Mods, please let me know if this is not in line with your plans for this community. I’m flying blind here, lol so funny. Don’t know anything about Lemmy or the Fediverse or what this community is supposed to look like. This is just me, bull in china shop.
I’m a big fan of old-school forums, and every good old-school forum has anIntroductions thread where newbies can pop in and say hi, I exist, and hopefully get some hellos back and feel welcomed and get a sense of what people are like. IAnd I figure, we’re starting out fresh here, very small number of people to begin with so it’s perfect to do now. Hopefully I am not the only one who thinks this and will not just be the solo idiot posting their life story for the entertainment of the public.
So, I’m Miah. I”m 53, have been functionally blind in one eye since childhood annd lost most of the vision in my good eye about ten months ago from Ischemic optic neuropathy. I’m now legally blind, have some central acuity but horrendous vision all around, including toilet-roll FOV, dead spots everywhere, photosensitivity, and lots of artifacts that get worse when I use my eyes too much.
I use a long cane and screen readers, although I do a lot of screen navigation visually. reading screens is doable but sucks. I also llisten to audiobooks.
I’ve been a veterinary technician for many years, and since going blind am still able to work as a lab technician and “Girl in the Chair” at an animal hospital. I’m also a writer of fantasy and horror fiction. I stopped writing for years but started up again last year when I went blind, mostly because there was fuck-all else I could do. I’ve reclaimed some of my pastimes now but am still writing. Working on something that wants to be a novel but is still in very early stages.
My other main hobby is crochet. I’ve been doing it for 25 years or so, and found it was still possible to do it after I went blind. I crocheted like a fiend for my first few months I want to try knitting soon - I did knit before going blind but it was definitely my B game, so much more challenging than crochet. Other fiber crafts may follow, but it’s going to be a while before I feel confident enough to try needle felting without vision.
I’m nonbinary, have been married for decades and have two kids. One teenager and one all grown up and out on her own. Also, one small dog worth mentioning as he was my lifeline during the onset of blindness.
I found r/blind early in my journey when I could not get around the Web at all, could not do anything or communicate properly, and pretty much just wished it would all end. The sub was an invaluable source of information, inspiration and understanding for me. I have been a daily visitor ever since then. I love the sharing of journeys and meeting cool people who know what I’m going through, and hopefully I’ve helped some other newly blind folks with my own stories. I am livid about the way Reddit mishandled the accessibility concerns with their API circus, and while I will continue to visit the sub as long as it’s accessible to me, I fervently believe that there must be a hub somewhere that is hosted and curated by blind people for blind people, that will not suddenly be rendered inaccessible by the whims of a sighted billionaire. That is what I hope will grow here.
Love, Miah
Passes mic
Hey there!
I’m a standard 41 year old straight white male from Portugal with the exception that I’ve been totally blind for 9 years due to a congenital glaucoma. I’m also a high school drop-out with over two decades of experience as a programmer, used to work in software engineering but quit when my vision became unstable, haven’t worked ever since, have been living off a disability income for the last 10 years, and am not very independent since my family is quite overprotective. I did attend a rehabilitation center shortly after going blind but didn’t take much advantage of it since I was still in denial, so I’m planning on going back for orientation and mobility as well as cooking lessons. I live with my mother and, until two days ago, also with a small dog which had to be euthanized due to severe kidney failure and old age.
My only hobby is coding, and I like to test my limits by doing things that the blind aren’t expected to do, like computer graphics programming, which is one of my favorite areas of software development along with embedded systems or kernel programming.
Besides attending a rehabilitation center again, my other plan for the near future is to enroll in college because I think that I’m ready to work again but am somewhat ashamed of the huge temporal gap in my resume. The idea is to strengthen the foundations of my knowledge and have some formal education to show to potential employers later on. To make that possible I’ll hire a math teacher to prepare me for the math test that I’ll have to do as part of the enrollment process next year as my algebra and calculus knowledge need refreshing, and I’ll also take the opportunity to figure out the adaptations that I will ask for in college.
I found this community on reddit in 2016 and have been following it on multiple accounts since then, though I haven’t contributed much to it since I myself am not very good at this being blind thing.
Sorry to hear about your doggo. That’s never easy.