-: Whether you're looking for practical tips or motivation
and encouragement, our guests give info that can help.
In this episode, we share clips from our most popular
episodes of 2025.
I'm Ricky Enger and this is Hadley Presents.
If you're new to the show
or if you've been listening for a while now,
you might be surprised at the range
of topics we discuss here.
I think Hadley Presents is like a box of chocolates.
You never know what you're gonna get.
With this episode, we will revisit some of the conversations
that we've had over the last 12 months.
It's a really great blend of some very practical solutions
to things that you might be trying
to figure out in your daily life with vision loss.
And also we touch on things
that you might be feeling just navigating through some
of these complex emotions that you might have
and what better place to begin than
with some tips on cooking.
Let's first hear from Don
and Dia with some encouragement on how to get started.
-: I would say just give it a try
and start slow.
That's a huge part of this.
To start out slow, use your microwave for some of the things
and then use your toast oven or use your oven.
Whatever you're more comfortable doing.
You can use your crockpots, you can use all of your,
you know, gadgets.
I would say to people that are scared to start
to just to start slow.
And if you have a helper,
that will also give you more confidence to point out things
and to show you things that would make it easier
for you to be confident about booking.
-: That's great. And Don, what about you?
-: Well, you start out slow and you see what can I do?
How can I work? And if it doesn't work,
is there a way I can make it work?
You know, how, how can I do this differently
that I can do this safely?
And you just have to think about it.
You know, it's, it's not just thinking outside the box,
it's also thinking inside the box.
You know, what do you have available for you?
You know, all the stuff that I have except for the,
the two talking elements that I already had
and I was using since, you know, I was 17 years old.
But yeah, you, you just think about it
and don't get frustrated.
If you get frustrated with it, just stop
and say, okay, let me try something different.
Sure. It's a little sloppy, but it still tastes good.
-: Awesome. And now how about some practical tips
for making your kitchen experience less stressful?
-: My two main pots are enamel coated, cast iron,
12 inch skillet, and a 10 inch five cord dutch oven.
And what's great about those is first you don't get heat
coming up the sides.
The top parts with handles are, don't really get that hot
because of the, the way the induction range works.
And in the beginning I could see the inside
because it was white, so that really helped out.
But I can also stir with one hand, pour in with another hand
and it's not gonna spin around.
They're heavy, but you know, that's
what I use mainly for my cooking.
So I don't get the burn,
but I only cook one thing at a time.
'cause if I make more than one thing at a time,
then when I put something down,
I'll go to do something else.
I'll have no clue what that, that item was
that I just put down on the, on the table.
Yeah. And I cook everything like it's a stir fry.
So I, everything that I'm gonna add
to something is already put into a bowl measured out.
'cause I measure everything
or I, I don't use measuring cups.
I use the weight on everything except for measuring spoons
for spices and stuff.
But everything else is done by by weight.
And so I have all that stuff lined out
and finger bowls are bigger bowls and it's all in a line.
So when I start going, I just put all that in there
and I don't stop and grab something off the shelf
because again, you're trying to do that
and you got something cooking.
So I just, I don't know, it's just like a robot.
-: I love how everyone has different approaches to this.
And so one tip that Don just gave is
to have everything ready to go before you even start.
And that way you're not frantically hunting
around in your kitchen to try and find something.
Dia, what about for you?
What would your tips be
that have really helped you the most in terms
of figuring out how to stay relaxed, have fun,
and get what you need to get done in the kitchen?
-: As Don said, I also put everything out on the counter
as I know what I need.
All my spices, all my refrigerated items,
and I keep those on the counter and then I add those.
So that's one of the things I line up everything.
So my three items that I absolutely love, love,
love are, I have a lot
of countertop lights that I work with.
I have a light, a gooseneck light that is mobile
and I can point that over the pot on top of the stove.
So it helps me to judge if I'm making soup.
I know how much liquid or oil that comes to the surface.
I have to skim off my lights are my life. I adore them.
And I have at least 10 lights around the counter right now.
And they're always on during the day.
