AIDB – Sherri Ross

First off, confession: I didn’t get my blog post up last night because I fell asleep on the bed while writing it, so today you get two! I’m trying hard to keep up with and complete #bloglikecrazy this year! 🙂

I have had an epic week, despite feeling crummy for part of it (female problem, ick!). I’m usually pretty chill during the week because I’m working and such, and I tend to have my fun on the weekends. But not this week. This week has been jam packed with stuff and it’s still going. I’ve been to two concerts, a Silent Dinner, and a social media and marketing conference.

Daniel and I saw AJR earlier this week and lost our collective minds. We love this trio of brothers and try to see them any time they are in the area. We just found out they are coming back in March for part 2 of their tour and CANNOT WAIT! Already! And we just saw them! They always put on a high energy, enlightening, intensely entertaining show.

Then I suckered him into seeing the Jonas Brothers with me on Wednesday night (hehehe, get it? Suckered?) He was a wonderful sport and I’m extremely grateful for his sense of humor. I’ve taken a shining (LOL!) to their new material and had a small, almost comedic, inkling to see them since I heard they were coming. But I wasn’t about to dish out real (aka good) money to see them. If I happened to get tickets or something I would go. Well, I checked Stubhub like 2 hours before the show and saw 4th row center tickets for stupid cheap and asked Daniel if he would humor me. It was definitely an experience. The Jonas Brothers were great – talented and catering to their young fan base. They were so cute in their Crayola suits. But what fascinated me the most were the fans. I really felt like that was what it must have been like in the 60’s around the Beatles. My ears could barely handle the decibels of screaming girls. I’ve never heard anything like it and I’ve seen Taylor Swift and Beyonce. Twice.

The next evening Daniel was kind enough to accompany me to the Silent Dinner that the Birmingham regional office of the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind (AIDB) hosts around town each month. I haven’t been in years and they can be very intimidating for a hearing person who is new to ASL (which yes, I still am because I am slow and not proficient in the least). A lot of deaf and hard of hearing people attend the dinners and they tend to sign very fast so I can’t understand what they are saying or asking me and I get flustered and overwhelmed quickly and then want to leave. Thankfully, this time I had Daniel with me who was also new and we helped each other throughout the evening. Daniel has asked me to teach him ASL. So as I learn new things I teach him, which is perfect because it helps me practice. It also helps me realize I know more than I think I do. Baby steps.

Today was the Southern Social Summit at the Haven. It was a wonderful conference about social media marketing with speakers from every background. My favorite part of it was the women-led panel. Those were some powerful women up there giving some great advice!

How was your week?

“A blind person is calling you.”

The notification popped up and I raced to unlock my phone and answer the call. The calls don’t come that often and there are hundreds of thousands of people like me waiting to help, so if we don’t answer quick they move on to the next volunteer.

I answered the call and was greeted with a live video of of multi-colored gaming dice, the kind you find playing Dungeons & Dragons or other RPGs (role playing games). I immediately got excited. A deep voice asked, “Are these green dice?” as a hand picked up some of the dice. “No,” I replied, “the green ones are a bit to the left.” They dropped the dice and moved their hand to the left, passing over piles of different colored dice until I told them to stop. They picked up some of the dice directly below and asked if those were the green ones with the purple numbers. I asked if they could pull the dice away from the camera a little so it could focus better so I could see the numbers. They did and I was able to tell they were purple numbers on green swirled dice. The caller was very happy and put the handful of dice into a white box that contained 6 little black boxes. They informed me they were heading out to a game and wanted those particular dice for the game.

The app is called “Be My Eyes” and it connects people who are blind or visually impaired to seeing people who can help them find what they are looking for. If you want to be a seeing volunteer (like me) download the app from the App Store or Google Play Store and register as a volunteer and then wait for a call. Like I mentioned before, there are thousands and thousands of us waiting to take calls. That is a wonderful thing for the callers because if a volunteer doesn’t answer in just a few seconds the call will roll to another volunteer until someone picks up. A caller may be in a time crunch and need help pretty quickly, so I appreciate that the app doesn’t waste time waiting too long for volunteers to pick up.

I’ve taken three calls so far in the few years that I’ve had the app. I’ve helped a woman put together her perfect job interview outfit (she knew what she wanted to wear she just needed my help finding a particular colored skirt in her closet), helped another woman get around in a place she was unfamiliar with (describing the room she was in) and today’s call. Today’s was by far my favorite: a fellow gamer who was happy to show me his dice collection once I shared that I was a newbie gamer myself.

I have no idea what it’s like to be deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or visually impaired, but I am trying hard to understand by learning American Sign Language and more about blind and deaf culture. Degenerative eye disease and hearing loss run in my family, so I’m sure I’ll get firsthand experience with them soon enough. But for now I am absolutely content learning and helping on the sidelines and being an ally wherever I can.

Click here to get more information about the Be My Eyes app.
Click here to get more information about ASL classes from Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind.

Sherri Ross

Tag: AIDB

Be My Eyes

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