Jennifer Ottowitz: Welcome to OIB-TAC’s monthly webinars, where our presenters share valuable information and helpful resources to support professionals working with older adults who are blind or vision impaired. Let's check out this month's webinar. 

Kendra Farrow: Welcome to our webinar, Lessons for Living: A Free Resource to Enhance Services. My name is Kendra Farrow, and I am the Project Director for the Older Individuals who are Blind Technical Assistance Center. The Lessons for Living with Vision Loss book was developed by the Older Individuals who are Blind Technical Assistance Center over five years ago and then updated in 2020 to its current version. 

It contains 19 lessons or chapters. And these each address a practical area that someone who is due to their vision, impairment, or blindness might want to have… be thinking those questions that they would want to have addressed. This book was originally developed by a vision rehabilitation therapist named Linda Jones. She is blind herself.  

And then it was updated by myself, Sylvia Perez. Um, Sarah Clark, and John McMahon, also all vision rehabilitation therapists and ourselves blind. And then, uh, David Denotaris also helped us with the assistive technology chapter. He is also blind and has a special interest in assistive technology. 

The target audience for this book is the older individual who is new to their vision, impairment, or blindness. It is written directly to that individual, although the content, as you will see, could be beneficial not just to those individuals but to us as professionals.  

So we're going to start by playing a short sample from lesson three of the book. 

Lessons for Living Audio: Lesson Three: Tools in Your Toolbox: Using Your 10 Senses to Perform Everyday Tasks. Page 30, Introduction. Is it difficult to insert the key into your front door? Do you worry about identifying your medications correctly? Do you lack confidence in matching your clothes? If so, it's time to take charge of every area of your life as an individual who is blind or visually impaired. You will be pleased to know that you don't need to learn how to do hundreds of tasks all over again. 

Every task you performed as a sighted person and any new task can be accomplished with little or no vision. Virtually no task is completed using only vision. 99% of all daily activities depend on multiple senses and movement from fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, legs, and feet. Though you may have little or no vision, your body still remembers how to perform every task you have ever done regularly. 

This is called muscle memory. It can be used to insert a key to unlock a door, identify medications, and enjoy favorite leisure activities such as crocheting and pottery. Lesson Goals. Identify and describe the 10 senses. Collect at least 25 examples of ways you can use your 10 senses to perform daily tasks. 

So what is the visual impairment toolbox? It works something like the toolbox, which is kept in the garage or utility room. When a door handle is loose, a person will look in the toolbox and get out one or two tools to do the job. It doesn't take every tool in the utility room to tighten the screw in the door handle just the right ones for the job. 

Similarly, it will take different visual impairment toolbox tool to wash dishes, match clothes, or shave. This lesson discusses the toolbox containing 10 senses and describes how to use them to do almost every task as a visually impaired person. 

Kendra Farrow: The lessons or chapters included in this book are the following. First, we start with the eye, all about the parts of the eye and understanding how the vision can be impaired. Navigating the eye care system, so going to the eye doctor, what questions to ask, how to be prepared to attend the eye exam. Then we talk about using senses, which you just heard the little excerpt from this chapter. 

I selected this specific section because I was really curious the first time I read the Lessons for Living. What are the 10 senses? I've only heard of five, so it was kind of a, a new concept to me that, that there are additional things that can help us, and I hope that that was interesting to you as well. 

We also cover everyday tasks. These are things like eating and identifying money, home safety, human guide, low vision. Magnification devices, organizing, and labeling, essential tasks. And these are just other things that did not fit into some of the other categories. Personal management, accessing printed information, food preparation, and housekeeping. Shopping and clothing care, home repairs, recreation and leisure activities, adjusting to vision loss, and using technology.  

We end with a list of resources that were mentioned throughout the entire book, and we provide links to them. I wanted to play one more small section for you. So here is a segment from lesson seven, 

Lessons for Living Audio: Lesson Seven, Techniques for Maximizing Low Vision. Page 61, Introduction. Low vision is a term used to describe a person who has some remaining vision that cannot be corrected by standard correction but is still useful. This vision impairment may limit the ability to do many activities. For example, a person with low vision may be able to read their morning newspaper, but not the bus sign on the street corner. 

They may be able to see crumbs or a coffee stain on the kitchen counter, but not dirt on the kitchen floor. They may not have difficulty walking around, even in an unfamiliar place, but be unable to recognize a neighbor's face when passing her on the sidewalk. As of 2019, approximately 27% of the US population over age 65 experienced low vision level due to age-related changes in the eyes.  

