I was born blind, as was my wife. My parents pretty much excluded me from family activities, whereas she was fully involved from the start.

Neither of us were particularly interested in adapting equipment that didn't need it - we use normal kitchen knives, standard computer keyboards, that sort of thing. There is lots of specialist stuff out there, but don't replace work'able stuff just for the sake of it. Mainstream wherever possible is by far the best option, assuming there are no other disibilities.

Start reading braille and using technology (touchscreens, qwerty keyboard etc) with the onset of formal education. Have a google for pre-braille skills, which are often overlooked.

Most vital of all? Don't worry. blindness is by no means a stop sign. I know blind people who can read faster, calculate better, think quicker, play music sweeter, and generally be nicer people than some sighted folk. Yes, it's a disability. But creativity, a positive attitude and a willingness to try something new will always win out.

My daughter was diagnosed legally blind at 6 months old, I remember the grief we felt at getting the diagnosis. It is also very isolating since you are unlikely to know anyone going through the same thing. Those feelings are valid and understandable, but, as you are doing right now, you must move forward so your child can thrive. Realize the main issue with blindness is mainly ignorant sighted people who can’t comprehend life without vision.

I’m going to give you a bunch of resources but don’t want to overwhelm you either. Feel free to reach out to me anytime with any questions.

First thing to do is reach out to your local school district. If you are in the US, your child is entitled to receive services now. (I’m sure other countries have the equivalent but I can only speak to US law). A teacher for the visually impaired will work with your child and your family.

$1 has online courses you can take that are completely free. For example the Braille and Your Baby class helps you to understand the adaptations you need to make so that your child can have the same incidental learning that sighted children have.

$1 is a part of the National Federation of the Blind and has information and resources.

There are several organizations that provide free Braille books such as $1 and $1

$1 is another resource to connect parents of blind children.

First of all, please, treat your child as you would any other sighted child. Being blind doesn't change anything about their life, or what you hoped for them. Your child can still be involved in sports, music, anything really. I say all of this, because as a blind person, it upsets me when parents seem to give up on their child after a diagnosis and assume they have to now treat them as if they were a child forever and don't let them try things. I am so happy my parents pushed for me to be mainstreamed and put me in sports with only sighted kids like soccer and tea-ball and gymnastics, and in high school, i took private martial arts lessons. Read to your child, play with them, and really, just show them and yourself that it isn't anything to stop them. Let them go ziplining and white water rafting if they want, my parents did. Let them try thing you wouldn't try. Just let them grow and explore. Sorry if this is too long or upsets anyone, it's something i feel very strongly about.

Wow, this thread is amazing! Thanks to everyone for all of their support toward this family.

I am a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist. I teach people who are blind and visually impaired how to travel. I second the opinion that early intervention services are critical. Also, don’t let your child skip the crawling stage. It is important for muscle and brain development.

Ask me anything that comes to mind.

Wow. Thank you so much. This is immensely helpful. Both emotionally and practically.

I can give you only one tip, please let your child experience the world like you would a sighted child. They will hurt themselves, they will Run against things... But that's nothing the other kids don't do. Please don't keep them in a golden cage.

How old is your little one?

Getting connected with local agents to use for the blind at a young age is probably the best decision that my parents made for me as A completely blind individual.

I was the only blind child in my family, the oldest of six kids, and my parents and had no experience with blind individuals prior to me being born.

I started orientation and mobility skills around the age of four or five, these services were provided by my local schools.

I attended public schools all of my life excluding a two week assessment of the Oregon school for the blind, where it was determined that I would be better off in mainstream schools. My school materials were produced an alternative format, Braille and audio.

I graduated high school 12 years ago, and in the past 12 years technology has evolved so much now that there is limited to know information that isn’t available to blind students, therefore I don’t see a reason why a student shouldn’t go to public schools, so that they can interact with sided peers.

This being said however, I feel experience with other blind individuals or those who are specialized in instructing blind individuals would be beneficial to a child, because this is something I lacked as a child and had to adapt my own ways of accomplishing some tasks. Which isn’t bad, but if you’re able to interact with other blind individual as you can see how they adapt A sighted world for their needs.

As previously stated in this thread though, it would be beneficial for you and your child if you figure out ways to help them navigate a sided world as a blind individual.

One thing that comes to mind is as a child, my father would have me start in one corner of the room, and move in a straight line. Along the wall picking up all garbage and clothes. When I got to the corner, I did turn around and make the journey back to the other wall, continuing to do this across the living room so that I ensured I was picking everything up.

I hated it as a child, and absolutely despised him for making me do this.

Now however, I find myself starting in the corner of something I’m trying to clean, and proceeding to clean it in a grid pattern which ensures that I cleaned everything properly.

It’s the little things that make a big difference.



And my sided wife is thankful that she doesn’t have to worry about cleaning the kitchen for the most part, because I keep a clean kitchen.

Final comment is to teach her child to in brace the fact that they’re blind, too many people get offended in my opinion about blind jokes or people asking questions about blindness. I met my wife by sending her a text message that said:

“if you don’t want creepy blame people texting you, maybe you shouldn’t put your number on Facebook“.

Obviously this got a response, and the rest is history eight years ago.

The point though it is, if someone is blind, they should embrace that fact and allow it to be part of their personality.

If you’d like to chat more, or hear more about how blind people can use technology to be small business owners, give the your own pay podcast a listen and your favorite podcast app.

Or just message me here.

Thank you so much. This was really encouraging!

