Lighthouse Promotes Independence, Self-Reliance For the Visually Impaired

When Susan Kitazawa learned she was losing her eyesight 10 years ago, she was stunned.

“I noticed that my distance vision was blurring, but I thought a routine refraction and new contact lenses would correct the problem,” says Kitazawa, a registered nurse who lives in San Francisco. “It came as a shock when my doctor told me after a routine exam that I have a type of glaucoma that's less responsive to available treatments, and that I am slowly but relentlessly moving toward blindness.”

Faced with this terrifying and life-changing diagnosis, Kitazawa sought opportunities to meet with other people with similar experiences. “This is what I would have recommended to one of my patients if they’d been in the same situation,” says Kitazawa, who is now 63 and legally blind. “Even though I’d been an RN for many years, I didn’t really know anybody with glaucoma.”

It wasn’t long before Kitazawa found the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a nonprofit organization offering a range of educational, rehabilitative, recreational and advocacy programs for people of all ages with vision impairments.

The LightHouse – which has headquarters in San Francisco and satellite locations in San Rafael, Berkeley, Oakland and Eureka – promotes independence and a feeling of community and support for those who are blind or losing their vision.

“Our emphasis is not on loss, but on developing strategies and social networks that can help a person transition successfully into blindness while leading an active life,” says Bryan Bashin, the LightHouse’s executive director and CEO.

LightHouse volunteer and client at an art class.

“The average person who becomes blind probably grew up and lived most of their life without knowing any blind people,” adds Bashin. “Our job is to put these people together with others who are further down the road toward blindness, so they can learn and gain reassurance and have role models.

“Our goal is to help people learn strategies to grow and do what they want with their lives, not to wallow in their disability,” adds Bashin.

The LightHouse provides a variety of group and one-on-one programs for people adapting to vision loss, including classes that teach skills and techniques for day-to-day activities like grocery shopping, cooking and household chores. Instruction is also provided in using adaptive technologies such as Braille embossers and computer screen readers and magnifiers.

The LightHouse also trains the blind in ways to travel safely and effectively through their communities and homes, including the use of white canes and techniques that can help people use public transportation and stay oriented when traveling outside the home.

Kitazawa was initially drawn to the LightHouse‘s San Francisco location while she was still working. “I went at first because I needed reassurance. And then I started going more often when I began to need more help with practical things,” says Kitazawa, who gave up her 24-year nursing career in 2006 due to worsening vision. “The classes I took at the LightHouse gave me some of the skills I needed to be able to get through life.”

But what has kept Kitazawa coming back over the years, she says, is the Lighthouse’s emphasis on “empowerment rather than entitlement,” which she attributes partly to the fact that many LightHouse staff members are blind.

“When I go there, I don’t feel that tone of patronization and unknowing condescension that I sometimes experience elsewhere,” Kitazawa explains. “It’s damaging to a person’s psyche when pity is involved. I’m tired of people talking to me as if my brain has stopped working just because I’m blind.”

LightHouse clients on a boating excursion on San Francisco Bay.

Support groups which meet at the LightHouse help bolster independence and develop advocacy skills. One group, co-founded by Kitazawa three years ago, tackles topics such as how blind people can get help when using public transportation and how to deal with store clerks. This peer-led support group meets twice per month and has members ranging in age from 26 to 90.

“Our focus is on supporting each other in what each of us hopes to do with our life,” says Kitazawa. Kitazawa has tried not to let blindness interfere with her freedom. Over the past few years, she has taken up tango dancing and taiko drumming, traveled to Argentina on her own, and developed her painting and writing skills. Her paintings have been featured in several group art shows

The LightHouse also operates a summer camp in Napa, called Enchanted Hills, which is adapted for blind people. “The camp provides a great opportunity for sharing and mentorship,” says Bashin. “Nobody does blindness solo.

For information about the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired and its programs, see www.lighthouse-sf.org or call 1-888-400-8933. The LightHouse also has a Help Desk at its headquarters location at 214 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.

(This article originally appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of Bay Area Summit)

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