Full Transcript
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, Corona 19 from a blindness perspective. We realize that the information and stats and guidelines will be changing on a daily basis, and sometimes in just a matter of hours. So for the latest updated information on the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, go to www.cdc.gov/covid19. And from the Blind Abilities team, we’re wishing you, your families, your communities the strength and wellness and access to information as we face the challenges surrounding the COVID-19 virus. We can do it, and we can do it together, even at six feet apart.
Governor Walz:
Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon, Minnesota. I want to first of all say thank you all for your patience and understanding what we’re doing in the midst of this unprecedented health crisis.
Lori Thompson:
I typically use Instacart. I have seen a lot of friends on Facebook that are blind trying to get groceries through Instacart, and they’ve either, like Tiffany said, their groceries have come late, they’ve got half the stuff that they wanted. So they’ve had to make alternative measures and go to different stores to try to find what they do need.
Tiffany Manosh:
It was a ghost town at CSUN. Vendors backed out, participants backed out. It just really was a very small crowd of folks attending.
Serena Gilbert:
We’ve talked a lot about Zoom, and I want everyone to know that Zoom is probably the most accessible phone and video conferencing software I think I’ve ever used.
President Trump:
I’m also pleased to report today that a vaccine candidate has begun the phase one clinical trial.
Jeff Thompson:
Your own workspace, even for the students that are going to be home, the K through 12. They have to have that area, and you yourself as someone working from home, you’re going to have to have that area too.
Governor Walz:
We temporarily closed schools, giving the administration time to plan, to protect the public’s health in slowing … Today, I am issuing executive emergency order 20-03 that would place partial closures of restaurants, bars, and establishments serving food and drink for dine-in services as well as places of public accommodation and amusement during COVID-19 peacetime emergencies.
Serena Gilbert:
I will be developing a website on my site, Blindy Blog, B-L-I-N-D-Y B-L-O-G, that outlines the resources that we talked about today. I haven’t noticed any resources that are specifically targeted to the blind and visually impaired community.
President Trump:
Therefore, my administration is recommending that all Americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible, avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people, avoid discretionary travel, and avoid eating and drinking at bars, restaurants, and public food courts.
Speaker 7:
Here are the top 10 things you can do if you think you might have Coronavirus or COVID-19. One, stay home. Two, monitor your symptoms carefully. If they worsen, call your healthcare provider. Three, rest and stay hydrated. Four, if you have a medical appointment, call ahead and let them know you may have COVID-19. Five, if your symptoms are severe, call 911. Six, cover your cough and sneezes. Seven, wash your hands often. Eight, stay away from others in your home. Use a separate bathroom. Nine, avoid sharing personal items. And 10, clean all surfaces that are touched often. For more information on COVID-19, visit cdc.gov/covid19. Let’s take care of ourselves and each other.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson, and today in the studio, we’ve got a round table going here and we’ve got Serena Gilbert from Colorado. How are you doing?
Serena Gilbert:
I’m doing well, Jeff. How are you?
Jeff Thompson:
Good. And to my left, we have Tiffany Manosh from Northern California. How are you doing Tiffany?
Tiffany Manosh:
Great, Jeff. Thank you so much.
Jeff Thompson:
And to my right, we got Lori Thompson from friendly Fridley, Minnesota. How are you doing?
Lori Thompson:
I am fabulous. Thanks for having me.
Jeff Thompson:
And today, we’re going to be talking about the blindness community and the Coronavirus. Serena came up with this idea, and we all just jumped at it. So Serena, take it away.
Serena Gilbert:
Well, I’m super excited that everyone was able to join us on such short notice. I know it was like, what, three hours ago that I was like, Jeff, we should do this. And I sent him like 20 text messages all in a row. Lori was probably like, what in the world? But I felt like it was important because I’m not seeing a lot of people sharing information that maybe is particularly unique to the blind and visually impaired community. We have some unique barriers when it comes to this, maybe some different anxieties and different issues that we have to take into consideration when protecting ourselves and still getting the things that we need done for our family work life, whatever the case may be.
Serena Gilbert:
Before we kind of jump into topics, I just want to let everyone know that we’re not going to really talk a lot about statistics and a lot of specifics about the Coronavirus, because the reality is that this information is changing every single day. And we would hate to send out information that is not completely accurate or is misleading in any way. We’re going to choose to approach the topic in a slightly different way and make sure that you have the resources that you need, a safe place to be able to chat about specific things, as well as any follow up information that you might want to be able to have access to from the CDC or your local health department.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great. I know everyone out there is thinking, like two weeks ago or a month ago even when we first started hearing little bits about this, it slowly built up to each day, you’re hearing a new level. It’s like we were being weaned into it and now, it seems like these last four or five days have really escalated to the point that you should know about this stuff because it’s on everywhere. And whether you have a family, parents, kids, schools are closing. In Minnesota here, K through 12 is closing on Wednesday, and most of them are closing on Monday for a two week period. Now this they say is just a period where they’re going to study the situation and figure out how they’re going to go about … Because everyone knows, it might go on longer than that, so the school wants to put their brains together and come up with an idea of how they’re going to coordinate teaching from home.
Jeff Thompson:
And so that puts in a lot of stress. There’s a lot of fallout from that when schools … because you’ve got K through 12 all being at home, you’ve got day cares, you’ve got businesses and janitors and all sorts of … It just multiplies all the way down. Plus, other businesses are closing. And I know mostly what’s happening in Minnesota because our governor just spoke about it. We had a big 90 minute thing on TV about it. It was really interesting to hear. How’s it going in California?
Tiffany Manosh:
Well, I mean, in California, things are closing left and right. My great niece’s school has been closed. My college, American River College, will be closing Wednesday. I was going to work Monday and Tuesday, but then starting Wednesday on for the next two to three weeks, we will be closed. So it’s being impacted everywhere. I think every state is being impacted some way or another.
Lori Thompson:
Yeah, it’s really impacting everybody’s daily life, going to the grocery store, planning how to get to work. I’m going to work tomorrow, but I’m hoping that I will be able to telecommute after that. But just the preparing for hunkering down for 14 days, getting groceries, using Instacart. Maybe you have some appointments and you have to cancel them and reschedule. It’s just really affecting a lot of things.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, I know here in Colorado, I work for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, so we have a lot of vulnerable individuals that could possibly come into our office. As of the recording of this podcast, our office is still open, but we have been asked to minimize any in-person or face-to-face appointments basically at all costs from what I’ve interpreted from the communications that we’ve been receiving. So for example, on Friday, I did a virtual meeting on Zoom with a client and a service provider in order to get some paperwork done as opposed to having everyone come into the office. And I’m fortunate that the next couple of weeks, I actually don’t have any meetings scheduled because I had actually prepared to be going on a trip that had to have been canceled the week of the 23rd. So at least until April 1st, I don’t have to really worry about that.
Serena Gilbert:
But I’m hopeful that at some point, our office will decide, because we can’t completely close. I don’t think that that’s something that is even an option right now. But it would be nice to say we’re closed to the public and we provide services like by mailing things or via Zoom or whatever needs to happen so that we can still provide the basic services. And then of course, like you were saying Tiffany, my son, his school is closed for two weeks. Granted, one of those two weeks was a spring break week. But the first week of it, they are expected to be doing learning activities at home including some programs. We have this program called Lexia and ST Math that he can do on his iPad. But he came home with a backpack full of books and resources. I haven’t even looked at it yet because I just don’t even want to think about it.
Serena Gilbert:
And luckily, we’re in a position where my husband’s able to work from home for this full two weeks. My work is being very flexible as well where if he would like to go into the office and not have to be at home for two solid weeks working, I can be home with him as well. But I mean, it’s only day two of us just kind of being in the house for the most part. We’re not avoiding everything, but for the most part, we’re in the house. And I’ve got to be honest, I’m already just kind of going stir-crazy, so I’m glad I do get to go to work tomorrow, but I don’t know how many more days that will continue, and they might say telework.
Lori Thompson:
Yes, I totally agree. As much as I hate getting up and going to work, I do love it when I get there.
Serena Gilbert:
Couldn’t have said it better myself. That’s so true.
