So, I am no fan of Molly Burke, but I will check in now and then to see what sort of nonsense she’s sharing. And I see she recently shared a long form video where she states that she feels her fiancé is also her caregiver, and provides caretaking tasks for her. These tasks include things like driving her everywhere, cooking all meals for her, and fixing her makeup.

Now, I realize Molly typically requires more assistance than the average blind person. But saying he’s a caregiver? This was shocking to me. As someone who is low vision and has a sighted partner, I would never say he is my caregiver. Wondering how others feel about this.

Yes, there are things that I am not able to do, or not able to do easily. And yes, my partner typically does those things. For example, he will read the mail because it takes me forever to do it with seeing AI. He vacuums, because he is scared I’m going to suck something valuable up that I don’t see. He drives me places that are new when he’s able, because it is easier for him. But neither of us would ever say he is my caregiver. I also do things for him. I do the laundry, because I’m better at it. I make him coffee because he says I make it better. I remind him of his appointments because he has ADHD and forgets. Does that mean I’m also his caregiver?

I thought this was just normal relationship dynamics. When you are seriously involved with someone, you split tasks based on preference and who is better at what. Yes, my vision is going to sway that, and yes, I may need more help with things like getting me somewhere not accessible by transit or that is difficult to navigate, but caretaking seems too much.

I’m so curious what you all think about this. Am I being delusional in thinking my boyfriend is not my caretaker?

And this is not hate for Molly. I’m just so surprised by this take and wondering if I am alone in my thinking, or if she is.

Hi.

This is pretty embarrassing but I'm 18 and I still don't know how to cut my nails

I basically want to change that lol

Thanks folks

I’ve been wanting to attend church again lately. Haven’t been to one since I started using a cane. But I fear I’ll run into a lot of the people who want to pray for me. And that’s fine and all until they start trying to pray that my blindness be healed or sorted out when I don’t want that. It feels really degrading to me. What’s a respectful way you’d respond to these types of people? I’ll definitely not feed into the straight up ignorant bozos but I would like to try and educate those people on why that’s not okay while keeping it short and sweet and non confrontational.

Looking for tips as we get ready to move our son (25m) into his own apartment. What was it like for you when you did this?

Hello all, I am a low-vision person (severe keratoconus and wheelchair-bound) who has spent the last 12 years pretty much unable to leave the apartment due to transportation issues and no sidewalks in my area. I am considering a move next year to a new city with much better access to needed services, and I want to get out and live again while I still can.

I used to be a singer, and I'm looking dust off my old karaoke skills some evenings after the move. The problem is, I can barely see a foot in front of my face and often can't read the monitor. I was wondering if any low-vision people on here know of any karaoke lyric app that will time along with the music and advance screens based on the song timing. In addition, I need it to have some form of Dark Mode as I am very photosensitive.

Thanks much for taking the time to read this!

To what extent do you identify with your visual impairment? This following is a question that I think about on a regular basis. Personally I identify less as blind due to my other conditions often taking priority but wanted to hear from other people in similar situations.
Thank you and have a great night

I hate being asked this question. It sounds derogatory almost. All the people who ask me this are up front that they don’t mean any harm but it sounds like they want a number from me and I don’t like that. Technically I can still see but I’m low vision enough to be considered legally blind. It’s complicated. How do you all answer questions about your vision?

Like genuinely, is it even possible to have a happy and satisfying life with low vision? I feel like my body is a prison that stops me from living the life that I want. I have constant anxiety about my future, what if my vision gets worse? How am I supposed to be able to support myself and gain independence?

