Being visually.impaired is like being stuck in this gray area that’s hard to describe in order explain it in a way that’s concrete.I can see things but it takes more work to accomplish tasks that people with normal vision can do with a glance. My vision in one eye is 20/200 with glasses correction and the other eye is completely blind. I can see the big picture and in familiar places, I can rely on memory to identify objects from a distance. This is how I fake my vision to accomplish every day tasks which makes it appear that I can “see” an object. If you’re near sighted, it would be similar to navigating without your glasses or contacts in. At home, you are likely familiar enough with your surroundings that you could probably walk around without glasses or contacts.
What got me thinking about this is a recent trip to the grocery store. I needed to get an ingredient for dinner yesterday, so I went to the grocery store across the street because I couldn’t get an Instacart delivery in time. What should have been a 5 minute trip turned into 30 minutes because I finally stumbled on it on my own after not getting much help. I live in a rural area so before Covid, Uber and Instacart were not available. During that time, since everyone was stuck at home, Instacart really took off. It was really nice because I could just search online for what I needed without having to awkwardly walk the aisles in order to avoid asking for someone for help. Overall, Instacart drivers have been very friendly and helpful with some that have done multiple deliveries for me
I have really expanded my cooking skills over the last 5 years and have found brands that I wouldn’t have noticed in the store. I used to only buy things that I knew where they were because I’d have to spend all day looking for something. That limited me to spaghetti, sandwiches and frozen meals basically. Now I have the freedom to explore new recipes and experiment. I really enjoy NYT Cooking and even asking ChatGPT for suggestions. I am grateful that we live in a time where there are multiple ways to get things done. Using my phone camera to zoom in on menus and other distant objects is a thing now and I don’t stick out like I did when I had to use my monocular.
So this example is just another reminder to be adaptable. As a librarian, I work in a service oriented profession that constantly observes and adapts to the rapidly-changing user needs. I don’t expect that level of awareness outside of the library world of course, but it feels like information and technology are moving at warp speed. Society in general hasn’t really adapted communication methods and services to ease that burden for anyone who can’t complete tasks the standard way. Another example is medical office communication. Especially around here, many offices still use paper for forms and the print is tiny. There’s one office around here where I was able to fill out all of that information online ahead of time. It saved a lot of headache and awkwardness. I hope that more offices will continue to offer that option.
Comments are closed.