, advice, or words of encouragement would mean the world to me right now. Thank you so much.

If you did not have to work to take care of your living expenses and other needs and wants, wet decisions, would you make (Or have you made)?

I'm aware that this is a very privileged position and may make me seem out of touch to some people. It's not my intent to make light of or disregard difficulty Many people face in meeting their financial obligations, due to difficulty finding work etc. But I would appreciate hearing from people on what they've done in similar situations, or what you would do if you were in this situation.

I became legally blind in February and I have been on long-term disability from my job since then. I will almost certainly be approved for medical retirement. This leaves me with about 2/3 of my previous salary before becoming legally blind which allows me to basically maintain my lifestyle indefinitely. The flip side of that is that any income I do earn would be Claude back from the pay that I receive.

I feel lucky not to have to work, but I have realized that I really miss the daily interactions that come with having a full-time job, and I am trying to figure out how to bring the positives of that back into my life. I briefly considered the possibility of retraining, anything that I can see as a possible option for that would not earn me any more than my current benefits so any effort involved with schooling and daily work would essentially be on a volunteer basis, only serving to reduce the amount my insurance provider has to pay out. And to be honest, full-time work has very little appeal to me... I feel the business of daily living has become so much more difficult and complicated, I don't think that adding 40 hours of work a week to that is enticing.

I've thought of trying to do some regular volunteering, take courses, etc, but I'm just curious how other people approach this issue. Would you continue to work, even if it was for free? Would you spend your time volunteering? Having fun? How do you replace the casual, friendly conversations, interactions and relationships that you build over a career A career. How do you use the skills and talents that you have spent your career developing?

Can we enter signatures on pdf forms either in adobe acrobat reader or using markup in ios? Or do we still need sighted help. I have a form to sign.

Hey all, just wanting recommendations for any other MMORPGs out there? I currently play World of Warcraft exclusively, but I like it because I can choose racist other than just… Human.
Any other suggestions? I like the idea of Guild Wars but I’m not sure of its level of accessibility.

For context, I have no site and I rely heavily on mods and add-ons to make the game work

Looking for resources on learning to develop using voiceover on macOS. I’m already a developer, so it’s mainly learning how to use screen reader tools, quirks in voiceover, things that make your life easier, any limitations you experience, etc…

There is a blind developers sub but it seems dead. I tried to find resources on YouTube but didnt come across anything I like other than some vscode interview where they talk about how it’s accessible. I’m looking for a tutorial style video that I can listen and act upon to learn how to code in vscode, switch tot he sidebar, toolbar, terminal, etc… Anything that I can do to make my workflow easier so I’m not VO + right arrowing everywhere in vscode. I’ve heard of TDSR and installled it, but no idea what to do now. Is it easier to use the built in vscode terminal when you’re using a screen reader? Do y’all avoid UI based tools like postman and the AWS site and just rely on cli tools since it’s text based?

I’d really appreciate any advice or resources where I can learn this stuff.

Thanks

I am thinking of going to the Colorado center for the blind. I have to figure it out soon. I know that wherever I go, I do want to do training under sleep shades. Can anyone give me advice or their experience with the Colorado Center? Anything that I need to know about? I would like to know the good, bad, and ugly. Thank you!

I’ve had something on my mind ever since an online vision loss support group last month. We were discussing public transport, and a man was saying that his city used to have free bus passes for blind people. He was saying that this is totally unnecessary and that blind people don’t need to be treated any differently, so he told his city to get rid of those passes, and eventually, they did. Now, blind people have to pay full price. He seemed kind of proud of that. I din’t say anything at the time, but it kind of drove me nuts. There are so few blind people, and fewer still are getting out into the world alone. The unemployment rate for blind people can be as high as 90 percent in some places, so some people might have no way to get around if the bus passes aren’t reduced price or free. And doesn’t that guy want people to be able to get out and get jobs? It’s as if he thought of his experience as a rich guy who went blind after a full career as the only experience of blindness people can have. Why didn’t he just pay for his own pass, and be quiet about it? We don’t all have the same needs as other blind people. Another example is a big city in Australia where the buses don’t stop for blind people even if they put their cane out on the curb. From what I hear, the local guide dog organisation told the metro office not to train their drivers to stop! Why? Because, apparently, they want blind people to have to write out the route number on a sign and hold it up, and the bus will only stop if you hold up the sign. They are assuming that blind person will always have their routes planned out well in advance to create and braille signs for themselves. As if no blind person ever does spontaneous travel, or changes their mind on what route to take! I think we all need to consider that our own blind experience doesn’t speak for everyone. I myself am not immune to generalizing. I recently heard someone saying that they told their council to send all council fliers and pamphlets as emails to them. instead of in snail mail My first thought was that they can just read it with an app on their phone if it comes by mail but not everyone can do that. Some people have trouble with smartphones for a variety of reasons, including peripheral neuropathy in their fingers. I also got a bit of a chuckle when I heard that nFB is a bit dogmatic on making people use straight canes. I have a friend who uses one, but their spatial awareness is very impaired, so they almost always hit someone on the head with it when they get in and out of cars. They’ve nearly struck me in the eye with it when we went to sit down, and another friend says she’ll never drive this person anywhere again because they keep hitting her in the head, no matter how often she reminds them. We should never pretend we know what’s best for another blind person. I also don’t like when people discourage blind people from learning braille. I waited way too long to learn because people discouraged me, but now I love it and it helps me keep my job. I know that, even if we don’t intend it, sighted people can sometimes take our experiences as a representation of all blind people, so I think we sometimes need to remind others that we each are just one person with our own unique needs for how we want to live our lives. Some people can live their best life with a white cane. Some people can only reach their full potential with a guide dog. Some of us will live our best life with family near by. Some of us need the independence that a city can bring. Nothing is one size fits all.jti

