Intersecting Liminality: Acquiring a Smartphone as a Blind or Low Vision Older Adult

The number of blind older adults is gradually increasing with the aging of world’s population, and their needs and perception of sound are specific. This study investigated the behavioral activities of blind older adults and the dominant sound sources through on-site observation of an all-blind nursing home in China, and it used semi-structured interviews to obtain the sound perceptions of blind older adults. The findings showed that the daily behavioral activities can be categorized into basic living activity, leisure activity, social activity; and physical activity. The dominant sound sources included human, equipment, informational, and environmental sounds. This study developed a sound perception model of blind older adults in nursing homes, which takes three levels: sound requirements, acoustic environment, and sound cognition. Firstly, the blind older adults have a basic understanding of sound from the perspective of their living needs, then they feel the sound environment from the perspective of the living environment, and finally, they perceive the acoustic environment from the dimension of sound cognition in conjunction with contextual memory. This study sheds a light on the aural diversity of older adults, which is expected to support the inclusive design of nursing homes for older adults with visual impairments.

BackgroundDepression and anxiety are highly prevalent, but often unrecognized in adults with vision impairment (VI) or blindness. The purpose of this study was to explore visually impaired and blind adults’ views on facilitators and barriers in recognizing and discussing mental health problems.MethodsSemi-structured interviews, based on the Integrated Model for Change, were conducted with 16 visually impaired or blind adults receiving support from three Dutch low vision service organizations. Interview data was analyzed using the framework approach.ResultsParticipants perceived their focus on practical support with regard to their VI, lack of mental health literacy, and misattribution of symptoms of depression or anxiety as barriers for recognizing mental health problems. With regard to discussing mental health problems, they perceived difficulties in acknowledging their VI and mental health problems due to feelings of vulnerability and inequality. Participants mentioned that their social support system and healthcare providers (could) facilitate them in recognizing and discussing mental health problems. However, participants thought that healthcare providers currently often lacked the knowledge, skills and attitude to recognize and discuss this topic with their clients.ConclusionOur findings suggest that visually impaired and blind adults may experience several barriers to recognize, acknowledge and discuss mental health. Healthcare providers and social support systems seem essential for them in reducing these barriers. However, there might be a mismatch between the needs of visually impaired and blind adults and healthcare providers’ knowledge, skills and attitude. Training healthcare providers may improve detection of depression and anxiety in adults with VI or blindness, and enhance clinician-patient communication on mental health.

The haptic perception of vertical, horizontal, +45 degrees oblique, and +135 degrees oblique orientations was studied in completely blind adults. The purpose was to determine whether the variations of the gravitational cues provided by the arm-hand system during scanning would affect the manifestation of the oblique effect (lower performance in oblique orientations than in vertical-horizontal ones) as they did in blindfolded sighted people (Gentaz & Hatwell, 1996). In blindfolded sighted adults, the oblique effect was reduced or absent when the magnitude of gravitational cues was decreased. If visual experience participated in the haptic oblique effect, we should observe no oblique effect in early blind subjects in the conditions of manual exploration where late blind and blindfolded sighted manifest this effect. The magnitude of gravitational cues was therefore varied by changing gravity constraints, whereas the variability of these cues was varied by changing the plane in which the task was performed: horizontal (low variability) and frontal (high variability). Early and late blind adults were asked to explore haptically a rod and then to reproduce its orientation ipsilaterally in one of two exploratory conditions in each plane. In the horizontal plane, the oblique effect was absent, whatever the gravity constraints, in both groups (early and late blind subjects). In the frontal plane, the oblique effect was present, whatever the gravity constraints, in both groups. Taken together, these results showed that, in blind people, the variability of gravitational cues played a role in the haptic oblique effect; no effect of previous visual experience was observed.

VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired piloted a 6-day residential group training for 6 legally blind older adults ages 57-80, self identified as Caucasian or African-American. Assessments occurred in five core areas: personal, home, financial and meal management and communication skills. Mobility and family care skills were also assessed. One legally blind and one sighted professional instructor offered the training along with adaptive equipment and training on how to use it. Each participant received follow up visits in their home to measure how well they retained the skills taught and how well they were safely using them. Referrals were made to VISIONS occupational therapists to address other chronic health conditions, social workers for adjustment to blindness counseling or low vision optometrists for additional follow up. Offering intensive residential group training with peers resulted in documented improvement in ADL/IADL skills and increased social connections. Group training, even when participants had varied skill levels, education, age of onset of vision loss, and eye diseases, proved successful. One participant framed his completion certificate and hung it in his living room. The value of learning new skills with a peer group was confirmed as well as the willingness for older adults with legal blindness to attend a 6-day residential program. Providing group training helps to address the long waitlist for services with a national personnel shortage of nationally certified vision rehabilitation therapists to serve the growing older blind. population. Group training also effectively utilizes the limited government funding for training older blind adults.