Lori Thompson:
You know what I mean?
Tiffany Manosh:
Yeah.
Lori Thompson:
It’s so hard to get up and go to work, but once you’re there, it’s like going to the gym. It’s hard to get to the gym, but once I’m there, I love it.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s another thing. We’ve got an appointment coming up here about going to the gym. Now, do you just avoid going? And I think with the stress put upon all our different society and our neighborhoods, our communities and stuff like that, it’s almost like you are obligated not to go, or do you wear gloves? Because it seems like everyone’s touching everything at the club, so it seems like a high frequented space for transferring germs or something like that. So I mean, if you have to think about it too long, you might as well just start canceling and bite down for a little bit here. Because the more people that do it, the more we can curve that reaction to the community and the spread.
Serena Gilbert:
Now I know that we’ve all had some travel plans. I know I’ve had some. Lori, you recently had a trip. Tiffany, you just back from CSUN. I’m kind of curious to talk a little bit about the travel piece of it, and I guess we’ll start with you, Tiffany. Tell me, what was CSUN like and then what was it like … I’m not sure if you traveled by airplane or other means. What was it like traveling back home?
Tiffany Manosh:
So I traveled via Southwest Airlines from Sacramento to Ontario, and I thought what was interesting is, I had a great gal who was collecting tickets, and she was like, “Are you with anybody?” I said, “Nope, traveling by myself.” She goes, “Do you need any help?” I’m like, “Nope. I’m good.” She goes, “Do you need any help in Orange County?” I’m like, “Nope.” She goes, “Okay, get out of here.” So it was kind of cute. But really, there was no real fear. I mean, you just did your normal routine as far as lining up, getting on the plane. There was probably about 40 empty seats on our flight down to Orange County.
Tiffany Manosh:
And then I did CSUN, and it was a ghost town at CSUN. Vendors backed out, participants backed out. It just really was a very small, small crowd of folks attending. I’m really glad that I went. Got a lot of great one-on-one time with the vendors, and that was really appreciative. And then flying home, it really didn’t seem like there was any change or anything different due to the Coronavirus. It was just a normal flight, boarded, got on, got home. Everybody was very friendly and cordial, and it was really nice.
Jeff Thompson:
What was it like being at the convention with everybody? Because that’s right when all the news and all the breaking news about closures started happening. It was like dominoes falling for you guys.
Tiffany Manosh:
Yeah, so I’d arrived Tuesday night, and Wednesday, I actually spent it at Disneyland with a very crowded Disneyland park. And that didn’t seem to be affected hardly at all. And then Thursday and Friday, I was at the Marriott Hotel for where CSUN was taking place. People were concerned. They were constantly wiping down technology so that there wasn’t that fear of, oh my gosh, do I need to sterilize my own hands kind of thing. I had a bottle of hand sanitizer with me, and after touching stuff, I would dab it and wipe my hands to make sure I was clean myself. So I think the awareness of keeping things clean and sterilized was really high importance for everyone at CSUN.
Jeff Thompson:
You talked about travel being canceled. I was scheduled to go out to Pittsburgh for the United States Hockey League, and I thought, well, that might just fall it. Who really cares about the Blind Hockey League? But because it’s part of the U.S. Hockey League, they canceled it all the way across the board. As soon as the NHL went down, the basketball went down, baseball, everything, all the sports, all the way down to even the level of where I’m playing at. And it was just clean cut. It was done. And then the season here was canceled because it falls within the next two weeks. So everything’s shut down. And I honor that because you never know. I have to jump in an Uber or a Lyft and travel. Who’s been in there before me? And you just start thinking of all the contact that you have in transportation, or going to the rink, or anything. So I get it. Stay at home.
Serena Gilbert:
And Lori, I understand you got a nice girls’ trip just under the wire it seems, because when did you get back, a couple weeks ago from Orlando?
Lori Thompson:
I left on February 28th right after work and I came back on March 5th, yeah. And it was no issues at all. It was great. I would go again if I could.
Serena Gilbert:
But not right now.
Lori Thompson:
No, not right now. No. But I didn’t have any issues. I was on Delta. You could tell when you got on the plane, you could smell that they had freshened up the place. I didn’t have any issues at all. Going down, I was in a row by myself. I mean, the three seats on my side of the plane … It was supposed to be a full plane, but I was the only one in those three seats, and then coming back, there was a seat between me and another gentleman. So we weren’t piled up on top of each other. But I didn’t have any issues. Security was good. It just seemed like normal to me.
Jeff Thompson:
Now Serena, AFB Conference, the leadership conference, was closed or canceled, and you were looking forward to going to that.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, they told me, gosh, it was really only a few days ago. I mean, this has been the longest week probably of my life. It feels like it’s been a month. They told us on, I think it was Tuesday of this past week, that they were canceling all of the activities and making arrangements for us to participate either virtually and then hopefully the in-person training and activities for at least the Blind Leaders Development Program sometime I’m guessing September is what they’re trying to predict. And I honestly, I’m not going to lie. I was super bummed when they told me. It completely changed the mood of my day, and I did pout a little bit, because I was just like, oh, this is so frustrating. But then seeing what happened in the days leading up to it, I was like, it never had a chance. I mean, with all the other things getting canceled, even if it wouldn’t have gotten canceled that day, it would’ve been the next. And they’re working to try to get it rescheduled, and I’m grateful for that. And then I will still be able to participate in some way, shape, or form.
Serena Gilbert:
But it was kind of interesting, because this was a trip I’d been planning for about three or four months now. Lots of paperwork I had to put in for getting travel arrangements and things like that. So all those hours put in, and then 10 minutes, all canceled. It’s so easy to cancel something, but really hard to book it.
Lori Thompson:
Kind of like Christmas dinner.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah.
Lori Thompson:
You prepare, prepare, prepare, and then you eat, and in five minutes, it’s done.
Serena Gilbert:
Exactly. And then there’s just a mess.
Tiffany Manosh:
Wow.
Serena Gilbert:
That’s a good comparison.
Jeff Thompson:
With all these changes that happened, I think it was yesterday or the day before yesterday, oh, it built up to, like I said before, it just seems like we’ve been weaned into this a little bit, a little more news, a little more news. I was just frozen all day in a sense where I was listening to the news and I just couldn’t get away from it. It was everywhere, and it just kept getting larger and larger. And you just realize, we’re in it. It’s here. The world is dealing with this, and our community, our country, everything.
Jeff Thompson:
And so when you talk about your mental health and this anxiety, it does start to build up. You start thinking, well, I’m not a hoarder. By the way, how much is in the freezer? You start thinking about what if. What if those questions do … It’s perplexing to think that I don’t want to be hoarding and taking away from someone else. And yet, you want to be able to think about, do we have two weeks’ worth of groceries? Do we have supplies and everything else at the stores? You don’t want to have to, but we’re here. It’s upon us.
Tiffany Manosh:
And what’s even weirder is when you go to the stores, the shelves are half empty. So you really can’t even stock up if you wanted to with some things because it’s not available.
Serena Gilbert:
And I’ve been reading some articles and kind of learning about the psychology of why is everybody buying so much toilet paper and food and things like that, and … I heard that laugh. Well, it’s interesting though, because we have plenty of toilet paper, but we have still been looking for some because it’s a loss of control is really what it’s all about. It’s okay, I have this supply right now, but what if something should change and I would not be able to get ahold of this and I would need it? That’s where that anxiety really comes from. The same thing with the food. And then also contributing to the extra food people are buying is, their kids are unexpectedly home where they would’ve been maybe eating lunch at school or taking different types of things to school to eat as opposed to eating at home.
Serena Gilbert:
So it’s not all, oh my gosh, I need to buy so much of this stuff. It’s, your kids are home and you’ve got to feed them, and you weren’t … It’s not like it was summer break and you’ve been planning for it for a month. You got a couple of days’ notice, and all of a sudden you’ve got to go find these things.
Tiffany Manosh:
Yeah.
