Living Skills For The Blind

I finally am getting things started with the state dept. of the blind, and one of the things they have suggested is to go to a rehabilitation center to learn independent living skills, get vocational rehab, and to learn how to use assistive technologies such as JAWS.

I am considering it, but I know very little about rehab centers.

As background for those who may not know, I am legally blind (my left eye sees ~1.5 feet and my right ~3 feet. This has been a gradual increase from light and dark perception only at the very beginning, then a decrease from a brief period of 20/60 in right eye and 20/200 in left...most of the decrease due to glaucoma spikes, I think. So now, I struggle to read even very large print on my computer (I am writing this in size 73, high contrast, and it is still very fuzzy...the equivalent, if not written by my own hand, takes a very long time for me to read anything). Though I manage well with things around me due to an assistant and assistive products such as stick-on bumps and a handheld magnifying device, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to use the magnifying device, and what I could do before with my residual vision before, I am finding more and more difficult...

Anyway, so that's why I am considering going to a rehab center. They said that the program would be 1-4 weeks, and if I need it, I can go to another rehab center with a more in-depth program...the rehab center is 2 hours away, but is a live-in only...my husband is just returned from Iraq a week and a half ago, so I don't really want to part with him again after being apart for 14 months...

Anyone have a professional or experience-based opinion on rresidential rehab for blind and visually impaired versus classes during the day (transportation is a bit of a problem for us right now with our only car on the fritz, so maybe live-in is the best option, but...I'm not sure)?
I didn't need a lecture on needing to take care of my eyes. I follow my medication schedule to the T, don't overstrain my eyes, and I have been seeing specialists from the first month.

You have bad grammar, bad spelling, and you lecture me. That's nice that you have perfect vision...I never did, and doubt I ever will. Thanks for waving that in my face and bragging.

If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

Hi. I'm somewhat low vision. No left perphial in both eyes. I live in San Francisco and thees a center for the blind. I'll say the benefits would be learning about new and better equipment that can help you. I dnt see how it could be a bad thing at all. I myself am considering reading braille

2008-12-30 20:38:16 by Jewel

"Seeing Possibility" Students at The Hatlen Center in San Pablo, CA, learn skills most of us take for granted - life skills to help them ...

I am legally blind and am currently on disability support. I have an oportunity to train to become an Independant Living Skills Teacher, but I am currently playing in a band who is picking up steam and getting more and more gigs. We are also going to put out our 3rd CD early next year. If I choose to train, I'll be leaving in September for 8 months and leaving the band, again, to pursue a job. The last time I did it, the band suffered. Should I stay or should I go and why? HELP!!!
Just so you know, first, legally blind and profoundly blind are 2 different things. I have no vision in my right eye and my left eye is 20/300. 2nd, I have a program that reads everything to me. Please understand, I'm not trying to be mean, but you should really look into what terms mean before insulting me or questioning my condition. Thanks

I think you should talk to the band about it. You also might want to make a list of pro's and con's (old fashioned, I know) to figure out which decision would be better for you in the long run. You never know what will happen with a band, but you know what would happen if you did become a teacher.
Good luck with this!

2007-11-07 19:31:29 by wilsonmatthewf

Price: $10.95

Ten years ago, I was really into art. I painted, drew, did graphic design, and sculpted with clay. I even sold a few paintings, and one of them appeared in a 1997 calendar from the Printing House for the Blind. I'm considering starting up with it again, but I'm afraid of being a perpetual starving artist. I am aware of the difficulties artists have, and I need to be able to support myself. This is the reason I stopped my art and got a part-time job and earned an AA degree so I could develop work skills. I would really like to do my art, but how practical is it with the cost of living being so high (especially in California)? or should I continue focusing only on making a living?

