4 Great Blind and Low Vision Events

I’m the Blind and Low Vision Specialist at The Whole Person. This means I plan regularly scheduled events for anyone who’s blind or has low vision can attend. There is no age limit, and it also doesn’t matter if you are deaf and/or blind. Anyone with any degree of vision loss is welcome. We have a monthly support group over Zoom, Tech Talks over Zoom, bowling, tandem biking, and community events like game nights or movie nights.

Our Bowling event, known as “Time to Spare,” is our most popular activity. We opened up bowling to anyone with any disability because Adaptive Sports helps us out with it too. Bowling is on the third Wednesday of every month at KC Bowl 8201 State Ave. Kansas City, Kansas, 66112. The Whole Person pays for one game, but the consumers may pay for another game, or even food and drinks if they’d like. The bowling alley opens at noon, and we’re usually there from noon to around 1:30PM depending on how the game goes. I will usually send out a bowling reminder email a week in advance.

Tech Talk is every second Monday of the month over Zoom from 6:30PM – 7:30PM. We usually have a guest speaker talking about different assistive technology for the blind, but if a speaker is unable to attend, I’ll talk about apps or devices I use. I like when people come on and do technology demonstrations. We’ve had someone demonstrate a few different OrCam devices, and another person demonstrate Script Talk, which is either a machine or an app that will read your prescriptions from a pharmacy. We’ve also had someone come on and talk about how Audio Description is done for movies and TV shows. That’s probably our second most popular activity depending on the topic.

Mind’s Eye View is held on the first Monday of every month. It’s a consumer-lead support group over Zoom where consumers can talk to each other about things related to blindness. It could be anything from struggles to assistive technology. I like seeing people connect with each other and look forward to talking to each other at the next meeting.

We usually do Tandem Biking anywhere from Spring to Fall depending on the weather. We go to different locations throughout the city, and each consumer takes turns biking with a sighted volunteer. This is a great opportunity because a lot of blind/low vision people don’t get many opportunities outside, and this gives them a chance to bike safely and interact with others. Please be aware that the schedule may change depending on the weather conditions.

That’s a brief summary of what I do as the Blind and Low Vision Specialist, and what the Blind and Low Vision consumers do. Sometimes we plan movie and game nights, and those actually have more success than our regularly scheduled zoom events. If you or someone you know is visually impaired or blind and wants to participate in these events, feel free to contact me at mschmidt@thewholeperson.org.

For information about the Blind and Low Vision Experience, click HERE

To see all upcoming Blind and Low Vision Events, click HERE