Have you ever wondered how somebody could without vision navigate airports, train stations, hotels, etc.? Tommy Edison, who is blind since birth and has a popular YouTube channel, has published an excellent video sharing part of his traveling experiences.
As we hear about all the devastation that hurricane Harvey has left in Texas and Louisiana, and the country is preparing for hurricane Irma, we have complied some emergency preparedness suggestions. We provide general suggestions for everybody, but make emphasis on people with hearing and vision disabilities emergency preparedness.
In a previous post we talked about cooking techniques for cooks who are blind or have low vision, and closed our post with chef Christine Ha’s video. Christine is an amazing chef who gradually lost her sight between 1999 and 2007. She now hosts the TV program “Four Senses” with Carl Heinrich, winner of “Top Chef” Canada.
Not being able to see is not an excuse to miss the upcoming eclipse. NASA’s Heliophysics Education Consortium created the Eclipse Soundscapes Project, which will allow people to experience the eclipse in a different way. It will include “audio descriptions of the eclipse in real time, recordings of the changing environmental sounds during the eclipse, and an interactive “rumble map” app that will allow users to visualize the eclipse through touch.” Isn’t it awesome
Dinning in the Dark made me wonder about other things, like how it would be to cook in the dark. How can you identify the right condiments, and not end up putting salt instead of sugar in the coffee (I have seen it happen!). Or even something as basic as avoid burning yourself while taking a dish out of the oven would be harder if you could not see.
By Maria Victoria Diaz
Last week, I had the opportunity to have dinner in the dark on Thursday night. For three years in a row, I had missed the same event organized by Lighthouse Central Florida and Second Harvest Food, but I finally made it!
Our friends from Lighthouse Central Florida have partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank, for a 4th year in a row, to host Dining in the Dark on July 27th. The Orlando Police Department’s SWAT team members are again joining the event as Guest Servers and will be wearing their night-vision goggles to navigate the dinning room. The event is already sold out, but you can still add your name to the wait list.
If you have a service dog, odds are that you already know what to do when planning to fly with your dog. However, it is still good to remember a few important steps you should take in order to have a smoother trip. These steps are specially important now that there is an increasing number of people traveling with “fake” Emotional Support Animals (ESA). These people are making it more difficult for the ones with real ESA or guide dogs to fly.
In the past years, Uber and Lyft, which are transportation network companies, have been subject to several lawsuits across the country for failing to provide transportation for people with disabilities.
