I Scream For This Belated Ice Cream Post

by Kevin Burton    If I  say “better late than never” do you say “amen”?      Well in this case, my wife does.    National Ice Cream month was last month, July, not August.  That I didn’t squeeze out a participatory post in honor of the occasion is a black mark against my blogging record. …

Device Helps Blind Musicians Communicate

by Katie Geleff CBC Radio    A PhD student in Ottawa has developed a device that allows blind and low-vision students to feel music cues, replacing the need to see them.     Instead of having to follow a conductor’s baton, or a teacher’s hand gestures during a lesson, music learners can receive instruction through a …

Significant Words About Insignificance

by Kevin Burton    You may not have heard of some of the words on today’s list from Merriam-Webster, especially the first one.    The dictionary is serving up words about insignificance. But the first offering is from my childhood days at the Ohio State School for the Blind.    I may have heard this …

Blind Hong Kong Men Pulled Off Airplane

by Emily Hung South China Morning Post    Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways’ budget wing, HK Express, became embroiled in controversy after two visually impaired passengers said they were forced off a flight, triggering outrage from a campaign group for the blind.    But HK Express denied that the men had been forcibly removed and insisted …

Blind Architect Designs Accessible Spaces

by Lauren Beavis South West News Service    Emily Annakin has lost most of her sight through Stargardt disease – a form of juvenile macular degeneration which means she has no central vision.    She is now a UWE Bristol Architecture and Planning student and as part of her final degree course redesigned part of …

Blinded Ukrainian Commander Helps Others

by ABC World News (LVIV, Ukraine) — Col. Oleh Avtomeenko was wounded while performing a combat mission in Donetsk region, in the first days of the Russian full-scale invasion in late Feb. 2022, and lost his eyesight.    And now, after 20 years in the Ukrainian Army, he has to say goodbye to it and …

Feds: Pepsi Discriminated Against The Blind

by Kevin Burton    If you’re looking for something to drink, or somewhere to work, choose Coke, not Pepsi.    According to multiple published reports, PepsiCo hired a blind man for a call center, then fired him rather than get him a screen reader – even after a state vocational rehabilitation counselor offered to buy …

Far From Being Obsolete, Braille Is Essential

by Tracy Conly    (Tracy Conly is a longtime friend from our days at the Ohio State School for the Blind, a great Braille reader and advocate for the blind. This is her reaction to our March 15 story “A New Tool In The Fight For Braille Literacy.”)    “Braille changes lives. It gives thousands …

Come On Cavs! Recalling Miracle Of Richfield

by Kevin Burton    Some memories have a soundtrack and this one has the best.       On April 29, 1976 the Cleveland Cavaliers played in what they now call The Miracle of Richfield. It was the first playoff berth for the Cavs, who were born as an NBA expansion team in 1970. In the first …

Blind Nebraska Woman Denied Postal Delivery

by Kevin Burton    Dialogue magazine for the blind used to have a column called Abapita. Abapita is an acronym standing for “ain’t blindness a pain in the anatomy.”    Sadly that magazine stopped publishing in 2019.  Also sadly, for the blind, the pain in the anatomy continues.    I get all manner of news …