client and staff member meeting at a desk
Life Skills
From Orientation & Mobility and Braille to Keyboarding and Techniques of Daily Living, our life skills programs offer essential training to ensure an individual’s ability to live independently.
instructor showing a client how to use a magnifier
Assistive Technology
The Assistive Technology course is designed to equip students with a core set of technical skills. An initial assessment of proficiencies with computers, cell phones, Braille displays, notetakers, book readers, and GPS devices is used to develop a tailored learning experience for each student. With an individualized lesson plan and skilled instructors, clients are given the technical know-how they need to excel in the digital age.
Basic Communication & Adult Education
In our Basic Communication course, students must demonstrate capabilities that are, for the most part, used on a daily basis in society. Students are introduced to or reacquainted with how to make calls, using both landline and cellular telephones; how to set an alarm; composing notes or writing signatures when required; different currency identifiers and how to correctly identify them in the proper setting; the difference between a debit and credit card and how to use each; how to access and/or set up a bank account; and many more life skills.
Learn more on the Basic Communication & Adult Education webpage!
client and instructor sitting at a desk talking
client smiling using a braille display
Practical Braille Skills
Our Practical Braille Skills course provides students with the tools, motivation and instruction necessary to achieve their goals in Braille literacy. Each student will learn and develop skills essential to master Braille and incorporate it into their daily life. This course increases the student’s ability to read and write Braille. Upon admission to the course, the skill level and individual learning needs of each student will be assessed. With this information, individualized goals tailored to each student will be implemented to increase the student’s level of success. Students with prior knowledge and Braille skills will be placed at the appropriate level for their needs.
Keyboarding
In our Keyboarding course, clients will use a program called Typability, in conjunction with JAWS software, to learn the layout and proper technique for typing.
up close photo of a white keyboard
client leaning into a computer using a low vision aid
Low-Vision Aids & Print Reading
In our low-vision aids and print-reading course, we sit down with the student to determine magnifiers that best suit the student’s vision when reading for leisure and work. Students learn techniques to improve reading speed and build reading comprehension. The target threshold has been set at a reading speed of 100 wpm using 9th-grade level materials. The target threshold for reading comprehension is set at 75%, using 12th-grade level materials.
Orientation & Mobility
In our Orientation & Mobility training, we evaluate a person’s ability to travel safely and efficiently in various environments. We provide the necessary training and adaptive equipment enabling a person to do so. All O&M services are self-paced, flexible and individualized to assist the student to reach their short-term and long-term goals. Program time varies depending on skill retention, physical/cognitive limitations, concept development and motivation. Typically, a person with no prior O&M training and little to no useful vision will need three to six months of training to become as independent as their abilities permit. Students who have had previous training can complete the program in three to four weeks.
client and instructor walking side by side outside
client putting cookie dough on a tray
Techniques of Daily Living
Our Techniques of Daily Living (TDL) course works to offer students an opportunity to learn and enhance the skills that are needed to become more independent. This training teaches the fundamentals of self care, cooking and household cleaning that will aid students in taking better care of themselves. But our ultimate goal is for students to overcome some of their fears and apply what they have learned so they can become more independent as they strive to reach their goals and integrate safely back into their homes and into the workforce. Because we interact with students at various stages of development and life skills, our TDL class addresses students’ needs on an individualized basis. Course length is based on where the individual is at the time of entry and their needs, skill set, abilities and motivation/drive.
Senior Adjustment Independent Living (SAIL)
For the sector of more than 75 million aging baby boomers many are struggling with visual difficulties clouding their golden years with despair, isolation and darkness.
Our Senior Adjustment Independent Living (SAIL) program assists people who are blind or visually impaired clients to maximize and adapt to residual vision, and to discover how to continue living a healthy, independent and productive life despite their vision loss. This could mean learning how to use an iPad, iPhone, or other assistive technology. It could mean learning the safest ways to cook again or how to travel independently. This program is tailored to fit the individuals needs.
A small percentage of our clients decide while receiving services under this program that they can return to work, therefore reducing dependency on federal/state benefits or reliance on family members to care for them. If vision loss results in loss of work before the full retirement age of 66, these individuals may become one of the more than 70,000 individuals who meet the federal definition of legally blind and receive an estimated $459 million in SSI payments and reliance on benefits such as Medicaid, welfare, rental subsides or the need for long-term institutional care.
While little research or data has been published on the economic burden of vision loss among this population, in 2013 the National Institutes of Health estimated that visual disorders that lead to chronic, life-long costs will continue to increase as baby boomers continue to age and healthcare expenses rise.