Cataracts form, the quality of tears diminishes, less light reaches the back of the eye, and many other changes occur. Aging eyes need four times more light than younger eyes to see well enough to read, prepare meals, and get around. It takes longer for older eyes to adjust to extreme lighting changes, such as moving from bright sunlight into a darkened room. 

As our eyes age, it becomes more challenging to see an object of the same or similar color as the background upon which it sits. The goal of this lesson is to provide strategies for maximizing functional vision and using it more efficiently. Keep in mind, functional vision does not necessarily correlate to the eye condition or the results of an acuity exam. 

Simply put, functional vision refers to how well a person uses their remaining vision as they perform daily tasks. People often come up with techniques on their own for maximizing vision, such as using more light when reading or using natural light when doing crafts. It's important to experiment. 

Various options may help, and only you will know what will work best for you. This lesson will focus on enhancing your remaining vision using low vision techniques and non-optical devices. Low vision non-optical devices include reading stands, supplemental lighting, glare control sunglasses, typo scopes, and tactile locator dots. Non-optical devices are frequently used in combination with the low vision optical devices covered in Lesson Eight. 

Kendra Farrow: You might be wondering, where can I find the Lessons for Living? They are primarily on our OIB-TAC.org website. We have placed a link directly on our main page. If you go there and, um, search, you will find a, a link directly to the Lessons for Living because they are several layers down within our page and somewhat difficult to locate if you're just navigating there directly. 

The lessons are available in both English and Spanish, and we provide them in a number of formats for, um, the most accessibility to them. So we have print downloads that you can have in a PDF for both, uh, large print in, and they're in large print, and you can download either a single chapter or lesson, or you can download the entire book. 

We have print in regular size. Um, and that's just for the entire book because we've had a, a few requests and people want to print it out. And so printing it in large print is gonna take more pages. So we have made a version available in regular print, um, for just the entire book. We also have, um, the ability to access the information in audio. 

We have human-recorded audio in MP3 format, and you can click on it and listen to it directly from the website, either one chapter at a time, or you can listen to the entire book beginning to end. We also have submitted the book to the Braille Audio and Reading Download Service through the National Library Service Talking Book Program, so you can go through the BARD website to find the Lessons for Living in both English and Spanish.  

In English, the book number is DBC24872. And in Spanish, DBC27358. You can also find them, I, this is the easiest way that I have found it, is to go to, um, the search, the collection, and type in National Research and Training Center. 

Um, you can just start with that much. It's, it's our full name, National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision. But if you just start typing that and search, these books will come up and you have to switch the language if you're looking for the Spanish one. Um, so just to note how to find them. 

So today we really wanna talk about how to practically use these lessons in our services. So we could use it as a curriculum on what to cover when we're, um, working with maybe a group or an individual client. We include suggested activities and reflection questions at the end. And then it could be used as a single topic. 

So if you're just covering one thing like home repairs, you could use it for that topic, um, and for nothing else. Or you could use it as an entire book. So to help get your creative juices flowing. I have interviewed two professionals who are using, well, one is a professional, one is, is a peer, um, volunteer mentor for a peer support group. 

And I've interviewed these two individuals about their experience using Lessons for Living in the field. The first is Sylvia Stinson-Perez, and for those of you who are familiar with the OIB-TAC, she was a, um, our project director prior to myself. She is a certified vision rehabilitation therapist, and she was also a part of, of our group that edited the Lessons for Living, and currently she's an independent contractor, so we'll watch her interview next. 

Thank you, Sylvia, for being with us and sharing some about how you're using Lessons for Living.  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: Thanks so much for inviting me. Hey everyone. All my OIB friends and colleagues. It's been a while. Yeah. Glad to be here.  

Kendra Farrow: Um, describe how you are using Lessons for Living.  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: Well, I have to say that I refer people to the NRTC and OIB-TAC site all the time because there's so many fabulous resources that are free and I think people just don't know about 'em. And one of my favorites is the Lessons for Living that we work so hard on because it's good for professionals, but also good for consumers. So as I said, I refer a lot of people to it, um, especially people who I know consumers, people who are visually impaired, who are looking for services, who maybe are on long waiting lists or who just haven't felt like they've gotten enough services because we know there's, there's a challenge of lack of professionals out there. 

