Michael A. Terrell wrote:

[attributions elided ... along with much of the body]

I had a Bell's Palsy in my right eye in May of 2008. My left eye is
mostly for decoration, so I was almost blind for eight months, and could
only see what was visible out of the bottom left corner of my right eye,
and only when I could hold the lid open with my fingers. It was late
last year that I regained full control of that eye.
This is one of the early symptoms of Myasthenia Gravis (I am
not claiming that you have MG -- just drawing a parallel).
But, with Bell's, don't you also tear a lot? I.e., so you
almost *have* to actively close your eye to blink away the
tears...

NO, I had to use saline solution quite often for the first month or
so. Bells's Palsy is caused by the temporary loss of blood flow to the
nerves and muscles of the eye, requiring it to regenerate the nerves &

Ah, OK. MG is a breakdown of the nerve-muscle junction.
Think of it as the junction becoming "saturated" with use
so that it no longer functions. Those junctions that
can't "rest" to recover -- eyes, lungs, etc. -- eventually
stop working (you die from suffocation with MG)

muscles. It is one of those conditions they aren't sure of all the
causes, but one is a low level infection which I've had problems with
for over 35 years.

Understood.

My point is that even *with* text-to-speech (TTS), it is
very hard for most people to process information. Many
people are highly visual oriented. And, have, after a lifetime,
developed their skillsets oriented towards processing information
in this way.

That's me. I was a Broadcast engineer, I also produced & directed
live newscasts, while setting some camera shots.

I have tried to learn to use "audio books" just to get some sense
of what it must be like. However, I just can't process things through
my ears as well as my eyes. : So, it is hard for me to relate
my experiences to someone who is visually impaired.

Try, for example, to have a page of text *read* to you
and see how much of it you comprehend afterwards. Then,
realize that you can't just flick your "ears" back a few
paragraphs to review what you heard "back then" -- which
is something we constantly do with our eyes as we rescan
text that has previously been read for clarifications, etc.

I know what you mean. I spent half a day with 'Blind Mike' the blind
ham radio operator helping him fine tune his system to where he rarely
had to go through a page more than once. Of course, he had several
years practice using the software, and had been blind a lot longer so
he's had a lot of practice.

Just listening to a speech synthesizer can be an eye-opening
experience to folks who've not had to rely on that technology.
Your *ears* "get tired" (I don't know of any other way to explain
it!)

Ah, cool! But, you still need a PC just to read your DMM.
I.e., there is a big inconvenience involved. I get annoyed
when I don't have enough room for my 5.5 digit DMM and have
to resort to using a Simpson VOM just because it's smaller.
(yeah, I really should buy an El Cheapo pocket sized DMM
but it seems a waste when I have so many others...)

$1.99 at Harbor Freight on the 16th, 17th & 18th of this month. Lot
numbers 90899/98025

grin Yeah, but then it would be one more thing to keep track of!
At least the big meters are easy to find (they can't hide under things
as easily as a pocket DMM)

It does make you wonder how they can make things that cheap!
Scary.

Note that there is a difference between "legally blind" and "blind".
I have been on the edge of legally blind all my life. I am not
allowed to drive without my glasses. My vision was below 20/200 &
grin Well, *technically* I can't drive without glasses, either
but that's just because the law (here) requires vision corrected
to 20/20 in order to drive. If I had to get to the hospital in
a hurry and didn't have my eyeglasses handy, I'd have no worse
problem than any other driver (especially those "handicapped"
by having a cell phone glued to their ear!)

I can drive, if I know where I'm going, but I sure can't read any

For years, I've been reading street signs by "counting letters"
and guessing at distinctive shapes -- "5 letters and looks like
the first letter is round... probably Olive Street..." -- despite
the fact that I have 20/20 corrected vision.

signs without my glasses. Of course it's a heavy fine if I drove
without them, and got caught.

An interesting corollary: if you have a vision restriction on
your license and then have corrective surgery that restores your
vision (e.g., cataract surgery), you *still* must wear your glasses
in order to drive -- even though the glasses will now give you
*imperfect* vision! I.e., you need to have your license updated
to have the restriction removed before you can legally drive
with your "new eyes".

This makes *some* sense but is actually counterintuitive to
many folks who have been down this road...

I'm on Gabapentin for Diabetic Neuropathy.
Hmmm... I thought gabapentin was for epilepsy? shrug
IANAD so I'm just recalling things from memory. Maybe
used for anything neurological?

I was told it was developed to deal with the pain from Diabetic
Neuropathy.

Ah.

My experience with visually impaired individuals is that they
have to rely on memory a lot more than sighted folks do. Whether
it is remembering where something is on/in a device or remembering
how to do something or remembering where they *put* something.

I have found working with deaf people to be much more difficult.
Sight is highly directional. So, we have other senses that
compensate and alert us to things that are not in front of us
(i.e., not in front of our eyes). Hearing being primary among
them. Try getting a deaf person's attention if they are not
looking in your general direction...! :-/

Spit wads. ;-)

Yes! : A pair of (old) neighbors were deaf. When trying to
get their attention I would resort to tossing pebbles. Always
afraid that I would *hit* one of them, though... :

Actually, I talk with one character on line who is profoundly deaf,
and was blind for several years. A few years ago they managed to return
some vision to him. He is a real nut case, like a lot of the disabled
people I know. They crack silly jokes about their condition, to cope
with their problems rather than become bitter jerks.

There are "all sorts". I was first exposed to that population
as a teenager. I can recall asking a client that I had developed
a friendship with: "What's it like to be blind? What do you see?"
and, almost as soon as I had finished saying that, realized how stupid
my question was. As a testament to how cool this guy was, his
reply was, "Don, if you can tell me what *you* see, then I'll
tell you what *I* see.".

Of course, I still felt bad for askingn such a stupid question.
But, it forced me to think about the problem and keep it in
mind when I design things.

For example, 1 in 15 men are color blind (to some extent).
Ask your kids' teachers if they know that figure. In practical
terms, it means that one boy in each classroom can't reliably
distinguish colors. Do they know that when they formulate their
lesson plans? "How many red balls are in this picture? How
many green balls are there?"

"Press the RED button to shut down the nuclear reactor in
the event of a disaster. Press the GREEN button to restart it."

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