[CT-NFB] {Spam?} It's Hard to distance when you can't see six feet!

[Mary Silverberg]

Hello All,
While social distancing is important, it can be quite challenging for us.
Please see the article below.
Mary Silverberg

Hartford Courant I Section 4 I Sunday, March 7.2021

*Its hard to distance when you can’t see 6 feet*


  An employee assists Will Butler, who Is legally blind, on Jan.31 at a
California grocery store.




Visually impaired facing new hurdles in pandemic world
By Lila Seidman
Los Angeles Times


LOS ANGELES — Will Butler breezed through the entrance of the Silver Lake
Trader Joe's, bypassing a small line of shoppers waiting to get in. An
employee monitoring access said nothing as Butler swept a red-tipped white
cane to find his way inside.
Butler had no idea he'd cut in front


"How would I find the liner the legally blind 31-year-old asked.”
This time, there were no problems, but that's not always the case. On
Sundays, "when the line is super long and everyone's like really scared and
grumpy no one will offer any help," he said. On those days, Butler makes
his way to the back of the queue, trying to maintain a socially distanced
space without being able to *see *it.

Like so many challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery store
lines are just one of the new impediments thrown, literally, into the way
of the visually impaired.





Those in the blind and low-vision community have long faced challenges now
synonymous with the pandemic: social isolation, mobility limitations,
classroom dynamics that are less than ideal. But the crisis has exacerbated
those problems.







Friends aren't volunteering as many favors. Sighted strangers who may have
previously lent a hand are more skittish to approach. Visually impaired
children who learned daily tasks with a hand to guide their own are now
relying on exhaustive verbal descriptions over video chats. And public
transportation and ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft — lifelines for
those who can't drive or live alone — now pose potential health risks.



"Everybody's feeling kind of shut in right now and out of touch with
people, but we already have that isolation. So, for us, it just has
deepened even more said Diane Wilkinson, 56, who has retinitis pigmentosa,
a degenerative retinal disease.

Visual cues during the pandemic are difficult to navigate for those who
can't *see. *It is impossible to tell whether someone is 6 feet away or
wearing a mask.



And *masks* present other obstacles. Butler helps orient himself with the
sound of voices, which can be muffled behind cloth or plastic barriers.


Wilkinson still has some peripheral vision, and masks can obscure the
limited sight she has.
She sometimes bumps into people. In prep an-demic times, most were
understanding. Now, she said, they're scared.


The access and administration of coronavirus. us tests can be a challenge
too. Many of the testing sites are drive-thru. The visually impaired could
hail a ride to a testing facility, but many are financially disadvantaged
and can't afford the extra trip. Mail order tests are an option, but many
can't read the instructions.

For those living on their own, like Butler, getting COVID -19 Is kind of
your worst nightmare," said Butler, who began losing his vision when he was
19 from a retinal detachment





"You can't see already, but what COVTD does is, if it's bad, it'll
disengage your ability to speak," he said. "So, if you can't write and you
can't speak and you can't see the FaceTime call, you can't do anything but
listen. It's like torture



An app called Be My Eyes, for which Butler works, allows volunteers to
assist visually impaired people by describing what the user points at with
their phone camera.

It has partnered with Accessible Pharmacy, a home-delivery pharmacy based
in Philadelphia that specializes in services for the blind and low-vision
community. Users can order medications with Braille labels or have COVED-19
test instructions read to them.



But many in the blind community don't know' about that option, Butler said,
noting he wished bigger pharmacies would provide such services.

The Braille Institute — a nonprofit organization that serves nearly 12,900
adults and children across the county —


------------------------------













offers three times as many support group sessions to students in Southern
California as it did a year ago











when the coronavirus was first detected in the U.S., according to Sergio
Oliva, associate vice president of the institute's programs and services.
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, all sessions are provided over the phone
or online.









"Just close your eyes and imagine all you can do is hear what is going on:'
Oliva said. 'It brings a lot of anxiety. It brings a lot of depression!'







Troubleshooting a video session — a messy room showing up in the frame or
the web camera being too close to your face — is awkward enough for those
who can see. For those who can't, it can be a daunting task, especially for
young children who have to face sometimes less -than-sensitive classmates.







"Video meeting, it's a very visual medium," said Matthew Beckwith, the
youth programs manager at the Braille Institute. "So, for kids who have
visual impairments, it's a matter of how do you actually engage?"







The Braille Institute offers specialized supplemental classes and now sends
young students a "distance-learning kit" with tools such as a smart-phone
or a tablet stand, Beckwith said.







But not all teachers are convinced that distance learning is feasible for
the visually impaired.







Krista Bulger, a teacher in Vancouver, Washington, who works exclusively
with visually impaired children, says the kind of hands-on education
offered inside a classroom to students with disabilities "can't be
replicated in the same way. It just can't"







Many with visual impairments who've been forced to become tech savvy during
the pandemic aren't digital natives.









"It is a technology hill to climb—to learn, but it feels good to be on
that," said Annette Nickerson, 81, who learned to use video meeting
software through the Braille Institute. Nickerson has macular degeneration,
one of the most common causes of vision loss for older people.







Coronavirus restrictions have led to the loss of gym access and in-person
classes, which can be isolating, Nickerson said. But with the ability to
make video calls from her computer and phone, she can meet friends and
family more safely.









And technology also has adapted to COVED-19 protocols. Sunu, an armband
that uses echolocation-like technology to help guide the visually impaired,
now offers a setting to alert users when someone or something is 6 feet
away.



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