When technological advancements meet heartfelt human connection, organizations like iSight Connections create meaningful opportunities for support and growth. Tim Richards and Jeanette Fortin from iSight Connections bring a wealth of knowledge and a deep passion for supporting individuals with vision impairment.
Tim is the founder, and Jeanette is the Community Relations Coordinator. They discuss how vision care has changed over the last 50 years, especially with the rise of new technology, and how those changes have shaped the services offered today. From computer and tech training to nutrition and wellness support, iSight Connections provides a wide range of programs tailored to meet evolving needs.
Tim and Jeanette also share their personal journeys into the field and offer insights into where they see vision services heading in the next 50 years. They emphasize the importance of connection and community, highlighting how the relationships and classes they provide are truly invaluable to those they serve.
To learn more and connect, contact Jeanette at 719-332-7529 or email, info@isightconnections.org.
Also see isightconnections.org/
Aging with Altitude is recorded in the Pikes Peak region with a focus on topics of aging interest across the country. We talk about both the everyday and novel needs and approaches to age with altitude – whether you’re in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida or Leadville, Colorado. The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging is the producer.
Transcript
VOICEOVER:
You’re listening to Studio 809 Podcast. This is what community sounds like.
MARGIOTTA:
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. This is aging with altitude, a program striving to provide answers, assistance and advocacy for us elders through the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging. We’re coming to you from the Studio 809 Community Podcast Studio at the Next US, a professional cooperative environment for small businesses in downtown Colorado Springs.
I’m your host, Cynthia Margiotta, a geriatric social worker and volunteer with the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments Area Agency on Aging and CEO of the P.E.A.R.L.S. Program of Colorado and All About Dignity.
iSight Connections founder Tim Richards has worked in the field of blindness and low vision for 25 years. He has served as an instructor at a number of nonprofits, including Braille Institute in Los Angeles, Junior Blind of America, Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind and the Division of Vocational Rehab. He holds dual master’s degrees in vision, rehabilitation therapy and orientation and mobility, and is one of a small group of nationwide certified assistive technology instruction specialists. Tim’s passion is to help those with vision impairment learn how to thrive independently and enjoy the quality of life they deserve.
So with iSight for how many years?
RICHARDS.
I say Connections was founded in 2019.
MARGIOTTA:
And then we also have a second guest today who works with Tim. Her name is Jeanette. Jeanette has been legally blind since nine years of age. She graduated from the Texas School for the Blind. She has three adult children. Which she homeschooled for nine years after the kids went to high school, Jeanette began volunteering with National Federation for the Blind of Colorado, and became a local chapter president as well as a state board of directors member. She became an employee of the Colorado Springs Independence Center as the older individuals would bind a specialist. She became the community relations coordinator with iSight Connections in January of 2024, and now works with seniors with low vision, providing many of the same services to this community. Jeanette has a passion for working with seniors to make sure they can continue living the independent life they deserve.
So we have several questions for the two of you. Are you all ready?
RICHARDS:
Hope so.
MARGIOTTA:
Alright, my first question is what were you doing in 1974?
RICHARDS:
Well, this is Tim. And in 1974, I was learning to walk. I think I remember falling over and hitting my head and getting stitches in my forehead. I don’t remember it, but I saw pictures.
MARGIOTTA:
Seen pictures, yeah. Those are my memories. How about you, Jeanette?
FORTIN:
I was graduating from high school and getting married.
MARGIOTTA:
Thank you so much. Somebody my age. Holy cow, drives me nuts.
FORTIN:
All these young people.
MARGIOTTA:
Right, we’re catching up to who our special passions are, aren’t we? Here’s our question. How have services for seniors with low vision changed over these last 50 years?
RICHARDS:
Since it’s 50 years, I’m going to have Jeanette start that.
FORTIN:
Well, low vision services for people of all ages have changed. But in particular for seniors, they’ve become harder to find, because the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation dropped the homemaker program several years ago, where you could get training in your home just say for skills training as well, as I started with them in the homemaker program for computer training.
MARGIOTTA:
Ok.
