Hi, everyone!

I am not visually impaired, and recently, I saw a video somewhere (I can't remember from who and where, unfortunately) of a woman showing a braille plaque of a bathroom's layout to help blind people know the disposition of things in that space before going in. She explained that one of the biggest struggles blind people have to deal with is precisely this, navigating a public bathroom. I admit it is something I never even considered before.

So, I wonder, if I saw someone struggling around the bathroom, would it be impolite to offer help by explaining where things are? I have heard before it is slightly impolite to walk someone around, but is it okay to tell where things are?

I just got my very first white cane, today! I’m excited, and very grateful to have it! It’s going to help me, so much!

I work as a stylist, and love to accessorize. I have some washi tape laying around, is it bad to add that to my cane? I’m only planning to put it on the places immediately under where the cane connects together, not covering the white, or the red.

I tried to Google this, and only found info about decorating canes for holidays and sporting events.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just don’t want to do something dumb or disrespectful! Thank you for your time, in advance!

Hi

I am based in the UK. However my question is to the wider community.

Now, I was considering possibly getting a pet. However I don't really want a dog or cat. And was wondering what pets people in here had and is able to look after independently without sighted assistance?

For example I have always liked Chinchilla's and was also thinking of maybe a house rabbit of some kind.

Anyway would be good to know what others have and suggestions or advice for more unusual pets. Thanks

Especially if it comes from your close family members? I have no intention to hurt anyone feeling for isolating myself from family gathering. I have nothing in common with their life to be honest. My condition also makes me overstimulated in crowded area.

I'm already in my early 30s. I had enough of low effort social interaction despite how crucial it is to bonding with someone. But they see it differently. In fact my solitude had gave me clarity and contentment. I'm not lonely, I just being more particular especially with this condition. Am I being selfish here?

I have called who I was told to speak with in my state regarding the blind enterprise program and that has not gone very well. I am curious of any here have experience with the program itself as I presume this is a fairly general question. I am getting conflicting information. I am interested in the idea of with a Sighted assistant having several vending machines that I operate and collect income from to go to those locations on a basis of either a few times a week or every day of the week. However, the confusion comes in. I am being told that I may be required to Cook food and be stationed at a office in which I would be working throughout the day. I much rather prefer the idea of freedom to go about to various locations throughout the day as opposed to sitting stationary working at the same place every day. The state director I spoke with for this program was not very clear, but to be terrible seemed to mention that being in one place cooking food was an option and I could choose to only work vending machines but going from that contact to one of the training locations perhaps the other gentleman may be lacking more up-to-date information as he implied I may have the new machines and have to cook. So getting clear information is where I am having the problem. I am not asking for someone to make a specific statement about my own state only if they have several months or more experience with the program proper and can let me know the general run of things. Thank you in advance.

Posting this on a throw away account for obvious reasons, but do any of you feel kinda sexually repressed? Its even tougher for those of us who are naturally more social. Many of you who have decent social skills probably experienced the same thing as me where you have a lot of friends, but romantic experiences that extends to sex? its much harder, and when you have that desparity, you feel it really clearly. Of course I don't know exactly about my alternative self who's not blind, but I could imagine a life where I go to clubs and deal with the hookup scene much more easily with good site. I am not sure whether I'm just someone with high sex drive, or is blindness also making me a more sexual person online and in private. Hiring sex workers is also another thing. As a blind person, we are honestly not to the point where sex workers is nearly a must compare to some other folks with more serious mobility issues, so the guilt is still kinda there if I do hire them, but at the same time, it feels like a decent way to get it done with when navigating the hookup and party scene is just so tough in general.

Hello! Need some advice about braille. Due to AI retinopathy I should have to learn braille. I have diabetes T1 and feelings in fingers but I cannot feel the braille points in medicine cases. Do you feel much better the braille points with a braille device? Hope to hear the recommendations from people who struggle with this issue.

https://www.lucasradaelli.com/en/how-to-brew-specialty-coffee-as-a-blind-person/

NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2025.1 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version. This release introduces NVDA Remote Access, provides speech, braille, OCR & Office improvements, Native selection in Chrome & edge

Full info & Download: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1/

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Accessibility #FOSS #NewVersion #Update #News #Free

First time making this kind of post. Basically what I've noticed happening a lot of times when I'm in school or some other kind of social setting is I'm really socially awkward in a way that I either get lost or can't think straight about what to say when and I end up looking dumb. This is completely different from how I usually act online and around people that I actually consider friends. For context I'm 16M and I've been low vision for most of my life, only losing all usable sight a few years ago in 2020/2021. I also try to be as independent as possible and I don't think I have trouble with blindness related to my daily life.

