The Outlook

Official Newsletter of the Sight-Loss
Support Group of Central PA, Inc

The Sight-Loss Support Group of Central Pennsylvania, Inc.
Turning Darkness into Light Since 1982

P.O. Box 782, Lemont, PA 16851
office@slsg.org www.slsg.org 814-238-0132

THE OUTLOOK Newsletter

Winter/Spring 2024

2nd THURSDAYS SUPPORT GROUP MEETINGS

February 8: Centre County Office of Aging, Overview of services. Presented by the agency’s director, Quentin Burchfield.
March 14: PA Able Program, a savings program for people with disabilities. Presented by Steve Shope, PA Department of the Treasury
April 11: Social meeting
May 9: TBA

Our 2nd Thursdays lunch group meets on the second Thursday of each month (thus the name) at Mount Nittany Residences, rain, snow, or shine. If you are new to vision loss or are an old hand, this is a good place to be. We always share a simple lunch, learn from one another, and enjoy each other’s company. We share our stories and experiences, learn about services and resources, and offer support to one another. We’re an informal group; sometimes we have a speaker, sometimes not. Occasionally we’ll arrange a special event: a play, baseball game, or special tour. We hope to meet you soon.

When: The second Thursday of each month, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm.
Where: Mt Nittany Residences, 301 Rolling Ridge Dr, State College, in the community room on the first floor.
Details: Lunch is provided and is “on the house.”

2nd Thursdays is a collaboration between the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services, North Central Sight Services, and the Sight-Loss Support Group of Central PA. Each month, staff members and clients from all three organizations come together and find common ground.

VIEW VIA VOICE, AUDIO-DESCRIBED PERFORMANCES

WINTER/SPRING 2024 SEASON

IT’S SHOW TIME!

Below are the instructions for signing up for audio description (AD), ordering tickets, procedures for attending these productions, and a list of upcoming shows.

1. You must order your ticket(s) at least two weeks before the Audio-Described (AD) performance.

• For all shows you must call Josie Kantner at the Sight-Loss Support Group, 814-238-0132 or sign up at the monthly Sight-Loss Support Group Luncheon. Indicate if you will need a ticket for your companion.

2. Each VIP (Visually Impaired Person) and one companion will receive one free ticket to attend, courtesy of the Sight-Loss Support Group. If you receive a free ticket, you MUST use the AD equipment.

3. When arriving at the venue for the show, report to the Audience Services Desk (Eisenhower) or the Audio Description table (The Playhouse and Pavilion Theatres) to pick up your AD receiver and earpiece. To pick up your AD equipment, look for a large AD Banner with the View Via Voice logo.

4. Remember to bring some form of identification to leave to obtain the equipment. If you do not have an ID, you may leave identification from your companion.

5. It is very important to report to your seat at least 15 minutes before the show starts, 7:15 for a 7:30 curtain and 1:45 for a 2:00 matinee. At that time turn on your receiver and use the earpiece to listen to the preshow notes. These notes give important information about the main characters, a synopsis, a description of the set and costumes and any other pertinent information. This is an important step to make sure that your equipment is working properly.

6. If you have any problems with your equipment, tell an usher, house manager or audio describer who will inform the Audio Description Equipment manager.

7. Notes for the second half of the show begin ten minutes before the end of intermission.

8. At the end of the show please return the equipment to the area where you initially received it and retrieve your identification card.

9. Rest assured that all equipment is sterilized after each use.

UPCOMING SHOWS

PIRATES OF PENZANCE: February 4, 2024, 2:00 PM
State College Area High School Thespians, SCAHS Auditorium
RESERVE TICKETS BY JANUARY 19th, 2024

According to Wikipedia, The Pirates of Penzance, by Gilbert and Sullivan, is a comic opera in two acts.

“The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets a daughter, Mabel of Major-General Stanley, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic soon learns, however, that he was born on the 29th of February, and so, technically, he has a birthday only once each leap year. His indenture specifies that he remain apprenticed to the pirates until his "twenty-first birthday", meaning that he must serve for another 63 years. Bound by his own sense of duty, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully.”

URINETOWN: Saturday, February 24, 2024, 7:30 PM
Playhouse Theatre on the Penn State Campus
RESERVE TICKETS BY FEBRUARY 8TH, 2024

A musical satire of the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, municipal politics, and musical theatre itself.

TARTUFFE: Saturday, March 23, 2024, 7:30 PM
Pavilion Theatre on the Penn State Campus
RESERVE TICKETS BY MARCH 7TH, 2024

Tartuffe is a sanctimonious scoundrel who, professing extreme piety, is taken into the household of Orgon, a wealthy man. Under the guise of ministering to the family’s spiritual and moral needs, he almost destroys Orgon’s family.

