[NFBOH-Cleveland] Two Good Reads!

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Seeing, hearing and touching the past: a new historical marker is an Ohio
first

The Ohio Newsroom
December 9, 2025

As a totally blind person, Dawn Christensen has spent a lifetime navigating
spaces that aren't easily accessible for the visually impaired.

For example, a nearby community college once invited her to survey their new
braille signage shortly after the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed
into law.

"So I go in with my driver and I'm like, 'Okay, just let me loose,'" she
remembered. "I start feeling the walls and I'm not finding any braille
signage. And [my driver] says, 'Dawn, they have all the braille signage
above the doors.'"

Naturally, she couldn't reach - and therefore read - any of it.

So when Christensen's former employer,  <https://sightcentertoledo.org/> the
Sight Center of Northwest Ohio, decided to install a historical marker in
honor of its century of service, they knew it needed to be more than the
traditional paragraph of text.

"What's different about our historical marker is that it has both braille
and audio options," said Tim Tegge, the Sight Center's executive director.
"As far as we know, it's the only one in the state that has that level of
accessibility."

Making history more accessible

The Sight Center of Northwest Ohio exists to help people with vision loss
live independently.

Its new historical marker greets visitors with a motion-sensored
announcement: "For an accessible experience, press here to listen to a
detailed audio description."

That announcement is short, but critical, Christensen said, "because
otherwise a blind person isn't even going to know it's there."

But the audio is important for another reason, too: Only
<https://www.wsblind.org/blog/2022/1/19/6-facts-about-braille-for-braille-li
teracy-month> about 10% of people who are blind can read braille.

"A vast majority of people lose their vision later in life, and so taking on
the task of learning braille is a challenge," Christensen said.

Not everyone who visits the Sight Center will use the historical marker's
accessible functions.

Like Christensen, Betty Kasubski is totally blind. But when she's visiting a
historical place, she says she's normally with someone else.

"Sometimes I know they're reading it, so they might as well read it to me,"
she said.

Still, Christensen says it's nice to have the option to learn about history
on her own terms.

"In my travels, there are all kinds of historical markers around this
country and it's nice to know what they say," she said.

Harnessing new technology

Accessing historical information is getting easier and easier with new
technology.

Tegge, who's legally blind, says he recently visited a WWII museum and used
an app to convert text to speech.

"It was the first time where I got to wander the museum myself and listen to
the description of this battle or that general at my pace," he said. "And if
I got bored in the middle of it, I could walk away. It was really a neat
experience for me to have that kind of independence."

He's hoping that's how visitors to the Sight Center feel when they can
choose to read, touch or listen to the new historical marker.

"Then every future marker maybe will consider an audio and a braille
version," Tegge said.

Someday, he hopes, this historical marker won't be an outlier, but the norm.

  _____  

A unique app is changing the dating game for disabled and chronically ill
people

WKYC
December 9, 2025

NEW YORK(AP) - In her early 20s, Kaci LaFon lived in Branson, Missouri, a
tourist town known for its older population. She wanted to date but found it
a challenge, so - like many her age - she headed to the apps
<https://apnews.com/hub/dating> .

Over five years, she'd get a date here and there, but they always petered
out
<https://apnews.com/article/dating-app-burnout-tinder-hinge-grindr-ae562b22f
5b86a52f04b15c23d5a7181> . "I tried and I failed," she said. "There wasn't
really much I could do about it."

The issue, in her eyes? LaFon, now 28, is chronically ill. She has
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder, as well as a range of
other health issues. Her matches had no idea how to navigate her challenges,
or they had a god complex and wanted to treat her as an invalid. That, she
said, was a hard no.

That all changed when LaFon went on Dateability, an app designed for both
disabled and chronically ill people. LaFon's mom spotted a news story about
it and urged her to try it. Soon after joining, she found her forever
person, Collin LaFon, who has cerebral palsy and endured a similar dating
experience.

They married in September.

"We all have the fairy tale of falling in love and meeting our person in our
head," said Collin LaFon from their home near Birmingham, Alabama. "But at
the end of the day, I don't have full function in all four of my limbs.
There's an extra piece that goes along with everything."

Dating while disabled made easier

What the LaFons describe is exactly why two sisters in Denver, Colorado,
launched Dateability three years ago. One, 31-year-old Jacqueline Child, had
become disabled due to Ehlers-Danlos, Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and a
plethora of other conditions that impact her health from head to toe. She
must use a feeding tube to stay alive.