Serena Gilbert:
But that brings up another point that Lori touched on a little bit, and this can especially impact our community, is how do we get food? How are we getting our groceries and making sure that we have what we need, and what are some of the impacts on some of the delivery places like Instacart and DoorDash and Uber Eats and things like that. So I know we put in a King Soopers ClickList order. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that they’ll at least have half the stuff that we put on it tonight when my husband goes to pick it up. I don’t know, what have you guys been doing to try to get some groceries in the house? We’ll start with Lori.
Lori Thompson:
So I’m very fortunate. I have two young … Well, not young adult, but, well, young adult children that live here with us, and they both work. So Friday, I sent Jeff and Justin off to Sam’s Club. They were able to purchase some meat, some hamburger, pork chops, and chicken. They did have some toilet paper, so Jeff went ahead and picked up some. They didn’t have the name brands. They had the Sam’s Club Pantry Market or whatever it’s called, Market Pantry or … They picked that up. And I’m just fortunate that they have that. I typically use Instacart. I have seen a lot of friends on Facebook that are blind trying to get groceries through Instacart, and they’ve either, like Tiffany said, their groceries have come late, they’ve got half the stuff that they wanted. So they’ve had to make alternative measures and go to different stores to try to find what they do need to help them get through this time.
Lori Thompson:
Instacart here, we probably have maybe five different grocery stores that are available, the Aldi, the Cub. I don’t know what shops you guys have out there. Aldi, I didn’t even try to order from Aldi or get anything from Aldi because I figured that would probably be the first place people would go to. So that and communicating with some friends, hey, are you going to the store because I forgot to get this. See they go out and see if they find what I missed, they could pick that up for me and swing it by or something, something like that.
Serena Gilbert:
So Jeff, I am very curious, because Fridays was probably a big peak of the mayhem. What was it like going to Sam’s Club on a Friday trying to shop for the essentials that you guys needed?
Jeff Thompson:
Well, I’m a Sam’s Plus member, so I’m able to get in at 7:00 AM where the rest of the public gets in, oh, let’s say, 10:00 AM. And yet, it wasn’t hard to find the toilet paper area, because there was a stream of carts going that way. You could just bump and end up there. And I did not stack three high like this gal next to me did. I just found what was available and I grabbed a case of it. I think there’s 36 rolls in a case at Sam’s Club. You buy it in the bundle. And I just threw it underneath the cart, and then we went over and got some hamburger and stuff like that. The thing that I noticed the most was typically when you’re going shopping, you just go and you take what you need.
Jeff Thompson:
But what I noticed was, they were running down on the hamburger, but as I was walking away, a guy came out and Justin told me, “Oh, they’re adding more to the hamburger area.” So it’s like, they’re keeping up the pace. But this was one hour into the day. And I talked to one of the stock persons there, and they said, “The last hour’s been really busy, and we just keep on replacing until we can’t.” So it was early in the morning, so I guess the suggestion that I found out would be to go early in the morning, because typically the workers start an hour before that, stock things up, get ready, get prepared, and you might have a chance to get your stuff.
Jeff Thompson:
Make a list of stuff that you want, and it’s not a time to go shopping each aisle and think of what you want. Get what you need, think about what you should have at home, and if you’re going to go to a Sam’s Club, you usually buy it in a little bigger bulk than normal, but … We didn’t go crazy. We got stuff, but you’re right. It was the start of it, Friday was the start of it. So now I’m thinking, maybe I should’ve grabbed more, so it’s here, isn’t it?
Serena Gilbert:
Well, and keep in mind too to make sure you check the store hours before you head out. I don’t want to say specific stores or specific hours because it will definitely change, without a doubt. But there’s been at least two stores that I know of, two major stores, that are changing their hours. One of them is typically 24 hours and it is no longer going to be 24 hours, and another has dropped about six hours of time that they would normally have been open. So make sure you’re checking before you venture out if you absolutely have to go out. Tiffany, have you braved the crowd to try to get any food or tried to order things yourself too?
Tiffany Manosh:
I have not, but my mom has gone out, and she said that the shelves, you’re looking for things and there might be like one or two left of it, or not at all. So the shelves are definitely getting bare as people are hoarding up and getting ready to be hunkered down for the next 14 days pretty much. It’s really kind of sad, but also scary at the same point, because as you said, now you’ve got kids that are home so you have to prepare different meals for them, different types of food. So you do have to stock up and be prepared for family members or children during these times because of everything closing down.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, that’s another thing. The kids we’re talking about are nearly 21 and 24 years old. They’re out and about with their friends and they come home and I keep on imaging them as these walking Petri dishes entering the house. It’s like, it’s real. I mean, it’s almost like you want to have an entryway that just sterilizes anything that comes in. I mean, if you’re quarantined inside, if you’re self-isolating I should say, but someone goes out and goes to a dance or a bar and comes back home, it’s interesting the thoughts that are start to come out. And that’s what worries me a lot is how people are going to take this. What are we on, day three, day four, something like that, where we realize we’re going to have to start isolating for a while and all the closures. What’s it going to be like in two weeks or a month? Not to get off on that track, but it’s just, it’s starting to hit home, and like Serena, in the outline I saw, the mental health thing was mentioned twice or three times and the anxiety and stuff. It’s going to rise.
Tiffany Manosh:
Yeah, I know a lot of mental health places, senior facilities, you can’t even go and visit those family members that are there because everybody’s so afraid. And it’s just really interesting how people are really tightening down and how it affects the older population. I even heard that children could be carriers of it and you don’t even know it. They don’t have it per se, but they could be a carrier of it and not even know it, and then you could be sick, those who are older or who have health issues. So there’s a wide range really to be considering of the Coronavirus.
Lori Thompson:
Yeah, and just doing our daily things, going to the store, going to the gym, riding a bus. You touch something that someone else has touched, you don’t know. So it is really scary, and I almost want to wear gloves on the public transit, or pushing my grocery cart, or … I know that’s silly, but this is the reality.
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Serena Gilbert:
Well, and I think that that’s kind of where a lot of this anxiety is coming from is that the reality is, every day we learn a little bit something new about the Coronavirus that we maybe didn’t know or slightly different than what we were told the day before. So that’s where it is. Because the flu, we know how that’s transmitted, we know what the symptoms are going to look like, there’s treatment for it to help reduce the symptoms, things like that. But with this, it’s so brand new, as they call the Novel Coronavirus, that that’s what … It’s the fear of the unknown, and then seeing how lethal it is for the most vulnerable population piece of it too. And right now, that’s where it’s been impacting people is the vulnerable piece. It’s pre-existing medical conditions, certain age groups and things like that. But we don’t really know that the long term impacts or who else might be considered vulnerable and we just don’t now because they haven’t studied it enough yet.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, I think when you’re talking about one of the vulnerabilities is, we’re a very tactile people. We go to our doorknob, we might … We’re going to grope that whole doorknob, the whole area, of it, until we find it, or pushing doors at the malls or something if they don’t automatically open or something like that. But when we shop, we touch a lot of stuff, and that’s where if we can get a shopper, that’d be better, or if we can get one of these Instacart services, one of the services to help us out, I think it’d be a lot better. But everything’s going to get more busier, and everything’s going to get a little bit tougher to do. You’re not going to be able to just open your app and just order something and get it two hour delivery. I think it’s going to get tightened up a little bit, so that’s some of those things are those things that are unique to our community.
Serena Gilbert:
That’s a great point. So some things to keep in mind when trying to make sure you have the essentials that you need. First and most importantly is plan ahead. The likelihood like Jeff said of you getting even a delivery tomorrow is pretty low right now because A, the supplies are low. And I think there’s a lot of gig economy people taking a break right now. So that leaves a lot less people to even provide you what you need. The other piece of things is there are certain things that you will not be able to get delivered to you no matter how hard you try. For example, toilet paper, Clorox wipes, and hand sanitizer. It’s not going to happen. Even if they say they’re in stock at the store that you’re looking at, it will also say, you must go inside the store to pick it up. Believe me, I’ve tried.
Serena Gilbert:
So if some of the things that you need fall under that category, like Lori said, maybe partner with a neighbor or friend that is already heading out to see if maybe they can help you out. Worst case scenario, you might just have to trek it out there and try to find those few things yourself, get right home as soon as you can. Unfortunately, there’s just certain things that they go out of stock before they even hit a warehouse is what we’re finding out. So got to plan ahead for sure.
