Every Wednesday, the seniors in my memoir-writing class pass a pouch of Scrabble tiles around the table. Whoever picks “A” reads their work aloud first, then “B” and so on. Last week, I threw a wrench into the works. I passed around a Ziploc bag full of loose change instead. “Just pick a coin,” I […]

After I lost my sight, and before I started writing, I volunteered for hospice. Strike that. I should say, I trained to volunteer for hospice. After I completed the training, the agency was reluctant to assign me a patient. My Seeing Eye dog might scare a patient, they said. I might inadvertently knock over bedside […]

If you have a disability and want to bring your helper parrot, monkey or snake with you in public, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. That’s the first line of a guest post I wrote for The Bark Magazine’s blog about revisions made to the Department of Justice’s ADA regulations. The DOJ used to define […]

I like art openings. Wine and cheese is a favorite combo of mine, and art events make for entertaining eavesdropping. Most of what I know about visual art is thanks to Glen C. Davies and Sandy Wolf, our dear next-door neighbors back when we lived in Urbana. Glen is an artist, muralist, lecturer and curator. […]

You might remember a post I wrote called Enter the Letters You See in this Box — If You Can See Them. I used that post to vent my frustration after attempting to vote on-line for the 2008 All Star team. I managed to fill out the ballot using my talking computer but couldn’t get […]