« April 2026

Good day

The B-a-VIP group met on April l0, 2026 at Seniors Plus in Lewiston.

B-a-VIP

April 10, 2025

Pass out key chain.. Thanks to Julie!

Attendance

Katie from IRIS
Steve from Hadley
Caitlyn from DBVI
Tim from DBVI
Roger
Brian
Julie
Joe
Pat
Annette
Nikky
Dan

Presentation
Steve front HADLEY

The Hadley school for the blind started in 1921 by a school teacher who started correspondence courses on Braille by Mail. Since then the program has developed and changed and now serves mostly blind and visually impaired senior citizens above the age of 55. Steve works remotely in Portland, ME although the organization is based in Winnetka, Illinois.

Here is a link to the website - https://hadleyhelps.org/

Many subjects are covered..

Steve told us that the organization gets a wide variety of questions… lots of questions on screen readers. He said that the organization is intent on returning calls within 24 hours, and that they prefer a more human touch.

From the website

Since relaunching in July 2020, more than 100,000 have joined the Hadley community and our workshops have 98% satisfaction ratings. Hadley's help reaches all 50 states and more than 100 countries. 

Hadley works closely with the National Eye Institute and the National Eye Health Education Program as well as many other national and international organizations also serving older adults adjusting to vision loss. If you'd like to make Hadley's help more readily available to your clients/patients/customers, learn more about partnering with us.

Telephone 800-323-4238

All the courses and workshops are self-paced and brief - of about 8-10 minutes.

Most often when you are taking a workshop, and when you get stuck you can call.

Hadley web site also sponsors discussion groups like Book Nook or Writer’s Circle or Poetry ….. all kinds of resources..

Also a peer to peer program … Clients are matched based on som similarity and then the parties communicate on common issues and challenges.

Social Support Groups - An eight week adjustment group. There’s a training group and then clients can join a larger adjustment group.

Here is a link to social support groups - Social Support 

Here is a link to the podcasts -Insights and Sound Bites

These podcasts are also available with Alexa

Braille instruction has been revamped. Braile by sight - designed for sighted or semi-sighted persons. The really big program is the tactile Braille program and it has been revised to provide access and gradual learning….

This is an interesting program for Braille training. And of course there is technical phone support a

We had a good  discussion on the value of learning Braille.

We all wished Nikki the best of luck in her adventure to Pittsburgh.

Next Meeting - May 8 - 11:30AM at Seniors Plus in Lewiston

Guest Speaker - Nikki

END