Here is a wonderful story bye globetrotter Amy Bovaird. Follow Amy--butnot too closely--on adventures

Many people dream of seeing the world. Ask vision-challenged globetrotter Amy Bovaird, and she will settle for seeing it in a little sharper focus. Follow Amy--but not too closely--on adventures foreign and domestic as she recounts tales of trips and travel.

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A Sight For Sore Eyes

The Lighter Side to Facing Vision Loss

IF THE COAT FITS…

“Let’s go and get you squared away at the hotel,” my new and remarkably energetic friend, Sally,  said at the end of a long

I spied my coat on the rack near the door.

conference day.

“It’s  so nice of you to volunteer to take me,” I said through a yawn.

“Happy to do it.” She gestured in the direction of a coat rack some distance away. “Grab your coat.”

I spied my coat hanging near the door. Sliding it off the hanger, I slung it over my shoulder, too lethargic to even put it on.  ”Brrr,” I said as I stepped into the Kansas wind.

“You’d better wear your coat,” my friend advised. “The wind has kicked up a notch since this afternoon. I don’t know what it’s like in Pennsylvania but Kansas in November is  pretty harsh.”

“Huh?” I strained to hear her through the rattling wind. “Oh-h. My coat. I’ll be fine.”

As always, it took my eyes time to adapt to the darkness. My night blindness made it difficult to see anything. I  relied heavily on her voice to guide my fumbling steps as I caught glimpses of the shadowy figure I hoped was Sally.

Where did she go? “SALLEEE,” I called as I scanned the darkness around me. I imagined how easy it would be for me to blow off onto the Kansas prairie like some hapless tumbleweed and redoubled my efforts to keep track of my friend.

“Over here, Amy!” Sally  laughed as she backtracked to where I’d veered off. I held onto the cuff of her coat and let my cane skip forlornly  behind me like a wandering child who had ceased to interest me. Sometimes I find it best to simply go with the flow.

At the car, I uncurled the frozen fingers wrapped around my cane and leaned it against the side of the car. of course, it promptly fell. I shook my finger and addressed my cane, jokingly. “Okay, be that way. You’ll just have to wait.”  I opened the back door, dropping my coat onto the seat, my briefcase onto the floor and my purse on top of that.

With my hands finally free, I reached over and picked up my cane and folded it.

Sally opened the passenger door. “Okay, hop in,” she said and dashed around to the driver’s side.

A sudden gust of wind tossed me into the seat and I giggled. “The wind moves at sound of her voice!” I folded up my cane. “H-h-eat, p-please!”

“Coming right up.” She turned the key in the ignition and slid the heat to the highest setting. “Time to get this baby rolling!”

***

The next morning, I woke up early and got ready for the conference. God was going to give me a memorable day. I knew it. “I might as well go down to the lobby and get some orange juice and a doughnut.”

I gathered up that day’s  schedule and shrugged into my coat. When I stepped over to the dresser to pick up my purse, I nearly tripped! What … ?  My eyes traveled down to the hem. The coat hung to my ankles.

I frowned  as I dug through one pocket, feeling for my lipstick  No tube of Coral Me Crazy to be found  but my fingers grabbed onto a crumpled tissue and … one glove.  I checked the other pocket. No glove there. “Hey, this is weird.” Did I drop one or something? Did I even bring my gloves to Kansas?

I ran my hand down the length of the coat and felt a smooth diamond-thread design sewn into the cloth. It must be inside out, I thought, wondering how I could forget that the coat was reversible. I stuck one arm through the sleeve and reversed it, then the other.

Something still didn’t look right.

In a moment of playfulness, I flipped my big hood up; the tip came to my nose!

What was going on?

I ducked over to the mirror. A dwarf looked back at me!

“Wait a minute. My hood has fake fur around it!” This had none.  I squinted to see better.  ”Hey,  my coat is darker. Purple.” I inspected the light gray color that engulfed me.  I slid my hand over it. “Nylon.” Mine was suede leather.

This looked nothing like my coat except for the big hood. Wrong color. Wrong size. Wrong design.

I covered my mouth and giggled into my hands. And, ta-dah! Wrong owner!

The laughter spilled out of me as I shook my head in amazement.  I couldn’t believe I picked up the wrong coat! This was a new first even for someone losing her vision!

When Sally picked me up, I told her of my dilemma.  She said, as if it were the most natural mistake in the world and happened every day, “Well, put it back. The owner will claim it soon enough.”

At the conference center, I furtively looked around before stepping over to the coat rack and ever so casually hung up the coat then sped away. With a cup of coffee in hand, I spied on the rack for a few minutes to see if anyone came to claim the “stolen” coat.

