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- [00:01]
A
One of the biggest challenges of reading with vision loss is that there's not one right way to do it. In this episode, we hear what works for members of the Hadley community in a variety of scenarios. I'm Ricky Enger, and this is Hadley Presents. Here at Hadley, we talk with people all the time who are in the process of adjusting to vision loss, and they're figuring out what's going to work for them as their vision changes. Some people are avid readers, so they're looking for a way to read a book comfortably again. And some people just really miss reading the newspaper every morning. Some people are looking for ways to read a menu in a restaurant or figure out what's on a price tag or to get some idea of what's in that can that looks like every other can. So there are plenty of reasons that people need to figure out how to read things, and that's what this episode is all about. We've got people touching on various scenarios and what has really worked for them in those scenarios. You know, I think the first thing that people think about when they're having trouble reading is to make things larger. So first we're going to hear from Scott and see how that has worked for him.
- [01:25]
B
So here in Toledo, they've got this place called the Site Center. What a wonderful. I mean, this place was just really gracious. They had the four different stations, and then the second station was with an optometrist, not a specialist. And she went through everything. I mean, the magnifying glasses I can carry in my pocket or any of this. And I said, well, you know, I can't read the menu now when we go out to eat. And so she had something, something or something. So she tested my eyes, and then she came up with, well, you know, can you read a book? And I said, barely, you know, with these glasses. So she said, well, you know, let me give you some advice. She said, I want you to go to, like, the Walgreens or whatever it is, and I want you to get yourself a 3.60 reading glass. Eight bucks, nine bucks. And I said, okay. So what a wonderful thing that was.
- [02:34]
A
Yeah. So Scott was able to start out with a really simple solution that he could find right off the shelf at the store. And I think that's what most people try first. So does that approach always work? Let's hear from Steve Kelly with some thoughts on that.
- [02:53]
C
Oftentimes I would. When I was working as a vision rehab therapist, I would often show up and somebody would pull out grandpa or grandma's magnifier from the 1930s or something like that. They oftentimes were not having a whole lot of success with it and just weren't sure why. You know, and sometimes there's stuff on the TV that we see or, you know, you walk into a box store and there are some magnifier there, and unfortunately, a lot of times they don't work as well as people think they're going to. The reason is because one size doesn't fit all. There's just all kinds of different things out there. And handheld magnifier is a great device, don't get me wrong. But you want one that fits where your vision happens to be. That's kind of where I saw the failure in that method happening, was people just weren't really having an assessment and figuring out which one was going to be the best one.
- [03:50]
A
That makes a lot of sense, Steve. Rather than continuing to try things kind of randomly that may or may not work, an assessment from a professional can really be helpful to kind of narrow things down. But who is that professional? It's a low vision specialist, and that's different from your optometrist or your ophthalmologist. Now let's hear from a low vision specialist. This is Dr. Laura Miller. We get the question all the time, well, what is the best magnifier or what is the best lamp that I can use or whatever. And it's like, there's not one right answer. Right?
- [04:29]
D
Exactly. There is not one right answer. As part of my office, we do have a small store where people can walk in and purchase a magnifier or a lamp or things like that. And we'll have a granddaughter or a son or a daughter walk in and they will say, what's the best magnifier I can buy? My mother, my grandmother for Mother's Day or whatever. And it's like, well, we need their eyeballs here with them in order to figure that out. Yes. Because everyone is different. And magnifiers all have different quirks to them. The larger they are, the weaker they are. So everyone comes in and says, I want the strongest magnifier you've got, but I want to read a whole column of newspaper with it. And that just doesn't exist. And so we do really need to have that evaluation to determine really, the best tools that can be used and the correct strengths for someone to use. So sometimes stronger is not better for someone.
- [05:26]
A
Yeah, thanks for that, Dr. Miller. That is definitely one of the most common things we hear Just give me the strongest one. But that's not always going to be successful. And sometimes a magnifier might not even be the ideal tool for what you're doing or. But that can be a hard thing to figure out. So let's share a bit of a conversation that Steve Kelly and I had that touches on this. Well, then how do people know? And I'm sure this, too, is not a one size fits all. I think there's this feeling that if I just try hard enough, I can make this work. And maybe I'm the problem, or I'm not using it right, or maybe this will just get better. Better if I keep at it. So how do people know then, when it's time to investigate some other technique that might be a little more successful?