They help me to see where I'm walking
and also, especially when I'm cooking.
So that's the one thing.
And the second thing is I use my hand a lot.
I feel, I feel what's on the counter.
I use my hand for measuring.
And that's something that my mother did that I never did
when I had vision and now I'm using that again.
And that's really interesting that, you know, it's kind
of a full circle thing.
And then my third thing is I have an electric stove,
which I'm not fond of,
and I keep the electric burners on low
and then I slowly turn them a little higher
and I stand over the item that I'm cooking.
I don't walk away and it's pretty boring.
But I have to do that.
I have to slow down
and learn that I can't walk away like I used to.
Somebody told me this, which is quite interesting.
If you lose your sight
or you lose any of your senses, your other senses kick in.
So my hearing kicks in
and my tastes kick in a great deal more than they did
before when I had vision.
So that's usually what works for me.
As I said about the lighting, that's so, so important.
And then one of the most important things that I am finding
is to take inventory in your cabinets.
Instead of buying another olive oil container,
look in the cabinet, you probably have one.
Or look in the cabinet, you probably have garlic powder.
I have like four garlic powders right now
and I keep buying them because I didn't know that I had them
because I can't see them.
So that's kind of another little tip.
-: You know, one of the things we hear a lot from our
listeners is that they feel like it's harder
to leave the house.
You know, there are new logistics to consider,
plus it might feel overwhelming
because there are really just a lot of unknowns.
We were delighted to have James Ashworth,
who is vice president
of customer care at Southwest Airlines, as well
as a low vision traveler himself.
And James talks through some
of these unknowns with air travel.
First let's hear some tips for when you get to the airport,
-: Because every airport, you know,
operates somewhat independently,
but most airline employees, the, the obviously Southwest
for sure, and then the airlines that I've flown,
they will help you navigate
getting in and outta the airport.
But basically what you do
is you let them know if you have accessibility needs,
so the personnel at the airline will be aware of
what your accessibility is.
And then they would know when James Ashworth walks up
and checks in, they can look at the p and r
and know, hey, you know, there's an accessibility need.
They can ask you what, what services you might need
or what help you might need getting around the airport.
-: That's great. We talked about getting to the airport
and to your plane and such.
And presumably you're traveling with some kind of bag,
maybe it's a carry on, or maybe you've done checked baggage.
Do you have any thoughts whether they are technical in
nature or not, about
how people can find their bag once it's
time to grab it?
-: Yeah, you know, this is where I can get real creative.
You can use tactile markers on your particular bag.
If you check a bag, depending on your level of vision,
you can use a color striping.
I've seen that done before.
Those are what I'd call, you know,
non-technical if you will.
And then there are some more
advanced things that you can do.
Like air tags.
-: Yeah, yeah, yeah, -: Yeah. Recently I've talked
to individuals and I, I have an air tag
inside my bag if I have to check it.
But air tags are easy to help you locate.
And there's other pieces of technology
that you could stick in your bag
that you can use apps on your phone to
and audible alert inside your bag to help you locate it.
Because I think anyone who's nervous
or has trepidation, I would encourage you
to maybe the first time you travel,
maybe travel with somebody.
If you're like me
and there are airports that you frequent, I can assure you
that you will have more confidence the more you go in
and out of a particular airport.
You'll just get familiar with the airport layout,
you'll get familiar with the concessions.
And when things are different, you'll recognize it,
you'll be able to ask.
I think that builds confidence.
And so I, I would absolutely encourage your listeners
to just try it. Give it a try.
-: I totally agree, James, if this is something
that you wanna do, just jump in and do it.
Of course, that's way easier said than done.
And that's not always
because you're nervous or you're hesitant.
Sometimes it's about just not feeling motivated,
not caring about doing those things.
Even if it might be something that you used
to be really enthusiastic about.
It turns out that those feelings can be really common
after a major life change like vision loss.
We had a fantastic conversation with ophthalmologist,
Dr. John Shepherd about this.
You might not even realize you have depression.
And if you do, the method of addressing
that depression might be a lot different than you think.