That night I selected my coat with care. I felt for the suede leather and my faux fur around the hood.  The length was right.  The ultimate test, the pockets. If I had any doubts, they fled when my fingers found the Coral Me Crazy tube of lipstick in my right-hand pocket.

I never knew why I picked up such a different coat. Did I see mine and reach for the one next to it? Was I that tired? Or maybe a combination of the two? Just Call Me Crazy but sometime it seems to me that God feels I need a good laugh to revive me and He uses my low vision to supply it.

My take-away from this winter coat fiasco was: make sure the coat fits … first!

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If you like this story bye Amy Bovaird you can read more of her writings at her blog, http://amybovaird.com/if-the-coat-fits/

Get to know Robert Kingett

Robert Kingett

Robert Kingett is a journalist who writes about many topics for many publications. Just a few of his beats are human interest stories, disability awareness, business, crime, politics, video games, Celebrity interviews, and reviews. He has been published in several anthologies and has been asked to guest blog for many websites. He has been interviewed about his journalism work on several radio stations in the USA and abroad. He has been featured on sites such as IGN, Polygon, and others.

You can find Robert Kingett at
Twitter.http://twitter.com/theblindwriter
Facebook:https://facebook.com/robertkingett
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/kingettr

My name is Christina Laty

My name is Christina Laty

I don't know much about the very beginning of my life, but I will tell you what I know. I was born with Nystagmus and Septo Optic Dysplasia, a syndrome of Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. My parents started noticing that I have low vision when I was about three months old. And then my mom did a bunch of research, and judging by my behavior, she found out that I have Septo Optic Dysplasia. But she couldn't convince the doctors. Finally she found a doctor that wrote a book about the syndrome. She brought me to that doctor and asked him to diagnose me. At first he looked annoyed that she didn't believe the other doctors, but then he came back out of his office and said she was right. 

When I was little, I had sensory problems, so whenever something would touch my mouth or if I touched something with unusual texture, I would projectile vomit. My mom had to feed me every twenty minutes with juiced vegetables with no texture in it. That was what the earlier years of life were like.

Four years old was a big year for me, because if I remember correctly, that's when I started my growth hormone shot, thyroid pill, and thirst control pill. For preschool, I went to the Blind Children's Learning Center. It was a great school, and I made some great friends. I went there for two years. Then I remember taking a test, that confirmed that I didn't need to go to kindergarten. So I skipped kindergarten and went to first grade at Killybrooke Elementary School.

From first to third grade I took Braille lessons. In second grade I first saw the BrailleNote. I immediately wanted one. I told my teacher about it (my Braille teacher) and she said (if I remember right, or if not I think something around these lines) we would talk about it when I was efficient in Braille. I don't think it ever got brought up again. But I still wanted one. In fourth grade, I didn't use Braille at all. Then, all of a sudden, in fifth grade at the Braille Institute, (to which I had been going since eight or nine years old) there was a choice between writing in print or Braille, and I chose Braille! I decided that day that I wanted to get back into Braille. I also started wanting the BrailleNote again. Also in fifth grade, sometime before spring break, I found out that the aid that I had been with since first grade was leaving, and after spring break I would be with a new aid. A day or two before spring break, on the day of the Killybrooke talent show, I was introduced to my new aid. 

I forgot to add something really crazy in the first chapter. That thing is what a couple doctors wanted to do to me. One doctor wanted to dunk my head underwater, saying that he did it all the time and it would reset my brain, and another doctor wanted to spin me around a bunch of times, saying that that would reset my brain.

When I was in fourth grade, my younger sister, Lizzie, did gymnastics. 

One day, when my mom, Lizzie, my little brother, Andrew, and I were walking back from the building where Lizzie did gymnastics. I decided that I wanted to take a shortcut. So I started walking away from my mom, who was too occupied with the younger two to notice. Where I thought was about three quarters away from where I would turn, I said hi to someone on his bike that I passed. All of a sudden, he got off his bike and stepped in front of me. I tried to turn the other way, but he stepped in front of me again. "HEY! HEY! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR EYES?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR EYES?!" He yelled. I tried to get away with saying there was nothing wrong, but he kept yelling the same question until I told him that I was visually impaired and couldn't control them. Then he went onto another question. "HEY, HEY! WHO AM I?! .WHO AM I?!" I tried desperately to think of who he could be, imbue I didn't know this person. Then Mom called me, so he knew my name. "HEY, CHRISTINA!! CHRISTINA! WHAT'S MY NAME! WHAT'S MY NAME?!" So I told him that I didn't know him. Then Mom told him that he was scaring me. "I'M NOT SCARING HER!!" he was totally wrong. I was scared out of my mind. Then Mom helped me get through the bars of the fence that separated her from me. That night, Mom called the city about it.