FORTIN:
When the Department of Vocational Rehab dropped anyone who was not seeking employment, that made it very challenging for seniors. Then their options were pretty limited, and that’s where the older individuals with blindness program came in to help people, and that’s a nationwide program often run by the Department of Vocational Rehab, is funded through there. So then, as time has passed with budget cuts and such. Services have become more limited.
MARGIOTTA:
Uh-huh.
FORTIN:
But we’re always looking for funding and grants and volunteers willing to help seniors adjust to their vision loss.
MARGIOTTA:
There’s a lot of vision loss that’s more related to seniors then young people.
FORTIN:
Yes.
RICHARDS:
More so.
For instance, the glaucomas, cataracts, those things.
RICHARDS:
When you look at the numbers, if you take a rough estimate, and the conservative numbers are about 200,000 in in Colorado with vision loss.
MARGIOTTA:
Seniors?
RICHARDS:
Well, to say the whole population of vision loss, is that probably very conservative number when you look at the stats and then you look at how many are served in 18 and younger within the school districts, which that’s pretty accurate because they take pretty accurate numbers on those, and that’s about just under 10,000, just around 10,000. So really it’s 5% is in the school districts and then the older the population gets, the more vision loss occurs.
And that’s where when the services change with the homemaker case load going away back in 2017, 2018, that’s when, we started iSight Rehab and then iSight Connections as a nonprofit because of who’s going to serve the older population with vision loss. Coming back from my experience with orientation, mobility, travel skills, daily living skills, training and assistive technology training, and you’re like, who’s going to serve the population in those specific areas. And that’s why Connections started.
MARGIOTTA:
Yeah. And you know, we’re so technology oriented, that we really need to know how to do that, blind or not blind.
RICHARDS:
Yeah, you could have a program called Grandma Got A New Phone. And there’d be a lot of people signing up for it.
MARGIOTTA:
OK, I need that class.
RICHARDS:
But then you get Grandma Got A New Phone and she can’t see it.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
RICHARDS:
Now, it’s not just your family members who are gonna be able to help you all fix this, but they have to know the low vision piece.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
RICHARDS:
And the blindness piece.
FORTIN:
Well, and I think the other thing is our population is living longer, and the longer you live, particularly with conditions like macular degeneration, the highest risk factor is age.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
FORTIN:
The leading cause of blindness in our country is diabetes. And so that’s becoming more and more of a challenge. I think it’s diabetes, than macular, than glaucoma, all of which are conditions that tend to be more prevalent among the older population.
MARGIOTTA:
And diabetes, I wasn’t even thinking about that. At one time we knew so little about diabetes that people would be like, why am I going blind?
RICHARDS:
I remember when I first started off in the field in the mid 90s at Braille Institute in Los Angeles, and I remember that diabetic retinopathy was the third leading cause of blindness and now it’s
FORTIN:
The first.
RICHARDS:
Now it’s the first, ‘cause of I’m sure diets and health problems, and you look at macular degeneration.
FORTIN:
When you look at our population, 40% of our adult population is considered obese and that’s one of the highest risk factors for diabetes. I mean, but you don’t have to be overweight to get diabetes either.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
FORTIN:
But it tends to be one of the highest risk factors. And as we age, then, I have a lady that’s got glaucoma that she said her doctor said you’re going to go blind because you’re old, that’s what he said.
MARGIOTTA:
How nice of him.
FORTIN:
Glaucoma and you’re old.
MARGIOTTA:
Thank you so much, Doc.
FORTIN:
Yes, Yes.
MARGIOTTA:
You know what a positive attitude, there we go.
RICHARDS:
If you lose vision due to health condition, diabetes, how do you manage your food, how do you do that and services used to be provided through VOC rehab, and you could apply for vocational rehabilitation services in your state and you could receive that training when that got cut, because the homemaker used to be an employment goal. So then when that was removed, people who were not going back to work can no longer apply for services, and that’s when we needed to figure out how do we still provide these service. And that’s why PPACG, and being able to apply for the grant through them to support the service, have been so important and so helpful, and we’re so grateful for that.