Lori Thompson:
For sure, and I would suggest you sit down and make some meal planning to know what items you do need. Maybe you make a big 9×13 casserole, and you eat half of it but freeze the other half. You know what I mean? Maybe, I mean, I don’t know if eventually the stores are going to put up on their web sites what days they get certain items in, and then you plan to get up early that day and get to the store and try to retrieve what you need. I don’t know. It’s just, it’s totally mind-boggling to me that here we are in 2020, and we have this pandemic, and we’ve never seen this before, you know what I mean? We’ve taken so much for granted I think, to be put in this position. It’s just mind-boggling to me.
Serena Gilbert:
So I think it’s important that we move into talking a little bit about some things you can do to prevent the possible spread for yourself or even to others in regards to the Coronavirus. So we’re probably going to have a pretty lengthy show notes summary for this. Thanks in advance to Jeff, because he gets to write all that for us. But some things that you want to make sure you’re keeping an eye on are, of course, the CDC’s web site, which we’ll put in the show notes for you. In regards to obviously practicing proper hand washing techniques and practicing seeing social distancing whenever possible. And I’m really strong about if you don’t need to go out, then just don’t.
Serena Gilbert:
I’m not saying that completely change your life. If you want to go out and have a meal with your family, don’t let the fear get to you. But also keep in mind that, don’t go touching everything that you normally wouldn’t be touching, and make sure you’re washing your hands frequently. That is the biggest thing that the CDC is saying is making sure you’re washing your hands and of course drinking plenty of water, because that is going to significantly help if you do happen to catch the virus.
Jeff Thompson:
Another thing that when you mentioned don’t touch everything, but what happens when you do have a package delivered or groceries delivered? Someone else has gotten those groceries, so you start to wonder, at what level are we safe? Who picked the groceries? You just don’t know. Even in the grocery store, some people pick something up and they say, “Nah, I don’t want it,” and put it back down. You could take this to a whole extreme of where’s it going. Like when Lori was saying the bare essentials, when do they go into the store? When I was there, sugar and flour from Sam’s Club was barren. I didn’t even think about that. And all of a sudden, Justin said, “Well, glad we’re not picking up sugar or flour,” a core thing for people who bake and everything, so, yeah. It’s all new. It’s all new.
Tiffany Manosh:
I think the biggest thing is really making sure that you’re washing your hands and washing your hands thoroughly. It’s not just a quick in and out and done, but it’s really taking the time to really washing your hands thoroughly, and as frequently as you feel you need to.
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And it’s interesting, because now they’re coming up and telling us the symptoms, a dry cough and a fever. And I know Serena you put some notes on here to go through if you start feeling the symptoms.
Serena Gilbert:
Well, and interesting seems to be the word of the day for us. I’m all out of synonyms right now. It’s definitely, I think it’s causing a little bit of paranoia in regards to, oh my God, I have a tickle in my throat. Do I have the virus? And it gets to you, and then it stresses you out, and then that makes you feel more sick. It’s an endless cycle. But inevitably, some of us might feel that we truly are in the risk factors of maybe being exposed to the virus, and there are some things that are really important to keep in mind should you feel that you do have that potential threat of having a positive test for Coronavirus.
Serena Gilbert:
And number one is make sure that if you do think that that’s the case, call ahead to your medical provider. They are not encouraging that you just show up to the doctor’s office, because they will screen you over the phone as far as basic questions to determine if they think that you do need to get tested. And if they do think that you need to get tested, they’re going to give you very specific instructions on what to do. I would not recommend getting in a rideshare or an Uber or a Lyft because that puts other people at risk exponentially if you were to do that. I had a friend on Facebook share some information because she had some significant concerns regarding oh my gosh, if I do feel that I need to get tested, what do I do? And what she did is she called her county health department and told them her concerns, and they told … I guess I won’t share what they told her because it could be different for your county or your city or your province, wherever you are.
Serena Gilbert:
But they might have special arrangements that they can make and a special procedure that they want you to follow so that they can get you safely transported to get that testing done without further exposing other people.
Lori Thompson:
Yeah, and I don’t know, here in Minnesota and I’m sure that a lot of you guys have this option too, you can do a Zoom video with your doctor to talk to them about what your symptoms are and stuff like that as well. So I don’t know if you guys have that available where you are, but we do.
Tiffany Manosh:
What’s interesting is I have that with one of my doctors but not with the other. They [inaudible] a telephone. But either way, do it over the phone, and they will walk you through, asking questions and making sure if you say yes to something, I think they’re going to then follow through with other additional questions to really make sure that, oh, well, it’s really just a cold. It doesn’t sound like you have the virus. But if you do, I think they’re really going to question and re-question and really dive down deep, because they don’t want you to be afraid, and they want to make sure that they’re handling those who may potentially have the virus versus those who really don’t.
Jeff Thompson:
You mentioned Zoom calls, and I think it was 2014 when they came out with the Zoom, and we use it for podcasting, and who thought that this tool that we use to connect up with would become so important at this point of time. We have so many different meetings that are being canceled and people are proposing to move it over to Zoom. Zoom just made it available to K through 12 all the way from China to Italy to the United States now. And I always imagine that day when we’ll be video conferencing for more things than that, but now we’re being forced into a situation where it’s commonplace to be using these tools for work. Working from home was kind of flexible jobs, flex jobs and stuff like that. And now, here were are where it’s recommended by the state to figure out ways to get more people to work from home. So interesting times, and once again …
Lori Thompson:
I know one of the concerns that they had with using Zoom for the next few weeks with people working from home, they say the bandwidth and stuff, and they recommend that people use the audio of Zoom instead of the video because of that. I know when I work at home, telecommute using the computer, it is a little bit slower than using my desktop in the office. I don’t know about you, Serena. Do you have that same problem?
Serena Gilbert:
I actually don’t, but my work bought me a supercomputer. It has like 32 gigs of RAM, and we also use Sysco VPN, which if we’re going to be on in a network that’s a little bit iffy, then we would definitely use that VPN, or if we need to be able to print from home, because if we get our VPN, we can just hit print and it’ll print at the office. But I haven’t noticed a lag because I’ve definitely done a lot of Zoom calls and webinars and meetings from home. But it could be the way that your computer’s set up to network back to the office too.
Tiffany Manosh:
I haven’t-
Lori Thompson:
Yeah, we also use Sysco VPN, but I know if I have to upload a lot of documents into our database, it’s so slow.
Tiffany Manosh:
Yeah, I haven’t really had any problems. I’ve had to utilize Zoom and will be starting Wednesday. The National Federation of the Blind have asked people not to hold their monthly chapter meetings and hold them via teleconference or Zoom or whatever, and so I used Zoom Saturday for the River City chapter meeting, and it actually went really well. Our chapter has a lot of I would say non-techy people, so I wasn’t sure how well it was going to work out, but it worked out actually really well, which is good. And then as an instructional assistant for our computer science department, it’s going to be interesting to see how I can interact with students using Zoom and other tools, whether it be our online tool using Canvas and Zoom together to assist students during these times of uncertainty.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, one of the things with the State Rehab Council for the Blind in Minnesota here, our meetings have to be held open to the public. And so the protocol would be somehow announcing to the public that they could join by Zoom. So I don’t think this threshold has been crossed before, especially when you’re talking about open public meetings.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, Zoom definitely can be … you can share that link with … And anyone who has the link would be able to join essentially. You might … Because I know you’re the chairman, right Jeff?
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah.
Serena Gilbert:
Of the SRC? So you might, whoever’s helping you set it up or if you’re setting it up, you might want to see if they can upgrade that account to a webinar version, because the regular Zoom meeting version does have a limit as to how many people can join. And I don’t know how many people you guys would realistically have join, but if you’re thinking there might be even 50 people, the webinar version allows more controls where people can raise their hand and you’re not getting all the interruptions and people talking over each other so that can make the meeting move a little bit more smoothly.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, it’s this new territory that we’re entering.