My child has the same diagnosis because of Septo Optic Dysplasia. Luckily we are in the vicinity of a program that provides vision therapy to our daughter once a month. Its through the Early Intervention program in our state so maybe they will have some resources for you. I thought the world was crashing down when we got the diagnosis, but there are so many resources available that we are so optimistic and disappointed in ourselves at our initial reaction. She is doing great and is so happy. The main thing they preach is textures and sounds! Development is a lot of vision so since she doesnt have that use textures and sounds to help. Also, I'm not making assumptions that you do I'm simply passing along what our doctors and therapists have told us: dont make her anymore disabled. Meaning that you shouldnt treat her differently or let other people treat her differently. For example, we were taught to not hand her anything if she drops something and gets frustrated you guide her hand to find it instead of just handing it to her so she learns to look for things with her hands. Something I never would have thought about. Best of luck!

My son has optic nerve atrophy and cortical visual impairment and is legally blind, he is 3. There is a great onh support group on Facebook I believe. I highly recommend joining it.

Teacher for the visually impaired, or TVI, will help with adaptations in your home and baby's environment and toys. Orientation and mobility specialist or o&m helps with moving around the environment safely. Find a tvi now and an om once baby is more mobile.

Therapy is helpful, like occupational for fine motor tasks and eating, which is often an issue for blind children because of texture sensitivity. A speech therapist can help there too.

Best wishes!

Attending a school for the blind will really help with learning life skills and adaptive learning. But I would strongly suggest making sure you all teach life skills at home and encourage hanging out with sighted kids when they're older.

The National Federation of the Blind has a Parents of Blind Children division that could help you network with people who have been there and know how to help you advocate for the needs of your child. You can join their mailing list at http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org

Make sure your child gets exposure to blind mentors as they grow up. With the right training and adaptation blindness is an inconvenience, not a crippling disability.

Your infant will find their way in life as long as you accept them.
Don't let them use their blindness as an excuse not to try new things.
Make them do their homework.
Make them get a job when they're old enough.
Be aware that they're blind, but don't treat them like they're disabled.

I'm the parent of a legally blind 7 year old (with a progressive condition, expected to have no usable vision by age 18). Deciding on whether to put your child in a mainstream setting or a school for the blind can be a very heated topic in the blind community. In our state and our school district, we decided to put our son in the school for the blind in 1st grade after the school district wasn't teaching him Braille at his pace. The school for the blind in our state is in our city. Read up on pre-braille, get your child Braille services as soon as possible, and choose the proper educational setting for your family. And remember, blind kids can do the same thing that sighted kids can do.

Excellent comments in here. I’ll round out with a few of the outliers that might be helpful.

My daughter has LCA. Get comfortable with acronyms. It’s going to become part of your standard intro to the variety of groups you’ll get involved in. IFSPs, EI, CVI, O&M... Vision impairment has a language of its own.

Get used to visitors. We have EI, a TVI, a PT, and are starting an OT specialist visit weekly. That’s on top of regular doctors visits, specialist, neurology (a lot of vision issues come coupled with neurological issues), and genetics. She also does an infant group, dance class, swim class... it’s a lot. These are your people.

Be prepared to forget your kid is blind. It happens. Like you’ll forget there’s an issue and be focused on regular parent stuff, only to have the fact that the kid loses focus at story time if the book is too visual crash down on your world and bring you to the verge of tears. The waves will even out over time, but it still surprises you.

Learn to advocate. You will have to be your kid’s voice. Sometimes that’s as simple as researching the local preschool and how well they deal with kids with visual impairment. Other times, it can be as hard as convincing the medical professionals that your kid actually should be qualified as blind. Books and the internet don’t help nearly as much as establishing a network.

Learn to educate. Because it’s going to happen a lot. From the stares and whispers of complete strangers to the kid who outright asks, “why do their eyes look weird?” You can get mad (and you will) but you can also try and carefully enlighten another human to your experience.

Finally, focus on the parent side first. Your kid is still a kid. A tantrum is still a tantrum. Our kid bumps into the kitchen table near daily. Yes, some of this is likely related to depth perception. But part is also her being under 2 and normal awkwardness. She’s my daughter, and the most important thing to me is that she knows she is loved.

I hope this provides some measure of insight on some of the day to day stuff that can get lost.

Teacher for the visually impaired here, my dad was totally blind, my mother was visually impaired, I'm visually impaired and my son was born with congenital cataracts. Needless to say, it runs in my family but I can empathize as a parent hearing that news. here are a couple of thoughts I had in no real particular order.

At this stage, it's a bit early to be looking at schools, you still have time for that. I'm not sure where you're located but the Alabama Institute for the deaf and blind, and specifically the Alabama School for the Blind is exceptional. The number of commenters here have accurately summarized the deficiencies at some schools for the visually impaired and blind, but this school is an example of one of the best programs in the nation.

If you have a Department of Rehabilitation Services, which you should in your state, start by contacting early intervention. A large amount of funding has been dedicated to servicing these babies with disabilities. These Services help prepare you and your child to enter into preschool or kindergarten, and can definitely Aid you in learning the ropes before you jump head-first into an educational setting. the majority of them do home visits and activities with children.

Take a look at the NLS transcribers handbook. Just Google that and you will find basic instructions for learning Braille. It's free and the curriculum will take you from being a braille notice to being a Braille master. I can't encourage Braille literacy and audio literacy enough. I also believe there are numerous Braille programs four children that will send you books via mail. And definitely ask your local librarian, or call a state librarian in charge of accessible media and ask about twin Vision books. which are regular books with plastic Braille overlays made for parents to teach children.

Also if you live in the United States, individuals with a physical handicap or a reading disability can gain access to the National Library service for the Blind and Physically handicapped. There is a digital book player, that has access to hundreds of thousands of audio books, and there's also an app. I use the physical Digital Book player with my children daily, with audio books like Harry Potter, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Etc.