Herbert, other Senior Bowl players hope staying put pays off

124382493_web1_Letter-to-the-editor1

Your view: A pro-life president? Not this one

If you know us at all at Northeast Sight Services, you&rsquo;d know we couldn&rsquo;t pass up the opportunity on making this a big year. As soon as we realized it was going to be the year 2020, we couldn&rsquo;t wait to make this year&rsquo;s community focus on vision. Get it&#8230; 20/20 Vision?
				Probably the most long-lasting, the most profound impact, will be the work we do this year to make our community accessible. You may wonder what that is&#8230; or why that may be important&#8230; and it&rsquo;s understandable. Until you face vision loss (or know someone who is visually impaired), you really have no idea the challenges that are encountered.
				Since our inception in 1918, Northeast Sight Services has worked with local people, who were struggling with vision loss, to live a life independently in their homes and their community. But then the question becomes: Is the COMMUNITY ready to accommodate those with vision loss? Unquestionably, the answer is NO.
				Let&rsquo;s put this into perspective. It&rsquo;s almost lunch time and you have plans to meet a friend at a local restaurant. Now close your eyes and imagine doing this without your vision: You obviously can&rsquo;t drive&#8230; how would you get there? When you do figure out a way to get there, how do you find the entrance and the person you&rsquo;re meeting? Once you&rsquo;re seated, where&rsquo;s your menu? When you find the menu, how are you going to decide on your meal? It&rsquo;s time to pay &#8211; how do you read your bill or know where to sign your name?
				In order to make life more equitable for those with vision loss, we plan to provide trainings to places such as restaurants, stores, and entertainment venues in order to educate their staff on proper techniques to assist visually impaired customers. A Toolkit will also be provided &#8211; full of adaptive items that they can use to make their business fully accessible. In addition, we&rsquo;ll work with companies to ensure their location is accessible, as well as their website.
				So that now, when you go to a local restaurant for lunch: your bus driver will know to tell you where the entrance is when you are getting off the bus, your hostess can act as a Sighted Guide to safely help you to your table, your waiter will offer you an Accessible Menu or offer to read you your options &#8211; and will also tell you where the food is on your plate when it arrives, and there will be a signature guide placed at your table to use when signing your bill.
				We&rsquo;re excited to host our first trainings in 2020 this week at the Kingston location of Geisinger 65 Forward, and look forward to bringing this important community program to a location near you. And this is just the beginning, so stay tuned to hear more about the exciting celebrations and other initiatives we have planned to make our 2020 Vision a reality!

Their view: 2020 Vision: Focus on the Future