ABSTRACTPurpose: To comprehensively measure the impacts of cataract surgery on patients’ activities and mental and physical health, caregivers’ well-being, and household incomes in a resource-poor settingMethods: One thousand two hundred thirty-four bilaterally blind older adults in Amhara region, Ethiopia, were interviewed at baseline and 1030 (83%) re-interviewed at follow-up 1 year later. Six hundred ninety three (45%) at baseline were diagnosed with cataracts and offered free surgery, of which 484 (73%) were operated. Difference-in-difference was used to estimate impacts of surgery, using surgery-ineligible, mostly non-cataract blind as controls.Results: For patients, surgery resulted in a 0.31 standard deviation increase in an index of social participation (p < 0.001), a 30% proportional increase in ability to perform activities of daily living (p < 0.001), and a 17% proportional reduction in Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) depression score (p < 0.001). A small (6%) increase in work participation occurred among men (p = 0.093) in this elderly sample. No change occurred in individual or household food insecurity, household consumption, or assets. Caregivers’ mental health improved slightly (7.3% proportional reduction in CES-D; p = 0.024). Estimates show no change in caregiver work participation or social participation; however, subjective responses regarding changes from surgery suggest that reduced caregiving time was an important benefit to households.Conclusion: Cataract surgery significantly improved the vision as well as mental health, social engagement, and physical functioning of older adults. However, increases in work participation were very limited, likely reflecting the advanced age of the patients (mean = 76 years); in addition, possibly, to cumulative impacts of blindness on ability to work or on household assets. Earlier surgery may lead to larger economic effects.

BackgroundDepression and anxiety are common in visually impaired and blind adults, but often remain untreated in those who receive support from low vision service (LVS) organizations. This study aims to determine factors associated with discussing mental health by LVS workers.MethodsA self-administered cross-sectional survey in one hundred LVS workers was performed. Data on current practice, symptom attribution, and determinants of the Integrated Change Model (i.e. predisposing and environmental factors, awareness, attitude, self-efficacy, social influence, confidence and barriers) were investigated. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine predictors of discussing mental health problems in this population. Subsequently, internal validation was conducted using a bootstrapping method.ResultsAround 80% of the participants often discussed mental health with clients. Five factors were found to predict discussion of mental health: female gender (OR = 4.51; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.98 to 21.61), higher education (OR = 3.39; CI 1.19 to 9.66), intention to discuss mental health problems (OR = 3.49; CI 1.20 to 10.15), higher self-efficacy (OR = 1.11; CI 1.02 to 1.20), and higher perceived social influence (OR = 1.15; CI 1.05 to 1.27). Good discrimination after internal validation was reflected by the area under the curve (0.850).ConclusionsPrevious studies indicate clients want healthcare providers to initiate discussions about mental health. However, still 20% of LVS workers do not discuss suspected depression or anxiety. In order to improve this, LVS organizations could address mental health as part of their care and provide training to ensure intention to discuss mental health problems, improve self-efficacy and create a supportive environment between colleagues.

Auditory memory in congenitally blind adults: a behavioral-electrophysiological investigation

Introduction: The prevalence of visually impaired in Indonesia has increased significantly every year. The visually impaired condition is often used by unscrupulous persons to become victims of criminal acts because of their powerlessness. Blind people need resilience to survive in the conditions experienced. There have been many studies on resilience in the blind in general, but none has specifically reviewed the visually impaired adult male. This study aims to reviewed resilience factors of visually impaired adult male.Methods: The researcher used the scoping review method to get a clear picture of resilience factors of the blind adult male. Literature search was carried out using search keywords visually impaired, resilience factors, adult male blind. The database used is Scopus, PUBMED and Google Scholar. Articles inclusion criteria are articles reviewed of publication in the last 10 years (2010-2020), full and specific text are available with research question about the resilience of male blind adult.Result: Based on the identification, there were 166 articles from search engines Scopus, PUBMED and Google Scholar. There were six articles that match the criteria after going through the selection process. Resilience has many factors such as the environment, family and individual. The researcher used the PEO question format (population, exposure, outcome) to find related research articles.Conclusion: Blind people have more serious challenges in building resilience, so further studies need to be done to make interventions to help build resilience for male blind adults.

The purpose of this research was to examine the role of expertise (as a result of previous training) in the use of raised line materials, and of visual experience by blind adults (congenitally, early and late blind), by means of tasks involving size estimation of common objects and length estimation. Results showed that, depending on the size of the objects, most participants were more successful in size estimations of common objects than in length estimations. They also showed an effect of visual experience in common object size estimation and an effect of expertise in length estimation. The results on length estimation suggested that, in this type of task, the advantage provided by prior expertise in raised line materials could surpass the one generally brought by the duration of visual experience. The findings suggest that blind people could improve their spatial mental imagery through being encouraged to use raised line materials.