Let's take a listen. Are there things
that people can do when
that depression is definitely related directly
to this vision loss that they've got?
-: You bet. So if you are discussing this
with your primary care doctor,
they do have different options available to them.
Certainly there are a number of different medications
that can medically treat depression.
The primary care Dr. May refer you
to a counseling professional, a mental health professional
who basically can administer different therapies.
One example is something called cognitive
behavioral therapy.
And these can be very helpful to address the depression.
I would say though,
and I think in terms of your bringing this up,
and this is so relevant, if the irreversible vision loss is,
is a big part of the cause of depression,
then low vision rehabilitation services have been
studied in regards to treating depression
and have been shown to be extremely helpful.
Now, what are low vision rehabilitation services?
So to give you an example,
I'm a low vision rehabilitation specialist.
So I'm a board certified ophthalmologist.
You typically go to the eye doctor
to manage your eye disease and prescribed glasses.
So that's not the work that I do.
I actually manage the impairment caused by the vision loss.
So when a patient comes to my office,
there is a about a two hour initial visit.
And during that time, we're doing a lot of things.
First of all, we're doing an extensive functional history
to understand what areas
of daily living the individual is having challenges
because of the irreversible vision loss.
We then look at how they're adjusting
and adapting to the vision loss.
And that's where I will always administer a
depression scale test.
So I can talk directly to the patient in my exam chair,
if there is a reason that they need to see someone else,
like the primary care doctor to address that,
we can have a compassionate discussion about that.
I will do a test to evaluate the quantity
and quality of the patient's remaining vision.
So it helps me to know what they have to work with.
And then we work with the wealth of resources
that are available to the patient.
So this can be adaptive equipment, magnifying tools,
telescopic lenses to electronic magnifiers,
head borne video eyewear, working with computers
and smartphones, addressing the challenges
and seeing what types of adjustments can help people
to move forward
and do the best that they can
with the vision that they have.
So in my office, I'll develop a rehabilitation plan
and I have occupational therapists that work alongside of me
that can implement the plan.
And they do that in the patient's home.
And they do it in the office where they're working
with adaptive equipment with the patients in the areas
of daily living in which they're struggling.
They can suggest modifications
that can be made in the environment in their home
to help them to live as safely as they can.
We also will discuss other services available in the
community and online resources such as Hadley,
wonderful online resources.
And that way you can become familiarized with all the things
that can equip you to deal with these challenges
as best as you can.
And those types
of services make a dent on depression.
And so you may need the medical treatment,
you may need the counseling,
but being aware of the resources
and managing the challenges caused
by reversible vision loss certainly goes at the core
of why depression with irreversible vision loss occurs.
And so it's a, it's a wonderful treatment, if you will.
-: I really like how Dr. Shepherd frames this, you know,
addressing some of those practical challenges
that are keeping you from doing
what you wanna do can be such a relief
and it can leave you feeling a lot more hopeful about doing
the things that you used to really enjoy.
I think a big part of that is finding the right tools
that are gonna work for you.
So that's something that comes up a lot on Hadley presents.
We like to introduce people to new tools
and we like to explore some of those things that have been
around for a while, but that people just may not know about.
Sam Sevy from The Blind Life YouTube channel always has such
great info on this kind of thing,
whether it's high tech gadgets
or maybe something a little simpler.
So we asked him to share some of his favorite tools with us
-: At the nonprofit where I work is it's usually
people losing vision later in life due to some some reason.
And so they're brand new to this,
they have no idea about it.
They don't know how to navigate those waters.
And a lot of them, they don't necessarily want
to dive fully into this, into this world.
-: Yeah. - And they, and they don't, you know, they,
they don't have these these grand goals of, you know,
I'm gonna be a a a tech wizard and, and know everything.
And they just want to, they just want some
solutions for everyday life.
-: That's exactly right.
-: Yeah. And so I, I love to focus on those types of things.
And one thing I, especially for people with low vision,
one thing I recommend quite often is the, the,
the old school tried
and true monocular, it's, it's one of the first tools
that you're introduced to when you start to lose vision
and can be very helpful for a wide variety of things.