MARGIOTTA:
Right. Well with technology, it’s not like my stove, for example, ok, you know it, it’s got technology, it’s not like a little switch, it’s on and off. It’s, push this button in and then that button. And when you’re blind, you know you need to make adjustments, like the little buttons that people can put on things.
FORTIN:
Bump dots.
MARGIOTTA:
That helps a lot for people.
FORTIN:
And so much is going touch screen, so that’s hard for blind people. I mean, we’ve got folks who are carrying little oxygen tanks and it’s all touch screen.
MARGIOTTA:
Oh my gosh, right.
FORTIN:
So yeah, so that’s becoming a challenge as they lose their vision.
MARGIOTTA:
Staying on that subject just for a moment. When it’s a touch screen, how do you help people know where to touch?
RICHARDS:
Great question. So I remember when the iPhone first came out. Oh man, when was it? Late 2000s, I suppose.
FORTIN:
About 2006 or 7.
RICHARDS:
About 2006, 2007 and I remember like how in the world are you, someone who’s blind, low vision, going to use this screen, that there’s only like one button on the iPhone and then. and there was this program called voiceover and it was, it’s a screen reader, that you can turn on your phone. Her, I’ll turn my phone on now and you can hear it. But you just swipe. And it reads your phone to you, so if you don’t see it, you swipe with the gesture with your thumb or your finger and you move, swipe to the right, or swipe to the left. And then two finger tap to pause the speech and there’s just different gestures. And so you teach how to use your phone without sight, with low vision, and that takes time. And that’s the thing, and that everyone’s going to know how to do that, so there’s some specific training that needs to take place and happen. But that is, it’s pretty amazing.
Once you understand how to do it, it’s ‘Ohh yeah, that makes sense, we can do that.’ And it gives a lot of freedom to people and independence once they can manage their own phone, texting, keeping up with their grandkids. such an important piece. And that’s one of the things that we provide is that type of training.
MARGIOTTA:
And you know the isolation that happens with seniors so often, that probably happens more often with people with vision issues. And so having that opportunity to stay in touch is important.
FORTIN:
It’s very important.
RICHARDS:
And there’s so many great apps that you can just take your phone and your camera with AI. We’re seeing AI and a few other great apps, so you can just take a picture and you can and it tells you what’s in front of you. It gives you access to your outside world and access to the prints, reads the mail.
FORTIN:
Reads what’s on the can in your cupboard, so there’s no mystery meals anymore.
RICHARDS:
Right.
MARGIOTTA:
I saw a commercial on that the other day, and I was thinking wow. They just took a picture and they put something on the can. The phone can read that. I don’t understand all of this. It’s way over my head. But how wonderful to be more inclusive of more people. I like that.
So let’s get back to some of these questions. And I’m sorry I got sidetracked. But you know what prompted you, both of you, to become involved with providing services to seniors with low vision.
RICHARDS:
For me, it started in 1996 when I was in Los Angeles and I just moved there and, the church I was going to there was a gentleman by the name of John who did not have vision. He was using a white cane, and so his orientation mobility instructor brought a fire to the church midweek and they announced, ‘hey, if you’re looking to go onto a program, you can get your master’s and your degree with support’ and it was a one-year program, I said, hey, let me check this out. And I went into it and I love the field as far as training travel skills. And worked at Braille Institute, working with seniors there and just loved, and just I could do this the rest of my life and be happy. And so I’ve been in the field ever since, and just in different areas now because the needs change, right? There was technology back then wasn’t really even close to what it is now.
MARGIOTTA:
It was a rotary dial.
RICHARDS:
Yeah, right. And I remember, they had this GPS. If you remember Ghostbusters and they would have like, these packs, and the slime, you know, for the ghosts, and they would put them on the backs. They would have a GPS for navigation for the blind, and it was a backpack, and it would tell you how to travel. It was a tracker, truck, something, I don’t even remember the name of it anymore.
FORTIN:
Something truck. I don’t remember.
RICHARDS:
Yeah. And I remember doing training for that. That was the technology back then. Now we just have a phone, right. And you just put an earbud in and just follow the directions and it’s amazing the technology, even for blind and low vision just for travel on your phone. And so there’s all this training. So that’s how I got into it and been in the field ever since and love it.
