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Aging and Blindness Literature Archive

The following links/articles are presented in chronological order from the most recent date, back to the earliest. Our material comes not only from Division's membership, but also from throughout the NFB family, and some trusted friends.

Please submit your work for consideration for our growing archive by using the following live email link. You can send questions and/or sample articles through the email link as well. Our review committee will respond to all emails. And thank you for your submissions!

Note: If you are submitting an article, please attach it to your email; the article needs to be ready for publication. It does not matter to us if your piece has already been published elsewhere.

Please follow this link to send your question or work.

Articles Published in 2024:

 

  • Seniors Making a Difference
    by Glenn Crosby
    Glenn Crosby is now a senior, and he has earned it. If there has been a job to do, whether locally, statewide, or nationally, Glen has been the man. A longtime state president and board member, he has now been elected to focus on blind seniors while at the same time being the kind of support for Norma, his wife and affiliate president, as she has been for him. Here is his report about the latest life-changing activity of the Senior Division.

Articles Published in 2019:

 

  • Ticked off at the Occupational Therapist
    by Lauren Merryfield
    Lauren has lived in several different care facilities for seniors, and has often met with professional workers who were ignorant about the human ability to successfully live with blindness; when possible, this blind senior teaches the care professionals, one at a time, to how we can live the life we want.

Articles Published in 2018:

 

  • Getting There
    by Lauren Merryfield
    Lauren uses both a long white cane and a walker. She shares her experience, highlighting how to handle people who question your style of independence; when feet don't work well, but the mind does.
  • Summery Report of the Seniors Division's Meetings at National Convention 2018
    A workshop on Emergency Preparedness; The annual business meeting; Sharing of a first timer's experience to Washington Seminar; Description of the first upcoming Seniors Division's blindness training retreat; State affiliate Senior Divisions members gave updates; and more!
  • Of Eggshells and A Living Room Rug
    by Lauren Merryfield<
    Lauren shares encounters she has with other seniors who have lost or are in the process of losing their sight and how they and their families are handling it.
  • Seeing
    by Lauren Merryfield
    Lauren explorers what seeing means; to both the sighted and to the blind.
  • How I Spent My Birthday
    by Ed McDonald
    Ed and his wife believe in the true integration of blind people, and what Ed did on his birthday shows how he makes it real in his life.

Articles Published in 2017:

 

  • Preparing His Granddaughter For A Life Without Sight
    by Jon Tevlin, a reporter, and author of this article
    David House is blind and now has a grand child who also is blind. David is making sure she grows up knowing that blindness does not mean you cannot live the life you want.
  • Summery Report of the Seniors Division's Meetings at National Convention 2017
    Sharing techniques about living with blindness as a newly blind senior; The annual business meeting, with many great presentations and much valuable information.
  • What Do They Say
    by Lauren Merryfield
    When I was young, I strongly believed that once blind people demonstrated to the sighted world that we could do a thing, we would be believed, and we could live the life we want without constantly having to confront doubt. It is many years later, and I feel quite...
  • Challenges of Aging
    by Annie Schlesinger
    Aging and blindness can be seen as an end to meaningful life, but not for this lady. See what an attitude and new skills do to aid her with these life changes.
  • Addressing the Needs of the Seniors
    by Barbara Pierce
    Barbara is working hard to find other blind seniors in her community. In this article, she says.... Retirement centers are a good place to search for these folks and recruit them to join us.

Articles Published in 2016:

  • Corky Canvas
    by Barbara Loos
    When facing what Barbara felt may be an impossible task, yet... she took it on again.
  • Senior Citizens Take on Senior Challenges
    by Ken Cary
    Blind just over ten years, and at seventy-five Ken should give all of us pause who say "I can't," or "I am too old."

Articles Published in 2015:

 

  • A Creation Story
    BY Joe Schissler
    I am writing this to show others, both blind and sighted, that it is possible to safely build a fairly complex piece of wood furniture without seeing what you’re doing.
  • A Costa Rica Adventure
    by Christine Hall
    When recently visiting Costa Rica, traveling abroad for sightseeing, cultural enhancement and fun, Christine shares with us on how it can be for a blind traveler.

Articles Published in 2014:

 

  • Joseph Ruffalo
    by Joseph Ruffalo
    This is the story of Joe's adjustment to blindness; learning how it feels to believed you have the ability to live the life you want.

Articles Published in 2013:

 

  • A Thank you from a reader
    by Estelle Shukert
    She wrote a thank you to the Braille Monitor in appreciation of what the magazine teaches us, and for giving us a medium to help or reach out to other blind people.
  • Art Schreiber Receives the Jacobus tenBroek Award
    by Ramona Walhof - At the 2013 National Convention
    Art was awarded a rare and special NFB honor for his long time leadership And accomplishments.
  • Children of Blind Mothers Learn New Modes of Communication
    by Elizabeth Norton
    Eye contact is one of a baby's most important aspects of learning communication skills. A new study shows that the children of sightless mothers develop healthy communication skills and can even outstrip the children of parents with normal vision.
  • A Blind Senior’s Journey to Independence
    by Diane McGeorge
    In his mid-sixty's Ruben started losing his sight, went through ten pairs of glasses, then... decided he had lost enough sight that he needed some help. Check out this guys complete story!
  • Crying My Eyes Out
    by Kate Smith
    I made low vision measures work for a long time, but once I had accepted that I needed to learn how to function without my vision, the next rational step was to blindfold myself and get a teacher to show me how to function that way.

Articles Published in 2012:

Articles Published in 2011:

  • Blind Leading the Non-Blind
    by Jim Belshaw
    When Art Schreiber was President of the NFB of New Mexico his friend, Jim Belshaw, a then radio personality, and contributor to the Albuquerque Journal. On March 29, 2000, an interesting and somewhat unusual account of the banquet evening of the NFB of New Mexico’s annual convention appeared under Belshaw's byline.
  • Legally Blind Melbourne Man Excels at Rebuilding Antique Autos
    by Chris Kridler
    Joseph Naulty is a deafblind gentleman in his late seventies, and has the hobby of restoring antique cars. The article concerning him appeared in the online magazine Florida Today.

Articles Published in 2000:

  • But the Others Majored in Music
    by Hazel Staley
    Hazel tells the story of her long struggle to change what it means to be blind. Her tail starts with the low expectations she experienced when enrolling into college, on through her long life of pushing against life's stream of everflowing ignorance about the human potential to live with blindness.
  • When to Stop Relying on Low Vision and Low Vision Aids
    by Norman Gardner
    Norman wrote this piece a few decades back, but tells us that all these truths are still valid.
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