I had this great idea to do daily blogs on the ITD conference. It didn’t happen for a variety of reasons. I’ll try to do a little reflection for now. The truth is I will be thinking about this for a while. On Tuesday Hans Reinders spoke about the situation regarding L’Arche and Jean Vanier’s […]
Posts in the blindness category:
On travel while at ITD: reflections after day 1
My dog continues to act like a travel guru who has had thousands of hours of travel even though we spent two and a half years doing nothing but doctors’ offices after our first academic conference. Perhaps going out of state to the eye specialist has its advantages. I brought a roll-up dog bed, and […]
Travels 2023: ITD – arrival
I think I have followed the Institute on Theology and Disability since quite early in their online presence. It has been a dream of mine for quite some time to attend a conference and participate actively. In 2020, I had a paper accepted and looked forward to presenting. The conference was canceled that year because […]
Job Descriptions, Inclusivity, and Equity for People with Disabilities
October is Disability Employment Awareness Month. October 15th is traditionally White Cane Safety Day. This is a day that should bring awareness to the importance of the travel ability and needs of all people who are blind. This is important because it has to do with how we get to work and the increasing role […]
Traveling without a Guide Dog: Experience with Cane and Walker
Earlier this week I fell and fractured my heel. I am using a walker during my recovery and my dog guide is on vacation. That is background for this post. I have written a lot about my travels with dog guides. This week I feel it is important to write some things about how we […]
Gardening with Chronic Illness and Disability, Part 5: Caring for the Garden, Safety, and Resources
General care and safety are the most important aspects of my garden life. In saying this, what is uppermost in my mind concerning safety isn’t always the same thing as what is uppermost in other people’s minds. Other people are thinking about what things would be like if they suddenly couldn’t see. I am thinking […]
Gardening with Chronic Illness and Disability, Part 4: Choosing and Arranging the Plants
There are a million different ways to design the garden. Most importantly, what do you want to grow? This can be a hard question for a person who has never had much experience with plants. It was good, in that respect, that my mom simply brought me some easy starters to help build my interest. […]
Gardening with Chronic Illness and Disability, Part 3: Navigating in My Garden
Most sites I have read that discuss designing gardens for blind people encourage designers to install rails and all kinds of tactile pathways. The writing comes across as if the designers are sighted and the blind people are going to walk around smelling the air and won’t be doing much actual gardening. If you really […]
Gardening with Disability and Chronic Illness, Part 2: Planning the Garden
Planning Garden Layout The first thing that goes into planning my layout is to think about the space I have and where I want to b when I am enjoying my plants. Every space where I have lived already has plants in it, and most often I don’t go on a tour and find out […]
Gardening with Disability and Chronic Illness, Part 1: Introduction
In 2010, my mom bought me some flowers for my balcony, hoping that caring for them might help me to confront a bout of severe depression. I had no experience with gardening and, honestly, little interest in trying this project. But I couldn’t let good flowers die, and they were so pretty! So began the […]
Reflections on Life with Blindness, Independence, and Expectations of the Sighted Community
Reading a recent reflection from Connor Scott-Gardner on thoughts on blindness after blogging for 11 years made me think about my own experiences and reactions. I once wrote quite prolifically about my thoughts about blindness but have been rather quiet in recent years. Perhaps it will be useful for me to write something in response […]
Blindness, Aging, and the Importance of Knowing Our History
In the blindness community, we spend a lot of time talking about our achievements. Most often this means acknowledging the development of braille 200 years ago, acknowledging the founding of whichever blindness organization we are part of, and discussing the contribution of whatever blindness organization we are part of to the passing of historic legislation. […]
To the Dogs and Beyond 07: The Tree
My neighborhood was fairly quiet; and Elli and I could walk on residential sidewalks most of the time. Elli had to learn to ignore toads, which were plentiful in Texas during the summer. With my cane, I never thought about toads. With Elli, I knew about every toad we encountered–at least, until she learned to […]