Dear Friends,

INsight Online is a monthly news update from the Greater Detroit Agency for the Blind and Visually Impaired. We're interested to know what you think of the content, or if you have any news or information that you'd like to share. Please give us your feedback at

In this month's issue...

Vote independently... it's your right!
August is Cataract Awareness Month
Agency Bowl-a-thon slated for November 2
My perspective - "Remembering Beatrice"

Vote independently... it's your right

As we enter this important fall election season, the Agency will be at the Wayne County Regional Library for the Blind to teach those with severe vision loss learn how to vote without second-party assistance. Agency staff will be available to instruct voters with severe vision loss and other disabilities how to use the AutoMARK voting machine, which provides these voters with the opportunity to mark a ballot independently at their local polling place. The machine also reduces the risk of error or abuse.

Consumers can visit www.gdabvi.org/vote to learn about their basic rights when visiting polling places, as well as listen to podcasts of Agency staff describing the process and experience of using the AutoMARK machine.

Consumers can also call 313-272-3900 to schedule an individual training at the Agency’s offices.

August is Cataract Awareness Month

In the state of Michigan, it's estimated that there are close to 800,000 cases of cataracts in adults over the age of 40. It is the number one age-related eye disease, with more cases than glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy combined. An updated study from Prevent Blindness America and the National Eye Institute has found that eye disease diagnoses, including cataract, continue to rise.

Read more from Prevent Blindness America.

Mark your calendar for the Agency First Annual Bowl-A-Thon

The Greater Detroit Agency for the Blind and Visually Impaired is pleased to announce its first bowling fundraiser on Sunday, November 2, 2008 from 3—6 p.m. at Cloverlanes Bowl on 28900 Schoolcraft Road in Livonia.

The event will include three games of bowling with shoes, along with pizza, pop and other goodies. Proceeds will go to support agency programs and services.

Download the Bowling Flyer to learn more.

My Perspective – by Tania B. Allen

Vision. The word vision has various meanings, the act or power of sensing with the eyes; power of anticipating what may come to be; a person or thing that appears vividly or credibly to the mind, etc. My beloved grandmother, Beatrice, was the vision of beauty inside and out. Married with five children, she lost her vision at the age of 42 due to macular degeneration.

Though her eyesight was gone, her ability to remain happy and positive did not cease, nor did her desire to help others. She always had a house full of children throughout the day and taught Sunday school for over 30 years, enjoying every minute of it.

Beatrice also enjoyed cooking and baking. Even though she lost her sight, her great cooking ability never ceased. I can remember coming home from school to find that she just finished making a pound cake from scratch… I’d hide slices of the cake before everyone else came home.

When a woman from church once commented to my grandmother that she never complained, she responded, “Why would I? My eye sight is gone, but not my spirit!”

Beatrice was never a client of the Greater Detroit Agency for the Blind and Visually Impaired, but it is in her memory that I became an Agency volunteer. She would have benefited greatly from the Agency’s rehabilitation services, which help seniors with severe vision loss to live independently. She also would have been pleased to witness, as I have, its summer camps, which instill in young people the confidence and self-motivation needed to get through life.

We all have vision, be it great or small, regardless of whether we’re sighted or blind.

And incidentally, in Latin, Beatrice means “happy”.

Tania B. Allen is an Agency volunteer.