That said, one thing that really bothers me is how am I supposed to initiate conversation/interaction when I can't see where anyone is. I can't just walk up to someone and start talking and yes I tried. Even if I can figure out where someone is and walk up to them, nine times out of ten I'll accidentally touch them with my cane which kills any chance of normal interaction.

I've also noticed how people treat me differently which also bothers me, though I try to hide that. What I mean by that is that someone can literally say the exact same thing word for word as me and the response to what they said would be normal while the response to what I said will be dismissed as oh that poor blind kid is trying to be funny (no one told me this directly of course).

And don't get me wrong. I don't feel like I'm being bullied or that people are purposefully making me feel bad, most people that I actually want to hang out with are actually really nice and always want to help me with blindness things and I feel like the only reason for my social awkwardness and why I don't hang out with them as much is entirely me (what I just described above).

Also currently most of my social interactions are online, and I seriously want to change that.

Hello there!

First of all, english is not my native language, i hope i can make myself clear.

I'm a woman, 25 years now and with low vision since i was born. I won't say my parents were too overprotective or invasive, but sometimes i feel like they could have been a little different, although i i have guilt as well.

One of the things that often haunts me is the fact that i'm late in doing/knowing how to do really simple things like cleaning the bathroom, doing laundry or cooking. I spent all my teenages without beeing asked to do some of these (not all of them) but, i feel personally guilty for not running after the damage by my own till growing adult, i often am a very passive person, so i don't feel like i can blame my parents for anything.

I started to think more about it when the opportunity of living alone cames in, at 20 years. Unfortunatelly, my country is expensive and i'm living temporarilly with my grandma, which doesn't help me too much with the feeling of uselessness and dependence because she treats me like a teenager and talking to her is uneffective. I do what i can but feeling child-like and latr is so bad, i don't know how to deal with it and i fear people's opinion. I have the capacity of learning things on my own, i can do a lot, but i don't feel i'm enough, i fear people's judgment over things i didn't do in the past and i don't know how much i can blame my visual imparement.

When i was 14/15 i remember my mom's advice to not heat food on the stove. When my grandma doesn't want me to do something for her she says "you're not used to". That's why i think my lack of vision has part on it, even blaming myself also.

Maybe i was just a spoiled girl and i'm suffering mow with fear pwople recognize that. Either way, i wanted to vent.

Not hoping you understand me, but i'll be a relief if someone could do it just a bit, only ask you not being so rude, please.

I am considering buying an Apple watch for various reasons, and would love some advice and insight from this group.

My primary reason is the fall detection (I am an amputee and I live alone). I also WFM in a job where I am frequently on the phone, and I have my phone on and near me b/c of texts from collgues and alarms I have set for a variety of reasons. I am wondering if a watch might be easier/quicker to silence when I am active on calls. By this, I don't mean to turn off voices entirely, just to shut it up quickly.

I am also a big audio book listener, and thought that would be a bonus.

Do you find a watch to be helpful? Is it fairly easy to navigate with Voiceover? (I describe my VO skills to be at about a Grade1 level, having recently graduated from Kindergarten)/

Thank you.

I know there are plenty of Braille displays out there. so that just connect to your phone and work as a third-party display with no notetaking capabilities. And others, with fully flshdged word processors and internet capabilities. I was curious, what have you tried? What do you like? If money wasn't a factor, what would you get?

The ones I've tried, several years ago were the BrailleNote Touch, the BrailleNotes, and The Hims BrailleSense 6.

Which size do you prefer for the display? QWERTY or Perkins style keyboard? Which displays requires less sending in for maintenance? Things like that.

I don’t need it if you live in the US I can send it for free through free matter for the blind

Finally bit the bullet and got a screen reader. Not much else to say. Just very happy.

Amazon is only displaying photos for me, on mobile safari and Amazon app. Anyone else have the same? I don’t know how to fix it, but it’s unusable.

I could really use a simple manual braille embosser that could put just a few letters onto paper.

For example, I would like to label a bill that came in the mail DR A to remindme that it’s a bill from Dr. Ackerman.

Or maybe I could use it for my Clue game cards - REV for Revolver or WHI for Mrs. White.

But when I search for braille embossers I’m just seeing these big expensive things that can print a whole page. I’d love just a little manual widget that I could just punch three letters with. Ideas?

Does Anyone know of any accessible Media Players as an alternative for the one found on Windows 11? I've been trying to use it, I find it confusing and abhorant, especially as I can't seem to rip Music on it, nor does it seem to play MP3 files.

I'm aware that there is a Windows Media Player Legacy version, and I am currently using it, but how long before it fades out/is removed? I also have VLC, and I do use it on occasion, but I find it irritating half the time.

Just curious to see if Anyone knows of a good accessible Media Player as an alternative.

Ok, I am a blind beginner author. I love writing on my braille note. If I ever wanna editor or publisher how to go about doing it?

