Given a chance to share in a way never available before, the first thing the three women did was swap recipes.
“They exchanged recipes for the first time in their lives and it was just a sense of being more independent,” said Leanne Stavenger, director of Donka, a non-profit organization that provides computer training and assistive technology to the disabled.
The three blind women she spoke of had been trained to use new computer technology that scans printed material and either converts it into Braille for a printout or uses a speech synthesizer to read it off the computer screen.
That computer technology was among the equipment and services exhibited Thursday at the first countywide Visually Impaired Awareness Day.
The conference was sponsored by the Visually Impaired Committee of the DuPage Center for Independent Living and was held at the College of DuPage.
Also among the exhibits from 18 businesses and service providers was computer equipment that enlarges words and images on a computer screen, movie videos like “The Godfather” and Indiana Jones stories that have voice descriptions of the scenery and characters, headgear that sends light to the eye’s retina to enhance direct vision, and information on training and education services.
“I think it’s a great idea to get into the community,” said Stavenger.
The numbers of those legally blind or visually impaired in the county is believed to have risen, said Don Davia, a rehabilitation teacher for the visually impaired for the Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services, and who is legally blind.
“This conference is very satisfying; it’s our very first beginning. The visually impaired community can realize that services are beginning to be developed out here, where before we had to look to Chicago,” Davia said.
“So many people are not aware of what technology is available and so many people are not aware of how many people are visually impaired,” said Donna Corson, a volunteer at Donka, who has been blind since age 3.
“Instead of sitting at home and doing nothing, it’s good to make them aware of the fact that there’s things they can do to improve the quality of their life, if nothing else than for entertainment.”