MARGIOTTA:
Wonderful. And how about you, Jeanette?
FORTIN:
So I, after I raised my kids and got a divorce, I decided to go back to work and did some training through Department of Voc Rehab, and that’s how I met Tim. He’s been my computer teacher off and on for 15 years.
RICHARDS:
Oh man.
MARGIOTTA:
Since he was 2.
RICHARDS:
Yeah, right.
FORTIN:
And so, through volunteer work, getting involved in the National Federation of Blind, I met people at The Independence Center. I ended up in a volunteer position, teaching reading, spelling and math to transition students from high school. And then a job came open, working with seniors and I, well, actually, she created the position for me. She needed somebody to work 16 hours a week, and so I was thrilled. My kids were in high school, that was perfect.
And it just kind of evolved from there because a lot of what I went out in the area to learn was for me. Because I was in my 50s at that point and I was probably 55. And so I ended up working with people of all ages and then specifically seniors. And now I am a senior.
MARGIOTTA:
Shhh, don’t tell anyone.
FORTIN:
It’s OK. And I love it. I do a lot of peer support, which is a lot of talking through issues with people. I do some technology training, but really peer support is my deal. I’m a talker and a listener, and I love seeing people grow. Come in and say I can’t do anything to, they’re out riding the bus and going on airplanes and cooking their own meals and going shopping and stuff. It’s just, it makes me cry. It’s so exciting.
Because some of them give up. You go to the doctor and he says you’re going blind, sell your car and get your issues in order, ‘cause your life is over. And that’s very common with eye doctors and so and it can be very depressing to people and there’s also a lot of grief involved in the loss of the ability to drive.
MARGIOTTA:
Right, right.
FORTIN:
Because you give up that independence and freedom. You’re already 65, 70 years old, so you’ve had to adjust to some loss of mobility, maybe, or you can’t move the couch by yourself anymore, and you’re frustrated. Or like me, I can’t get up and take my curtains down, I’m too afraid of falling off the step stool.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
FORTIN:
Just because of my age, not my vision.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
FORTIN:
So I think for me it’s, I just love working with people. It’s very rewarding to me.
MARGIOTTA:
I find that a lot, with exactly what you’re talking about, in the aging industry. That the changes are so hard and we as a society don’t really help people understand that. This is what’s happening, this is what’s coming. Nobody’s going to stay 9 forever.
RICHARDS:
That’s a good thing.
MARGIOTTA:
But I don’t know if I’d want to say stay 15 or you know that age.
FORTIN:
Our 35 even. I think you know one of the challenges, an interesting challenge for Colorado Springs, is these multi-level houses we have. So a lot of my ladies that are now widows are in two and three story houses. And they can’t, or they’re afraid of going up and down the stairs a lot. So then you get into, where am I going to move if I sell it? Do I do assisted living? Do I do independent living? And then when I lose my vision that really changes on where am I going to go?
MARGIOTTA:
Right. Or mobility abilities. If you end up in a wheelchair, right? There was a study number of years ago, too long ago for me to remember when that was, but they say the average person can live in a one-story house 10 years longer than if it’s a multi-story.
FORTIN:
I would think so.
RICHARDS:
It makes sense.
MARGIOTTA:
It makes sense, jinx. We both said it. But yeah, it does make sense to me. But anyway, back to some of these. How do you see services evolving in the future?
RICHARDS:
One thing I would say is, since COVID, I’ve dove into remote training a lot more, and one of the things that I have too is a company called iSight Rehab, where we really focus on just assistive technology training through voc rehab. We’re nationwide, we’re in seven, soon to be eight, states. We have trainers to do that, that helps support iSight Connections and the nonprofits as well, where, what we’re doing is remote training. Because when developing curriculum for screen readers, and screen magnifiers, and typing, and how do you use your computer, and how do you use your phone, and curriculum base that we can provide in cohort. Which, there’s the more numbers of individuals with vision loss it’s growing, but the teachers aren’t growing. How do we still provide those services and if we can do it in a different way, that’s one of the ways that we’re working on developing. And then as we developed that, we’re going to use it with Connections, too, and develop some cohort trainings, or just some curriculum training, so we do more groups.