- [06:25]
C
One of the things that I've observed both personally and with clients in the past is that none of us likes change. And maybe I should just speak for myself. I certainly don't like change. So those of us who have spent most of our lives reading with our vision, that's what we want to hang on to. And we are going to hang on to it tooth and nail, no matter what happens. Let me just give you a quick story. When I started a master's degree about 18 years ago, you know, I showed up on campus and we had done some reading beforehand, and I was woefully behind in my reading, and that's not really who I am, you know, but at the time, I was doing my reading with a handheld magnifying glass because I had always read visually and highlighting and putting notes in the textbook, the printed textbook, which, by the way, was just in regular print. And it wasn't working. And I knew it wasn't working, but I wasn't willing to do anything differently because that's the way I had always done it. One of the students who was blind in the workshop, she seemed like she was all caught up and knew all of the answers and everything. So I finally said to her, how are you doing this? And she said, well, I went to the office for students with disabilities, and I got the text on a cd, and I'm just using my computer to do the reading, text to speech, which is where the computer or whatever device you happen to be using is just reading everything that's on the screen out loud to you. And I'm like, oh, the office for students with disabilities. And here's the thing. I mean, I did not see myself as somebody with a disability, but because of the frustration and also being concerned about My grades and all of that other stuff. That's where I was the very following morning at like 8 o', clock, filling out the paperwork and getting my CD with it. And then I put it on my computer and I started using the text to speech, which I had some familiarity with. It wasn't smooth and it wasn't seamless. And I didn't get it at first. I mean, it was. It was a bit of a struggle, but it was a heck of a lot better than what I was doing with the handheld magnifier. And I just kept at it because that's what I needed to do in order to succeed in those classes. And I don't think that I'm that much different than a lot of other people. I still find I have to remind myself to be mindful about efficiency and trying things differently when things aren't working.
- [08:55]
A
Yeah. So that willingness to try different things can really make such a big difference. And again, because there's no right tool and it helps to have several things to choose from. Let's hear from Ruth, who is really making it work with a variety of different things.
- [09:14]
E
I decided to buy magnifying glasses and keep them on each desk or each table at home. I like to read every bit I can and I love the ability to get the large print books. And between that and my various assortments of magnifying glasses, I do lots, lots of reading. And my grandchildren that are 11 and 13 now have just been so sweet. Grandma, can I read this for you? Please do. And my granddaughter was reading to me, just having a wonderful time, but she couldn't pronounce a word. I said, honey, can you spell it for me? And after she did, I said, oh, that's how you pronounce it. But it's just been kind of normal. It's been accepted. I've appreciated them. I just love the support group, the low vision group. I only meet once a month, every second month. I'm part of a book club in that group and we focus upon reading a selected book. I'm often able to get it in large print from our local library. Otherwise it's a talking book. One of the goals I had was just to continue as much as I could the life that I had been living and make as minimal amount of change as necessary. And I think I still approach life that way.
- [10:39]
A
So Ruth has this really nice blend of magnifiers, large print options, talking books, and she's got the grandkids involved as well. She's not the only one who has Found a way to incorporate reading into family time. Let's hear from Judge David Tatel. As you might imagine, the ability to read was essential in his career, and it was also an important part of his time with his kids and grandkids.
- [11:09]
F
For years, I had all kinds of tape recorders and CD players, and, you know, I'm an avid reader, so I was reading novels and biographies and everything. During this time, we had little children, and I was reading bedtime stories to them, but we were listening to them. We would get Goodnight moon, and I would read Goodnight Moon with the little children, and we would listen and they would turn the pages. And as they got older, we moved to bigger books. I read with all my children and now my grandchildren for years with Audible books or recorded books. But then the most important transition when they all went digital. I have a Victor reader. All my books and newspapers are downloaded directly to my Victor reader. And I have an iPhone, which is the most marvelous device ever. I get my books from the library of Congress, from audible.com from Learning Ally. I get my newspapers from newsline, and I use my iPhone to read, you know, politico and all those kinds of things, and to do emails.
- [12:14]
A
Yeah. So a lot of tools in the toolbox for Judge Tatel. Some of those, like an iPhone, might be familiar to you already, but some of those, like Learning Ally and NFB newsline, might be pretty new. We have an entire episode on NFB Newsline, but let's get a sneak peek of that if you're curious about what it is.
