Daily Living Activities for a Blind Person

Learning to handle daily living activities after losing vision is difficult. You must adjust to doing daily chores in a new way without hurting yourself or others. Learn new ways of completing your daily activities by substituting your remaining senses.

Develop a Positive Attitude

• Adjust your attitude. Surround yourself with friends, family and coworkers who believe that even though you lost your sight, you have the same skills you always had. Avoid people who pity you and want to take over for you.

  Get together with other people who have lost their sight--or who have been blind from birth. You will meet a diverse mix of people whose beliefs, adjustments, achievements and attitudes influence what they are doing today. You will meet professors, athletes, writers, engineers, teachers, lawyers, government employees and mechanics. Take note of their attitudes toward their blindness and their pride in their abilities.

Don't Lower Expectations

• Don't lower your expectations. With modifications, you can learn to do many of the same daily activities you did before--dressing for work, cooking, walking the dog, taking the bus. Let your family know that they need to let you carry out your daily activities independently--even while you acknowledge your anger and fear. You may find assistive devices that help you function at your previous level in your career.

Learn Blindness Skills

• Kent Ireton, a rehabilitation counselor for the Alaska Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, calls rehabilitation "learning alternative skills of blindness." He focuses on teaching the blind to regain "normal" functioning in daily activities. whether it be finding the alarm to shut it off or making coffee. He teaches his clients that, in order to achieve success in their work life, they have to achieve personal independence at home. Those who don't--or "can't"-- relearn daily activities of living will not regain previous levels of professional performance, let alone success.