I have been Legally Blind all my life, due to a faulty gene.  My husband and
I are both VERY involved with Free and Accepted Masonry.  There are ALOT of
elderly people in these great organizations.  Alot of them begin to lose
functionality / become disabled due to getting older and acquiring things
like diabetes.  I see, first hand, how difficult, if not impossible, it is
for some of these people to EVER adjust.

They have lived their ENTIRE lives with certain things functioning, then
those things quit.  They DON'T have the "support systems" that we, the
lifetime disabled, have.  Because I have been Legally Blind all my life, my
other senses have stepped up to the plate.  The elderly that find themselves
in my position don't have that kind of luck.

I have talked woth many, many elderly people and helped them get services
that they are clueless about.  (Books on tape, free Directory Assistance,
magnification devices, telescopic devices, etc.)  I have given them ideas on
work-arounds for some everyday things they find themselves having enormous
amounts of trouble with.  For those of us that have been disabled since
birth or childhood, we REALLY ought to step up and help these people, NOT
judge or criticize them.  I know that if I lost my hearing now, I would be
in VERY, VERY big trouble and I would hope someone with a lifetime hearing
problem would be willing to help me adjust.

Mary Blanton

Leslie Fairall wrote:

> If I had a new disability, I might not have all of the correct
> information either. Acquiring a disability later in life is very
> traumatic for anyone. It's real easy to criticize when nothing is
> happening to you.
>
> VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
> To join or leave the list, send a message to
> [log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
> "subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
>  VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
> http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html