Serena Gilbert:
And I was going to say, I love that you guys obviously read my show outline because the next topic was some resources for working from home, because that’s our new reality right now is that a lot of individuals have been asked to work from home whenever possible or to conduct meetings virtually or on the phone. So what we’ll do, we’ve talked a lot about Zoom and I want everyone to know that Zoom is probably the most accessible phone and video conferencing software I think I’ve ever used. I’ve had to use Go2, and it’s frankly horrible in regards to accessibility. It’s not something that you can access independently, you don’t have access to the chat messages that people send, those sorts of things. I haven’t had any issues with Zoom.
Serena Gilbert:
Keep in mind that when somebody shares their screen, it is a video. So it’s the same accessibility problems that we would have with a video being displayed, so we’re not going to be able to see what they’re sharing. But depending on the screen reader that you’re using, you can make the screen read to you. JAWS has a convenient OCR feature that can OCR that screen if you really needed to know what’s on it. Or don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself and say, “Hey, can you e-mail that to me so that I can be able to look at that as well?” People will be pretty accommodating with that, because you’re probably not the only one that wants to have a copy of whatever they’re displaying. So what we’ll include in the show notes is the shortcut keys for working with Zoom, because everything can be done with a shortcut key on there, muting yourself, sharing a screen, looking at participants, sending a chat message. All that wonderful stuff is completely accessible.
Serena Gilbert:
And then I’ve also included a link for Google Hangouts, because they do provide an accessible way for you to conduct meetings as well if Zoom’s not an option for you for whatever reason, because Zoom does sometimes require downloading and installing software, whereas Google Hangouts is web based completely. Keep in mind too that Zoom is offering if you’re a K-12 I think it’s for teachers … So if you have a K-12 e-mail address, you can set it up on Zoom to be able to have basically the pro plan for free. So for those that don’t know, when you’re using Zoom, if you’re meeting just with one other person, you can have the free plan and there’s no limits. It’s going to work just fine. But when you have two or more people, you do have to have the pro plan or it will limit you to 40 minutes instead of unlimited. So this opens up a lot for people if you’re having meetings with more than one person and you’re in that K-12 system.
Jeff Thompson:
Another point that I really liked was create your own workspace, and I think that’s a great idea, because even for the students that are going to be home, the K through 12, they have to have that area. And you yourself, someone working from home, you’re going to have to have that area too.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, and working from home can be a little interesting. As the blind and visually impaired community, we’re always like, oh gosh, it’d be so awesome if I could just work from home. It’d be great. It’d be great. And I know, Lori, that you’ve worked from home before, and I’m good for about a day of working from home, and then after that, I’ve typically run out of things to do without getting up and socializing. And I need that social interaction. So I do have a few tips to share, and Lori and Tiffany and Jeff, of course, feel free to add, because Jeff, I know you do a lot of work from home too. And Tiffany, I’m not sure if you do, but I bet that you’ve had some experiences with that as well.
Serena Gilbert:
But one tip that’s really important is, like Jeff said, create that separate workspace for yourself. Otherwise, you will find that you will be in somewhat chaos otherwise. If your workspace is in the middle of the living room and you have children and people coming in and out, it is going to be incredibly frustrating to try to get some real things done, especially if you’re trying to meet on Zoom. One thing that I also recommend is, get up and get dressed as though you were physically going to the office. I know it sounds a little weird, and you’re like, I’m working from home. Why can’t I just be in my pajamas? It changes your mindset, it can change your focus, it can help keep you focused on the fact that you do have some job tasks to get accomplished. And it’ll be refreshing. If you just roll out of bed and go straight to work, you might not have the most productive day as though you were doing your routine from the beginning.
Serena Gilbert:
And it will also help with that transition when it’s time to start going back to work again. It hopefully won’t be such a drag trying to get up and go to work, because you’ve still essentially been doing that.
Tiffany Manosh:
Yeah, and also, I think you kind of mentioned taking breaks. You really do need to remind yourself to do that, because you can get in a rut when working from home that you just keep going and keep going and not really consider the time. You just need to be aware and take those mental breaks, whether it be going to get a drink of water or whatever, to help keep you in check. You do need those mental breaks.
Lori Thompson:
Yeah, when I work from home, I typically take the same timeframe of the same break time that I would take at work, because I have Logan, my guide dog. So he’s on his routine of going outside and doing his business, and that’s typically when I would take my break. And then my lunch is always … I’m pretty much like clockwork.
Serena Gilbert:
I’m the same way. I’m like, oh, it’s 12:00? Stopping. And sometimes, you’re like, okay, 10 more minutes and I get a little bit of a break, and I think it’s needed. I think it’s really hard to just power straight through doing work. Because physically, it’s hard too. You’re sitting in the same place for multiple hours, your brain is fatigued because you’re doing things in a totally different way. I agree with both you guys that those breaks are super, super important.
Jeff Thompson:
Another thing is, I kind of consider it a break, I’ve got a table that I can crank up and I can stand at my computer desk. I never thought that would be, yeah, I’ll try it for a little bit. But every once in a while, I’ll leave it the rest of the day that way because it’s so different to be standing, and your neck, your posture, and everything. It’s just refreshing to be able to do that. It’s not an expensive one that electronically goes up or something like it. It’s actually a workbench type of thing, but it works great for this, so I highly suggest if you can change your posture, stand up or move to a different table, a higher table once in a while, that really helps. And especially just getting up and walking around for a little bit, taking that mental break is very important.
Tiffany Manosh:
Yeah, I know what you’re talking about with those stands. I have one at my office at the college, and it’s great to be able to manipulate either up or down, stand up a little bit and sit. So I’m going to have to think of other ways of doing that here at home now that I don’t have that type of environment, so you do have to consider all things. But just keep yourself relaxed and be able to take those breaks where needed, whether it be taking your dog out or helping someone else out, maybe taking a 15 minute break and just touching base with your co-workers, hey, how are you doing today? What’s going on? Just because they need it just as much as you do.
Serena Gilbert:
That is such great advice. I love how you worded that with they need it just as much as you do, because some people might think, oh, I’m bothering them. They’re hard at work. I don’t want to bother them. But we are social beings. The reality is that we enjoy socializing with each other. Obviously yes, we’re there to do a job and we have work tasks that have to be accomplished. But we’re not robots. It would be such an odd workplace if we never socialized and talked with each other and checked in. And we spend 40 hours a week and sometimes more with these people, and it might even feel almost like you’re missing your family, because that’s a lot of hours that you’re spending with people. You talk to them at lunch, you ask them how their weekend was. So just try to still have that social interaction, even if it is virtual if you can.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, and you could practice using Zoom at 10:00 to 10:15. You’ve got your lunch break or your daily break. And then take your lunch break with your co-workers. There you go.
Serena Gilbert:
Jeff, how early are you eating lunch?
Jeff Thompson:
I know. I said that wrong. But hey, when you’re working from home-
Serena Gilbert:
Jeff eats lunch-
Jeff Thompson:
Who would know?
Serena Gilbert:
At the same time as the kindergartners at elementary school. It’s all good.
Jeff Thompson:
There you go. The paper straw and a carton of milk.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, he’s happy.
Lori Thompson:
Being at home and working from home, food is probably one of the biggest distractions for me.
Serena Gilbert:
I agree. I’m constantly like, what snacks are in there? And for me too, setting up the environment of where I’m going to work, because I have three or four different places where I’m comfortable working and I can isolate myself. And if I’m by myself completely, then I have more than that to find a place where I’m comfortable. So sometimes it’s like, do I want to be here? Do I want to be in the office? Do I want to be … That’s what gets me distracted half the time too.
Serena Gilbert:
So one more thing that might help you guys when it comes to working from home is don’t forget that Aira still does have their first five minutes of every call for free. You’d be surprised how much you can accomplish in a five minute call. I am always shocked when whatever I’m doing, I’m already done and it’s three minutes and 32 seconds. I have put a request in to see if they would do a special offer for those that are impacted with the Coronavirus things of having to be at home or maybe having to help your children unexpectedly with schoolwork. That has been passed along. I think Janine Stanley said she would submit that for us, so we will see in the coming days if Aira decides that that’s something that they can possibly help out with.
