Across Wisconsin, vision service providers like the Council are a vital in-person resource for people who are blind or low vision. But some people may prefer self-paced or remote services. The national nonprofit Hadley provides a wide range of high-quality educational programming to fit the needs of people with vision loss seeking to learn in a virtual setting.
Hadley was founded in 1920 by William Hadley, an educator who lost his vision later in life. A lifelong reader, Hadley taught himself braille and began a “braille by mail” program to help others continue to read after losing their vision. The organization Hadley still teaches braille today alongside a plethora of other skills. Today, Hadley has members in all 50 states and in over 100 countries around the world.
“For 106 years, Hadley has been dedicated to providing remote support for people who are blind or low vision,” says Kirby Lindgren, Hadley’s director of professional outreach. “As the population of people with vision loss continues to grow, we want to be here alongside organizations providing in-person vision services to help people live their best possible lives.”
Hadley’s courses are provided at no cost to the user and are delivered via either the internet, phone or by mail. For much of their history, Hadley’s focus was to provide remote vision services workshops. These focus on such varied topics as cooking, access technology, labeling, magnifiers and more. While Hadley’s workshops are not intended to be complete substitutes for in-person vision rehabilitation therapy, they are a great resource that people can turn to any time they need information. Hadley works closely with the National Eye Institute and the National Eye Health Education Program to ensure their workshops and classes are accurate and effective.
In recent years, Hadley has also begun several new services that focus on supporting the social and emotional needs of people with vision loss. When people became increasingly isolated in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kirby says they realized they needed to create new programming to help people connect. Their peer-to-peer support program connects people new to vision loss with someone who has been living with vision loss for several years so they can help each other on their emotional journeys.
When that program proved successful, they started their remote support group program. These support groups are facilitated by an on-staff social worker and give people with vision loss a chance to connect over a shared topic. While the Adjusting and Coping Together group gives people an opportunity to share and discuss their emotions related to losing their vision, other groups focus on things like resource sharing, games, cooking and hobbies. Participants can access the groups either over the internet or by phone call.
“Losing your vision can create a lot of grief and other negative emotions, and these programs look to help people process those emotions,” Kirby says. “People are starting to develop real, long-term relationships and are growing alongside each other.”
Hadley’s braille instruction program is one of the largest in the country. Their braille instruction comes in three forms. The braille by touch program is designed for people new to vision loss, with workbooks and audio instructions mailed to the person’s home. The braille by sight program is aimed at people who are fully sighted, such as friends members, family or teachers of the visually impaired. The third program teaches people to use a Perkins Brailler or slate and stylus to write braille themselves.
Hadley has reworked their braille program in recent years to make it more approachable to people new to vision loss, focusing on practical everyday uses. “We noticed a lot of people were dropping the braille instruction after a few lessons, even though they had a desire to learn,” Kirby says. “After speaking with some of these people, we decided to reduce the workload to make it a bit more digestible. A lot of people in the program were older adults and were more interested in learning to read elevator buttons and signs instead of full-length books. Since making the change, more and more people are sticking with the program.”
While technology is making it easier for people with vision loss to read printed text, learning braille is still important, says Kirby. “Hadley started over 100 years ago by teaching braille, and we still see people who come to us because they want to learn braille,” he says. “We are committed to teaching braille as long as there are people who are interested in learning it. If it helps someone live comfortably, then we don’t see why we would stop teaching it.”
To learn more about everything Hadley has to offer, visit their website at HadleyHelps.org.