Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Entertaining blind grandfather (self.Blind)
submitted by LouWho2812
Hello!
My 81-year-old grandfather recently lost the remainder of his vision. He is struggling greatly both with his vision loss and the fact that we recently had to put my grandmother who suffers greatly from dementia into a nursing home. And both of these things are of course greatly complicated by the threat of Covid. I’ve moved in with him to help him around the house and keep him company. He is very mobile and active but is struggling greatly with his blindness. In his sighted days he was incredibly handy and built furniture so he’s struggling that he can no longer do the things he loves to do. At the moment I’m struggling with ways to keep him entertained. We’ve tried audiobooks and podcast and he bores quickly at both. Any suggestions on how to keep him occupied? He’s reluctant to try many of my ideas and is exasperated that there is nothing to “do” each day as we remain locked down due to Covid.
My 81-year-old grandfather recently lost the remainder of his vision. He is struggling greatly both with his vision loss and the fact that we recently had to put my grandmother who suffers greatly from dementia into a nursing home. And both of these things are of course greatly complicated by the threat of Covid. I’ve moved in with him to help him around the house and keep him company. He is very mobile and active but is struggling greatly with his blindness. In his sighted days he was incredibly handy and built furniture so he’s struggling that he can no longer do the things he loves to do. At the moment I’m struggling with ways to keep him entertained. We’ve tried audiobooks and podcast and he bores quickly at both. Any suggestions on how to keep him occupied? He’s reluctant to try many of my ideas and is exasperated that there is nothing to “do” each day as we remain locked down due to Covid.
AlbertFlintstein 5 points 2y ago
I've heard wood carving can be a good craft for blind people, if they have the dexterity to be safe with the tools. (Even when I was fully-sighted I was far too accident-prone for that sort of thing.) If he liked working with his hands, I suppose I'd go for crafts that can be done by feel.
Additionally, maybe look up resources re: adaptive ways to perform household tasks. I'm sure there's plenty of daily maintenance things that he could do with the proper modifications of tools and/or techniques.
And while you're working on things with him, just ask him about his life and actively listen. If he can't do as much as he could before, he'd likely still find some joy in reminiscing about the things he used to do. Maybe explore some of his old hobbies yourself and ask him to give you recommendations and pointers. It'd be a way for him to feel helpful and included.
Additionally, maybe look up resources re: adaptive ways to perform household tasks. I'm sure there's plenty of daily maintenance things that he could do with the proper modifications of tools and/or techniques.
And while you're working on things with him, just ask him about his life and actively listen. If he can't do as much as he could before, he'd likely still find some joy in reminiscing about the things he used to do. Maybe explore some of his old hobbies yourself and ask him to give you recommendations and pointers. It'd be a way for him to feel helpful and included.
stupidpoopoohead 3 points 2y ago
Lots of blind people do woodworking. Is he interested in learning the nonvisual skills needed to do this again? Maybe he could start doing something small like whittling and carving soap and work up to bigger projects. There’s no reason blindness should prevent him from building furniture. There’s a blind guy on YouTube who does a ton of woodworking and even rebuilds cars.
Also, if he’s a tv watcher Netflix has audio description on many of their shows now. PBS usually has audio description as well. He can also sign up for a NewsLine account where he can access audio described newspapers, magazines and other print media through the telephone.
Maybe also look into getting him some tactile games like dominoes, dice, Rubix Cube etc...
Also, if he’s a tv watcher Netflix has audio description on many of their shows now. PBS usually has audio description as well. He can also sign up for a NewsLine account where he can access audio described newspapers, magazines and other print media through the telephone.
Maybe also look into getting him some tactile games like dominoes, dice, Rubix Cube etc...
stupidpoopoohead 3 points 2y ago
Here’s a link to Dan Parker’s YouTube Chanel. He’s the guy I was talking about in my first comment. I didn’t see any of his woodworking videos but he’s really cool and would probably give you some pointers if you reached out. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk10REflXVb7DWiDNCABdIA
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