Growing up Blind Conversations with Dr. G

Send a text My friend Susan who was born with retinopathy of prematurity and had 20/400 and 20/800  she is effectively mobility visually impaired – perhaps that cutoff is 20/500, so by 100 ? that’s a lot of stress. Susan and I met because she was the interim director of a program that I was hired to take over, she was the boss, and then I became her boss- e. Susan’s life experiences are as a “high...

Send a text For New  Years Eve 2024 I’m bringing you one of my all-time favorite interviews- conducted November 1999, just shy of Y2K- blind travel was not for the faint of heart.  Born in 1963 –he didn’t get a full-time mobility tool until his first guide dog in his second year of college. Sit back and relax – this is a good one Mike’s honesty about the importance of mobility tools in his life is...

Send a text From 1999 – 2001, as a young professor I conducted over 100 interviews with employed adults with blindness. I was seeking insight into my profession from the everyday consumer – and I continue to learn and improve my practice by listening absent bias and judgement.  This week we have Barbara Hadnott Her interview was conducted November 21, 1999 – She was born blind in 1953 – Her life i...

Send a text Born in 1953, she got the full crazy treatment growing up blind. Yet, somehow she came through it all very well adjusted-a working wife and mother she has the same desires as anyone.. Her life is one lived just before the technology boom hit – before ride-share apps and other helpful smart phone tricks. Take a trip back with a very smart tour guide – growing up blind and living your be...

Send a text This was one of the very early interviews I had done. Twenty-five years ago, late one evening I sat down across the table in my Hunter College office with good friend, Mike Levy. He had come prepared with written statements of memories and family lore surrounding his travel. I would recommend this interview to every graduate student studying O&M. Mike was taught O&M in the eigh...

Send a text This was one of the very early interviews I had done. Twenty-five years ago, late one evening I sat down across a table in my Hunter College office with good friend, Mike Levy. He had come prepared with written statements of memories and family lore surrounding his travel. I would recommend this interview to every graduate student studying O&M. Mike was taught O&M in the eighth...

Send a text Judy is a poster child of success absent safe mobility. As a child, she had light and color vision – and that means she was mobility visually impaired. In the 1950s, she learned to use the long cane, but she wasn’t allowed to take it home until she was older. She didn’t really start using a long cane until grad school. She and her husband go on grand adventures around the world. He is...

Send a text In every accomplishment – the O&M instructor in me wishes more value had been placed on his safety.  His life is filled with accomplishments and yet- all I can hear is just how freakin’ hard it has been for him to get around safely and he blames himself – not the inferior tools he’s been provided… He taught orientation and mobility (O&M) too – learn more about that in Part II....

Send a text This week is a real treat- I found Don McBride’s interview, he was born in 1936. He is a great storyteller and gives amazing insight into what it was like to be blind child in the 1940s and 50s- he became blind at age 11, he attend residential school and so had certain advantages – but, there wasn’t white cane safety at the time and his older brothers were determined to toughen him up...

Send a text We are entering the 1950s with Frances who was born 1952 seven years after the first white cane was taught to a blinded veteran of WWII. She remembered knowing that she had to wait to learn to use a long cane once she became 15. This is a terrific discussion of her dog guide use and paratransit. If you’re curious about the reality of getting around while blind – Frances is fabulous- Af...

Send a text If you want some assurances that growing up blind, waiting until school age to get the first long cane  can result in a well adjusted, fully employed and outgoing adult- then listen to Taletha. She compares working with O&M specialists who were sighted and blind. Overall, she felt she should have had much more time with either one of them – she had a 3 bus a day bus route to school...

Send a text Patricia Montgomery is a terrific example of the seeds the world has sown. People with visual impairments are expected to be visually capable and blind people are expected to be treated as if they are sighted. Blindness and visual impairment are the most blatant form of stereotyping and marginalizing of a disability group out in the open. Consider the slur, ‘what are you blind?’ Being...