Child recalls months of being ghosted or rejected on mainstream dating apps
<https://apnews.com/article/online-dating-valentines-day-pew-study-romance-2
7e84e1e14fbe092cb9ff69e41a47ffc> .

"Any mention of disability was completely negative," she said. "They
wouldn't even give it a chance, had no idea what my life looked like, but
they just assumed it would be miserable."

She and her older sibling, Alexa Child, now have about 40,000 registered
users and recently updated Dateability to improve the look and
functionality. They've expanded their user base to include Canada, Mexico
and the U.K.

"I just wanted an equal playing field of people that I would be interested
in, and that other young people would be interested in, too," Jacqueline
said.

Millions of people report disabilities

More than 70 million U.S. adults, or one in four, reported having a
disability in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's the year the Child
sisters founded Dateability.

They had 1,000 people sign up in the first month. Their user base has
increased 10-fold in the last year, the founders said.

The service has both free and paid options. Among the differences in tiers:
Users who don't pay must like or pass on a profile before seeing another.
Paid users can see all profiles that have sent them a "like" at once.

Dateability also welcomes nondisabled users, screening as best it can to
avoid those who fetishize chronically ill or disabled people. The sisters
have found that most nondisabled people using it have some connection to the
disability or chronically ill communities through a loved one or their own
advocacy work.

"We wanted to make it truly inclusive," Alexa said.

Finding long-term partners online

In Pikesville, Maryland, 23-year-old Sophie Brisker found her boyfriend on
Dateability. She joined the app in 2022 after developing debilitating
symptoms just before her 18th birthday from chronic fatigue syndrome and
other long-term conditions. She has been housebound for months at a time,
attending college online, and uses a wheelchair for long distances.

"It's really exhausting trying to explain to someone all of your limitations
and the illnesses you have," Brisker said. At the time, she was looking for
companionship, unsure whether a romantic relationship was doable.

"Knowing that someone would be OK with not necessarily doing many of the
things that most normal couples do was important to me," she said.

Her partner suffers from long COVID-19 and other chronic illnesses. Now, the
two plan to move together to Louisville, Kentucky. "We hit it off on
everything," Brisker said. "We understood each other in ways that other
people just couldn't."

Matthew Shapiro, 34, is a disability advocate in Richmond, Virginia. He
works with businesses, organizations, state lawmakers and others who want to
learn how to be more inclusive. He was born with cerebral palsy and uses a
power chair to get around.

Shapiro has dabbled in online dating on the mainstream apps and another
service for the disabled.

"People's intentions on those apps weren't always pure," Shapiro said. "I
was looking for a space where it felt like community."

He's had relationships over the years with people he's met online and in
person, including a relationship with a nondisabled woman who questioned her
ability to cope with Shapiro's personal care needs.

It was a woman he met on Dateability that changed his life. The older mom of
two was born without fingers on her left hand and didn't flinch at his
challenges. The two have shifted to be close friends after several months of
dating.

"It was the first time I ever felt fully seen and accepted and sort of loved
in a relationship," Shapiro said. "With traditional apps, you sort of have
to hope that people are cool with who you are, but with Dateability, it's
all right there."

App leads to friendlier dates for disabled

In addition to stigma and misconceptions about their abilities and
challenges, people with chronic illnesses and disabilities face other
obstacles in dating.

Not all social venues like bars and restaurants are fully accessible. That
could mean no ramps, poor lighting or a noisy environment. Online, some
dating apps have limited assistive technology, such as sign language support
or screen reader compliance with common software for the visually impaired.

Opening up about their personal needs can also be daunting, Shapiro said.
Some have given up on dating altogether, or never tried.

"People with disabilities deserve love and deserve relationships, just like
anyone else," he said. "Love without worry. Love without hesitation and
question. There are a lot of people with disabilities who don't know what
that feels like.

///

Suzanne M. Hartfield Turner

National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Vice President

Ohio Legislative Director

Cleveland Chapter, President

 

The National Federation of the Blind advances the lives of its members and
all blind people in the United States. We know that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. Our collective power, determination,
and diversity achieve the aspirations of all blind people.

 

P: (216) 990-6199

W: NFBOhio.ORG

Facebook:  <https://www.facebook.com/ohiosblind/photos/>
https://www.facebook.com/ohiosblind/photos/

 

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