So lots of people I refer for that. And then to instructors as well. So I, um have used them in a couple. Um, one really fun, unique way is I recently did a trip to Honduras to do a train the trainer where, you know, CVTs, COMS, they don't exist. And so I was working, um, doing train the trainer with a Center for Independent Living, and, um, I did some direct service with the consumers, teenagers and adults, all in one class for three days. And I also then, um, in the, those afternoons, I worked with the people who've expressed their, who expressed interest in being instructors. And so, um, working with them on using that. And so I actually sent ahead of time and prepared flash drives for them. 

Um, the Spanish versions of the Lessons for Living, which are, we know available in audio and on the website. So, um, and of course through Talking Books and BARD, but not for them. So, um, shared those resources for them and, um, had them read those ahead of time and then kind of discuss them. But I'm also planning to do more intensive virtual training with the people who expressed being interested in being instructors, um, and worked through them lesson by lesson on how they can apply those.  

And we'll use the people we actually worked with. There were six people in the group as our case studies, as we work through the, the creating, you know, the content. And then the other way is, um, um, there's a group of people, women who, from across the country, who I know who expressed some interest in just enhancing their skills and they're all at different levels of vision loss.  

And so I started a weekly group with them and we meet for an hour and I have them read, um, one of the chapters or a couple chapters, and then we work, we, we talk about it and then we really work through like how to apply it. So for instance, last week we literally went in the kitchen and talked about organization strategies and labeling strategies, et cetera. So those are so some of the ways that I'm using it.  

Kendra Farrow: That's great. When providing services, how would Lessons for Living help you as a professional?  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: Well, one of the biggest things, you know, that we've heard from instructors is that they just have such a lack of time. Um, and a lot of people to provide services for. So I think there's, there's a couple different ways. Um, one is Lessons for Living can be a great place to start for curriculum, for lesson plans.  

There's very detailed instructions on so many things that relate to daily living, pre-cane skills, technology, um, self-advocacy, et cetera. And just, um, using those resources either having, you know, maybe providing that resource ahead of time for people who are maybe waiting for services or between services. Especially if you know you're not gonna get back to them for a couple weeks or a month and maybe even longer. 

Here's some great ways you can use it. And I love it because you can. Print out portions. If you want, you can enlarge it and print it out to any size that the people, um, you're working with need. You can, um, braille it. You can send it via email, lesson by lesson, or you can just have people use it in audio format. 

One of the people that I'm working with actually has a dual sensory loss. She has a hearing impairment and a visual impairment, and so she cannot use the talking book version, but she still has enough vision with large print, with magnification to use the um electronic version. So that's what she's doing. 

Um, and then another person is using a braille display to access it. Um, just because that's her preferred method. So, um, I think that there's so many ways that professionals can use it.  

Kendra Farrow: Thank you for sharing all those ideas. What benefits have you seen, um, as it applies to the clients that you've been interacting with? How, how are they benefiting from the lessons?  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: Well, a lot of the people that I have worked with, you know, for instance in, you know, in Honduras, they had received really no training, you know. Basically nothing. So everything to them is new. So new and exciting. But the other people I'm working with mostly, it's, it's very interesting when I asked what kind of services they had received, and it's about, it's about 10 people that, um, not everybody shows up every week, but, but there's about 10 who are actively engaged. And, um, very, very few of them received, um, much independent living skills at all. They all said they received some orientation and mobility. And a couple said they had received some technology training. 

I mean, this just points to the shortage, you know? So a lot they figured out on their own, and I think that's been a great thing because they're like, oh, I've been doing that, but a lot are getting new ideas and they're feeling more confident, they're feeling more, um, they're actually feeling more brave. 

You know, a couple people have said, Hey, I, I, um, I tried some of those strategies and they really are helping me feel less frustrated and, um. And we, we talk about using the vision you have, but also learning to use your other senses. And I think that's the, that's been, that's where we started. So I think that's been a great, um, exploration for people to understand, um, how comprehensive that there, there are such comprehensive strategies that they can apply and even though they might not need it right this minute. The minute they do need it, they have it there in their toolbox.  

Kendra Farrow: Great.  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: Does that  answer?  

Kendra Farrow: Yes, I think it does.  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: It was pretty roundabout.   