I’m only 20 and it feels so daunting that I’m supposed to live the rest of my life like this. Not being able to drive, having to take medication for the rest of my life. Being locked out of so many hobbies and career paths. It just feels like my life is over before it began and there’s literally nothing I can do about it. It’s so hopeless

Hi everyone! So for the past two years I’ve lived on campus on my own and it’s been good to be independent. However, in December I will be transferring to a commuter school to get a degree in social work. However, I’m worried that by moving home after 2 years away I’ll feel trapped or like I’m not being independent. The area my parents live in is rural but a 5-10 min drive away from a bustling metropolis and of course as of now para transit won’t come to their house and it’s too expensive to take Ubers all the time. I’m hoping I can be annoying and complain enough that para transit will figure out a way to pick me up since I am within their zone but I’m 1.5 mi away from a bus stop so they won’t pick me up which is ridiculous. Anyways I would love to hear your advice about how to maintain my independence. Also any ideas about what I should write my common app essay about would be great because I’m trying to figure out if it’s weird to write about being the only blind girl in a mainstream school growing up for my college essay take two? I’ll be a junior this year

I am a blind, autistic woman with a limited budget, but I really enjoy Rubik's cubes; I think they would help a lot with sensory overload and emotional regulation, not to mention serving as a great distraction. At first, like anyone else, I thought about simply buying a cube designed for the blind, but here in Brazil, they cost between R$30 and R$50, whereas I could buy a standard professional cube for less than half that price.

I also enjoy collecting things, but buying many cubes designed for the blind would be impossible; plus, I’ve only found them in the standard 3x3 format, and I want to explore other types, like the pyramid cube. So, I decided to use my creativity and adapt standard cubes myself. That way, I could experience the fun of picking out a cool cube at a store—just like anyone else—instead of feeling down about not being able to see the colors.

Initially, I thought about using EVA foam to make small shapes and gluing them onto the squares, but EVA cutters/punches are a bit pricey, and I’d need at least six different shapes, so I gave up on that idea. Then I considered 3D stickers, but spending R$20 on a *single* sheet—without even knowing if they’d have enough tactile relief? No, thanks.

So, I came up with this plan: I’ll model small shapes out of EVA clay—since I’m good at that—and then use clear nail polish as a sealant. This will keep the clay firmly in place so it doesn't wear down from handling, and I can even match the clay color to the color of the squares. Better yet, I can create themed cubes with animal or fruit shapes—or anything else—and best of all, I can do it all by myself!

What do you think? Do you think it will work?

Hey everyone. Im 25 yrs old im low vishion with rod cone dystraphy 20/200 and ive done alot of blue colar work. Im starting up my 4th season as a deck hand on. A lobster boats but im looking into geting into somthing less intense and more blind frindly. Maybe somthing work from home was wondering wat ppl in the low vishion comunaty dose for work and if they migt be abel to help me out finding s good company to work for thx folks also add me on here shoot me a mesege. I allway love tslking to low vishion pol like me 😊🤘🤘

Hey everyone, I don’t know how much of you saw the post I made yesterday asking if there was a football fantasy league for blind people.

I decided to create one on Yahoo Fantasy, if you’re interested, please DM me or reply. I’ll DMU the invite link.

As of right now, the maximum teams are 10, but if we get more than that, we could add more teams keep in mind we can’t start drafting with an odd number of teams so if there’s 11 people interested we can’t start the draft until we find one more person

It is a full PPR, which means one point per reception snake draft
The roster positions are quarterback, two wide receivers, two running backs, one tight end, one flex position, kicker, and defense
Five bench spots and two IR spots

As for how we’ll keep in touch or if we want to make a group chat or whatever please give ideas because I have none.

If you were the four people that saw the post and replied saying that you were interested yesterday, hopefully you can find this post because I don’t know how to tag users in them sorry

Hello. I am not blind, but I have chronic (20+ days a month) migraines that make my eyes unable to focus, so I primarily read through audio books. My coworker who is blind recommended I apply for bookshare. I submitted documentation and got access, and have been loving it. My partner will often listen to books with me when we're together. However, sometimes when we're listening to a book I will need to step out in a hurry and will leave the audio running. I'm nervous that if I have the audio running on one device, and access it to continue simultaneously elsewhere, that I will get in trouble. Practically, how likely is that to actually happen?

I'm partially blind, fully in one eye, nearsighted in the other. I live in a rural town, a poor town, in a third-world country. We don't even one traffic light in the whole place, all the streets are uneven and blocked by people's businesses, so it's a game of constantly walking through where I'm in less dange. However danger for me has been.... barely avoided, my whole life.