THE WHITE CANE: IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

By Josie Kantner

I moved to Bedford, PA from Cheyenne, WY in 1993; I was 43. I had lived with a steady, gradual decline in my vision since childhood from retinitis pigmentosa (a form of retinal degeneration). But my vision loss ran in the background of my life, being too busy raising a family and working to pay much attention to my declining vision. But in my 40s my vision loss began to take center stage. Surrendering my drivers license in Wyoming due to severely limited peripheral vision did get my attention. Once in Bedford, a small town where everyone knows everyone, the caseworker from the local PA Association for the Blind came to my door one day. Shirley Hackney told me I was legally blind, a term that takes some getting used to. She opened the gateway to the vision rehabilitation system that I had never heard of.

I was referred to the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services and a social worker, orientation and mobility instructor, and a vision rehabilitation therapist started paying me regular visits. I gladly learned new ways of sewing on a button, reorganizing my kitchen and closets, even mowing grass. I discovered new ways of reading and navigating my computer. I adored my new, powerful night light (actually, a deep-sea diving light) that allowed me to go for a walk alone at night, something I had never done before. Super awesome.

All good, as they say, until one day my mobility instructor shows up with a white cane. Now this was a bridge too far. I didn’t need a white cane – no way. My denial was visceral and immediate. I shrunk inwardly at the powerful symbolism of that cane - helpless, dependent, scared of blindness and all that it portends.

That was 25 years ago. It took time but I let the denial slip away and became a proficient cane user. I learned that how one feels about the white cane is in the eye of the beholder. My children thought the cane was awesome. When we travelled together at airports, they delighted in seeing the Red Sea part as people made way for the cane and its user. I became more independent, more secure with going places I had never been before. Rather than a sign of vulnerability, I came to realize that a white cane is empowering. I don’t need my cane in familiar settings but when going someplace new or traveling, it is always with me. It is a reassuring interface with the world.

So, if you too are shying away from learning to use a white cane, try seeing things differently. Perceptions are a choice. It’s not easy but we can change our thoughts and beliefs. Will your cane be friend or foe? Reluctant dragons do not tackle the world. Cane users, on the other hand, grab their canes and go wherever life takes them.

Below is information on Orientation and Mobility put together by Lindsey Palumbo-Gifford, O&M specialist with the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services. This information may help you decide if O&M instruction is for you.

IS ORIENTATION AND MOBILITY INSTRUCTION FOR ME?

Orientation and mobility is often referred to as O&M. Orientation is knowing where you are; mobility refers to travelling to where you want to go. An O&M specialist is the professional who teaches the skills needed for individuals with vision loss or blindness. What is taught is highly individualized, tailored to each client. Your personal preferences, health concerns and the environments you live or work in will be considered to develop the best instructional plan for you.

Commonly taught skills include:

Indoor protective techniques
Human guide – another person guides you
White cane skills – for independent travel
Street crossings
Transportation options – bus routes and more.

ORIENTATION AND MOBILITY: FACT OR MYTH

Myth: Only people with total blindness or no usable vision use a white cane.

Fact: Most white cane users have some vision. A few cane users can even drive during the day but need support at night.

Myth: I would have to use the cane all the time.

Fact: Many cane users are considered part-time cane users. They may only use it in crowds, crossing streets, or poor lighting conditions. If a white cane increases your safety or your comfort, you should use it.

Myth: I can train myself to use a white cane and/or cross a street.

Fact: Learning to navigate confidently and safely takes time, perseverance, and many hours of working with a skilled Orientation and Mobility Specialist. The O&M methods taught today were developed with World War II veterans who returned from the war without vision. The collaboration of men and women since, has developed precise skills to increase safety, independence, and comfort in many environments. Many clients find valuable information that increases their quality of life.

Myth: A dog guide is better than a cane, because the dog can tell when to cross the street.

Fact: The handler tells the dog when to cross the street. Most dog guide schools require the handler to have O&M training with a white cane before admitting them into the program to work with a dog.

PHONE APP AT PITTSBURGH AIRPORT HELPLS VISUALLY IMPAIRED

Navigating airports can be tricky. They’re loud, crowded and not always laid out intuitively. They’re even more challenging for visually impaired people. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute created a navigation app for Pittsburgh International Airport to help low vision and blind individuals find their way through the airport. The app provides turn-by-turn audio instruction to users on how to get to their destination, be it a departure gate, restaurant, or restroom.