- [12:38]
C
When I was seeing people face to face, you know, what I heard most of the time, and we still hear it when we pick up the phone here at Hadley is, I miss reading the newspaper. And a lot of folks with an acquired vision loss might say, you know, I can still read the headlines or something like that, but they're just not able to read the smaller print. And honestly, I think the print in newspapers has gotten smaller over the years. And so next to driving, that seems to be the big one. So the elevator pitch is you want to get back to reading your newspaper and magazines again. Well, NFB Newsline is the way to do it.
- [13:15]
A
What an awesome service. And this is something that you can access by dialing a phone, getting an app, or going to a website. And those are just a couple of ways that you can access your local newspaper. And again, we have a link to that whole episode in our show Notes. One option that keeps coming up in these member conversations is talking books. So you might have heard of Audible. Or you may know that your local library has some audiobooks that you can download. But there is one. One other service that you should know about. We're going to hear from Tanya Bickford of the National Library Service, and she not only shares about what the NLS service is, but also she gives us some tips on how to make that transition from print to audio. Because it really doesn't always feel natural or easy for people at first. So could you just go through again, let's say you have. Maybe you can read with magnification, but you're kind of struggling still. Would you be able to qualify for services for nls?
- [14:29]
G
Yes. The service is available for people who are unable to read standard print, which means if you require large print in order to read the book, then you're eligible for our services. If you require a magnifying glass to read a book, then you're eligible for our services. So, yes, that is something that people think and we work really hard. And thank you, by the way, for having us on your program today as one more effort to get the word out to the community that it's for anyone unable to read standard print, whether they can fix that problem or not using a magnifying glass.
- [15:11]
A
One question that we get a lot, it's a subject that comes up over and over again, is that reading using audio is such an unfamiliar thing for many people. They're not accustomed to listening in order to get their information. And then on top of that, you have the technology to access some of this, maybe brand new as well, whether it's the app or. Or the talking book player. And people get just a little bit overwhelmed by finding this new way to read and then trying to figure out the technology, too. Do you have tips for someone who is making that transition from reading in print to this other method?
- [16:04]
G
I do. You know, not everybody's an auditory learner. And right off the bat, I do mention that they're not alone. And I think it helps to set expectations about the fact that it may not be easy to transition to listening to books. But here's where we can equip people with the tools they need to have success. First of all, some people prefer a male voice or they prefer a female voice with the tone changed.
- [16:40]
A
Right.
- [16:41]
G
And the players allow you to do that and so does the app and mobile. So there's some things we can do. Sometimes we suggest wearing headphones. I'm in a assisted living center and I have a roommate, and I'm not tracking my book because there's so much activity, you know, with people walking in and out of my room and my roommate talking to me and the TV going, so we talk about using headphones at times and then reducing the stress about the whole process by saying, well, you know, you can reverse, you know, 15 seconds, a minute, five minutes, and start again. If you've lost the pace of the book and the storyline, you can go back. But just knowing, I think just telling people, yeah, this is natural. You're not alone. A lot of people struggle with this because they're just not auditory learners. They were visual learners. And it takes time to adjust to auditory what my example is, when you ask for directions, when someone told you what. What you needed to do, did you walk away from that person thinking, I have no idea what they just said to me. Or did you go back and say, we need to write this down? Because I'll never remember this if we don't write this down. Well, there's a tip for you that you're a visual person and it's going to take you some time to adjust to listening to the audiobook and focusing on the words that are being said in the storyline. And some people find a very happy balance between cooking and listening, or between crocheting and listening or sewing and listening or whatever it is that they're doing. They are actively listening while also not necessarily shutting out the world around them. But they find a balance. And I think a lot of people are afraid to admit that the audio books are hard for them to listen to. We have the way to exclude accents. So if someone says, well, I loved that mystery series, but I had a really hard time understanding the narrator, While we can work to make sure that the narrators that narrate the books they want to read do not have an accent, if they say to us that they were really upset by something they heard in a book, well, then we can say which and only provide them with rated books. The National Library Service has unrated and rated books, and it's just what's happening. But a lot of commercial publishers are providing audiobooks that are not rated, and so we don't really know what's in them. Sometimes you can guess what's in them based on the author who's written the book. But if someone is really sensitive to what they hear in the books, but then we can just limit the list of books that we send them to, rated books. And we can then exclude books with strong language or strong violence and that kind of content so that they know when they receive the books that it's something they want to listen to. Another strategy to help with folks who are new to listening to books is not to send them War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, but to send them something shorter, like perhaps a series of short stories. And then some people, when they don't know what to read, sometimes we talk about what they like to read when they were young. And a lot of times people say, yeah, I would really love to reread island of the Blue Dolphins or the Red Pony by John Steinbeck, you name it. Sometimes we just start with something they know and that really helps them sort of adjust because they have a timeline and they have a visual in their mind for that story already. So that's a really good way to acclimate someone to audiobooks.