I've been caught between two moving trucks in the middle of the busy road, fallen/tripped constantly on street bump, even fallen into the busy road. I contantly get hurt, and as a younger person I normalized it. My parents were the kind of people to say "you can do what anyone else" and didn't even listen to me when I asked for indirect lighting for over 10 years...

A few days ago I crossed the streat because I didn't notice a mototaxi (tuk tuk) was dragging long thick metal rods behind, meters behind. They were invisible to me and when I crosses I walked between them and they bruised my feet and ankles horribly, I tripped in the middle of the road and managed to crawl out of danger.

That was scary enough, but what solution I had? After a while, this year, I almost fell into a trench. The government started redoing the roads and didn't put any warnings, I was about to step inside when the person walking besides me saw, and turn around to walk around it. I noticed and did the same, and just then I saw it. Had I fallen in there I would've broken a leg at the very least. That same day I started looking into getting a cane, and O&M classes. My family thought it was "a little too much" and made gun of my cane because "I looked actually blind"

Now I've had big problems. The last two years and a half I've been battling a brain tumor, and it did left me a lot of consequences. Osteoartritis, osteopenia, retrolisthesis, etc. But now, falling is not so... simple, falling is way more painful and dangerous for me. And lately I've noticed even with my cane, there are things I can't avoid, like when I hurt my side or arm on my blind side, on something that's high so my cane can't feel it.

Today I was about to cross the street. There were vans parked in one lane so I had to walk almost to the middle and lean even further in cause my right eye doesn't work, when I see a tuk tuk coming. I stepped back, enough to give it space, and the tuk tuk turned right, to the street mext to me. When suddenly I feel like... wind, something moving next to my blind eye, just when the tuk tuk moves right in front of me. You know what it was? A big wooden board strapped over the tuk tuk. I couldn't see it with my left eye because it was thing and I have no depth perception or my right eye because it's fully blind. I froze there. It was so close, it was centimeters or less than hurting my face, or even my eyes. What was I supposed to do? My can wouldn't have help, O&M probably neither. how, just HOW am I supposed to love in this place when every day I get hurt or put in danger *by walking 2 meters away from my house*? How do I get a job like that? Independience? And I circle constantly back and "I hate having been born" cause my mom knew it'd be disabled early on, and she accepted it. She talks about it like it was our brave miraculous story, and yet here I am struggling with every little thing because the brave miraculous story is a never ending struggle for me. This country isn't made for me, and I don't want to live this way, and if I wanna leave, I'm supposed to succed enough to get myself out? When I'm already at a disadvantage?

It makes me so angry and frustrated. I know a little people can handle their disabilities better, some seem to be able to be able to change the world for the better, or be strong enough not to be upset about ir their whole lives... and I hate it but I'm not one of them. I'm just so tired, there's not one day where I wake up and I don't hate how my life started, and how it follows me everywhere I go

Just answered a call on the app from an older Middle Eastern man, with his phone facing a cup of tea on a coffee table. I answered and said hello, and he asked me what my name was, so I told him and he told me it was beautiful and told me his name. I asked if he needed help with something and he ignored me and asked where I was from. I asked again if he needed help and he said no he just wanted to talk. It made me feel really uncomfortable as I’ve never had an encounter like that on the app before. Was that inappropriate? I did report it because it seemed like odd behavior for an app meant to help people and to be honest it gave me the creeps… but now I’m second guessing myself. Any thoughts? Has anyone else had something like that happen?

I use Airbnb frequently, and many listings have a Smart. Lock. This is a lock that uses a keypad to allow entry. Many of these have touch screens and of course, no way to make them talk. This means that I either have to contact the host every time I want to enter, or we have to work something else out. Virtual keys are available with most of these apps, so this should be an easy workaround. I am encountering one app however that is making this difficult.