It is difficult to do both. I am an artist...I went to school for it...but I cannot concentrate on it because I have a family to support. For the most part my job and family life take too much from me to dedicate extra time and energy into my art...my passion. If you don't have children and are just supporting yourself, GO FOR IT! You will regret it forever if you don't try. It takes a lot of ambition, hard work and self promotion. It may take some time before you start making good money, but at least you will be happy and fulfilled. If it doesn't work out there will always be a 9-5 out there.

2008-05-16 14:23:05 by Peaches

Price: $50.00 $96.00

I know a place that has free poker tournaments and I would like to start playing there. I have played online for about 2 years so i know the game very well but my live skills are minimal. My boyfriend and I do play headsup often but since it's headsup i still have questions. I was wondering if there was a good way to remember when it is your turn to act. Also how do i know when i am either the big blind or the small blind? It's the two people to the left of the dealer button right? Does anyone have any tips on how to know when you are the first to act and when you need to put a blind in. Will the dealer remind you? I don't want to look like an idiot because I'm already afraid that some guys might try to intimidate me just because I'm a girl. Thanks for any tips :)
Yes I'm sure i've been playing for 2 years. I never really paid attention to the button online because it pops up when it's my turn to act. I play multiple tables at once so i never really paid much attention to some of the technical stuff

The dealer will guide you through the whole process. You have a great advantage, because you get to play dumb! If you know how to play the game and are confident in your abilities, you should use your inexperience to your advantage. When the dealer guides you through a situation, don't allow yourself to become embarrassed! Do what you are supposed to do, and you know that you should do, and you'll be hard to read. The reality is, you will probably lose a lot at the beginning, as most fish do...but your best chance at learning without losing your shirt, is to act as dumb as possible for as long as possible, and own it. Don't get embarrassed, own your ignorance and it will work in your advantage.

2008-12-11 08:21:08 by ilovebobsaget2

Ayn Rand once stated that early in her philosophical career, she admired the existential ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche. But she soon began to diverge from his ideas when she postulated the importance of reason over Nietzsche's reckless adherence to passion. While she did recognize ambitions and innate emotions as intuitive indicators of one's values, she regarded our conscious reasoning skills and logic as being more reliable.

So my question is, in your humble opinion, is it better to live life with the blind existential passion proclaimed by Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus and others, much like a Byronic hero? Or is it better live, while still ambitiously, with calculating reason and with reverence for values that are not necessarily and wholly subjective, as in Rand's Objectivism?
Wow, thanks for the replies.

I guess my personal belief is that by committing to either paradigm to much, there is a price to pay.

One who lives by reason and logic alone runs the risk of becoming apathetic towards everything. Almost a borderline nihilist. You might as well be an staggeringly indifferent inanimate object like the rest of the Universe.

Yet, on the other hand, if you sway too far to the ambitious side, you'll run a lot of risks and will likely live a short life. You might as be playing the lottery. The upside is, if by chance you win this metaphorical, you'll accomplish more than you'll ever dream.

So it's a matter of balance, as the majority of answerers have said. Knowing when to rely on reason and when to rely on passion.
By the way, you could compare this to Appolonian VS Dionysian paradigms, much like one of the answerers has said.

I don't know if I agree with your or Rand's late characterization of Nietzsche or Sartre, but I believe in the detached passion of reason which goes back to the Stoics and has travelled into the future through Plato and Aristotle to Kant to Hegel and to Reid and Adler and alot of other philosophers who avoid the post moderns who, like the Skeptics and Sophists of Old, have abandoned the use of reason for the right (ethical ) reasons. I need the fire-in-the- belly spirit of Dyonisius to power me like it did Nietzsche. Neither Sarte or Nietzche were blind advocates of the reckless passions or other kinds of irrationalism.

Dyonisius and Apollo are the twin engines of our power and to pick one over the other is to deny our human nature which needs and has both.

I think you need to back up your interpretation, or Rand's if you base it n her, with actual quotes from her and from the philosophers you have mentioned and , in my opinion, have badly mischaracterized.

2007-09-10 20:23:09 by Smokey