Today, becoming blind can be simply a transition from one way of living to a new rich, productive and imaginative existence.

      In 1996, two eye specialists confirmed a feared fact: I had become legally blind, and the disease, known as macular degeneration, was incurable. Quickly came one of the major consequences: the lose of automobile driving privileges. It was not the loss of the privileges that hurt; rather, the pain was in the loss of the independence and freedom that had been part and parcel of automobile ownership. Freedom is something we all tend to take for granted throughout our lives.

      At that time, I stood at one of those major forks in life's pathway:

      (1) To the left was the path of ease, of least resistance. Just go there, and sit. Join the "woe is me" crowd, accomplish nothing, become incarcerated in self pity while waiting for endless days to close. That was the easy path, and having stood there, I can understand why so many choose it.

      (2) The other path, to the right, was not a path of ease. It bristled with the need for substantial self determination. That path would lead to exciting new adventures, new ways to be creative and productive, new ways for great entertainment, and new ways to live independently: all thanks to the availability of today's technology.

      Many people with vision impairment can see sufficiently to read with ample light and magnification. One way involves the use of powerful reading lamps and hand held magnifiers. This is cumbersome, uncomfortable, and very tiring. New technology brings in video readers and computers. It was ultra exciting to learn, early in my new walk, that with a computer I can read, write, and even take care of my personal finances, including writing checks. I could even prepare my own federal income tax return and then file it; all things that blind people cannot ordinarily accomplish easily. But that was only the tip of the computer iceberg. Mountain ranges of exciting possibilities suddenly emerged.

      There was, for example, the Internet, which brought a whole new wide-world of information. Suddenly, there was easy access to the world's largest library, larger than all libraries combined, access to the most gigantic and diverse shopping malls imaginable, access to many books and music, including the Bible, access to the very offices of government, to learning centers, and much, much more. All available 24/7 to my blinded eyes, right in the comfort and security of my own home, without the need of an automobile.

      I quickly learned that shopping on the Internet was far more productive than dragging from store to store, parking lot to parking lot, through one traffic mess to another. Moreover, there were greater amounts of product information on the Internet than ordinarily found in typical retail outlets.

      One of my earliest projects on the computer/Internet circuit was to become an amateur genealogist, tracing my family roots back to the year 1350 in Germany (that ended a life long hand-me-down-myth that our family originated in Wales!) It required a few exciting and fun filled years to complete the task. Finally, I published a 125 page family history book, all created by computer, and I opened a family history web site. Let me tell you, blind people are not supposed to do these things, right? No, wrong. This is the 21st Century.

      On the Internet, I meet and communicate with many wonderful people. At a site called MD Support, there are hundreds of people who also have vision difficulties. There we share thoughts together, explore common ground, help each other by sharing information. The people live all over the USA and around the world. And that is only one of many email discussion groups for people with vision impairment.

      I have discovered another whole new world of fascinating possibilities: computer graphics. It began simply enough with photographs. People with vision impairments and blindness frequently cannot see other people's faces, facial detail, or eyes, a very frustrating existence. Image walking into a room full of friends and relatives and not being able to recognize anyone there. My frustrations also involved the fact that grand children were all growing like a swift wind, and I could not readily see their faces. The solution: put their pictures into my computer, then zoom in and enjoy.

      That led to another major project involving all of the photographs amassed during 50+ years of married life. They were stuffed in shoe and other boxes, old envelopes, and in unfinished albums. I scanned all of them (over 5,000) into the computer, where they were organized and indexed. Later, they were placed on CDs to preserve them for future generations.

      Photographs can be great friends to blind people. Today, I have over 60,000 photographs available in my computer systems, organized by subject. For example, I can spend this afternoon visually walking through vast fields of wild flowers in the country side of Sweden, into deep lush forests of the Pacific Northwest, climb Mount Everest, go deep sea diving at Belize, or visually visit almost every major city of the world. All possible via the magic of the computer.

      Becoming involved with photographs led to another field of great interest: digital imaging and digital artwork. All of my life I was a total artistic failure, not being able to draw a straight line, not even a successful "smiley". Today, I have gained considerable skills in the areas of photo retouching, restoration of antique photos, collages, water color painting, mosaic design, and much, much more. At one time, I had six galleries on the Internet. All of this possible because I was able to take home study courses, reading via my video/computer reading set up.

      I could go on and on, but the point to be made here is that the computer will help any vision impaired or blind person to live a rich and exciting life, rather than living a life of shallow emptiness, like so many vision impaired do. You can live a life that is so interesting that your days will be so full and pass so quickly that you will want to say for all to hear, "I am too busy to feel sorry for myself."

      I want to encourage anyone who has a vision impairment or blindness, to discover the computer's magical powers and the rich resources of the Internet. If you need help, contact your local organizations for the vision impaired, many of which offer computer introductory courses. In many areas, the public school system offers evening courses on computers. If you have access to the Internet, just go to any search engine and punch up, for example, "macular-degeneration," or "vision-impaired," and you will have instant access to tens of thousands of web sites.

      Start doing something right now. It's the 21st century. Start living it, being a part of it, and, most important, seeing it!