Technology supports blind and visually impaired

By Hannah Sabo
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer

WESTMINSTER, Md. – Losing vision does not mean an end to an active and healthy life especially with new technology that operates very similar to laptop computers, the president of the Carroll County Chapter of the Federation of the Blind said recently.

Brian Keseling conducted a free Technology Seminar at the Carroll Lutheran Village Retirement Community over the weekend, demonstrating technologies used day-to-day by some of the organization’s most active members. The goal is to help those who recently began experiencing vision loss to maintain an active lifestyle and adapt effectively to life without sight, he said.

“We’re here to demonstrate that with the help of some of our tools, such as the HIMS, that life isn’t over if you lose your vision,” Keseling told the group of senior citizens taking advantage of the seminar. “You just have to grasp the methods of adaptation to continue to have a free lifestyle.”

Carroll County’s Blind Federation chapter has about 20 members and meets at least once a month officially. Members gather for outings and events whenever something of interest arises, Keseling said.

Approximately 3.4 million Americans aged 40 and over are either visually impaired or legally blind, statistics show. Those between the ages of 75 and 84 make up 24% of the blind population and 4% of the population of the United States. Today, more than half of the blind people in the United States are over the age of 64.

The seven most common causes of blindness include age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts, officials said.

Keseling said the HIMS is quite popular among the blind because it essentially operates as a laptop with a traditional computer interface designed specifically for blind individuals. The HIMS BrailleSense Polaris resembles a sleek, black tablet, but when opened, its keys are revealed. It has a braille keyboard on the edge of the surface and has five larger buttons on the greater surface of the device that control its mode selections.

Officials, who estimate the cost of the device at $5,795, stress that HIMS’ intricate design makes  it very susceptible to damage, even from dust. The company provides a warranty that covers damages and flaws.

Ninette Legates, a longtime Carroll County member, said that she uses her HIMS to prepare for Sunday School classes she teaches.

“I can upload files, search items on the Internet, and even type with this special braille keyboard the HIMS has,” said Legates. “I can even use a USB stick or a hard-drive to save documents I’ve typed up on my device so it can be pulled up on a standard computer for others to access.”

This typing technology also has a text-to-speech aspect. When one function is activated, it is read through a speaker on the side of the device so the user is aware that the device is turned on and in the properly desired mode.

Legates said she doesn’t know a blind person without the device, which is available for purchase online through the HIMS website.

Even with the technology, Keseling said “the main thing I find our organization combating in one way or another in each meeting is misconceptions of blindness.”

Keseling said that when his team reaches out to retirement communities especially, his workers are faced with individuals who view their lives to be over because they cannot imagine functioning without vision.

“But this is far from the truth,” insisted Keseling who has been blind for 10 years and maintains an active lifestyle that keeps him quite busy in the community.

Robyn Hughes demonstrated what is known as “the easy-reader on display,” which is comparable to equipment used in classroom settings. Known as the Elmos, this device is used to maximize the appearance of physical documents to be read on a larger screen, and there is a mode to search the web for other documents and display them at a larger angle.

“This technology is used by visually impaired people like me, who only have a certain percentage of their vision left,” said Hughes.

Afterwards, she then demonstrated the basics of the braille alphabet on a wooden board with notches in it, arranged in an order of six holes, like on a die. For instance, the letter “A” would be the top right notch, the letter “B” would be the top and middle left notches, and so on.

On display during the seminar, there were older versions of technologies that have been used in the past. A braille-type writer was set out with the thick paper that is used to punch-press a braille document.

Gary Legates, Ninette’s husband, said that he attended the Baltimore School for the Blind  until he became a teacher at Westminster High School, where he worked for 30 years.

“I’m deaf in my left ear and have been completely blind my whole life!” said Gary Legates. “One of the things I think is most impactful about being apart of these technology seminars is speaking to people who have just recently begun to lose their vision [and] discuss with me how they feel as if their life is over because they can’t see.

“I can attest that with the technologies provided, and the help our organization offers, life without vision can still be functional and you can still do the things you’ve always loved!” he added.

Ninette Legates quickly wrote out the braille alphabet on a sheet of the thick paper as quickly as someone with sight might write the standard English alphabet.

“When you can feel the pressure of the writing utensil indent the paper, it’s easier to feel along as you write to essentially write at the pace of someone writing in print,” she explained.

The seminars have one key goal, said the Legates and Hughes.

“We hope that we can spread awareness on adapting to life with visual impairments and hope that our simple technologies can help others as much as it has helped us,” they said.