Serena Gilbert:
Because I know there can be a lot of stress and anxiety associated with oh my gosh, my child’s home for this week and the teacher sent home all of these worksheets, worksheets and books to read and things like that, and it can be kind of hard figuring out how to support your children so that they can still learn for that week or weeks that they’re out of school.
Lori Thompson:
I don’t have little kids in school anymore, but I wonder if you would ask for a reasonable accommodation with the teacher if they could scan in the documents so that … Let the kids bring the hard copies home, but also scan some into you and send them to your e-mail so you can access them and read them so you can help the student, you know what I mean?
Serena Gilbert:
Well, I think in the long term that they would definitely be willing to do that week to week if there was homework they were sending home. But I know that my school had 24 hours notice to get the kids ready. They told us on the evening of the 12th at like 6:30 that the next day would be their last day physically in school, and then to send them with empty backpacks, so … And I think that that’s similar to the experience across the country. I know you guys got a little bit more notice, but that night, I mean, I heard so many different schools saying that this Friday was going to be their last day for a couple of weeks. So I think that unfortunately, that just wasn’t feasible for the teachers this go-round, even if they were previously even doing it for a parent. So we’ve got to figure out something else.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, I think the teachers are going to be overloaded, right, at first, because just because you’re a teacher doesn’t mean you’re a Zoom coordinator to conduct classes with 30, 35 people involved. They’ve got their work cut out for them, especially in Minnesota here. They’ve got two weeks here where they’re going to start planning this, because some companies have already shut down for two months. Chip, my friend, said that Taichi nationally shut down for two months. I don’t know if that’s overkill, but we’ll see. The other thing I liked on there outlined that you sent in is the entertainment, being able to just take time for yourself. Because I know when I work from home, it’s like, it feels like you’re never done because you didn’t leave work. You didn’t take that break, or it’s not 4:30 or 5:00 and your ride home. It feels like you could always finish a little more, extend it. But you put down here streaming devices or watching movies and stuff like that, like from Comcast or any other entertainment that you have to your access.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, I’m not sure that a lot of people realize this, and maybe these things have been more widely shared, but Comcast is doing some pretty amazing things right now to kind of help with the burden of this. The first thing that they’re doing is they have an essentials, I forget what it’s called, but an essentials package that’s provided to individuals that are low income, and it’s typically $9.99 a month. So for at least the next two months, they are completely waiving that fee. So there are some eligibility requirements, and we’re going to put the link in the show notes. But that could be something that could make a significant difference in your life. And then, there are also, that essentials bundle is typically a slower data speed than the kind of the … I guess the competitive bundle. I don’t know. They are going to be increasing those data speeds for individuals accessing the essential bundle.
Serena Gilbert:
Some people don’t even realize that this was a thing, but they were removing the data caps that are typically associated with their Comcast internet packages over the next 60 days as well. I know Jeff, you know all too well the impact of those data caps sometimes, right?
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. It can happen. It can happen.
Serena Gilbert:
You were blaming Alexa, you were blaming everything.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh yeah, yeah. When it does happen, mine was a freak thing. But when it does happen and you’re really trying to figure out what’s draining it … Hats off to Comcast for doing that, because you’re going to have kids at home, you’re going to have family at home, and the entertainment is going to go up. You’re going to be Zoom calling. All this stuff is going to play at that threshold that you have, so yeah, that’s really a good public thing for Comcast to do.
Tiffany Manosh:
So I want to go back on the educational part of it. Working at a college, a lot of our classes are not online classes. They’re actually face-to-face classes. So the instructors have had literally maybe a week to figure out how to get all their materials online and available for students. And then, what to do for those students who don’t even have a computer to access the materials that they may need? And I know our college actually is providing Chromebooks for some students. It’s a first come, first serve basis to help out, because they know that there might be a need for that, as well as helping the instructors who maybe never taught an online class how to get them up to speed quickly and how to utilize all the tools available within Canvas and Zoom and so forth to make students successful during these times.
Serena Gilbert:
One resource that I forgot to add to the show notes that might be helpful, and perhaps you’ve already taken advantage of this, but U-Haul is offering 30 days free of storage for those college students that suddenly and unexpectedly had to move out of their residential dorms. There are many colleges across the country that completely closed essentially after spring break and moved to completely virtual for the rest of the year. There are some that just kind of are doing it a couple weeks at a time. But there’s a lot of students that have found themselves in a situation where they have a lot of things to maybe get put away and did not plan on that at this time.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, the fallout of these decisions really trickles on down, and you really don’t think about it until … Some of it has to hit home before you realize it, but it’s happening all over the place. And yeah, who would’ve thought about dorms and then kids going home, and who thought you’d be hearing from U-Haul? That’s interesting, just to stick with the theme of interesting.
Serena Gilbert:
I know. I mean, someone’s going to count. Somebody’s going to count how many times we’ve said interesting and send us an e-mail.
Lori Thompson:
I know too, I was watching one of the news program yesterday morning, and they were saying that there is some museums that have a virtual link that you can use. I don’t know if they’re audio described, but I thought that was kind of neat for some entertainment.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, I believe there’s 12 museums right now on that list that are providing virtual tours, and I have not personally checked the accessibility of it, like Lori mentioned as well. But if you have a young adult that you’re trying to entertain that is sighted, hand them the iPad and tell them to go tour the Smithsonian or something.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, I may not qualify as a young adult, but it does sound interesting to me too, that is. You pack everybody into the house for too long and it’s going to be other than stir crazy, so trying to find things to do and interesting ways to keep everyone from each other, in a sense, it’s going to be interesting. Again, interesting.
Serena Gilbert:
Of course. And I know, Jeff, you mentioned the streaming services and things like that, and I apologize if this is repetitive. One tip that I do have is I know not everyone has access to Netflix and Hulu and all those things. This is a time to maybe take perfect advantage of the trials that a lot of these services provide. I know YouTube TV offers, at least as of today, they were offering two weeks for free. It might go down to one week. But there’s definitely a free trial that they offer. Hulu and Apple TV+ all offer a free week. So if you’re strategic and you maybe try one each week, that could offer you some additional entertainment options if you’re going a little bit stir crazy. And they all have audio description options as well.
Lori Thompson:
And I did see yesterday that Disney was going to be releasing Frozen 2 early-
Tiffany Manosh:
Already released.
Lori Thompson:
Yes, today, so everybody need to be looking at that.
Serena Gilbert:
Is it on Disney+ Lori do you know? Or is it on iTunes-
Tiffany Manosh:
Yes, on Disney+.
Lori Thompson:
Yep, Disney+.
Serena Gilbert:
Somebody’s excited over there.
Tiffany Manosh:
Yep.
Serena Gilbert:
I can hear you doing-
Jeff Thompson:
Fresh from Disney.
Serena Gilbert:
Doing your little dance and you’re smiling. Well, good to know. And now everyone will know what day we recorded this on, so. Thanks a lot, Lori. It’s our secret.
Lori Thompson:
No problem.
Serena Gilbert:
I’m sure everyone’s familiar with these resources, but it doesn’t hurt to share them as well. Don’t forget about all of your audio book resources, talking book library. The only thing I can think of is if you’re not already signed up for it, there could potentially be some delays with getting signed up for that because we don’t know the full impact of offices and things like that. But if you are signed up for it, don’t forget that BARD Mobile allows you to access all of those books on your iOS device. And I don’t know, and do they have an Android app, Jeff, or no? I don’t remember if they do.
Lori Thompson:
I don’t know. I know they have the iOS.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah.
Lori Thompson:
But I’m not sure about Android.
Tiffany Manosh:
I believe so.
Lori Thompson:
I’m sure that they probably do.
Serena Gilbert:
I would hope so.
Lori Thompson:
Because it’s been a while since they had the iOS app available, even though it’s been, what, four years probably? Four or five years now?
Serena Gilbert:
Oh, it’s been-
Lori Thompson:
If not longer?
Serena Gilbert:
The only reason I know how long it’s been is because it came out when I was on maternity leave with my son. So it’s been six years.
Jeff Thompson:
Six years.
Lori Thompson:
Okay.
Serena Gilbert:
Six and a half.
Lori Thompson:
There you go.
Jeff Thompson:
And they’re on version 1.3.
Serena Gilbert:
They’re super advanced.
