Celebrating Thanksgiving – A Checklist for the Visually Impaired

November 26, 2020

#LIVE2.0 #Review

Thanksgiving is indeed one of the most anticipated festive events everyone looks forward to. At its heart, the festive day instills a deep sense of gratitude synonymous with “a day to give thanks and be grateful for everything you have.”

Though this year’s Thanksgiving will be celebrated during a pandemic crisis across the globe, it gives us more of a reason to be grateful and help our loved ones who are visually impaired or legally blind. Visual impairment can also be a source of deprivation that can limit the vision impaired from enjoying the simplest of things that normal people would casually indulge in.

But by no means should we allow the pandemic or vision loss to stop the festivities or steal our joy, so let’s begin to unfold all the excitement this special holiday has in store for us – which is all about delicious food, breaking bread together and, warm fuzzy feelings.

Thanksgiving Preparation Checklist for the Vision Impaired

1: Write a Customized Greeting Card

It’s always considered candid and a great gesture to personally write a side note or share a handwritten letter, giving it more feel. Depending on the level of vision, the visually impaired can still pursue this goal by using low vision solutions such as optical, non-optical devices, video magnifier that has the ability to toggle between near and distance, enabling you to adjust the magnification and contrast to your own liking. A portable tool so you can focus more on the emotion than the technical issues of writing and viewing the text.

Soft-lead pencils or pens with enhanced contrast can also come in-hand allowing for more creative freedom to be used. Braille (raised dots represent the letters of the alphabet) greeting cards are a meaningful medium to communicate a simple yet beautiful message to a friend or loved one who is visually impaired.

2: Enjoy a blockbuster or a Hollywood Classic with Family

Watching a Hollywood blockbuster or a classic movie just sounds like the most exciting way to spend quality time with family and friends on a holiday. A whole movie set-up comes into play for a movie screening with family and friends, gathered around the TV or LED Screen in cozy comfortable pajamas, sharing quilts, just increases the emotional bond with one another.

By choosing the appropriate device such as the wearable assistive devices, anyone in the family or friends with low vision can also see the same visuals broadcasted on the screen enabling them to enjoy watching a movie surrounded by loved ones. Thanksgiving for vision impaired can be made wholesome if they can overcome the limitations of sight to enjoy a TV show, so here are a few devices that can help overcome this limitation i.e. IrisVision, Jordy, NuEyes.

You can also tune in to watch which one of the turkeys from Corn and Cob will receive the Presidential Pardon for this year’s Thanksgiving Holiday or a current football match.

3: Make Time To Video Call Your Family Members & Friends Abroad

Getting a glance of your favorite cousin or best friend abroad has certainly been a delight to the eyes, but the advent of Covid-19 and its subsequent measures such as social distancing has given the masses more time to spend on their tablets, phones and, computers catching up with a loved one.

This thanksgiving, a surprise call to a loved one who may be suffering from low vision may be the best decision you’ve ever taken. The most renowned and popular amongst the disabled community is Zoom. The application is synonymous with providing a consistently high level of access. The comprehensive features provided on zoom include screen readers, magnification, and captions. Webex is also one platform that has gained a lot of attention over time. With its bold visual design, people with low vision are able to see as well utilize screen magnification software. Though it may have its demerits such as its interface elements have missing or confusing labels.

4: Read Your Favorite Book or Magazine

Reading is a way of enjoying being alone without being lonely, be it reading your favorite science fiction or just flipping across your old school yearbook. It has a way of engaging you in the most magical of ways either through the comfort of your favorite book or through an emotional connection with your favorite characters.

But reading can become an awfully daunting task if you suffer from low vision, so here’s how you can once again indulge in a spectacular reading experience. Through the use of optical devices visually impaired have the advantage of benefiting from raised magnification powers along with quality optics whereas the low vision non-optical devices comprise of reading stands, glare control sunglasses, typoscopes, etc. Electronic magnifying systems also referred to as (CCTV low vision aids) are available in a wide array of sizes and styles, featuring a camera system that magnifies and projects a visual on a monitor.

5: Prepare A Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving can’t be complete without a delicious appetizing feast. It’s safe to say that a turkey (roasted, smoked, brined, or fried) takes the center stage at the Thanksgiving feast. The second priority is to prepare the cranberry sauce, turkey gravy, mashed potatoes and, lastly the quintessential – pumpkin pie. With this kind of preparations, the feast cannot within a single day thus the luxury of treating yourself with turkey sandwiches, burritos, and casseroles for the rest of the weekend.

If you’re suffering from low vision then getting your hands on optical devices, or a wearable assistive technology headset would be the first pre-requisite, even before you go on to buy the ingredients. Through the utility provided by low vision aids, people with low vision can easily read or write lengthy grocery lists, shop for quality products after examination and, finally cook a delicious amazing feast. Wearable headsets like the IrisVision allow more mobility due to its portable feature, so you can freely roam around the kitchen mastering the art of cooking just like Gordon Ramsey.

These indoor fun activities are the safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, given the Covid-19 outbreak. But it is times like these where one should make a conscious effort to be inclusive and more attentive towards the disabled community. It’s best to gather at home and to restrict the number of guests to your immediate household. To break the vicious cycle that limits the vision impaired to celebrate and to enjoy the above-mentioned activities – IrisVision is one such low vision solution equipped with advanced technology that has introduced the components of virtual reality, a wide 70° field of view display, sharp colors, clear images with the magnification power of 12X zoom, helping visually impaired people regain their sight as well as their independence.