A monocular, if anybody's curious is well just,
just one half of a pair of binoculars.
You, you take one of them like a telescope
and shrink it down to something handheld,
something portable, and you've got a monocular.
But they're, they're, they're super versatile.
They could be used for distance viewing, they could be used
for, for near viewing.
I know a lot of people that will use them to,
to see their computer screens, to read with,
to watch television.
It's just, it's just a wide variety of things
that they could be useful for.
And, and oftentimes you can even get put 'em on a lanyard,
wear 'em around your neck.
They're very low key.
You know, they just fit in the palm of your hands.
So if you're, if you're concerned about being out in public
using some type of, of big, bulky attention drawing device,
you don't have to worry about that with a, with a monocular.
-: We do have a tendency
to talk a lot about smartphones on the show,
but we also know they can be really intimidating.
Let's hear Sam's take on that.
Do you have some thoughts for things
that have been made a little bit easier
for you when it comes to technology
that might actually be motivators for people?
-: I run into this all the time, I'm sure you guys do
as well, especially working with, like I said, people
that maybe aren't, aren't tech savvy
and they're new to all of this
and we're trying to stress to them
how helpful this would be.
You know, if we just dedicate some time to it,
it's gonna be incredibly helpful for you.
But I always like to point out that, you know,
it can be overwhelming, especially when you're like, okay,
we're jumping on the computer and we're gonna learn this,
or we're learning the smartphone.
And then you start to say, oh,
it can do this and it can do that.
It can do this and here's where it can help you.
And it can be overwhelming for this, this new user.
So I always like to stress, okay, baby steps.
You don't have to learn all of this right now.
I do this a lot whenever I'm teaching mobile screen readers.
'cause that's one of the things I work on a lot with, with
with clients, is learning a mobile screen reader,
like voiceover talk back
and I say, you know, it can do a lot of things.
There's a lot of gestures, two finger,
three finger forefinger, you know, zigzag swiping,
double tapping, triple tapping, all of this stuff.
But you don't need to know 99% of that.
I've been using it for years.
I'm an expert on all these things
and I don't even use 99% of that stuff.
Let's focus on the foundational skills, the,
the fundamentals here, these three gestures, that's 95% of
what you're gonna need is these three gestures.
So let's just baby steps, let's take it slowly
and just focus on this right now
and then we can build on the other stuff later.
But I think that helps for a lot of people.
It, it kind of helps to calm the anxiety
and put it a little bit into perspective.
Quite often working with clients, they say, well,
I just want to, I just wanna be able to delete emails.
I was like, okay, yeah, I get that,
but I'm gonna teach you these gestures first
because then you'll be able to delete those emails,
but you'll also be able to go on Facebook,
you'll also be able to check your voicemail.
It, it opens up a whole other world of possibilities as soon
as we just learn these couple of little gestures.
-: Thank you Sam. You are absolutely right about that.
Now because we're talking technology, we pretty much have
to talk about ai.
It's a topic that comes up again and again
and people really wanna know about it,
but not just kind of the hype with it.
Is it actually a youthful thing,
particularly when it comes to vision loss?
So Eric Boli from Second Sense in Chicago, along
with Steve Kelly from Hadley joined us earlier this year
and we had a great conversation where we drilled down
and showed specific scenarios
and specific AI tools
that might work best in those scenarios scenario.
Here's just a little sample of that conversation.
So here's something I struggle with,
and this is probably one
that I will ask family members more often than
anything else.
What is this mystery box in the pantry
or you know, the mystery bottle in the fridge.
Is there a good way that the two of you have
for doing this using maybe one of these tech tools?
-: I do. And it's, it's actually a two part answer.
So a lot of those products have either barcodes
or QR codes on them
that you can use the product identifier in seeing
AI to be able to see.
And if it will read that, then it works for you.
And if it can't read it,
it'll tell you that it can't read it.
Well at that point you can just switch channels
and use the read function
and it will read whatever is on
that particular container or box.