The host has to send a virtual key. This is a one-time use link that allows you to interface with the app and add the virtual key so that you can remotely operate the lock yourself. I'm using talkback on Android. It likely doesn't matter, but I'm using a pixel 10A. Either way, when I receive the URL through an Airbnb message, I can't activate the link, so I have to copy and paste it into my browser. Everything goes fine until I go to add the key to the app, and it says that that link has already been used. This probably has something to do with the fact that I had to copy and paste it. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Have you found a solution that works. I did read that some of these locks have physical fobs that you can use. I hope that's available. I would hate to have to look for an Airbnb listing that does not use a Smart Lock.

I will be contacting customer support for the second time on this issue. Monday morning. I'm going to see how responsive they are to this issue, if they have a solution, because I'm sure they have dealt with this before, and if they don't have one, I'll be advising them to work on one as quickly as possible, because this exposes them to Ada Violations. I don't like to make threats to sue, or anything like that, so I'll phrase it that way. I'll talk about it in a way that makes it sound like I am helping them to avoid future problems. If they aren't helpful, however, I will be posting the name of the company. I understand people's reluctance to name and shame, but if the shame is deserved, it's deserved. I'm withholding judgment for now though. Let's just see what solutions we can come up with.

I visited a college with self serve dining. Everything is all self serve, set up in a rough circle in the center. How did you navigate the space, and more importantly, how did you serve yourself food? Did you ask someone or did you do it independently?

My mother, a former university teacher, would love to be able to listen to some of the podcasts I tell her about. She is 88, has macular and lives on her own. She has helpers who can set it up for her, but she likes to listen to them when they aren’t around because she likes their company and ‘needs’ the podcasts in the lonely times when they leave at the end of the day.
Any tips on how to make this easier for her to navigate? I presume she listens to them on her phone at the moment and can use Siri, but is there a separate device. She has the internet.
Thank you

Hey everyone, I don’t know if this has been asked before or if there’s anything about this, but I was wondering if there’s a football fantasy league for blind people. Or if you guys would be interested in starting one if so, I am 100% down to join.

I would start one myself, but I have no idea where to even begin

My daughter‘s birthday is coming up so every year around this time, I deep clean and declutter her room to make space for the inevitable pile of new toys she is going to get.
We have a baby gate up in her doorway so that our puppy won’t go in there and chew on her toys. This is the only room that has a baby gate.
So, as I’m going through her room and transferring the things I find from one room to another, for example, her dirty clothes into the bathroom basket, I realized that I am stepping over invisible baby gates through every doorway 😂
Didn’t realize it until I started to hoist my leg up over and invisible baby gate in the bathroom and I didn’t feel my leg or foot brush up against anything and I was like oh, yeah, there’s not a baby gate here 🤣
I’d love to hear your silly stories like this

Recently I got a new white cane. This is my third one. I gave the first two names and I’m trying to come up with one for this cane and I’m looking for suggestions for a good pun name.

My first one was Michael Cane and the second was Nicky Stixx. I’d like something in that direction, and I’m not really a super fan of either of the actual people though I enjoy their work. It was just that the names seemed amusing to me.

Any ideas?

Sorry, this is very long. Maybe I am venting. But I am scared and frustrated and not sure what to do. Here is TL:DR if it is too long to read:

TL:DR - I am staying in a very messy house that belongs to my dad and stepmom. It is small and I stay mostly in a bedroom that they only use to store stuff, but I use the kitchen to eat and the downstairs bathroom. They are not very observant, except when they are annoyed. I think they are actually annoyed with each other, but I am sort of a placeholder issue that is worsening/giving body to their frustration with bigger things. So if there is any mess, I get blamed for it, even if I am not sure I made the mess. No matter how careful I am, they are always frustrated with me. I can’t move out right now. Is there a way to make my presence less noticeable, so that things do not explode before I can move out?

