A growing collection of tools, books, ideas, and discoveries that have helped me navigate vision loss, mindfulness, creativity, and everyday life.
Technology & Accessibility
- Seeing AI – Free app that reads text, identifies products, and describes scenes. What I like about it Useful for quick everyday tasks.
- Be My Eyes – Connects users with volunteers for visual assistance. What I like about it : Helpful for quick real-world tasks., also now comes with Be my AI.
- ALEYE – Wearable assistive technology that helps translate nonverbal social information into accessible feedback in real time. Currently available for preorder only. It sounds like an exciting development with real potential, although I haven’t had the opportunity to test it myself yet. Check it out here.
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Books and Audiobooks
- Man’s Search For Meaning – Viktor E Frankl. A powerful meditation on suffering, purpose, and the will to live. Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Frankl reflects on his time in concentration camps, offering the insight that while we may not be able to avoid suffering, we can choose how to respond to it. For anyone navigating life altering loss or uncertainty, his message, that meaning can be found even in the darkest circumstances, is profoundly reassuring. Available as Audiobook.
- You belong – Sebene Selassie Written by a meditation teacher with a deep understanding of spiritual disconnection, this book explores the profound human need to belong, to ourselves, to others, and to the world. Drawing on Buddhist teachings, personal stories, and cultural critique, Selassie gently guides readers toward a more embodied and inclusive sense of presence. A helpful companion for those navigating the emotional terrain of identity and change. Available as Audiobook.
- Who Was Helen Keller? – by Gare Thompson
An accessible and easy-to-read introduction to Helen Keller’s life, following her journey from losing both sight and hearing as a young child to becoming a writer, activist, and public figure. A reflection: Although written for younger readers, I found it offers a simple and engaging reminder that disability is not only about limitations, but also about expectations, opportunity, and participation. Available as Audiobook. - Notes on Blindness – by John Hull
A deeply personal exploration of blindness through John Hull’s recorded reflections after losing his sight. Rather than focusing on overcoming blindness, it explores perception, identity, grief, adaptation, and the way blindness gradually reshapes a person’s relationship with the world. A reflection: I found it moving because it does not rush toward inspiration or easy answers. It sits honestly with the confusion, loss, and unexpected discoveries that can emerge when a familiar world begins to change. Available as Audiobook.
Daily Living
- White Cane – More than a mobility tool, a white cane provides information, confidence, and greater independence by helping navigate the world through touch, feedback, and awareness. It also quietly communicates to others that vision may be limited, often changing the way people respond and making interactions and environments easier to navigate. Why do I like it: What once felt like a symbol of loss gradually became a tool for freedom, understanding, and participation.
- Talking Kitchen Scales – Kitchen scales with speech output that announce weights aloud, making measuring ingredients more accessible without needing to read a display. One thing I’ve noticed: Small practical tools can sometimes reduce frustration far more than complex technology.
Community & Support
- Blind Low Vision NZ – Provides practical support, orientation and mobility training, technology assistance, rehabilitation services, and community connections for people who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision. Why I really value their suppor: They are not only about tools and training; they also help create connection, confidence, and a sense that you do not have to navigate vision loss alone.
BLVNZ - Plum Village App – A mindfulness and meditation app offering guided practices, talks, bells of mindfulness, and teachings inspired by Thích Nhất Hạnh and the Plum Village tradition. Why i like it : A well laid out App. with a functioning meditation timer and great resources.
Plum village app
Ideas & Reflections
- Not every adaptation is surrender
Using a cane, technology, or asking for help is not giving up independence; sometimes it creates more of it. - Technology and balance –Technology can be empowering, opening new ways to access information and participate in the world. It can also be exhausting. There is always something new to learn, update, or configure. Something I’ve learned:: I increasingly need to step away from screens and voices at times and reconnect with silence, stillness, and the physical world.