Background: Visually impaired people is one of the most common disabilities in Indonesia. The number of visually impaired people in Semarang City based on the data of Central Bureau of statisic 2015 was 806 people. Sudden blindness can lead to depression, improper self-perception, decreased levels of motivation, and low self-esteem. The existence of Sosial support is one of the ways to help blind people spared from those impacts. Sosial support helps to deal the blind people with problems that relate to physically, psychologically, and sosially.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between sosial support and self-esteem in the former blind adult in Semarang.Method: The research uses non experiment quantity method with correlation method. The sampling technique use 50 correspondent of total sample. Data collection using a sosial support questionnaire and Coopersmith Self Esteem Inventory (CSEI). Results: The results showed that there was a correlation between sosial support and self-esteem of blind adults in Semarang with positive direction. Sosial support has an important role to increase self-esteem, the higher sosial support given the higher self-esteem of the blinds people get. The community is expected to be a provider of sosial support for fellow community members to increase self-esteem of the former visually impaired.

Scripts for the blind use touch as a substitute for vision. A number of different systems have been proposed at various times. But braille is undoubtedly the script most commonly used by blind people throughout the world. It is taught to visually handicapped children in India, in Japan, in Russia, in all the countries of continental Europe, as well as in the English speaking world. Most studies of reading by blind children and adults have been on braille. Braille is, consequently, the main focus in this chapter. Two other systems, “Moon” (simplified capital letters), and the “optacon” (vibrotactile stimulation of the fingertip) are discussed briefly. But braille (characters based on a six point matrix) is of special interest for understanding how touch functions. This chapter considers how the perceptual and orthographic basis of a tactual reading system relates to the language which it is intended to convey, and how it is acquired.

This qualitative study explored perceived oral health, felt need, oral health knowledge and behaviors, and utilization of dental services among a community of deaf and blind adults in Toronto, Canada. Seven adults participated in in depth interviews facilitated by intervenors skilled in communication with people who are deaf and blind. Subjects reported that their oral health was good, however oral health knowledge was poor and daily oral hygiene practices were minimal. Few subjects had ever received dental health education and were largely unaware of how to prevent dental disease. A subsidized dental program enabled subjects to have regular dental visits, though they were concerned about the costs of more complex dental treatment not covered by the program. They also worried about finding an alternative source of care once their eligibility for the program ceased at the age of 65. The presence of the subsidized sympathetic dental program and the facilitative role of intervenors promoted utilization of dental care for many of the subjects who participated in this study. There is a clear need to develop appropriate dental health education programs for this group of people, which would harness the support of the community of deaf and blind people and their intervenors. The interventions need to be sensitive and appropriate for the individual's level of impairment.

Thinking about seeing: Perceptual sources of knowledge are encoded in the theory of mind brain regions of sighted and blind adults

Blind Canadians experience higher rates of unemployment, social isolation, and poverty than sighted Canadians. Examining what influences opportunities can help to identify the factors that disable blind people. During initial analysis, stigma and ocularcentrism emerged as important factors. Thus, this article examines how stigma operates culturally, socially, politically, and economically to shape opportunities among blind adults. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six legally blind participants (visual acuity of 20/200 or below), aged 19–65 years. Thematic analysis was employed to understand the common and diverging narratives of participants. Within participant narratives, ocularcentrism is found to contribute to stigmatization at societal, interpersonal, and internalized levels. Opportunities are experienced within this context, and the stigmatization experienced both shaped and was shaped by participation in activities. It is imperative that a closer look is given to how stigma shapes the opportunities for blind people, so that individuals, teachers, practitioners, and policy makers can develop relevant and effective interventions and can challenge stigmatization.

Pictograms are used in all domains of our daily life, in orientation maps in particular. They can be depicted visually or tactilely (in relief) for blind people. The problem is that these existing pictograms are not standardized. The aim of this study was to develop a range of visuotactile orientation pictograms, which would be understandable by all population including adults, children, elderly, foreigners and visually impaired people. We conducted three studies: Study 1 aimed to make sighted users (adults and children) evaluate a set of visuotactile pictograms designed initially for blind users’ in relation with their tactile capacities and mental representation. The results show that many of these pictograms proved to be too specific to be understandable by the general population. To complement these data, we analyzed the impact of colours on the understanding of pictograms by sighted users (Study 2). Finally we conducted a series of creativity workshops with sighted adults, blind adults and sighted children (Study 3) in order to generate a new set of universal visuotactile pictograms. This research contributions are twofold: From a methodological viewpoint, we experienced and observed the limitations of two approaches (top-down and bottom-up) to design universal pictograms. From a practical viewpoint, we provide a set of universal visuotactile pictograms for orientation maps.Relevance to industry: Both the methodological insights and the design results can be useful to practitioners. The new set of universal visuotactile pictograms can be used by signalists to design accessible orientation maps.