During seventh grade, I went to Costa Mesa Middle School/High School. I was with most of my friends from Killybrooke Elementary, but some of them went to Tiwinkle Middle School. In previous years, I had gone to the Braille Institute with one of my friends, who already went there, and was a junior in high school. We got to see each other at break, and sometimes I would say hi to her during passing period, where our paths occasionally crossed, and once collided! I was in the ASB for my elective there, but I eventually switched to band. I play the flute, starting in the after-school band in sixth grade, and I still play. I still talked to my ASB friends though. 

Then, I found out I was moving to Colorado. My dad moved on April 1st, and the rest of my family (including me) stayed in California to finish packing and such. For 8th grade I went to Ranch View Middle School. This coming year I will be attending ThunderRidge High School.

Recently I have created my own blog latywritermusician.blogspot.com 

My name is Stephanae McCoy

Hi my name is Stephanae (Steph) McCoy, I’m a retired mom, gushing first time grandma (or Gigi as I like to be called), advocate, speaker, and animal lover. I’m also a smart, resourceful, introspective, somewhat artistic, computer savvy, perfectionist (code for obsessive compulsive tendencies) who happens to be legally blind.

My vision loss began nine years ago when I removed one of my contact lenses, looked in the mirror, and saw half of my face was missing. The diagnosis was a macular hole and luckily for me all the statistics pointed to a favorable prognosis; 1 - I was considered very young to have this diagnosis, 2 - odds were it would not occur in my other eye, and 3 - I had a 95% to 99% probability my vision being completely restored in my affected eye. Unfortunately, my eyes refused to fall in line with the statistics and here I am today unable to see the big “E” on the eye chart.

While I do not consider myself to be a fashion guru, I must admit I have a serious weakness for shoes, clothes, jewelry, hair and makeup which led me to create a blog dedicated to these topics for blind and vision impaired women. The idea of the blog came to me as I was preparing for a presentation for thePennsylvania Council of the Blind’s Annual Convention. In researching makeup for blind and vision impaired women I found very little on the subject.

Since the cosmetics and fashion industries are not geared to those of us with vision impairments I felt Ineeded to do something and this is how Bold Blind Beauty was born. I write and post descriptive pictures and video tutorials to help our demographic become more comfortable in the world of fashion.

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that “when you look good you feel good” but I’d like to submit “when you feel good, you look good.” I believe that confidence goes a long way in telling the world that you feel good about yourself and how you look. This is especially true when you are blind or vision impaired because you do not have the visual cues necessary to achieve a certain look and this is where I can help.

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” ~Wayne Dyer

My blog www.boldblindbeauty.com. 

Hi, my name is Keith Edgerton and I am visually impaired.

Keith Edgerton 

Hi, my name is Keith Edgerton and I am visually impaired.  I was born with Retinitis Pigmentosa  and have been legally blind since March 10, 2005. What does that mean to me? Well, basically I do everything I have ever done in life except drive a car. I've never had good night vision and as I grow older, my blind spots grow bigger. I basically have tunnel vision. I love the outdoors! I love to hike. Bicycle, surf, kayak, paddle board, swim and row. I love to travel. I love to play sports but really can't play team sport anymore. It wouldn't be safe for me or others. Someday I will probably have to stop riding my bike by myself but for now I still feel safe. 

I live in Olympia, WA and I am currently a Construction Services and Sustainability Coordinator for St. Peter Hospital. I love working in the sustainability field and I have a degree in Architecture from Kansas State University. I have lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1992 but I grew up on Long Island, NY and Northern New Hampshire. 

I have an amazing blended family with my wife Kiirsten, my daughters Sierra and Acadia and my stepson Ian. I am surrounded by amazing family and friends who love and support me through all of the ups and downs life has to offer. 
I started a blog this year to hopefully help people understand my vision better and what adjustments I am going through to stay active and employed. My visual impairment has brought so much joy to my life and made me such a better person.  The road to accepting my eyes has been a long and rough one at times and there are plenty of moments of struggle along the way. I hope my blog can help people understand the many nuances of being legally blind and also be a place where visually impaired people can relate to what my life looks like.  

Please check out my blog and I would love to hear from you!!!
http://keithdavid.blogspot.com/

My name is Drew Bedo I am a legally blind gentlemen

Drew Bedo

Hello my name is Drew Bedo.

In late 2002 became legally blind. One eye has no useful vision; the other has severely degraded vision. Yet, I see. There are some things that I can no longer do at all, and many things that I must now do differently. Photography is one of them. 

