Choosing a tip for your white cane involves many considerations. It depends on your preferences, your experience, the terrain, your chosen cane technique, and more. I’m going to cover as many cane tips as I can find and share with you all the information I can find on them. Remember, I’m listing all the information I can find. Just because a cane tip is generally used for a certain cane technique does not mean that usage is set in stone. The mobility cane and techniques are absolutely meant to be customized to you and your needs. I am absolutely not an orientation and mobility expert, far from ..read more

July is Disability Pride Month as you may have heard, but I know for many people that seems like an odd statement. How can you be proud to have a disability? Aren’t you struggling? Isn’t living with a disability a challenge? Well, these answers will differ for each person you ask. Let me share my two cents. Coming to Terms with Disability When I was young, I was so very stubborn. I never wanted to stand out, and those closest to me worked very hard to make me feel like everyone else around me. I think this probably benefited me in some ways and hindered me in others. I didn’t start to realize ..read more

Long time, no see. I know. I’ve been up to a few things, mostly on my Twitch Channel. I’m popping in to share an upcoming event that I’m very excited about! I will be joining a live streamed TableTop RPG with some other wonderful blind creators! What is TableTop RPG? TableTop RPG (TTRPG) is a role-playing game generally played around a table. Many of you may have heard of Dungeons and Dragons. That is one of the many TTRPG’s that exists! Each game has different rules, settings, characters, and play styles, but they are all generally played around a table (physical or virtual). These games are ..read more

Many of you know by now that Valisure Pharmacy found Benzene in some of the sun protection and after sun products that we know and love. If you haven’t read up on that finding, check out my article on the topic filled with resources. Please check that article for all links related to the original Valisure findings. As a refresher, Benzene is a carcinogen meaning it is known to cause cancer when it comes in contact with humans. Valisure Pharmacy tested 294 sun protection and after sun care products from 69 different brands, and they found benzene in 27% of those products (78 total products). Wh ..read more

Voluntary Recall in Effect: Here, you will find information on the current voluntary recall issued by Johnson and Johnson for several Neutrogena and Aveeno aerosol sunscreens. Months ago, I published a thorough post about sunscreen, choosing the one that’s right for you, tips for application, and more helpful resources. The information and tips in that article are still very relevant, but this new information should be paired with those tips and resources. If you’d like to absorb some of this information in an audio/video format, you can watch my video on the topic here. Today, I’m sad to say ..read more

A whole world of blind and visually impaired gamers exists, contrary to what you may have thought. Accessible games and games actually designed for the blind and visually impaired do exist, but they are few and far between. There are so many great gamers in the a11y, gaming, and development communities who are working hard to increase awareness for gamers with a visual impairment and other disabilities. I’ll have some of these community members linked at the end of this article so that we can all learn a bit more about this community. I also covered this topic in a YouTube video about gaming ..read more

In short, blind and visually impaired people watch TV any way they feel comfortable. Or, they don’t. For the longer, more in-depth answer, keep reading. With streaming services on the rise, it has become easier to watch TV and movies in the past few years. We have a wealth of options available to us as far an content, length, and genre are concerned. I also covered this topic in a YouTube video called How Do the Blind & Visually Impaired Communities Watch TV. Masters of the Audio Cue Many of us have spent years listening closely to TV shows even when we can’t visually see all of the wonde ..read more

Makeup is such a huge part of our society these days, but it’s not just about beauty. It’s often a way to boost confidence in ourselves and our bodies. Many of us, especially those of us who stand out in more obvious ways, don’t start out feeling comfortable in our own skin. Sometimes makeup helps with that feeling. I know it did for me as someone who dealt with cystic acne as a teen and in my early twenties. It’s important that I remind you that albinism is a huge spectrum. Some people with albinism resemble their genetic relatives, some fall to the extreme pale end of the spectrum, and other ..read more

As I mentioned in my previous post on this topic, it is a misconceptions that people who are blind or visually impaired don’t care how their space looks. We absolutely do. How our space looks and feels is just as important to us as it is to people without a visual impairment. For some of us, it’s even more important. Check out my YouTube video on Designing with a Visual Impairment in mind! Organization Organization is important to most people, but for a blind or visually impaired person, it is a quality of life issue. Where a normally sighted person could glance around the room to find that o ..read more

For many blind and visually impaired individuals, a screen reader is the link between human and the online world. It is the bridge that allows a blind user to access the wealth of information available on the internet. That includes websites, social media, online journals, and so much more. This tool is why alternative text, or alt text, is so important in making the web accessible. What is a Screen Reader? A screen reader is something like VoiceOver on iOS and Mac OS, Narrator and NVDA on Windows, TalkBack on Android, and JAWS. It is a piece of software that scans through code and text and re ..read more