MARGIOTTA:
Like over the Internet.
RICHARDS:
Yeah, but we can also use that in person when they meet. Because seniors, the community base is such a huge piece. Getting out and talking and being in person, but we can remote train, in the groups, in person. So we could have the trainer come in through, maybe a video conference call or on a TV and then have volunteers or other teachers there to support that cohort training. That’s one of the goals I would love to see in the future that we can provide more services that way. That way you can tap into other professionals nationwide and have them join and still,
MARGIOTTA:
Right, right.
RICHARDS:
Provide the training. The trainer’s remote.
MARGIOTTA:
The trainer’s remote, but then you have volunteers and other people helping individually in the room.
RICHARDS:
Yes, exactly.
MARGIOTTA:
I get it. OK. It took me a minute, but I got it.
RICHARDS:
But it’s reversed. So we do the opposite in rehab, we have the teachers and then the client is there remote training but we can do cohort based, inverted
MARGIOTTA:
Inverted, so the opposite of what I just said. OK, see, I didn’t get it.
RICHARDS:
But the seniors are in person and the trainer’s remote. But that’s one thing that I think could be some changes in the future.
MARGIOTTA:
Yeah. How about you, Jeannette? What do you see in the future?
FORTIN:
Well, I think that’s a big part of it, is getting the training. A lot of our folks, you know, transit, we could do a whole hour on transit, but transit can be difficult if you live, say, in the outer areas, you can’t get in to a training situation. So being able to do it remote. And I tell people if I can do it, anybody can. Because I am so technology challenged, sometimes. COVID forced me to learn more about Zoom than I ever thought I’d ever know. And it’s a lot easier than you than you think it is.
RICHARDS:
Yeah, it is.
FORTIN:
It’s a lot easier. I talk to people like, you know, if you’re just doing phone training, and you’re not doing computer training, you can call up Zoom on your phone. You can, there’s all kinds of we, you know, creatively did things during COVID and we kept some of that.
My goal is to have a lot of peer training. What I love about my job is I get them in to a peer group meeting once a month. We go out to eat lunch at Village Inn because they get their free pie on Wednesday. We’ve been doing that 13 years and a lot of times those conversations or, I gave up driving six months ago and somebody next time we’ll go, I’ve got to give it up, tell me how you did that, can I have your number so I can call and talk to you about that?
And I think that’s part of the training too. I’ve got a lady called me the other day, and she goes, I had her download the app on her phone from Libby to get a book from the library, and she said I told her she could come to training, but I think I can train her on it. I said you trained me on it, over the phone. So I mean a lot of peer training as well.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
FORTIN:
Particularly if you can’t get out.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
FORTIN:
The big challenge, we’ve got to find a way to get our folks in the outer areas to get enough orientation mobility training, that they’re comfortable in their neighborhoods, that they’re comfortable walking out the door if there’s a fire. When they get out the door, they get lost.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
FORTIN:
Or they fall, but that’s a big part of seniors.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
FORTIN:
So I think you know, finding the funding for that, along with just getting people to know that there are other people out there walking that walk, and you can walk beside them.
MARGIOTTA:
I’m not the only one, right?
FORTIN:
Yes, yes.
RICHARDS:
The connection piece is huge.
MARGIOTTA:
Currently, what kind of services does iSight Connections provide right now?
RICHARDS:
Jeanette, why don’t you start with that one.
FORTIN:
Three Wednesdays a month, we meet at a Peak Vista facility. We have a conference room there and we do computer training for an hour. So that’s with text to speech, some people use magnification. We provide that training. And then we do technology training, and technology training can be learning how to use your voice over on your phone, downloading apps on your phone, walking through things. I think one of the most common complaints is I get so frustrated, I want to throw it against the wall. That’s pretty common, both sided and
MARGIOTTA:
I feel that way too.