Jeff Thompson:
However, that BARD app that just got updated is a pretty good update, so.
Serena Gilbert:
It is.
Jeff Thompson:
Check that out.
Tiffany Manosh:
It is a good update.
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tiffany Manosh:
Yes.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, it makes it a lot easier to really discover different titles and things without having to dig into the web version within the app.
Lori Thompson:
And I’m still a Victor user, so I just love it. It’s just so easy.
Serena Gilbert:
The other piece of things is I believe, Lori, you’re an Audible user, and I’m not sure if you are as well, Tiffany.
Tiffany Manosh:
I am, yes.
Serena Gilbert:
Yes. I think that they provide the highest quality of books personally. That’s my own opinion.
Lori Thompson:
I do too. I really like … I keep telling Jeff, “Can you get me some more credits?”
Serena Gilbert:
Yes.
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Just last night, boom, I get this message-
Serena Gilbert:
10 more.
Jeff Thompson:
An order has been completed.
Serena Gilbert:
You’re like, what did I order now?
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah.
Serena Gilbert:
Scratching your head.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, when I go into Audible and it suggests books for me, they’re not from my category, my genre, believe me.
Serena Gilbert:
I don’t even want to know.
Lori Thompson:
He doesn’t read smut like I do.
Serena Gilbert:
It can-
Jeff Thompson:
I suppose it wouldn’t cost me anything to adventure into smut, would it now? Because I probably have access to them.
Serena Gilbert:
Is that an official category?
Jeff Thompson:
I don’t know.
Serena Gilbert:
I believe they call it romance on the official-
Lori Thompson:
Yeah.
Serena Gilbert:
Audible app.
Lori Thompson:
That’s true.
Serena Gilbert:
But one thing that individuals might not realize is that if you’ve never tried Audible before, you can get a free audio book. And then when I first signed up, I got my first, I think it was two credits for free. So one credit equals essentially one audio book. And it’s kind of funny, when I tried to go cancel it, they offered me two more credits. So then I ended up keeping it. They gave me like half off the next month, and then another couple credits. So even if you think, I’m not sure, maybe just try it, just to get one additional book. Because Audible definitely has titles that … I’ve found titles on Audible that I have not found on BARD Mobile, and I think that the narrators are better on … even if they are on both. They’re recorded-
Lori Thompson:
Yes.
Serena Gilbert:
At a little bit higher quality.
Lori Thompson:
So what you’re saying is play hard to get with Audible.
Serena Gilbert:
Yes, and I was truly trying to cancel it because I was like, man, I don’t really want to spend $15 a month on it. And then they were like, well, why are you canceling? And I was like, oh, price too much, because you just go online and it asks you. And it’s like, well, what if we gave you half off your next few months and then gave you an extra couple of credits? And I was like, sure. And then two years later, here we are.
Tiffany Manosh:
The other thing I’ve found with Audible is they’ll have the new releases way before BARD or any other service.
Serena Gilbert:
For sure.
Tiffany Manosh:
So if you’re looking for that next series in a book, Audible’s going to have it before anybody else.
Serena Gilbert:
And they have Audible originals that do not cost you a credit to download as well. I believe it lets you download two a month. And then there’s some workout ones too on there that I think are completely free and there’s no limit on those.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, I downloaded a couple of those, and I think it’s just so easy to get the book in there. I mean, people talk about the Victor Stream and stuff like that, but the phone, it’s just, the way they’re making the apps, it’s hard not to just use the phone because it’s so easy.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, they’ve actually, and I love this improvement that they’ve made. It used to be with Audible that if you had a book you wanted to use a credit toward to buy, you had to go to Safari and go into your list there. But they’ve updated the app, I’m not sure how long ago, of where you can use your credits right in the app. You don’t have to go outside the app to do anything, and that-
Jeff Thompson:
I think it was a couple months ago.
Lori Thompson:
Yeah, I was going to say-
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah.
Lori Thompson:
That’s pretty recent.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, it’s been the last maybe three months. That made it way easier, because sometimes I’m like, I do not feel like doing that right now. But you can’t use your credit card to buy an audio book, but if you have credits, you can use your credits right there on the app now.
Jeff Thompson:
And every once in a while, if you pay attention to it, you can buy like three credits and get a big discount on it so you’re not paying $15, you’re paying like $11 for if you buy three. So one way of saving money and to gift someone some books if you so desire.
Serena Gilbert:
And they very often-
Lori Thompson:
Thank you, Jeff.
Serena Gilbert:
Have a two-for-one as well. They’ll be like, hey, we’re having a sale. You can pick any two books in this list for one credit, and I’ve definitely taken advantage of that before too. And then there’s always good old trusty Bookshare. I think a lot of us are familiar with that. If you’re not, what that is it’s another resource for books. It’s not audio books, but it’s books that are essentially in print form. And then they do have an app called Read2Go, or you can put it in Voice Dream Reader, and it can read you the text from a book. And Bookshare is really good as well with getting The New York Times bestsellers. I think they get them the same week that they come out, if I recall. It’s been a while since I’ve used it, but they’ve definitely got a lot of books that you can choose from on there as well. That is a subscription-based service as well, though.
Tiffany Manosh:
Unless you’re a student.
Serena Gilbert:
Correct.
Jeff Thompson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tiffany Manosh:
So that’ll help a lot of those students who might be struggling to find stuff.
Serena Gilbert:
So I’m curious, it’s only been a few days, but how are you guys spending the time? I know Lori’s cleaning.
Lori Thompson:
I did some cooking yesterday. I made a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup, and I took some to Jeff’s parents because they’re older and I really don’t want them to go out. So we dropped off some soup to them. So yeah, just meal prepping, cleaning out the fridge, putting the new stuff in, wiping down handles, all that great stuff.
Tiffany Manosh:
Watching movies, reading books, playing cards.
Serena Gilbert:
Mr. Thompson?
Jeff Thompson:
I’ve been supervising Lori cleaning.
Serena Gilbert:
Oh, I’m sure that you’re so helpful.
Lori Thompson:
Oh, yes, he’s a blast.
Serena Gilbert:
Let me guess. He turned the Roomba on for you, right?
Lori Thompson:
No.
Serena Gilbert:
Not even that. Geez.
Lori Thompson:
No. He did cut my butternut squash. I’ve got a-
Serena Gilbert:
Those are such a pain to cut.
Lori Thompson:
Big squash. Yes, so I cooked up a squash. Today, I’m going to make squash soup. He’ll help me in the kitchen a little bit here and there.
Jeff Thompson:
Especially when I did the juicing, cutting up all the pineapple and all the vegetables and all that stuff, so that’s one thing. And that’s quite a chore, I mean, to do all that, cooking anything. But it’s springtime here, so cleaning up outside. It’s surprising how healthy I kept my dog all winter, because I have proof. Just like flu season or any other season, you want to keep things clean and everything, so we’re doing this with extra little bit of hand washing and being aware of everything, so, yeah. Everyone’s home it seems like. Wow. Don’t they have lives? But here we are. That was stupid.
Serena Gilbert:
No it wasn’t. It was fine.
Lori Thompson:
No, it was stupid.
Serena Gilbert:
Oh my goodness. Please leave that in, Jeff.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh yeah.
Serena Gilbert:
He’s like, no, mm-mm (negative). There’s no chance of that.
Jeff Thompson:
It’s already gone.
Serena Gilbert:
So I’m glad that we could have a little bit of humor on this show, because this is obviously a very serious topic. But we want to kind of provide you this information to help support you and maybe make you laugh a little bit while we’re chatting. One thing that’s really important to think about is keeping your mental and physical health in check. This can be a super stressful and anxiety producing time as we have all kind of talked about a little bit towards the beginning of the show. And there are some resources to help you manage and cope with that stress and anxiety. We will keep a link in the show notes in regards to the CDC’s web site and in regards to very specific information about managing stress and anxiety in the wake of the-
Lori Thompson:
Corona.
Serena Gilbert:
Yeah, I was going to say coronavris, because that’s how JAWS keeps saying it.