I primarily use my Mac in English, but I also have a lot of text in Brazilian Portuguese to read. The Mac’s accessibility system has always done a good job of distinguishing between English and Brazilian Portuguese, automatically switching the voice used to read the screen.

However, since I reformatted my computer, the secondary voice (Portuguese) defaults to European Portuguese (from Portugal) instead of Brazilian Portuguese.

Everything works correctly in VoiceOver; the issue only occurs with "Spoken Content" (specifically "Speak Items Under the Pointer" and "Speak Selection").

Could anyone help me resolve this so that the secondary voice is the Brazilian Portuguese one?

Note: I have already downloaded the Brazilian Portuguese voice, it is selected as the secondary voice, and my Mac’s secondary region is set to Brazil, so I don't know where else to check

Hi, I've got a few basic projects that I want to try to do. I'm not very experienced and woodworking but I've gotten some of the tools and some basic knowledge that is probably needed. I just got a talking tape measure and that thing is really helpful. It's allowed me to do some things I would have never been able to do before. Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions of certain tools that I should get or any other methods, tips, tricks I should be aware of that are helpful?

I should add I do have some limited usable vision, but I can't see pencil markings. Maybe a sharpie I could see. I just have a circular saw at the moment, but I seen people use it along a rail of some sort to cut straight

I did a quick Google and didn't find anything. Where are the TalkBack users posting about questions and tips? I need the AppleVis for Android!

Hey everyone! I'm hoping to hear from other blind and visually impaired people about their experiences with employment.

I have significant vision loss in both eyes and am legally blind. My vision loss came on relatively suddenly, and I'm still trying to figure out what my future looks like, especially when it comes to working.

I'm trying to figure out how to get back into the workforce, but one of my biggest challenges is understanding what working with this level of vision loss actually looks like in the real world. My vision isn't always consistent, either. Some days are better than others, and lighting, distance, and how close I am to something can make a huge difference in what I'm able to see.

I'm looking into assistive technology and accessibility tools, but I want to hear from people who are actually out there working. I know everyone's situation is different, and I'm interested in hearing from people with all levels of vision loss, from low vision to total blindness.

A few things I'd love to know:

• What do you do for work? What's your job title, and what does your job actually involve?
• How did you get into that line of work? Did you stay in your previous career, change careers, or learn an entirely new skill?
• What does a typical workday look like? What kinds of tasks do you perform, and which ones are the most challenging?
• How do you manage in a physical workplace? Things like navigating the building, finding things, identifying items, reading labels, handling paperwork, or working with equipment.
• What assistive technology do you use on the job? Magnification, screen readers, OCR, AI tools, special equipment, or anything else?
• How much usable vision do you have? I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who still have some sight but struggle to see details, read things at a distance, or deal with different lighting conditions.
• What happens on bad vision days? If your vision fluctuates or you have days when you can barely see, how do you manage your responsibilities at work?
• Have you run into employers who were willing to accommodate you? What accommodations actually helped, and what did employers struggle to understand?
• What advice would you give someone trying to return to work after significant vision loss? Are there particular types of jobs or skills worth looking into?

I'm not just looking for a list of jobs that blind people can theoretically do. I want to understand what those jobs look like in practice, how you get through the workday, what you need help with, and what you've learned along the way.

I'm still trying to figure out what's realistically possible for me, so I'd really appreciate hearing your honest experiences, including the challenges and frustrations. Thanks to everyone willing to share!

I (sighted female) have a best friend (blind female) who is adopting a baby soon.

I always try to be conscious with her gifts and such, something she can actually use or "see".

She can see shadows and can read braille.

Is there anything that can be suggested for a first time mom that may not be a well know tip or trick for the sighted community?

I hope that my wording here is found kindly as I don't mean any harm, I'm just not as knowledgeable with children or things she may find more useful.

Thanks for any advice you all can offer.