-: That's right. And seeing AI wins again,
because this is
what I do when I feel like I have a little more than 10
seconds because sometimes it is a challenge to find
that barcode or to read the text on
that round can,
and this again goes back to efficiency.
Do you opt for the, I'm going
to do this with AI
or optical character recognition or what have you?
Or do I involve a human?
Now the one thing that I do is meta glasses,
and this is something they're surprisingly good at
for a tool that was not built for this purpose,
it will use a combination of looking,
maybe it glimpses a part of the logo
and it glimpses a bit of the text
and it will put that together
to make a pretty good guess of
what this product is that you're holding.
So that would be just saying, Hey, meta
what's in front of me?
Or what product am I holding?
And the fact that it's hands free makes
that a really nice option as well.
-: You know, over the years I've used a, a number
of different code readers,
and like you, Ricky,
I think I found them challenging in the sense that you,
you either have to spin it around a couple of times,
you've gotta be able to see at least have a general idea
where the code is and they've gotten much faster again to,
to, to repeat the usefulness of
that has been particularly good with that.
And like Eric was saying, just with the, the reed function,
you know, you catch a couple words
and boom, you know, it's a, it's a can of soup
and it's tomato soup.
-: How do people think in general about which
tool to choose?
Are there, are there criteria that you can mention
that might help in that decision making process?
-: So I, I think one of the key things is
that it's user dependent.
So each person's vision loss is their own and,
and how they need supports
and assistance is different from the next person.
And, and that's not just a function of
do they still have residual vision or not,
but all sorts of varieties in that.
Right? So what I recommend to my clients is
that they use each of these in different environments so
that they can see how well they work for them
and then use that experience of their own
to help define which tool they're gonna use
in what scenario.
Because sometimes people find one interface easier
to work than the other one,
or they may find
that their day-to-day usage needs require something
different from the other one.
So I I have them explore each of these when they can
and make a decision from there.
-: Yeah, I was just gonna say, Eric, I think you're so right
that the whole person dependent thing is, is really critical
because there are a lot
of tools out there and we're all different.
So, you know, these tools are gonna work differently
for different people and the thing to do is to figure out,
you know, which one works best for you.
And you know, the last thing I I I would add is
as I was looking over the list
and thinking back through, you know, like the, you know,
how I've, I've done things in the past, I just realized
that there, you know, as somebody
who had pretty decent vision for, for quite a while,
there's a certain amount of this
that really touched my self-esteem.
You know, so I was really reluctant sometimes to try some
of this, this stuff that, that, you know,
the handheld magnifier
or some of the other, even some of the,
the smartphone stuff out in public
around people at a cash register or whatever.
And you know, I I, I just realized today it's like,
you know, just like that I'll just say, oh, you know,
I don't see, well, can you read that to me?
Can you, can you prompt me
or, you know, give me some guidance or something like that.
And that's so dramatically different than
what it was like say 15 or 20 years ago.
So, you know, kind of again, what,
what you were both saying, it's like, relax, take a breath
and, you know, we all do these things in different
ways and it's okay.
You know, just figure out your your own way
and don't, don't let it steal your,
that's the other important thing.
-: I always love it when that happens.
We start out talking about something very practical.
You know, how to choose the right tech tool
and we do get great info on that,
but also we get to dive into some of those things
that you might be feeling about having to use a tool, having
to do things a little differently than you're used to.
And those are the kinds of conversations that we'll continue
to have on this show.
And if there's a topic that we haven't explored yet
and you really wish that we would let us know.
We have contact info at the end of the episode
and of course we'll also have links to the full episodes
for the clips that we've shared today.
You can find all
that in our show notes if you wanna check out the episodes.
And of course, each
of those episodes has their own show notes.
So it's a lot to dive into. But I hope you have fun with it.
Thanks again to our fantastic guests
and as always, thank you all so much for listening.
Got something to say, share your thoughts about this episode
of Hadley Presents, or make suggestions for future episodes.
We'd love to hear from you.
Send us an email at podcast@hadleyhelps.org.
That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T
at HadleyHelps.org
or leave us a message at
847-784-2870.
Thanks for listening.