I create photographic images using traditional films in vintage or antique view cameras. Visual impairment has made photography more than a creative act for me. Photography has become a therapeutic affirmation of my ability to adapt to, adjust to (and accept) my condition. Photography has become more than another way of seeing. For me, photography is seeing. 

When composing an image on the ground glass of the camera, I often feel a link with the creative tradition of pioneer photographers such as William Henry Jackson, Fredrick H. Chapin and others. Lens and film technologies may be modern, but the creative process is much the same. 

Any amount of light is important to me. I am drawn to the subtle movement of light across a subject to envelop it. 

Shape defining shadows and strong patterns attract my attention. I tend to work with small subjects and compact compositions. Many of my images are still-life; found objects placed in window light. Other images are studio creations. Other work may be intimate environmental compositions. Many of my images breathe a quiet tranquility. And yet— there may also be subtle tension. 

It is not enough to photograph an object, I must capture the light that enwraps it. 

Drew Bedo waiting for the light,
 below the sea-wall at Galveston Texas.

Drew Bedo 

E-Mail WizzyWig1234@yahoo.com

website is quietlightphoto.com

I can also be found on  artsyhome.com 

Drew Bedo flicker Page

My name is Heidi Ajudan Smith and I am a blind woman.

Heidi Ajudan Smith

Hello my name is Heidi Ajudan Smith I would like to tell you why Celine Dion means so much to me. Here is a little bit about my life.

 Losing so many people in my life, including my six siblings.

 Surviving five near deaths incidents.  Losing my eye site at three months of age. Almost losing my mother, brother, and father. Me being bullied through my entire school life. And last but not least, living a military life style.

These are the things that I have been through, and yes, Celine, the woman of my beautiful dreams, has helped me through them all.

Celine Dion

I didn't even know that it was her that has helped me through all of these times until I was 15 in a taking chances concert that she did in San Antonio, Texas.

I remember after the concert my father telling me a little bit about her, and after the show her when I was listening to a song that my father told me that she sings, called 

My heart will go on, so that is how I really got to know her and her voice, and her as a person.

And the type of fan that I am?

She's still helping me out with life today, and yes, I would love   to meet her. I have her entire disckography on my I pod, and I'm so proud of it.

That's all I need. I'm not a true fan because of all her things I have, but because I love her so much.

You see, there are three or four types of people.

1. People who don't give a care about her or her music at all.

2. People who like her just for her things.

3. People that just love her and her things, and that's all they ever talk about and they also tend to not include themselves in every day life.

4. People that are extremely passionate about her, have her music, or some other things, but they still have a social life, and don't consitter her to be their life day in and day out.

I am at number.

To be a true fan is to love her with all your heart, but don't make her your life.

Make her your passion.

Yes some of us may not have all of her things, but you don't need all of her things. You just need to love her with all your heart. I hope to meet her one day as a true fan, 

And this is why Celine Dion means so much to me.

My name is Maxwell Ivey Jr and I am a totally blind gentleman

Maxwell Ivey Jr

Hello; My name is Maxwell Ivey Jr and I am a totally blind gentleman sharing my stories. 

I have two blogs now one about the amusement industry called
The Midway Marketplace  and the other called Blind Student and Teacher  it is about my more personal experiences along my way to becoming the person I want to be. I write about equipment for sale, leading figures in the amusement industry, and sales made as well as my progress with blogging, podcasting, youtube videos, Google hangouts,  crowd funding and being a blind business owner. I didn't choose to be an inspiration but now that I know people are inspired by me; I will do my best to be that good example. I hope you will come along for the ride. thanks, max

http://midwaymarketplace.com

My name is Chelsea Stark and I am a blind photographer

Chelsea Stark

My name Is Chelsea Stark I am a legally blind Photographer and was born with optic nerve damage I have tunnel vision and can only see about two feet in front of me. I use a Nikon  to take my pictures. I use the live view to compose the pictures since I cannot see through the viewfinder. Since my field of vision is so narrow and I don’t relate to wide vistas, I photograph close up intimate subjects The things I like to photograph are animals, flowers and some times scenery. I use an Apple Mac, which comes with some great tools such as speech, enlarged screen and oversize mouse pointer. My inspiration comes from my loving fiancé’ Robert Park. The more pictures I see of his the more inspired I get. He is also my teacher. I hope one day my pictures are as good as his.

My personal blog is http://chelseastarkcom.blogspot.com
I also created a blog called  iPhone and iPad Apps for the Blind And Visually Impaired. I also have a Facebook group.Called iPhone and iPad Apps for the Blind And Visually Impaired.
iphone and ipad apps for the blind.blogspot.com

facebook.com groups iPhone iPad Apps for the Blind VisuallyImpaired

The History of Apple iPhone



Blind All Around the World