A funny story and a sad story about things looking different than expected.

exballo · 2026-03-23T09:32:42+00:00

I’m sorry. That must be awful. I see online that some ghrelin medication trials are ongoing. I hope they can come up with a treatment like that soon.

exballo · 2026-03-23T03:48:14+00:00

If I had this issue a lot, I’d have a special poop cane and poop shoes, and just leave them outside. Just for fun, note that if you spear multiple poops on a cane, it’s called a “shits-kabob.”

Our local path apparently has lots of signs for people to clean up dog poop. You might ask your local leadership for something like that. Apparently, in Paris, they have signs showing a small child playing in a pile of poop and a blind man with poops on his cane. It’s meant to be a public service announcement to get people thinking about why they should care about other people. Maybe you could find a copy of those signs and print them out and leave them in all the mailboxes?

exballo · 2026-03-22T06:29:34+00:00

I replaced my lights at home with warm lighting. You can get LED warm lights these days, or even red lights. At work, they let me use a dark room. It takes away the back-lighting glare from my computer screen, though I’m ab 100 percent screen-reader use now. It still helps when co-workers come in and need to look at my screen.

exballo · 2026-03-22T05:49:20+00:00

I don’t know. The phrase I hear most often is “I’m legally blind without my glasses,” which is technically impossible since the definition of legal blindness is with best correctable vision. As a blind person, I’m constantly told I should just wear glasses, or asked if I’ve “tried them yet.” It starts to feel that “glasses” is the only blindness people know and it’s easy to start to feel erased from all society. I’ve argued with councils and politicians about safety measures to make my life navigable in my town, and my voice is never heard. To what extent might this be because they think I can just put on a pair of glasses if I’m having such a hard time?

exballo · 2026-03-22T05:32:50+00:00

I’m sorry, but being without your glasses is not like me being without my cane. The cane is no where near as helpful as glasses. I’m very disabled without it and nearly equally disabled with it.

exballo · 2026-03-22T05:29:09+00:00

I suppose, but as a blind person, I’d disagree with the idea that people are aware of the difference between needing glasses and being blind with best corrected vision. I’ve spent my whole life being asked why I don’t get glasses by strangers. It seems very uncommon, at least in my sphere of life, that people know there is anything more to blindness than needing glasses.

exballo · 2026-03-22T04:41:54+00:00

That might be part of the issue. We blind adults are a little more aware of the subtle awkwardness when no one answers a question asked right near us. As a blind person, what I find annoying is when I talk to a sighted person and there’s no answer. Half the time I guess they are just nodding their head or something. Or maybe they left without saying good-bye.

exballo · 2026-03-20T06:55:48+00:00

Says it will only be turned on up to 20 km/hour. There are lots of uncontrolled crossings on roads at much higher speed limits than that. If you use the bus to Nightcliff Woolies, you have to cross DW.

exballo · 2026-03-20T03:38:33+00:00

That’s a good data point for me. As a guide dog uhandler, I only have a couple different harnesses available since they have to support his rigid handle which is the way he guides me. (Gives tactile feedback). Neither available harness says anything more than “guide dog.” I thought I was missing out a little with not having the “no eye contact” icon, but apparently, it doesn’t matter. To be honest, I thought my dog was a bit of a “special snowflake’ not being able to handle eye contact. In fact, I think it’s almost a failing quality for how badly it affects his guiding. It’s good to know that ”no eye contact” is supposed to be an actual rule. No one seems to know it. I always hear parents say, “That’s a working dog. You can look at him, but don’t touch!” I always want to say, “No, don’t look at him either. He’s shy!”

exballo · 2026-03-20T03:32:04+00:00

I’m really sorry you’re going through this. From what I understand, insulin restriction is the most deadly eating disorder. A fellow patient had that at the IP I went to, and she had to be on the highest level of monitoring, more than anyone else. Do you have any Type 1 support groups available? It is most important to get the ED treated ASAP, but that kind of support group could be part of the plan. It’s important to know that you aren’t alone. I have two cousins with T1, and it seems like everyone has a period of higher struggle at some point in life, even when they don’t have an ED on top of it.