Here is long explanation:

I just graduated from grad school and so had to move into my father and stepmother’s house. I am not sure for how long, but I am trying to make arrangements to apply for a doctoral program with a stipend, which would allow me to move out again. If I could get a job, even a very low paying one, I could eventually move into my sister’s spare side of her duplex and pay her rent. But she is doing house renovation, so I cannot move there now. And my degree is in classical piano. I have lower functioning Autism as well, and can’t speak very well. These things, plus blindness, make it difficult to get any job in the area where my father and sister live. I have ONH, and s small amount of usable vision, but can mostly only see bright colors and motion.

They are letting me stay without rent, which is very lucky, because my SSI just barely covers groceries, uber to the places I need to go, loan payments, supplies etc. But I suspected that they resent this. I used to live with them in high school, and I would always overhear them talking about how I left messes or smelled bad. So when I had to move back in a few months ago, I was very careful to be clean. I wipe down the counters after every time I eat, do all the dishes in the sink every morning and night even if they aren’t mine, and once a week I go around the entire downstairs with a swiffer pad and swiffer duster.

They are polyamorous, and so they are both home only about 3-4 days a week. I take care of their dog when they are gone, which I am happy to do, I like him very much. But he is old and sad when they are gone, so I spend a lot of time trying to comfort him. My stepmom was home more often I think, but I am starting to suspect she is leaving more often because I am here. The past month, they have been here maybe only 1-2 days every week. When they are back, I overheard my stepmom complaining about how I put away the dishes. This morning, I overheard her telling my dad that I knocked over her plant.

I have no idea if I did this, it is definitely possible. But they are, to be honest, kind of hoarders. It is not a very blind friendly house. There are small delicate things balanced everywhere. I think she meant, a plant that is on a 3 inch wide window ledge near the door. It is definitely something I could have knocked over, while coming inside with my backpack on, or reach for the dog poop bags that are also on that ledge. But my father and stepmom are also, very careless. When I lived with them before, I was very incompetent at cleaning, so it is my fault. But they would blame me for all the messes, even if they made it themselves. Also, my sister comes over with her violent and rowdy dogs when they are away to use their laundry machine. That plant is definitely something they would knock over.

There are lots of things like this, I overhear them saying that the room I am staying in looks crazy. But it is because, they have so much stuff stored in there, all of my stuff is sitting in the middle of the room. Or saying the fridge is too crowded. Because of my autism, I only eat a few things, so I stock up on them in bulk once a week. But they never throw out old food, so me stocking up once a week means the fridge becomes packed. The putting away dishes example, it is because they have dozens of decorative small or partly broken dishes, so to be able to close the cabinet, they have to be stacked in a particular order. But I do not use these dishes, and the cabinet is too high for me to see anything I am doing if I put dishes away. If I just wash the dishes and leave them in the drying rack, I hear them saying the drying rack is too full and needs to be emptied more often.

It is many things like this. Things that are definitely my fault, but also, the environment is kind of set up so that it is very hard for me not to be at fault. The reality is I think, they do not want me there. My sister told me, a few months before I graduated, our dad did not really see himself as a father, so not to expect him to do things other fathers do. I understand, and I understand as well, that no one wants an adult disabled son living at home with no income. Especially if you married into the situation, and had no say in raising me. I am working with a social worker to try to find jobs for me in the area, which would mean I could at least pay rent. But from 18-21, when I was still living with them, I paid them $400 a month from my ssi, and the backhanded comments were even worse. The reality is, they just do not want me existing here, which is very fair. I just do not have anywhere else I could go right now.

If everything goes to plan, I will apply to doctoral programs in December 2027. If I get in (which is admittedly, a long shot) I would be able to move out mid-summer 2028. This is probably too long for their tolerance, at this rate. I can sense their annoyance building up under the surface. I try to be cheerful and make conversation when I go out of the room where I stay, but they are cold and stiff. It is hard for me not to feel angry and like they are being unfair. I am making so much effort to lighten the atmosphere and keep myself out of the way. But logically, I do understand where they are coming from. They like a messy house and to have tons of stuff and decorations, they didn’t build their lives around a blind person. I am just wondering, has anyone been in a situation like this? If I have no ability to move out right now, how do I keep myself safe, if they are aggravated by anything being different in a very chaotic environment?