Losing one’s vision at any age can be frightening. For older adults, vision loss often comes gradually, and people may adapt in small ways, squinting more, adding brighter lights, or enlarging the text on their phones. Sometimes they quietly give up favorite activities, assuming this reduced way of living is unavoidable.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Charles Meyers, assistive technology trainer for the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, works with older adults in Greater New Bedford to help them regain independence through technology and adaptive strategies. His message is simple: don’t wait until your world shrinks too far.
“The brain does a lot of work to make us think that we are full perceiving beings,” Meyers said. “You often don’t know until you do the diagnostic test…It’s not a question for you to deliberate on. It’s a question for what does medicine say.”
Meyers knows what it’s like to resist help. His own hearing loss began in adolescence, but he ignored it until the pandemic made his lip-reading habit useless. “Overnight I lost the ability to hear people…I had no idea. I had to get hearing aids in both my ears,” he recalled. “You don’t get to choose when this happens. It happens and you have adapt.”
That lesson shapes how he works with older adults losing vision. “It is very scary to be stuck in darkness,” he said. “But you can take one step without knowing what the next one will be.”
Meyers sees two types of clients. Some are already experimenting with larger text, brighter lights, or magnifiers. They want to build on what they know and explore how technology can help. Others come to him only when they realize they can’t do something important in their daily life—whether that’s taking walks outdoors, reading, or getting to church.
In both cases, Meyers tailors solutions to fit each person’s needs.
“Ideally you don’t do this on your own,” he said. “Ideally you have somebody that says, ‘Well, you tried that route, right?’”
Meyers remembers Ann, a 92-year-old woman who wanted to continue her weekly trips to the nail salon and church. But she struggled to use ride-booking apps. “Ann had what we would call light perception so she could see shapes, but no detail…
The very concept [of an iPhone] was magical to her.” After five months of frustration, Ann agreed to try another approach.
Meyers helped her register for Uber’s call-in service for seniors. With the phone number saved and Siri enabled, Ann’s task became simple: unlock the phone and ask Siri to call Uber.
“That was it. That’s all she needed to know,” Meyers said. “She was off to the races.”
Transportation is one of the most common concerns Meyers hears, but technology can do far more.
He’s shown clients how to listen to music through apps, map safe neighborhood walks, or get voice-guided directions. Every success, large or small, represents another piece of independence regained.
“Independence is not something that is comfortable to watch somebody gain,” Meyers acknowledged. Family members often step in to help, but he cautions that doing too much can unintentionally limit an older adult’s world.
Not everyone is eager to learn new technology. Some are motivated and curious; others feel resentful that they must adapt at all. “At a certain point you just have to take your situation and move forward,” Meyers said. “When do you choose to accept your situation and take the steps to live with it?”
He urges older adults not to let fear or shame hold them back. “It’s easy to stagnate when you don’t see a path forward,” he said. “But sometimes taking one step—even when you can’t see the next rung on the staircase—leads you to walking again.”
MABVI partners with Coastline to provide assistive technology training for older adults in New Bedford and surrounding communities. Meyers wants more people to know that resources exist, and that reaching out can be the first step to regaining control.
“Life can be better,” he said. “You just have to be willing to take that first step.”
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