Hello fellow AZOOR person! I was diagnosed 3 years ago after spending 5 years with various other diagnoses that didn’t quite fit. I too have one eye that loss vision quickly but my good eye is failing very slowly. So while I thought I would be blind by now, I’m not, but I do have low vision for sure. It’s great to plan ahead but live life now too. It will be hard but try to relax and enjoy where you are. I am very happy with my life now but it did take time to get here.

First, realize you're not alone. You've got family sticking with you through this. You've got r/Blind. You've got support.

Next, if you haven't started your blind bucket list yet, get on it. There will never be a better time than now.

If I may be self promoting, check out $1. I was diagnosed last July and went through the roller coaster of grief, job loss, using a white cane, and all the rest. You might find something in there that makes you feel a little less alone. It deals mostly with the emotional aspects of going blind because those were the hardest aspects for me.

Finally, here's an online hug. You're not alone. You've got this.

Definitely learn to use a screen reader well, it is very important. For blind people especially totally blind it’s the gateway to everything, tech is, and it is impossible to use without a screen reader. Besides very old fashion bulky braille volumes which you can often only have so many it just is a better way to read and write every day, and the internet and tech is a real blessing from God.


Learn to use the cane well and also learn some independent living skills.

I love your cat!

On the topic of rare diagnoses I know how frustrating that can be. I went blind very suddenly about three years ago due to a giant brain aneurysm at the age of 31. As far as I can tell, giant aneurysms are rare, and ones that cause acute vision loss even more rare. We only found one study someone in a similar circumstance. So I know how frustrating it is when the doctors just kind of shrug and say "well there's nothing we can do. Good luck!" I know how it feels to try and scour the literature to find something, anything, that might give you a glimmer of hope. It sucks. And we're here as a community to listen and help however we can.

I'd say learn to use a screen reader as soon as possible. I found that ChromeVox (the screen reader that comes with chromebooks) has a pretty okay voice. I taught myself how to use it and it was one of the most liberating experiences. A lot of folks like JAWS on Windows because it's got more powerful features and from what I can tell works better than most screen readers. I eventually switched over to macOS VoiceOver which I know gets a lot of mixed reviews here. However, I find the Alex voice on VoiceOver to be pretty great in terms of not getting on my nerves.

I find that Google assistant and Siri are a great help and can save me mental energy. You might want to see about using the automation and voice commands to help your day to day routines. For example, my wife and I share a to do list as a google keep note. I can tell my assistant to read me the list or add or remove items and it works great. With macOS and siri you can do a lot of custom actions, but that might be a bit more advanced.

I'd start using a password manager for your accounts and learn to use it with a screen reader. You should be doing this anyway, but having everything saved and in a central location that you can easily search is great when blind.

Start thinking about what kinds of workflows you use now. Don't take for granted that your favorite applications will be accessible. You might want to do research and find out now, and if they are not you should start to find alternatives.

Finally, a very comfy pair of over the ear headphones can help you increase your endurance using screen readers all day.

Good luck, OP. You can do this!

I read you don't have a cane yet. If you haven't done it yet, take hold of the elbow of the person you are with. They are your guide. When they go left out right or stop you will feel it and know where to go with them. It's easier for me if I hold the sleeve at the elbow. When you get your cane, try different tips to see which you prefer. You can change them out depending on the model. They have a tip like a little wheel that you can use on trails.

Hi,

Don't worry, You've got lot of people to help out.

The Text to speach software on samsung phones, it's probably voice assistant or Google talkback.

Both have options to use other voices, look for Text to speach in your accessibility settings. If you don't like the voices it shows, below is link to playstore for some payed premium voices. You can try and only buy those which you like.

Link for voices: $1

I would also suggest that once you have the voice part worked out, go through the talkback or voice assistant settings on your phone, customize it the way you like. It makes lot of vibrations and some extra sounds, lot of blind users like to turn them off. You might wanna also try to increase speed of your TTS time to time, once you get comfirtable with the current speed.

If this sounds tough, reach out to a local blind person, or, blind related organization might help.

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Further, reading books, sowing, embroydary, most of these things can be made accessible, but, I don't know about the sowing and embroydory part.

For Reading, You might wanna get a bookshare membership, link below. Also, to read those files, you will need a reading app or software. Easy Reader works for me on Android. On Windows systems, I use Bookworm. Let me know if you need links for these apps and programs.

Bookshare can be accessed at $1

Further, an Amazon audible membership can also help you in getting audio books. But, it's a monthly paid service.

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For traveling, I think cab services and busses would be your best options. But that also depends on neighbourhood thing. Lot of the buss services have free tickits for blind people, considering looking in to that.

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As far as what you should learn, I think this is going to be a subjective thing. I would consider learning things like cooking, cleaning my top prioorities. But, again, you might not need those things, if your family takes care of that.

What I would suggest is start learning about making things accessible. Just simple workarounds for your daily tasks. Because, once the sight is gone, even that daily shampoo bottle is going to be confusing to pick. We use bottles with distinctive shapes or bottles with bump dots or something like that. Things have to be organized, those remotes and chargers have to have fixed places.

I think, you are on the right track, learning cane usage, asking questions, keep it up!