FORTIN:
Yes, yes, everybody feels that way. We do that. I do several peer support groups. Like I said, I do the luncheon once a month. We have had as many as 20 people at Village Inn. They love us, because we come there every month. And then I teach a nutrition class. Yesterday I did a women’s group meeting and then we have a volunteer that leads a men’s group meeting and that’s peer support.
We have some meetings in senior communities, and we are working towards getting more meetings in senior communities. When the OIB program shut down at the Independence Center, I had nine meetings at nine different facilities. So we’re working back towards that. Part of that is these assisted living facilities have gotten really good at getting a lot of activities, so trying to figure out how to fit that living with low vision meeting in there.
MARGIOTTA:
Right, right.
FORTIN:
A lot of your assisted living folks don’t want technology training. They don’t want cooking training. They want people to talk to who are losing their vision. They want to know how to navigate through the building. Just different tips and tricks on when I go to the dining room, how do I figure out how to get around in there, transportation information. Not all of them provide transportation beyond Walmart, King Soopers and the doctor.
MARGIOTTA:
Right, right.
FORTIN:
So I think our goal, I think is, my goal is at least, five more by the end of July, at least. I’m hoping I’ve already got two going. So I think that’s a big goal of what we do.
RICHARDS:
We just got a monastery up in Monument that we’re going to. There’s five sisters up there with vision loss. So we’re going up there providing some training. And we have places. I know Liberty Heights, which has a few volunteers, we go there and just answer questions, tech questions. A they come in every week, the seniors and they’re like, what about this? And what about this? I can’t connect that and can’t do this. And I lost my photos. There’s so many and they’re like every week it’s different, but every week it’s the same.
MARGIOTTA:
I get that, I get that, I get that.
RICHARDS:
We’re really trying to build up a volunteer program. We have a lot of college-aged students and youth to be able to like, hey, let’s connect the seniors with the seniors and they like that.
And again, I’m grateful for our partnership with Peak Vista to get donated space, and through PPACG, we have a computer lab and the technology to have the computers and we have seniors go every week who just like to learn how to type with the vision loss, ‘cause otherwise don’t have access to their to their computer and learning how to type without vision. It’s a big piece and so that takes time.
MARGIOTTA:
It does.
RICHARDS:
And so that’s another piece that we provide and it’s starting to grow.
MARGIOTTA:
Which of the Peak Vista offices do you have your program in?
RICHARDS:
Great question. The one off of
FORTIN:
North Academy.
MARGIOTTA:
The one on North Academy.
RICHARDS:
The convenient care center right there.
MARGIOTTA:
Wonderful.
FORTIN:
Where is that? That’s like
MARGIOTTA:
North Carefree and Academy.
FORTIN:
It’s really nice. It’s right on the paratransit system. And then what I love about it is it’s really easy to find the room. There’s no steps.
MARGIOTTA:
Right, it’s a great building.
FORTIN:
It’s a nice little building and it’s very, very accessible. The people there are really nice to us.
RICHARDS:
They’re great over there, Peak Vista.
FORTIN:
They’re great over there, I think. And we’re going to, one of the requests I’ve had is through the nutrition class, doing some cooking classes. Where we are right now, we can’t do ‘cooking’ cooking, but we can talk about it. Because, you know, as seniors, a lot of them, they don’t want to cook anymore. It’s just one person. And my son says to me, I cook more now than I live alone than I did when he was there. I beg to differ, he’s six-foot-three, somebody cooked for him. Anyway, even if that was Pizza Hut.
But trying to get them to, the people with losing their vision to eat more healthy. Air fryers Instapots, that, sort of thing. So I had started doing that over at the center and now we’re going to bring that back as we figure out how to do that, so that they can eat healthy. Just have that choice, versus feeling like they don’t have that choice. They don’t want to use the oven because in the summer it’s hot. Plus it’s, you know, just silly for one person. And so we’re going to do some of that.
We do a lot of skills training, talking about, if you live…one of the ladies yesterday said the most frustrating thing is living alone and she doesn’t have a spouse or kids around and she drops something on the floor, and at her age she doesn’t want to get down and crawl around and look for it. What ideas do you have? I said get a dog. But that’s not the best idea.