- [20:48]
A
Thanks a lot, Tanya. Some really great suggestions there. And if you're listening and you haven't yet signed up for the NLS service, just give us a call here at Hadley and we can help you out with that. Now, we could not have an episode on reading without talking about Braille. And I think this is the point where a lot of people get a bit intimidated because they're thinking about braille as a replacement for every bit of print reading that they used to do. But there are ways to use braille in daily life that don't involve reading a whole novel. So let's hear from Mark on why he decided to learn braille.
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H
I have low vision and braille is extremely helpful for me in a practical sense. I go to various places and frequently I can't read the signs. But there is Braille there. Like in an elevator. The numbers don't always go left to right. Sometimes they go vertically. So if I can feel it, it's helpful. Doctor's offices have placards outside with the name. But again, sometimes it's not really. Without shoving my face into the wall, I can't really be sure of where I'm going. And that's a, you know, braille is a. Would be a big help for that. Learning takes time and especially something like this where it's multi sensory. But I found it to be wonderful.
- [22:32]
A
I really love that enthusiasm from Mark. It sounds like he has had a lot of fun learning braille and he has figured out some ways to use it in his everyday life. And that's what it's all about. So I know if you're listening to this, your head might be spinning a little bit as you're trying to figure out exactly where you are in this process and what steps that you might take next in order to get back to reading whatever it is that you are struggling with. So we do have a workshop series called Reading with Vision Loss that introduces and goes through the options that we've talked about here. So that's one thing that you can check out. You can Also just call us 800-323-4238 and we can help you kind of talk through things as well and figure out where to go next. I'd like to end this episode with one last member conversation. So let's hear from Debbie. Because Debbie has such a relatable story of moving from one tool to another and finding out which things really work for her.
- [23:48]
I
I've always been a reader. I love reading novels. And at the time, I had an hour and a half ride, bus ride to get to work in the morning. So I'd always take a book to read. Well, I would get, after a while, I couldn't read regular size print. So I would get large print books from the library. And then that wasn't big enough for me. So I would get these magnified reading glasses and then eventually that wasn't big enough for me. So I would get a handheld magnifier with reading glasses with a large print book, and I would read on the bus, you know, moving my wrist back and forth with the magnifier. And I gave myself carpal tunnel syndrome. I wasn't totally blind, you know, I mean, I, for all practical purposes was. So I signed up for Hadley, but I could still see. So I thought, I don't need braille, I don't need screen readers. But anyway, their class taught me that with braille, I didn't need to learn braille to read books. I could just put on a few little braille letters on my spices and then I would know what my spices were. Because unless it was cinnamon or pepper, I had to ask somebody in my family, you know, what is this? What is that? And I was the one who did all the cooking. So that was kind of inconvenient for everybody. So Hadley taught me it might be useful to learn braille. I discovered that I love braille. And I discovered that reading braille books as well as listening to audiobooks is a whole heck of a lot easier than trying to see books and using three levels of magnification and all of that. Braille can be useful even if you're not totally blind.
- [25:48]
A
Thank you so much, Debbie. Again, really relatable. And I want to thank all of you, all of the people who have had conversations with us and have been willing to share their stories. If you're trying to figure out what's going to work best for you, or if you want to learn more about any of these tools that we've mentioned here, just give us a call and we'll be really happy to help. Thanks so much for listening. Got something to say? Share your thoughts about this episode of Hadley Presents or make suggestions for future episodes. We'd love to hear from you. Send us an email@podcastadleyhelps.org that's P O D C A S T hadleyhelps.org or leave us a message at 847-784-2870. Thanks for listening.