Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Constantly reminded I’m losing my vision (self.Blind)
submitted by fatlazyhousecat
Need to vent somewhat. Quick background I’m a28F living with early stages or RP (120 degree field) and to top it off I also have stage 2 macular hole. With Covid all my university classes have been online tutorials.and computer reading. Schools already stressful enough but the vision issues make it impossible to read any text or slides. It’s like a constant slap in the face everyday when I start up the computer to try and follow along and it’s nothing but blurry words, and low contrast. I try so hard to push through but after three hours of staring at a screen I can barely see anything that isn’t a size 18 font with out struggle.
I’ve applied for academic assistance but its impossible for teachers to change everything just so I can possibly read it. Plus the time for anything through the support center takes weeks to process.
If anyone has any tips or ideas how to handle the constant set back of constantly worsening vision and school would be much appreciated!
I’ve applied for academic assistance but its impossible for teachers to change everything just so I can possibly read it. Plus the time for anything through the support center takes weeks to process.
If anyone has any tips or ideas how to handle the constant set back of constantly worsening vision and school would be much appreciated!
Amonwilde 13 points 2y ago
Have you trie dreaching out to your teachers to ask for their slides in text form? It's usually not that much of a headache. You may also have some success with onscreen OCR, I have a setup where I can draw a box on the screen and it will chug a bit and read me the words. For stuff like a powerpoint it's pretty good.
rollwithhoney 5 points 2y ago
I would talk to the Disability Services/Ability Services/Academic Support office (name will depend on your institution) and try to get them to pay for/help with a screen-reading software like JAWS. If you're slowly losing vision it would be a good time to learn how to use it, and using JAWS + looking at the slides will probably be a faster fix than something else like having your professor increase text size for everything.
Don't be afraid to ask that office for help as well as your prof, but a screenreader is going to be both a long term and a short term solution (pass your class now and be really useful later). There are free programs similar to JAWS but my understanding is that JAWS is one of the best to use.
If you and your doctor know that you'll eventually lose most of your vision [and assuming you don't already know braille] it might also be a good time to start teaching yourself braille. Even just a basic understanding of braille will be a big return on investment for things like labels in your house or braille business cards, which are quite common in the blind/VI community. It might even be worth it to treat learning braille as a "class" and master it while you're in school, but I also know some blind folks who do fine just with JAWS and don't need to be fully braille literate to live their life. Do what works for you and don't feel guilty about not doing something, either!
Don't be afraid to ask that office for help as well as your prof, but a screenreader is going to be both a long term and a short term solution (pass your class now and be really useful later). There are free programs similar to JAWS but my understanding is that JAWS is one of the best to use.
If you and your doctor know that you'll eventually lose most of your vision [and assuming you don't already know braille] it might also be a good time to start teaching yourself braille. Even just a basic understanding of braille will be a big return on investment for things like labels in your house or braille business cards, which are quite common in the blind/VI community. It might even be worth it to treat learning braille as a "class" and master it while you're in school, but I also know some blind folks who do fine just with JAWS and don't need to be fully braille literate to live their life. Do what works for you and don't feel guilty about not doing something, either!
viciousSnowFlake 3 points 2y ago
I'm a 29 y/o software engineer with cone rod dystrophy, left eye is fine, but my right eye has a big swirl/distortion in the middle of it...I've found that wearing an eye patch on my bad vision days helps with morale. Just a thought.
CantStopTripping 2 points 2y ago
Being a college student is hard enough. Im so sorry I wish I could help!!!
Winnersh 1 points 2y ago
Can you let us know where on the planet you are? With that information it might be easier to offer advice best suited to you.
fatlazyhousecat [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Ah sorry I’m in Canada
Lazy_Independence990 1 points 2y ago
I just graduated this Spring from Michigan State. I only got a taste of the online learning life but I understand the strain and difficulty! Would love to talk and be friends :) it’s always good to add to the tribe of people living through these things 💜
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