NFBNJ-Seniors] Longer Article about the MCB Eclipse Event

[nancy Lynn]

Metro
With help of memories, imagination and narration, the visually impaired
enjoy
the eclipse

By Doug Moore St. Louis Post-Dispatch
+ 22 hrs ago
Council of the Blind eclipse
Bill Wilcox, a volunteer with MindsEye, describes the eclipse at the
Missouri
Council of the Blind in south St. Louis.
Eclipse description for the blind

John Weidlich, a longtime Belleville radio personality listens to an audio
description of the total solar eclipse outside the Missouri Council of the
Blind
office on Aug. 21, 2017. Bill Wilcox, a trained audio describer and
volunteer
with MindsEye, gave people a play-by-play of the The Great American Eclipse.
Photo by Rene Delgadillo/Post-Disatc

Eclipse description for the blind

Leonard Gross, listens to an audio description of the total solar eclipse
outside the Missouri Council of the Blind office on Aug. 21, 2017. Bill
Wilcox,
a trained audio describer and volunteer with MindsEye, gave people a
play-by-play of the The Great American Eclipse. Photo by Rene
Delgadillo/Post-Disatc

ST. LOUIS • An hour before totality, Naomi Soule arrived at the eclipse
party
Monday with the help of her dog, Farbee.

"Who's at this table?" she said, working the community room of the Missouri
Council of the Blind in south St. Louis.

Soule, 61, was ready to experience the eclipse, although she would not be
able
to see it. Instead, she would join about 25 other visually impaired and
blind
people for a "watch and listen" party.

The majority of those attending wore headsets as Bill Wilcox, a volunteer
with
MindsEye, shared trivia about the eclipse, then did a play-by-play of the
action
in the sky.

newsinconebyone
How did people experience the eclipse if they're blind?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"The moon is continuing to slide across the sun," Wilcox said, standing on
the
council's small asphalt parking lot, his voice streaming through MindsEye's
website and live on Facebook. "It's now a fairly small crescent. Still kind
of
an orange and peachy color, which is kind of cool."

Soule grew up with some sight in her right eye. But in college, the retina
detached, leaving her completely blind. So she planned to use recollections,
imagination and the descriptions by Wilcox to experience the eclipse.

Inside the Post-Dispatch - Experience the eclipse through an audio
description

"I have good visual memory," she said.

About half of those who attended opted to stay inside, where they could
listen
to Wilcox and enjoy the air conditioning.

Chuck Smith, 53, has limited vision, good enough to see the eclipse through
the
special glasses passed out to safeguard eyes but not well enough to make out
details of a face.

"My brother called to tell me about this event and asked if I wanted to
come. I
told him: 'I'm not going to go and look directly at the sun or I'll go
blind.' I
was being a smart ass," said Smith, of Crestwood. He came to the party with
his
life partner, Janet Shobe, 58, who opted to stay inside during the eclipse.
Diabetes took her sight about nine years ago. Still, she said it was worth
attending.

"The description was perfect," Shobe said, as she and others ate Ted Drewes
custard as an after-eclipse dessert. "It was amazing," Smith said. "I
thought it
would be darker. It was more like twilight, which I thought was neat."

Jack Meier, 67, came to St. Louis from Fresno, Calif. to experience the
eclipse
with his longtime friend, Nancy Lynn, 64. It was well worth the trip, he
said.

"It was really something," he said. Meier, who has about 10 percent of his
vision, took photos with a small orange camera while wearing a St. Louis
Cardinals cap.

As the moon covered the sun, the street lights came on. Wilcox had to take a
few
short breaks in his sports announcer cadence to let an ambulance pass on
Chippewa Street and a trash truck rumble by in the alley. His audience in
the
parking lot didn't seem to mind.

As totality neared, Soule said she could feel the change in the air. "I
could
tell the temperature dropped a little bit, the heat of the sun disappeared
and I
could hear the cicadas getting louder and louder," Soule said. She said she
would have liked more descriptions of the colors in the sky. Before she lost
her
sight, she was an artist. Hues and contrasts are important details, she
said.

Soule's husband, Terry Moses, who is sighted, joined her for the event,
which
included a fried chicken lunch. But he did not look skyward. Although the
glasses given out were certified as safe, Moses said he was too scared to
partake, worried that even a glance or two at the sun could damage his
vision.
But he wanted to be by his wife as she experienced the eclipse. "I'm glad I
did
it for her."