MARGIOTTA:
No, I think that works at my house really well.
FORTIN:
It used to when I had one. But I think, you know, those services change as the needs change.
MARGIOTTA:
Right.
FORTIN:
Like Tim said, the remote training, as people’s needs change, our services change.
MARGIOTTA:
Right, right. It sounds like you’re looking for volunteers?
FORTIN:
Yes.
RICHARDS:
Yes, always, for just to support. I mean, even like filling out applications to assist with that, people come in and there’s some resources that people could apply for, but they just need to fill out the forms, and without the vision, it’s a little more difficult. Volunteers do that. Or even just youth to say hey, they know the technology, but because not all of them are the assistive technology for blind low vision, sometimes just understanding, if we can provide the assistive technology training and then get the volunteers to connect with phones and texting and file management and emails, all this stuff on the phone, that people just get confused with.
FORTIN:
Because once you understand the voice over technology, someone with vision who uses, say, an iPhone, can walk you through what they see on the screen.
RICHARDS:
And even another quick tip, if you drop something on the phone, I mean
MARGIOTTA:
Floor, on the floor.
RICHARDS:
Yes, but with the phone, that’s what I’m gonna say, but if you drop something on the floor, but if you have a phone, and you can access it, you could call one of your family members to use, say, FaceTime.
FORTIN:
I did that. I dropped my hearing aid and I called my daughter and I put it on FaceTime. My daughter lives in South Carolina. She says, gee, mom, you need to vacuum your carpet. I said, girl, I need the hearing aid.
RICHARDS:
I can’t hear you. What did you say?
FORTIN:
And you’re looking at the carpet from a foot and a half away, be quiet.
The other thing is there are apps that you could actually use.
RICHARDS:
There’s, like, Be My Eyes, eye-ra, which are great apps.
FORTIN:
And Seeing AI.
RICHARD:
And they have volunteers. I mean, Be My Eyes, they have volunteers, you call, you can get someone on the other side who you can use your phone as your camera and they can…they’re just waiting to volunteer. And so there’s all these different resources, but you need the training to get to them, and then you also need to know what they are. And that’s the barrier.
MARGIOTTA:
A big barrier.
RICHARDS:
A big barrier and that’s what we’re trying to help with.
MARGIOTTA:
That’s wonderful. Oh geez, I really love this, because sitting here, I know I’m learning stuff, so I’m sure our listeners are as well. I thank you very much.
I do want to have you give us the phone number, if you don’t mind so that people can connect with you.
RICHARDS:
Yep, Jeanette, would you?
FORTIN:
So I’m the community relations coordinator, so my phone number is 719-332-7529.
MARGIOTTA:
And that’s to connect with Jeanette. And what’s your title?
FORTIN:
Community relations coordinator. So I’m the person with the resources and the meeting times and just talking with people about what they need, what their priorities are, then hooking them up with whatever services we provide, as well as what out is out in the community. And then we also hav an e-mail.
RICHARDS:
Yes, info@isightconnections.org and iSight is spelled, I like phone, so iPhone. So I-S-I-G-H-T. Connections.org.
MARGIOTTA:
It’s dot org. So if they’re able to use the Internet to some extent, they can contact.
FORTIN:
Or a family member. The family members tend to be the ones who use the Internet.
RICHARDS:
And you can always go to isightconnections.org.
FORTIN:
Website.
RICHARDS:
Website.
MARGIOTTA:
I’ve been on that website.
RICHARDS:
Great. Gotta check out what’s out there.
MARGIOTTA:
Gotta know what’s going on in our senior community.I really appreciate the both of you being here today.
RICHARDS:
Thank ou for your time.
MARGIOTTA:
I’ve learned a lot, I’m sure our listeners have as well. I want to repeat the phone number to reach Jeanette and that phone number is 719-332-7529. And that’s also if you’re interested in volunteering?
RICHARDS:
Yes, absolutely.
MARGIOTTA:
So if you need services, want services or want to help provide services, please call Jeanette. Thank you. Thank you both for being here. Have a great day.