Lori Thompson:
I know. Isn’t that funny? I know I said that one day to somebody, I said, “This coronavris.” What are you talking about? I said, well, the coronavris. I’m [crosstalk]
Serena Gilbert:
I hate it when that happens to me.
Lori Thompson:
It’s just how JAWS says it. I-
Serena Gilbert:
That happens to me so much.
Lori Thompson:
Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative).
Serena Gilbert:
So we will keep a link in the show notes that has specific information about managing your stress and anxiety in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak. And then another thing to keep in mind, and we talked about this a little bit, there are options for getting mental health care via the telephone or web-based services. I know that my insurance company and multiple other ones can go through the, I think it’s the Doctors on Demand app, where it’s a video app, but they also have therapists on there to help you, and you can pick the one you want to work with and schedule a phone or video meeting with them. And it’s the same copay that you would normally pay with your health insurance company. And there’s even doctors and therapists that will accept Medicaid, even via that telephone service. So obviously check with your local providers and things like that to ensure that that would be covered for you. But there are those options as well. And Jeff, do you want to talk a little bit about some of the rules that maybe are changing for prescriptions?
Jeff Thompson:
Sure. In Minnesota, we’ve been able to pick up multiple months’ worth of prescriptions, but I hear that across the nation, a lot of providers are changing it so you could get at least two months of prescriptions. Now, you may not think that’s much, but any time that you don’t have to go out or rely on someone else to get something for you, that’s great that if you can pick up two months’ worth of prescriptions, that’d be awesome. And the other thing is, mail order prescriptions. If you can get them that way, that’d be a good choice too. Because even going into the doctor or into the pharmacy … I don’t know how long this is going to last, but if you can do anything without that physical interaction … What do they call it, the social distancing, which is keeping, what, six feet from people? Avoiding coughing, cough into your elbow they say. Don’t bump elbows then I suppose, but interesting.
Serena Gilbert:
Before we wrap up, I just wanted to see if Lori or Tiffany, and of course you, Mr. Thompson, have any other tips or resources that you’d like to share with the listeners.
Lori Thompson:
I would just like to say that we’ve got to remember that we’re all in this together, and we need to be kind and patient and try to think of others as much as … This is the speech I’m going to give to my kids as soon as I get off here, okay? Just be kind to others and think about what you’re doing, and if you go out, you could be bringing something home, or if you go visit a friend, you could be taking something that you don’t see or feel or whatever to someone else’s house. And I think if we’re just cognizant of that and thinking of others, I think we can make it through this. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, though, so we just need to be patient.
Tiffany Manosh:
I think we need to be patient, but I also think we need to be there to listen to people when they need it. Especially for me as being a chapter president, I’ve told the members of the chapter, if you need to just talk, I’m here to be a sounding board and to listen to your … If you’re getting overwhelmed or stressed about this, I’m a sounding board for you. So I think being available just to listen to others during this stressful time.
Lori Thompson:
Yes, I totally agree. Because we’re all going to be basket cases before 14 days or however long we have to be in seclusion for. I love Jeff, I really do, but Serena, I probably will be calling you.
Serena Gilbert:
I fully expect that we’re going to have the best episode ever to record of, so what did you do during your 14 days of seclusion?
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, 14 days later.
Serena Gilbert:
Because I could totally see poor Jeff driving you a little crazy during that time.
Lori Thompson:
Absolutely.
Jeff Thompson:
I’ll call you, Tiffany.
Tiffany Manosh:
Okay, cool.
Jeff Thompson:
We’re setting this up already. We’ve already got it on the calendar. 14 days.
Serena Gilbert:
It’s going to be needed about day three. Let’s just be honest.
Jeff Thompson:
Three? Wow.
Lori Thompson:
I’m calling you after we get off of here.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s optimistic.
Serena Gilbert:
It’s not even the end of the weekend and Lori’s already on it.
Jeff Thompson:
I think it’s really one of the things, a tip for people, is if you do need to use a Uber or Lyft, if you do have latex gloves, or if you just have gloves depending on what part of the country you’re in … It’s still kind of chilly up here a little bit. But just don’t be groping around in the backseat there. You don’t know how many people have been in there and stuff if you do need to get transportation. But I’m already, it’s sinking into me that I’m not going anywhere. I keep on thinking I could go to hockey practice or I could go to open skating or I could go to the gym. But it’s slowly sinking in, I’m not going anywhere. And the dog just realizes that I’m going to be home now, so he’s whining behind me right now.
Serena Gilbert:
I was going to ask, is that the dog or the cat that is obviously miserable right now?
Jeff Thompson:
That’s a dog. She just heard that I’m going to be home for 14 days straight.
Serena Gilbert:
Oh man. She’s sad.
Jeff Thompson:
Well Serena, thanks. This was a great idea to come on here. Tiffany, thanks for coming on and sharing. And Lori, you too for sharing our 14 day affair we’ve got coming up.
Serena Gilbert:
But wait, we’re not done yet.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh.
Serena Gilbert:
There’s more. No, I’m just kidding. It’s really just the wrap-up. But I do want to share, it is my intention, and please don’t hold me to timelines, but I will be developing a web site on my site Blindy Blog, B-L-I-N-D-Y B-L-O-G, www.blindyblog.com/corona, that outlines the resources that we talked about today and hopefully will update with different resources as they become available. I haven’t noticed any resources that are specifically targeted to the blind and visually impaired community, so if you guys do know of some and I don’t need to re-create the wheel, please feel free to send them over to Jeff and he’ll make sure that I get it. I love how I volunteer you.
Jeff Thompson:
Hey, if we don’t have to rebuild it, we won’t. But if we do have to rebuild the wheel, hey, we’re good wheel builders.
Serena Gilbert:
Exactly. But I think it’s important to have a really safe place to be able to talk about these things. So we’re definitely opening up our Facebook group called The Blind Abilities Community. And feel free to post your questions about … We obviously aren’t medical professionals and things like that, but if you’re like, hey, what’d you guys do to try to get some groceries, or how did you do this? Post it in there. Our community will definitely support you. If you have questions in regards to the technology side of things that might help you out, feel free to post in Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired. We love answering questions in there. It’s a very large community. And if you have questions in there. It’s a very large community. And if you have questions about your career and you’re working from home or general tips about that, we also have the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired Facebook group, all of which you’re welcome to just type in the search box on Facebook and click join.
Jeff Thompson:
Perfect.
Serena Gilbert:
Now you can do your wrap-up, Jeff. Stop rushing me. I’m kidding.
Jeff Thompson:
I just want to think Serena for organizing this, and Tiffany for coming on. Tiffany Manosh, where can people find you on the social media?
Tiffany Manosh:
I’m on Facebook and e-mail and that kind of stuff.
Jeff Thompson:
There we go. Lori?
Lori Thompson:
I’m on Facebook, Lori Thompson, and my Twitter is @lthompson6835.
Serena Gilbert:
Jeff, where can I find you?
Jeff Thompson:
You can find me @KnownAsJeff on Twitter, and you can follow me on Blind Abilities as well. And that’s the Blind Abilities podcast at www.blindabilites.com. Yeah. And you can find me here in friendly Fridley, Minnesota, what do you call it, self-isolating.
Serena Gilbert:
Thanks for joining us.
Tiffany Manosh:
Thanks everybody. Have a great day.
Lori Thompson:
Thanks everybody, and good luck.
Serena Gilbert:
Have fun cleaning, Lori.
Jeff Thompson:
And we’ll see you in 14 days.
Serena Gilbert:
Is that a threat, Jeff?
Serena Gilbert:
You may visit www.blindyblog.com/corona to find updated information regarding general resources, transportation resources, as well as tips and tricks for managing the next few weeks. Again, that’s www.blindyblog.com/corona.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the app store and on Google Play. That’s two words, Blind Abilities. You can also enable the Blind Abilities Skill on your Amazon device. Just say, “Enable Blind Abilities.”
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:
Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com On Twitter @BlindAbilities
Download our app from the App store:
‘Blind Abilities’; that’s two words.
Or send us an e-mail at:
info@blindabilities.com Thanks for listening.
send us an email at info@blindabilities.com.
Thanks for listening.
Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
To find your State Services in your State you can go to www.AFB.org and search the directory for your agency.
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