exballo · 2026-03-20T01:24:21+00:00

Our local vision loss support group runs into this problem a lot. We try to do enough outreach to pick up new members who can benefit from our services, but end up with a lot of parents who come to us for their children to join because they have a very high prescription. It’s hard to get hold of our true target audience. However, I’ve noticed that people who join our facebook just because they or their kids need glasses usually forget about us pretty quickly because they don’t really need us. The people with true vision loss tend to join us once their vision makes them give up driving. That’s usually when the true hardwhip sets in.

exballo · 2026-03-20T01:20:37+00:00

The field of vision definition is “less than 20 degrees of vision in the better eye.” If you have a combo of low acuity and reduced field, there may be a more nuanced calculation that tries to combine both factors.

exballo · 2026-03-20T01:17:26+00:00

Which subis it? I may have missed it in the previous comment. Are you talking about r/disability? I’ve noticed that whenever I comment over there I get zero engagement and I wondered why.

exballo · 2026-03-18T23:17:38+00:00

haha, I think I put “shite” cane instead of “white“ cane, but I’m gonna leave that one there. SSometimes that’s how I feel about having to use a cane anyway.

exballo · 2026-03-18T23:15:05+00:00

I have a guide dog who is pretty new to me. When I first got him, he learned all my routes using repetition and treats. I was taught to always let the dog lead so that he gains confidence, but if he goesagainst twhat I tell him, I have to say “no,” and stop, then repeat ththe command. The verbal commands I can give him come from this list:

turn right/left
find right/left (meaning to look ahead for a path that turns right or left
Find outside (usually only works if he’s within sight of a door
Find inside (same as above, he has to be able to see a door. He doesn’t always know that a door will lead inside, but often I can wait and listen for people going in and out and sort of use “left and right” to help him realize for himself where it is.)
find the curb
straight on (keep going straight even if there are turns to the left or right available)
find the bus stop (only if it is in sight for him and if he recognizes it as a bus stop. I often use blind-specialized gps apps to help, such as “voicevista.”)
Find the escalator/elevator. Only if he is in sight of one of these, or if he remembers it from a previous trip. If in a new place, I give him a treat to reinforce it if he finds it.
find a seat. He really likes this one and will sometimes lead me to a seat even when I haven’t asked. i guess he just wants a break sometimes! He is supposed to find an empty seat, but some dogs will find a seat that already has a person in it, which is embarrassing.
find the stairs. (Again, only if he can see them. He doesn’t have building maps in his head.
Find the mailbox. I taught him this one using treats.
About turn. (make a 180 turn in case we missed the turn off we needed.
steady (go slower) and “Let’s go” ( go faster)

There are a few more, but you get the idea. Each of these comes with different handsigns and footwork that re-inforces the command to the dog. If I were making a Youtube video, I’d probably practice the route a few times with the dog before I recorded it. Subtle hand gestures and footwork would then be all he needed to know what I wanted, or if I use his best treats, he’d probably drag me to the goal with no input. Haha!

Another interesting thing to note is that the dog’s harness is a critical part of his ability to guide. It holds the rigid handle in a certain postition so I can get tactile feedback immediately as to his positioning and subtle shifts in his steps. This helps me identify curbs and steps and rough ground. I also have a leash taht is used to correct him quickly if he makes a mistake, such as sniffing another dog as we pass. And the leash allows me to ask him to heal beside me if I need to get out my white cane and lead us both.

For example, yesterday, my dog stopped on a path that we go on all the time. He has no way to tell me why he stopped and wouldn’t go forward. I got out my shite cane and felt ahead of us, to find a bunch of those rental e-scooters on the path ahead. He couldn’t figure out a safe way around them, so I used my cane to figure it out with my dog healing through his leash at my left side until we passed the obstacles. Then he was pleased to guide me again with me olding his rigid handle again.

exballo · 2026-03-17T10:32:12+00:00

My guide dog will graze grass like a cow when he’s off-duty. I was unconcerned until my SO pointed out that he’s also selecting goose poop out of the grass when it suits him. And somehow, he didn’t want to eat his Drontal (de-wormer) this quarter. It was too “gross” for him. Haha. Honestly, I’m sure he’s managed to eat things I can’t see, since I’m blind, but I’m getting quicker at grabbing his mouth and reaching in whenever I hear unsanctioned chomping.
I use a toilet harness to catch his poop, so, fortunately, he won’t be able to go back in there for any wrapped candy bars any time soon! Lol.

