Skip to Content

Lifelong Learning

T

he resources in this section have something for everyone. You will find opportunities on how you can study by using academic distance learning. This section also directs you to a variety of websites that will help you learn blindness skills, cooking directions to products, information about Apple products and apps and how to use them, and other useful tips for blind persons.

Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired

700 Elm Street
Winnetka, IL 60093
Toll free: 800-323-4238
Phone: 847-446-8111
Email: info@hadley.edu
Website: www.hadley.edu

The Hadley Institute for the Blind's mission is to promote independent living through lifelong distance education programs for people who are blind or visually impaired, their families and blindness service providers. Programs: Adult Continuing Education - which includes courses to prepare for employment and entrepreneurship. High School - Hadley's High School (HS) Program features academic courses and electives for students who wish to earn a high school diploma. Students may earn a High School Diploma from Hadley’s or transfer Hadley course credits to their local high school. Family Education - Topics range from child development, to independent living, to braille reading and writing and adjustment to blindness issues. Hadley School for Professional Studies - HSPS courses are available to anyone who works directly with blind or visually impaired individuals in a work, school or community setting, whether as a paid employee or volunteer. Low Vision Focus @ Hadley - The Low Vision Focus @ Hadley program is designed to help you maintain your independence in your home by sharing practical ways to address daily living skills made difficult by low vision. Seminars @ Hadley - Hadley conducts seminars on a wide range of topics on the Web. Participants may register for whatever interests them and participate directly in the discussion, or may review them online at a later time.

DirectionsForMe.com

c/o Horizons for the Blind
125 Erick St., A103
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
Voice/TDD: 815-444-8800
Website: http://www.directionsforme.com

DirectionsForMe, a service of Horizons for the Blind, provides the information that’s on consumer packages or labels in a simple online format for anyone who has trouble reading the small print including people who are blind or visually impaired. This site provides a consistent, quality source of complete packaging information for everything from preparation or cooking instructions to ingredient lists to Nutrition and Drug Facts, as well as labels for many common grocery, health and beauty and general merchandise products. In addition, it also provides potentially life-saving allergy and drug interaction warnings. Horizons for the Blind also sells a variety of books on cooking, crafts and gardening.

Music Section - National Library Service for the Blind and Print-Disabled

Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20542
Phone: 800-424-8567
Email: nlsm@loc.gov
Website: http://www.loc.gov/nls/music

The special music collection of the National Library Service consists of more than thirty thousand audio, braille, and large-print music scores, texts, and instructional materials about music and musicians. Collection materials range from beginning to advanced levels. Holdings are searchable online at nlscatalog.loc.gov, and many of these audio and braille titles can be downloaded from NLS BARD. Many recorded titles are devoted to instruction in playing various instruments, e.g., guitar, piano, organ, and recorder.

National Braille Press

88 Saint Stephen Street
Boston, MA 02115
Phone: 888-965-8965
Website: http://www.nbp.org

National Braille Press produces a wide variety of books, including material on cooking, health, and tutorials on PC software. They publish an especially wide range of books describing the nonvisual use of iPhones, iPads and iPods. Most of their publications are available in hardcopy braille, downloadable braille, Daisy audio or Microsoft Word formats.

AppleVis.com

Website: http://www.applevis.com

AppleVis is a community-powered website for blind and low-vision users of Apple's range of Mac computers, the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and the Apple TV. It strives to empower the community by offering multiple pathways to access and share relevant and useful information. It seeks to encourage and support people in exploring the many ways in which these mainstream products and related applications can offer opportunities to the vision-impaired for personal enrichment, independence and empowerment. In addition to discussion forums and podcasts, AppleVis contains reviews of the accessibility of thousands of apps for iOS and the Mac.

Back to top