Rochester, NY, our home town and summer place may be smaller and not quite a boom town but we are strong, powerful and full of adventure, discovery and an abundance of activities and opportunities. No one could possibly be bored here. How often Paul and I walk about town and observe people and their activities. We have a strong community of visually impaired and I proudly and avidly volunteer at our local PBS station, WXXI and Reach out Radio, a reader’s service for Visually Impaired. It was announced that a large convention was is town for visually impaired. Indeed we saw many groups of attendees on the sidewalks led by vision apt guides on the way to events, venues and restaurants around the town. How wonderful it was to see so many folks exuding an atmosphere of excitement and discovery.
We were showing out of town friends around our town and spent a long morning at the George Eastman Museum, (GEM) joining a fabulous docent lead tour of the George Eastman House. Shari, our wonderful docent was very excited. After leading our large group for 90 minutes of jam packed information which kept even us veterans of the GEH engaged and amazed, she told us that she was leading an early afternoon tour of a group from the Visual community convention and was very excited and not the least bit exhausted after our tour. I happened to walk past the group as they arrived and formed a line to begin the tour. I overheard many comments of anticipation and delight in their coming event and was once again convinced that old stereo types have died hard. More and more we hear examples of true invention educating those with different methods of learning offering opportunities for all. I wish I had taken photos of the group so you could see their smiles and grins but I did not deem it appropriate to intrude unbeknownst upon their lives. Here is a photo of a photo lesson in the gardens of the GEM.
