Planning Ahead with Vision Loss: The Hadley Institute Offers Hope
What would you do if you had macular degeneration or failing vision because of diabetes and you knew you were going to lose your eyesight? Would you become despondent and fall into a deep depression? Would you try to carry on as if nothing was changing? Or would you try to plan ahead so that you could adjust and live as normally as possible? How would you even begin to plan?
One place you could start your planning is the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Winnetka, Illinois, just north of Chicago. The Hadley Institute has been specializing in home study courses for the blind and visually impaired since 1920. And since that beginning, Hadley has offered their classes free of charge for anyone whose eyesight is impaired or nonexistent.
In 1915, a high school teacher named William Hadley lost his sight at the age of 55. Hadley was a strong man, a devout Quaker, who refused to let adversity stop him. He simply wouldn’t let blindness stop him from living a rewarding life. He taught himself Braille. Determined to help others and continue teaching, he sought a new direction. He enlisted the help of a friend, Dr. E.V.L. Brown, an ophthalmologist and Professor at Rush Medical College.
Dr. Brown had a long history of helping others. He was largely responsible for the passage of a law requiring antiseptic solution to be placed in the eyes of newborns, thus preventing innumerable cases of blindness secondary to chlamydia or gonorrhea. He was also noted for helping African-American medical students and residents, encouraging and mentoring them.
The two men founded an institution dedicated to teaching both the blind and those with poor vision how to cope with their disabilities. In 1920, there was no way very many of the country’s blind people could possibly get to Winnetka, Illinois to attend the school, so they designed a home study course to teach Braille. They named the school the Hadley Correspondence School for the Blind.
In the past 96 years, the school has grown to become the single biggest educational source for blind and visually impaired people in the world. More than 10,000 students in every state and over 100 countries are enrolled in their free classes, mostly online. There is no requirement that the students be unable to afford the costs. There simply are no costs. The courses are free to every person with vision impairment, to their families, and to professionals who deal with the blind. At the moment, the curriculum is available only in English.
Their courses are amazing. You can learn Braille or chess or Spanish, overcome the complexities of Excel and computers in general, study history, literature, poetry, science, mathematics, and religion, and even learn to identify bird songs. You can also take classes in independent living, from socializing and dining to personal care, housekeeping and cooking, from mobility to finances, psychology, and self-defense. There are also programs that teach entrepreneurship and business skills, including how to find a job. They cover a myriad of topics with formats that come in a variety of forms, such as Braille, large print books, audiobooks, etc.
Since they do not charge their students, the financial support must come from donations. I had the pleasure of meeting two of the school’s most enthusiastic supporters. Fruman and Marian Jacobson are retired attorneys who now divide their time between Oro Valley and their Chicago home. Fruman’s father was an ophthalmologist in Chicago and studied under Dr. Brown, the co-founder of the Hadley Institute. Fruman grew up hearing about Hadley and Brown and their dreams.
Fruman and Marian have helped to fund the Low Vision Focus, a new program designed to help older adults whose vision is impaired. The courses can enable people with low vision to maintain their independence. The curriculum includes how to make home modifications to ensure easier and safer mobility, how to cook safely, how to manage medications and finances. Lecturers teach about eye health and the diseases that affect the eyes. There are courses and resources about job training and rights, about health and aging, and about stress and life changes.
There are over 4 million people in the United States with low vision, and the numbers will continue to grow as America’s population ages. This new program reaches out to seniors with failing eyesight to help them learn new ways to manage their daily activities so that they can continue to live independently.
If you know of anyone with low vision, tell them about Hadley. And think about joining people like the Jacobsons by making a donation to a cause that, as Fruman Jacobson said, “does nothing but good.”
For more information visit hadley.edu and lowvisionfocus.org/LVF.asp.