Without being able to drive, I’ve always thought that blind people who use guide dogs — especially those of us who live in big cities — must walk more than the average person does. Now I have a chance to prove it. Some of you blog readers know I have a part-time job at Easter […]

When we set the date for my talk with a book group especially for blind readers yesterday, I don’t think any of us realized that the date we chose — June 27 — was Helen Keller’s birthday. What serendipity! The story of Helen Keller’s childhood is well-known: an illness left her both blind and deaf […]

The book group I’m speaking to tomorrow is a bit different than other groups I’ve visited: the members are blind. The Skokie Public Library established a Book Club especially for people with visual impairments over 25 years ago — it was part of the library’s commitment to give visually impaired patrons access to reading, and, […]

A few years ago Mike volunteered as a writing tutor with Open Books, a literacy program here in Chicago. Tutors and students did the exercises together, and when they were asked to write about a family member, Mike wrote about his sister Kris. He sent the essay off to her when it was finished. Two […]

Whitney met Hanni, the grand dame of Seeing Eye dogs, this week! The circumstances were not happy ones –we were in Urbana for a funeral. The meeting of the dogs helped take our minds off the sadness for a bit, though, and we were very grateful. I’ve been to two funerals the past couple weeks, […]