Stay in Touch With These Writing Techniques
Writing letters and other correspondence can become challenging if you are experiencing vision loss. Fortunately, a number of methods are available to enable people with impaired vision to continue or resume writing. Vision rehabilitation teachers are trained in tactile skill development and can help you to utilize your sense of touch to acquire the adaptive writing techniques that are best for you.
Here are a few alternative ways to customize writing materials:
- Remove the thread from a sewing machine. Take a sheet of paper,
place it in the machine and stitch parallel lines on the back of a
sheet of paper, placing the lines about a half an inch apart. For the
envelope, follow the same guidelines, creating only four lines to
indicate where the mailing address should be placed.
- Using a plain piece of paper, roll it from the bottom to the
top around a pencil (this works best) or a pen to form a tight, thin
tube. Loosen it just enough to release the pencil. Lay the tube on a
flat surface, press it down and unfold. The sheet will now become
raised line writing paper and lines will be evenly spaced.
- You can also start at the bottom edge of a sheet of paper
and fold it up half an inch. Write on this folded-up flap. When you
reach the end of the line, or have written what you want on the first
line of your note, fold this flap over to create a new half-inch fold,
which becomes the second line of your note or list. Continue folding up
and writing until you have completed your correspondence. When you
unfold the paper, your writing will appear in order, line by line,
beginning with the first thing you wrote at the top of the page.
- You may want to use a writing guide. When placed over plain
paper, the guide ensures that the lines you write won't overlap.
Several different styles of writing guides are available.
- Raised line paper, sold in tablet form, is another option.
- To adapt a regular envelope, fold it in half, side to side,
and then in half again, top to bottom. When the envelope is unfolded,
the lower right portion, as indicated by the fold marks, will mark the
area for the address. This section can then be folded into four
horizontal sections, for the name, street, city/state and zip code.
- Writing guides are available for envelopes, too. They are usually plastic and fit over the top of the envelope. These guides come in two sizes, for both business-size and smaller envelopes.
While these are viable solutions, they are not meant for everyone and are only a few examples of techniques and adaptations vision rehabilitation professionals can teach you. You can work together with vision rehabilitation professionals to identify your needs and plan an individualized program of learning to help you improve your quality of life.