Send a text This is the soundtrack of the video posted on YouTube. It shows footage from 1960s and audio tape interviews of children born blind in the 1950s. Marcia new she was blind when she entered kindergarten. She noticed her peers ran around and she didn’t. Running without a two-step safety buffer is not recommended. A 1966 blind high schooler is shown being shadowed for safety by a sighted p...

Send a text Maureen Moscato – a really good friend of mine – she is so funny. I found the original tape – It is worth a relisten!! She is much funnier than I am playing her!! Yay!! Maureen is a real treasure – her stories reveal a woman who grew up in the school of hard knocks and her resiliency go her through – but if you’re interested in the pros and cons of dog guides, long canes, waiting for O...

Send a text Marcia, born in 1950, is an example of what everyone would like me to understand – she is such a successful person (may she rest). Born blind she was an independent child – from her accounts she hated the long cane as a child, and she didn’t need it. This is the story that every parent wants to hear – that their child will grow up like Marcia – a successful teacher, married and capable...

Send a text Today I’m sharing the interview with Jerry, conducted March 11, 2001. He is visually impaired, but not mobility visually impaired, except at night. His experiences at night in winter snow demonstrate the resilience of mankind in the face of daunting odds, but also how alone people with visual impairments feel – never once had he considered bringing up his difficulties to a trained prof...

Send a text Betty grew up without a mobility tool – she will not admit to having any difficulties in her life, and on the surface one can attest – she is the embodiment of success. She is educated, she has a job, she is well-spoken and capable. As an O&M instructor – my interest is in the travel decision. She talked about using a guide to move about and she was careful to not say too much abou...

Send a text Today’s interview is with Kathleen, born in 1949 with retinopathy of prematurity. Her story life with this vision is one of living in the margins as far as getting services. She had no specialized services as a child, conceivably she was considered to have too much vision – she was not “legally blind”. She got her first cane at age 48 – for protection. She tells of many accidents that...

Send a text Gloria grew up with low vision, she couldn’t read street signs or see important details but moved about her world with her peers. She remembered having no difficulty getting around her hometown or otherwise, until she lost more of her vision when she was 40 years old. That caused her to lose her job and relearn how to get about places she knew well. It also brought her to a new profess...

Send a text  Today’s show is with Doug Schading. We spoke together August 15, 2001. He was born in 1948 and was visually impaired he had one good eye that had narrow field, but acuity of 20/80. At age 28 his vision deteriorated even in his good eye and he couldn’t travel independently any more. His perspective on traveling early with limited vision, his experiences with dog guides and long canes a...

Send a text Stephen Dresser –was born in 1947, he got his first long cane in 8th grade, but he wasn’t taught to use it as a probe and just hooked it on his arm. It wasn’t until high school that he finally received O&M instruction. He remembers having to be convinced that it was possible to move through space without bruises, tripping and clunking into the world with his body.  Steve remembers...

Send a text Jim said he wished he had had cane travel in grade school – instead of always sitting on the sidelines. He remembered moving about without the long cane and didn’t recall getting hurt, but when he attended his reunion getting about the campus as an adult he didn’t understand, how he managed without a long cane, because he bumped into a lot of bicycles. He was taught to believe that lon...

Send a text     Beatrice weighed 2 pounds when was born into a family that already had four children. Her mom and dad didn’t have insurance and avoided hospitals. I don’t think my mother real…my mother or father realized how poor my vision was.  She remembered that she  was only able to see partially out of her right eye.  She didn’t realize how little sight she had until recently when she remembe...

Send a text This week is Michael born in 1943 – 2 years before the long cane was invented. He became blind at 2 years of age due to retinoblastoma. He received his first O&M instruction at the school for the blind from a blind adult. Michael details some of the strategies that the instructor employed to teach him to use sound and some funny outcomes as well. He also discussed some of the diffe...

Send a text Myrna is a very intelligent woman who studied music, a career many bright children born blind were funneled into, her husband was a blind piano tuner – another career historically taught to intelligent students at schools for the blind. Myrna broke free of it and joined the modern world in career of assistive technology. She was using GPS before it was cool.  She grew up a dependent tr...