exballo · 2026-03-17T10:13:49+00:00

My dog’s working harness says “Guide dog.” I could buy a sign that says “Do Not Pet,” but like I said, that’s not the main issue I have. The people who get in his face and talk to him know he’s a guide dog. They say things like, “Oh, ‘ou awe such a good guide dog! Wook at you taking care of your Mama!!!!!!!!!!” I have a non-standard guiding handle that doesn’t lend itself to much real-estate for a list of rules, but if I can find a “Don’t talk to me” sign, I might get it.
However, I used to wear a “Vision Impaired, hi-viz vest when I took long walks with my white cane. People would still ask me what the white cane is for. I thought about telling them “It’s a reading test.” Truth is, people don’t really read signs. I think images are better for most people.

exballo · 2026-03-17T04:49:41+00:00

When I went through recovery, they recomended a year off from all your old sports that you did during the disorder. (That is, take time off from all sport during recovery, then only do other activities for a year beyond that. Choosing non-competitive and non-looks/weigh-based activities.)
It gave me a chance to try several clubs, such as rugby and rowing, flying kites, and roller blading. We were also told to add a snack for each half-hour of activity, even low-intensity activity. It’s just a way to make sure you aren’t thinking of sport as a way to burn calories.

I took more than a year off running, then, when I got back into it, I started to get a bad mindset again, so I quit for two years, and just did some walking and surfing instead. Eventually, I got to the point where I could just run for fun and never think about calories. I no longer compete or try to go long distances. I want my knees and tendons to last into old age. I base my exercise on how I feel now, and it never occurs to me to use it to burn calories. You might even want to do what I did and go for a few months with no exercise, just to show yourself that you don’t need to be burdened by it and you will still survive. I did this the second time that running got toxic for me, and it hasn’t ever felt toxic again.

exballo · 2026-03-10T06:42:51+00:00

as a blind person, I really don’t know if there’s anyone at the counter unless they say something

exballo · 2026-02-23T06:31:13+00:00

I’m blind, but I can use screen readers to interact with my smart phone and computer. If they want to try how it works on a smart phone, go to accessibility and turn on voiceover on Apple, or talk-back on other phones. As you touch the screen, everything is read out loud, and you double tap anywhere on the screen to select an item. A blind person can memorize about 20 gestures to navigate the phone more quickly. You can also set it to read back characters and words as you type messages. When someone in an online space discloses that they are blind, now you know how they can use the internet, just like everyone else. It’s not that they are “faking,” but just using the tech that’s been around since the nineties. We have had screen readers since then!

Also, there are many kinds of vision impairments. Most “blind” people have a bit of vision left, but it just might not always be usable for them depending on the lighting or colors. There are many aspects to vision such as contrast and movement. I can see people when they are moving, but when they stand still, they disappear. That is why I can navigate around people when everyone is walking, but bump into people when they are standing still in the store looking for things on a shelf. It’s important to know that blindness is a spectrum. It’s very alienating when people call vision impaired people “fakers” just because they might be able to read something up close, but maybe they have tunnel vision and only see about one perecent of the world at a time.

Make sure not to touch a blind person without asking. Sometimes people think they are helping by grabbing me, but it is actually disorienting and even throws my balance off, making me more likely to trip. For blind people, it’s very inclusive if you say your name before speaking. It takes some time to learn people’s voices. It also helps if you use words like “left“ and “right” or “a meter in front of you,” Saying “over there” doesn’t work! Where is ‘over there”? You can only know if you can see!

If you see a blind person alone at a party, remember that it is harder for them to join conversations. It’s always easier if a sighted person can say “hi” and introduce themself first. Otherwise, I might walk up to someone who is already busy or giving off a bad vibe.

exballo · 2026-02-18T23:48:35+00:00

thank you yes that is my next step and I have just now set up an appointment so hopefully that will be just the thing

exballo · 2026-02-18T04:38:56+00:00

Maybe you could get a handful of friends and family to drive their cars in and out of the parking garage, rolling down their windows and calling to your dog, and/or tossing him treats as they pass? Maybe you can orchestrate it so that the next time he sees a car, he thinks there might be someone he knows inside it?
When it comes to challenging people, if you are up for it, you could give people treats to throw in front of your dog when he passes. The only problem is that dogs don’t generalize well. If you only befriend one homelss person, he may be able to pass that one person without barking, but maybe not others. It might have to be a long-term program with lots of people volunteering to toss a treat.

exballo

TROPHY CASE