Pittsburgh is one of a growing number of airports around the globe to provide wayfinding apps. The Pittsburgh app, called NavCog, was first used at the Carnegie Mellon campus and works almost like an indoor GPS. Typically, visually impaired travelers arrive at the Pittsburgh airport and request an escort. But escorts aren’t available until passengers check in. So, they must reach the counter on their own. The escort brings passengers to their gate and leaves. If you

want a coffee, wish to find a restroom, or if your flight is delayed it is difficult to manage. With NavCog you can find a gift shop or coffee shop or just wander around a bit.

The app is free to download. It works with the help of hundreds of Bluetooth beacons inside the airport to wirelessly communicate a user’s location. It relies on a map of the terminal that has been annotated with the locations of restrooms, restaurants, gates, entrances, and ticket counters. Users put in where they are going, for example, Gate A3. The app gives users audio instructions like “walk 20 feet and turn left” and gets them to their destination. The app also lets users know what stores they are passing, giving them a better sense of their surroundings and shopping options.

So, the next time you’re travelling through an airport, finding that coffee and decadent cinnamon bun will be a wish that can be fulfilled.

REMEMBERING HELEN MANFULL

By Josie Kantner

The world lost a beautiful soul last October. Helen Manfull had an inner light and she shared it abundantly with all who crossed her path. Theater was her life and she graced the Penn State School of Theater Department for 50 years. She was 89.

Helen crossed paths with the Sight-Loss Support Group in the early days of our audio-description program, View Via Voice. Newly retired from the School of Theatre, Helen took on a new challenge - making the performing arts accessible to the blind and low vision community. Recruited by our founder, Rana Arnold, Helen was a fledgling audio describer for the first audio-description program in Pennsylvania, begun in 1999 by the Sight-Loss Support Group. I met Helen shortly after moving to State College in 1998. Always an avid theater goer, I loved attending audio-described performances. Helen’s descriptions were masterful.

Helen came to Penn State in 1965 as a part-time, temporary instructor, following her husband Lowell to Penn State, a new professor in the School of Theatre. But Helen was not a follower; she evolved into a fabulous actress and a gifted teacher, writer, and director. Her love for the craft garnered her the Lindback Award for Outstanding Teaching, the coveted Lions Paw Medal, and was named an Honorary Alumna of Penn State for “outstanding and ongoing contributions to educating, mentoring, and inspiring Penn State students.”

Helen leaves a lasting mark on theater and countless students. Her innovative introductory class, Theatre 100, was the most popular introductory class at Penn State for years. There was always a full waiting list for her class. MFA graduate students would dramatize selected scenes to illustrate the lecture which covered theater from ancient Greece to modern times. It was the first such experiment in academic theater. Her production of “Our Town” is legendary at the School of Theatre (SOT). Long after her 1996 retirement from the university, Helen continued her theater career. Well into her 80s, she appeared in SOT’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 2019.

For fifty years Helen was a leading light in the School of Theatre. Colleague and friend, Charles Dumas wrote, “Helen loved her students and they loved her. She personified the selfless love a great teacher must have for her students.” That inner light carried her to the end of her days.

My path crossed Helen’s again at the retirement community, The Village at Penn State where she and my mother lived for many years and became friends. Both “died in the wool Democrats” with a keen interest in politics, Helen hosted informal Democratic get-togethers in her apartment. When my mother could no longer get to the dining room on her own, I became a frequent dinner guest at the Village, always a culinary treat. I often saw Helen dining with Penn State theater students. Snippets of conversation from the next table spoke of her keen interest in her students and her commitment to nurturing the next generation of actors. Still so full of life, she travelled to Machu Pichu, an ancient Incan citadel in Peru, situated at 8,000 ft. Oh that I should be so adventurous well into my 80s.

When my mother transitioned from independent living to skilled nursing care, Helen was still part of her world. For ten years, Helen held monthly poetry readings for the residents in the skilled nursing

and assisted living section of the Village. She told me it was her favorite thing to do. My mother loved poetry and never missed Helen’s readings. In the words of W.H. Auden, “Poetry lifts the veil

from the hidden beauty of the world.” Helen and my mother, two poetry lovers, appreciated that hidden beauty.

Helen was a lesson in living. She got it right – she crafted a passion into a life that was abundant and selfless, well lived beyond measure. It was a privilege to know her.

Sight-Loss Support Group

of Central PA, Inc.

P.O. Box 782

Lemont, PA 16851

THE OUTLOOK

Winter/Spring 2024

Archived Newsletters (pdf):

Winter 2024