Kendra Farrow: Yeah. No, but it, it's, it's those qualitative things that you're observing. Mm-hmm. And I think, I think that that speaks sometimes louder than mm-hmm. You know, something that's, you know, I don't know, like it's how you feel that really makes the biggest difference in your life. Not necessarily that you can, can walk 10 miles independently, you know? Mm-hmm. With a white cane, but it is, it's that you feel confident enough that you could walk 10 miles if you wanted to. So. 

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: Mm-hmm.  And you feel less frustrated and scared. I think those are some big, big things. So. 

Kendra Farrow: Exactly. Those are huge. We cannot underestimate that kind of thing. 

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: Right. 

Kendra Farrow: Do you have any advice for any professionals out there that might wanna start using the Lessons for Living?  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: It’s such a great resource and people really need to encourage people to use it. And um, I go back to if you have people who are on your waiting list, this is a great way to start. If you're teaching people how to use Talking Books or BARD, this is the first book to download. This is the first book to order. Um. If, um, you're teaching people how to use magnification, use these Lessons for Living as reading material for that. Um, show them how to get to the OIB website. I don't know about that, though, Kendra. They're kind of buried.  

Kendra Farrow: Yeah. But, uh, we're working on that.  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: They're such a good resource. You, you, you know, you can pull like sections that you just love. You can print out those. You can braille them, whatever you need to do. Um, they're, they're great lesson plans instead of starting from scratch. I get a little excited about it 'cause I just think it's one of the best resources we ever worked on.  

Kendra Farrow: Yes. It, it really is. And um, we worked really hard, I think, on the tone of it, to make it like not preachy. 

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: Mm-hmm.  

Kendra Farrow: To people like, you should do things this way. It's more like, here are some ways that work for other people who have vision problems, you know, and it's not beating people over the head with it, but, but really starting to, yeah, to stimulate their thinking about what is possible and start planting those seeds for them.  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: And we cover many ways to do one thing. So we recognize clearly in there that there's no one right way. Here are the safe ways, the effective ways, and all the ways we can think of. But I also love it because we worked hard to make it a resource for professionals, but for consumers as well. And there's not many things that you can say are like that. It's super user-friendly. 

Kendra Farrow: I agree. Thank you so much, Sylvia.  

Sylvia Stinson-Perez: Thanks, Kendra. 

Kendra Farrow: I also interviewed Audrey Demmitt, and she is a Peer Support Group Leader. 

Thank you, Audrey, for answering some questions about the Lessons for Living and how you used it with your group, and sharing with us how you used it with your group. So, um, I have just a few questions for you. Describe how you use lessons for living with your group.  

Audrey Demmitt: Well, I have a virtual support group and uh, the people in the group are from all different states, so they're from all around the United States. And I wanted to do a book to follow along as a format for the support group. And in terms of information, you know, a resource to provide information. Most of the people in my group are new to vision loss. Most of them are older adults and most of them AMD and so very new to it. And this book was such a basic overview of skills that they could use immediately.  

And, um, they, the people in the group were very excited about it. Once they started reading it, we did have a bit of time trying to get access for everybody with the book. It is available in, uh, large-print PDF form. And it's also in the Talking Book Library as an audio format. So almost everybody I think got it from the Talking Book Program. And what I instructed them to do was to read a chapter each week, we meet weekly, and then we would come to discuss. And so of course I listened to the chapters as well to try to pick out, you know, some highlights of the chapter that I thought were important points to make or important information for them to capture. And, and then we, we did a, a chapter a week in the support group.  

There were a couple of weeks that we doubled up on chapters. There's, I think, uh, 19 chapters and we met for 16 weeks, so we had to do that, but. At any rate, I got nothing but positive feedback. People were very excited about this book and, and it was almost like they were saying, this, this is such a lifesaver. I, I haven't known what to do or what steps to take or where to even begin learning to live with this vision loss. And then there were a few, uh, veteran people in the group who have had vision loss for quite some time, and they were saying things like, oh my gosh, I wished I'd known about this book when I was first you know, dealing with vision loss.  

So it was very well received. Uh, yeah. And so we, we did a chapter each week. I kind of pulled out some salient points and questions and discussion topics just for the meeting, um, based on each chapter. And the discussion was, was really rich. I mean, people shared personally about, well, I can use this for this, or, um, you know, the idea of putting tools in your toolbox was a couple of the chapters, and they were so excited to be able to do that. So yeah, it was very positive.  

Kendra Farrow: Sounds very exciting. Actually. It's inspiring me just listening to you.  