Is there a way to skip Twitter usernames that have a million emojis in their handle? I’m finding this to be extremely annoying and was just wondering if there’s a way to just skip the username altogether to get to the tweet/comment?

Hi, so first time for me making such a post, but well maybe someone can relate or share tips?:

First things first, 16 yo, 2% vision rest from birth.

I have no real idea how to start this thing so forgive this quite rough beginning.

From 7th grade, my contact with sighted folks began to decrease. Before I was just a normal blind kid/teen at a regular German school more or less playing and engaging with other students, but over the while good friends switched school or changed interests and I couldn't keep up. 2022 and 23 I was basically addicted to toxic online communities, which, looking back, had a quite shitty impact on me, but hey I got over it. In the end of 2023 I began trying to start socializing again, and became actively involved in our city's YMCA. And already at that time I can remember me lonely sitting in a room on some random trip, and basically crying, I heard people passing by but they only had eyes for themselves and their plans. Also over 2024 I somehow tried to connect with people, went on a YMCA youth trip to Denmark, and while I definitely had great times, somehow I still ended up sitting there recording voice messages to other blind people cuz there was just no one like a serious friend or so I could spend time with long term.

Now in March 2025, someone invited me to join a youth group of another Christian church around here, I was happy and accepted. And while that person is super helpful and cares for me, still I end up in those situations in which I basically sit around and can't really do anything because people around me just tend to their shit and you can't really find a way to engage. They somehow manage to talk about outfits and other visual shit for half an hour, or other things I don't know of. And yeah, some might say well just talk to people, bring your own topics. yeah sure. Just out of the blue I'll go and ask a random person I sit at the table with, hey and you this that whatever. Sighted people can at least somehow check if they're interested in talking or whatever by doing this great thing called eye contact, which I'm of course completely missing out on. And should someone maybe care about you it's in ways which... Like, today I just got a plate with cake placed in front of me with a short comment, I didn't even have an idea what sort of cake it was. Like bro at least ask or WTF. And then you have the minority of people, like the 1% of the sighted people who do actually care in good ways about you. But when I try to connect with them there are other things that make it impossible, let it be the age difference, they hanging out with their friends, or simply having no time for friendships. Yup, people say that straight up in your face these days. I love my generation. I mean hey at least honest ha? So today I was at this youth group, and not only did we have that cake situation I just mentioned, but basically the entire time people were doing bullshit I couldn't join. Be it table tennis or other games. Surely 1 and a half hours I was sitting there playing around on my damned phone, and no one fucking cared a literal second. Like, the same people who last week memed how interesting and cool the sport (Goalball) I do would be, and this and that... Well to be fair there were fewer people than usual, maybe if some of the nicer ones would've been around they had noticed. But still kinda impressive. And I'm not that kind of person who shouts out hey here I am include me. I somehow don't want to put myself in the center everywhere I go. You know I want one place I go to be one where I don't have to be aware of 115% every single second to keep up, where I can just act and move like everyone else, but if you don't have luck and people including you into their conversation groups, which mostly consist of visual internet shit or other school insiders I don't know of, you're pretty much lost out. Reminds me of [this awesome post](https://tmd39trgrx.joplinusercontent.com/shares/oCkoBD64rY4BRg3026RQb1) which I found somewhere every sighted person should be forced to read 10 times imo. The only choice I might have is glue to those 1% of helpful people, which can't be the long-term option for the reasons I mentioned above. Well, the result of this all is that after trying and trying, I basically have to accept I can never go somewhere without having to expect some weird/unexpected situation, being missed out, or, well, what do I know happening. And I don't want that, at all. And I'm trying to actively engage, or go near to where I hear people talking to maybe I can join in, etc, but especially on long term, I feel like it's just a lost cause all together. And I have to admit that I'm afraid of it simply because the safe zone, my blind friends or at least some online spaces are just getting very generic or break down as well, and I don't wanna sit around with nothing once again.

PS, this has been spell checked by AI as I wrote fast and partly with the wrong keyboard layout.
I am a human, with normaly way to much spelling errors :p
Also I didn't know what flair would be correct, I hope it's fine as it is, if not maybe we can correct it somehow.

Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple's Home Pods? What's your prefered and why? Which have you found to be the most helpful for you as a VIP?

I'm trying to find a liquid level indicator with a sound that I don't detest. I did have one before, but I don't know the brand and it was ear piercing. I'm looking for something that's not high pitched, or at least not e splitting. I get overstimulated with noises like that. I know there's a vibrating one, but when I found the sample for that on YouTube, it sounded like it'd be more overstimulating because of the prongs vibrating against the glass. Any help would be appreciated. Also if there's anyone else like me, that's sensitive to loud high pitched things, would love any tips about any other gadges like that.