In the dark

About a dozen of us had the opportunity to visit the staff of Lighthouse Central Florida the other day for their "Blink of an Eye" session.

Lighthouse is a nonprofit that serves people with severe or total vision loss, providing life skills training for adults and children, along with instruction for parents of children who have vision loss.

Lighthouse serves 1,000 people a year, a number restricted only by available resources. The need for Lighthouse's services is growing, because of Florida's large population of elder citizens. The math is staggering. Half of people over the age of 65 are at risk for one of the three most common causes of vision loss: diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, and glaucoma. A study by myregion.org projects that by 2030 Central Florida will have 3 million citizens over age 65, giving Lighthouse potentially 1.5 million people needing services.

As part of the session we went, as they say, "under blindfold," to learn what it's like to attend Lighthouse training. It was unnerving, going instantly from a bright conference room to utter darkness. I bumped into the doorjamb.

We were led, each with a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us, down the hall and around a corner and into another room. Someone took my arm and guided me to a chair. The compulsion to lift the blindfold, just long enough to orient myself, was fierce. I resisted.

I put out my hand, discerned the upholstered front of the chair from the metal back, felt around for the seat. I lowered myself cautiously, and probably even more awkwardly than usual, into the chair.

An instructor told someone near me to write a check. "Make it out to Lighthouse..." There was laughter, then an explanation. The checkbook, my unseen fellow traveler was told, was on the table.

There was a table? I put out my hand. Yep. Table.

My task was to write a shopping list. Uh-oh. My notoriously bad handwriting was about to get a workout. The instructor explained that the paper was in a folder with windows cut out. All I had to do was feel for the windows and write inside them. This I could do only by keeping my left fingers right up against the tip of the pen. I think I misspelled "Mojo Criollo," but then, I often do.

Once we had finished our varied tasks, we were allowed to come out from under the blindfolds. My grocery list was only slightly more illegible than usual. The checkbook got passed around. It was oversize, printed in a heavy ink that gives high contrast, for those with low vision. The printing is also raised, so a person with no vision can feel the lines.

Lighthouse has many needs, including volunteers, new chairs for its boardroom, flash drives, laptop computers, and gardening supplies for classes. They are also looking for grounds maintenance, pressure washing, and carpet cleaning services, and a marketing agency to help spread their message. For a complete list, visit the Lighthouse Central Florida website.

There's a great deal more to see at Lighthouse, including computers equipped with screen readers. I urge you to visit sometime. "Blink of an Eye" tours are held on the third Wednesday of each month at 7:30 a.m., with bagels and lots of coffee. The decaf is in the pot with a patch of Velcro on top.