Audrey Demmitt: Hmm.  

Kendra Farrow: Um, what kinds of things came up during the group discussion? 

Audrey Demmitt: Well, of course, you know, the, the group members would personalize, you know, whatever the task was. Let's say it was labeling. And in that chapter, they mentioned labeling medications. And, because I'm a nurse and that's kind of one of my, my things, you know, is checking on how people are taking their medications, are they taking them safely?  

So we had a large, a larger discussion, more expansive discussion on that. Just um, because people were realizing, yes, this is a problem. I'm, I'm not necessarily being safe, uh, on the way I'm labeling or the system I'm using to take my medications or that my old system just doesn't work anymore now that I'm visually impaired. 

So many of them acted on that. Um, many of them I, I think, looked into getting script talk and others, you know, made changes with their labeling. And that was really gratifying for me as, as the facilitator to know that they could actually take this information and make a change at home. So.  

Kendra Farrow: yeah. That's, that's really. It sounds like the, the fact that the conversation was happening in a group versus just you speaking to one person about it was more motivational and really made them think about, you know, what words they were actually saying out loud. You know, they weren't able to hide as easily 'cause there's a whole group of people listening.  

Audrey Demmitt: Yes. And you know, as support groups go, you learn from each other. And so there was a lot of sharing in terms of, well, this is what I do, this is my system for, for, uh, medi, you know, organizing my medications. So it, it sort of crowdsourced extra tips and pro tips, you know, for e each of the members. 

And they were asking each other, you know, how do you do it, and what you know, what works for you. And that was kind of how it was personalized. I think in our discussions and in our group time, they'd already read it and took in the information, but then the group time seemed to be where they really made it personal and identified some changes that they needed to make. 

Kendra Farrow: So, um, you've already described one of the, the benefits that you saw group members, um, have from, uh, reading the book. Were there other things that, that, uh, you saw come out other than the, the medication changing and being more attuned to the, the challenges they were having with their medications?  

Audrey Demmitt: Well, not specific to medications, but I will say another thing that, that did seem to happen was that people realized they needed help and they needed to find services. 

So it seemed like many of them were just, you know, sitting at home and not really doing anything about their vision loss. Beyond what they could figure out for themselves or their family could figure out or research. But this really broadened, this book, broadened their understanding of the resources and why they were important. 

For instance, a low vision exam. Uh, you know, many of them, since we've done that book have actually had low vision exams now. And I, I really think it came from our discussions on that book about the, the importance of that and that that's really a, a starting point to determine, you know, what their goals are and what they personally want to accomplish. Uh, yeah, so they saw the importance of that I think through reading this book and our discussions.  

Kendra Farrow: Were there any of the topics that they didn't find to be useful in the book? Because I know it goes into a lot of detail on so many different topics.  

Audrey Demmitt: It does. You know, it goes all the way from, you know, parts of the eye, the anatomy of the eye, to recreation, to home repairs, and, uh, you know. But there's a lot of really good basic information, and that was what they seemed to really grab onto. Um, I will say the home repairs wasn't a riveting conversation. I think most of them are beyond doing home repairs for themselves, you know, at the ages that they are at, or the level of vision they are at.  

And that's not to say that, you know, it, it can't be done, but their, their issues were more, uh, basic and immediate, you know, in terms of, you know, ways to cook safely in your kitchen or um, ways to label your clothing. Those things, the practical things were the things that really hit home for them. 

Kendra Farrow: What advice might you have for other groups who might want to use the Lessons for Living with their group?  

Audrey Demmitt: Well, one of my thoughts about, about using this book was that here I had a group of many people who had not entered the system yet in terms of services or getting help. And so they needed, you know, this was sort of a stopgap or I, uh, in between resource while they waited for services. 

Now they knew they wanted services, they, um, but in the meantime, they still have to live their lives. And so, any little tricks and tips they got excited about, you know. Um, so I would say that to think of this book as, it's a very fundamental, basic textbook on how to get started being blind basically. And there's so many of our clients and consumers who, you know, don't get services in a timely manner or get patchy services or really don't get adequate services. 

So, uh, this sort of fills the gap in between while they're waiting for services. And I think that. You know, that may become even more and more important, important, um, in the, in these days of uncertainty when we really don't know, you know, how much money there will be to dedicate to older individuals with blindness. 

Kendra Farrow: Thank you, Audrey. Are there any other thoughts that you had that you didn’t get to work in? 

Audrey Demmitt: Yeah. You know, there's another thing, I think an interesting thing that happens, is once they start to get the idea that there's workarounds, I feel like consumers or the, you know, my people in this group, started to think that way more for themselves. And it's like, it, it, uh, stimulates their imagination on problem solving and figuring things out. 

So that is an important step towards, you know, becoming independent is figuring out and problem solving for yourself. So I feel like it, it sort of launches them into a new mindset about their blindness and, and living with it that it is possible. So it's, you know, encouraging in a lot of ways to go through this book. 

Kendra Farrow: You saw them come up with ideas that weren't even in the text just because it stimulated their thinking in that direction?  

Audrey Demmitt: Correct. And, and, um, just ways to tailor the information in the book to them, you know, to make things work for them. And, and they were excited to do it. Whereas, you know, before in, in my group, I was starting to see sort of a lethargy or uh, inert kind of mindset about, oh, you know, this is how it is and I'll never be able to be independent again. And so the book seemed to, to turn their attitudes a little bit on, you know, okay, there are ways to live with vision loss, and I can do some of these things. So it's kind of almost like a self-help book really, to get people started towards independence before they receive services. So very useful.  

Kendra Farrow: Thank you.  

So there are some other ways other than how we have talked about so far today that you might use these lessons in your services. You could use it as homework. So either giving a homework assignment, next time we're gonna talk about food preparation, listen to this lesson before I come back in four to six weeks. Um. You know, it'll get your juices flowing. You can start making a list of questions or even try some of these ways, adapted ways to do things around your kitchen. And that way we can really be focused in on what we're gonna work with, um, how, how we develop our lesson time together when I come back in at the next appointment. 

Um, you could provide this audiobook or get them signed up for the NLS Program and help them get the book through the Library of Congress so that they could start listening to this before you even go out to see them. So we know that, um, oftentimes clients are placed on a waiting list because there's um, just more clients than what we are able to get to very quickly.  

Or even if they're just waiting between the appointments, like I stated earlier. Um, either way, they're kind of waiting around for us sometimes, and so in those waiting periods, we can encourage them to listen to these lessons. Because it just, as Audrey said, it really helped to get, um, the creative, um, problem-solving juices flowing for the individuals that, uh, were reading the book and talking about it together in her group.  

You could also use it in peer-to-peer mentoring. Maybe you don't have time to, um, you know, to, to really do a lot of, of, um, interaction with your client other than your set lesson times. But maybe you connect them to a peer mentor, and they could read the book together and just talk about it one-on-one. 

Also, there are times with weather and long distances that we sometimes need to travel to see our clients, that it would be nice to be able to throw in a virtual lesson. You know, there was some flooding and I can't get to you today because of that, but we could still have a lesson on the phone. Um, we can listen to this together and talk about it, or we can talk about it and then you can listen to the lesson, and we'll follow up the next time. 

Um, there's ways to just use this content for, um, for these virtual lessons and to, to help you know that, that they've really thought through the content before you start the virtual lesson. Um, another thing that always makes me a little sad is when we have people apply for our services and their vision is just too good. They don't quite qualify for our services yet. What do we do with those individuals? 

You know, when we send them away and say, well, there's, there's good news and bad news. You, your vision is not so poor that you qualify for our services yet, but that means we can't come out and work with you one-on-one. However, maybe we could get them still signed up for the NLS Talking Book Program because, um, they're not super, uh, strict about the requirements, if somebody's just struggling to read.  

Or they could go to our website too and listen or download the lessons from there to be able to access them. So these individuals or their families, if they're worried about their family member and their family member doesn't wanna sign up yet, this would be a great resource to share with them so that they can start thinking through, um, how to implement some of these problem-solving things that, um, that are really simple, but that make a big difference in someone's life. 

So in conclusion, I just wanna remind you that the Lessons for Living with Vision Loss is available in both English and Spanish. You can find the Lessons for Living on our website, O I B dash T A C dot org, or through BARD. I hope that we have stimulated your creative juices in thinking how the Lessons for Living could be used to enhance the services you provide. 

Jennifer Ottowitz: Thank you. This has been OIB-TAC’s monthly webinar. Thanks for tuning in. Find recordings of our past webinars on our YouTube channel and discover all of our many resources at OIB-TAC.org. That's OIB-TAC.org, like us on social media and share our resources with your colleagues and friends. Until next time.