Christmas is such a wonderful time for everyone, if you have a loved one with low vision, how do you find new Christmas gift ideas? From Christmas games for people with low vision to a number of vision loss solutions and independent living aids, there is a wide range of wonderful gifts that can have a lasting impact on their lives.
Here are a few ideas to inspire you for gift buying and of course, Christmas activities for low vision loved ones. Because as much as we all love receiving gifts, spending time together is really the best present the holidays bring.
Personalized Christmas Gift Ideas
There is nothing quite like a personalized gift at Christmas, and there are a number of things you can find for the vision impaired person in your life.
Clothing
Clothing is always nice, and you can find shirts and other clothing with funny messages, or that have tactile features to help identify them. Tactile elements in clothing can highlight the message, or can be used to help identify the orientation of the clothing to make it easier to use. These small benefits can have a big impact, so will always be welcomed as a gift.
There are vision assistance technology options for clothing too, with markers to help identify colors and types of clothing, helping any individual to match up clothing items for a cohesive look.
Audio Devices
Audio devices are an essential part of life for the visually impaired, so what could be better Christmas gift ideas than personalized versions just for that special person in your life. Whether you choose a pair of earphones or a digital audio player, they are both practical gifts as well as being fun things to receive too. These digital devices for visually impaired loved ones can be personalized with initials or other messages too, to make them really unique. You can also choose different colors and more, so that it becomes the perfect gift for your loved one.
Multi-sensory home decorations
Not every personalized gift needs to be that useful though, some can just be fun to have around, and you can find wonderful gifts for the home that are perfect for someone with visual impairment. Think about a scented candle that has their favorite perfume, or several to offer different fragrances in different rooms, this can be useful if you are visiting other family over the holidays, helping with orientation for your low vision loved one when they are in unfamiliar surroundings.
For low vision family time, how about tactile decorations for the tree or elsewhere in the home? That way, your low vision loved one can experience the tree, and even help decorate it, bringing everyone together in an inclusive activity. It can be easy to forget those little things, but a thoughtful gift like this makes Christmas so special for everyone. Because there is so much choice out there, from the scent to color, shape and feel, you can pick out the perfect multi-sensory gifts to suit any individual.
High-Tech Christmas Gifts
We all love technology, and Christmas includes technology gifts for most of us these days. Assistive technology for visually impaired individuals is not just a nice gift though, choose carefully and your gift can have a real impact on their daily lives too.
Smart Home Devices
Smart home technology is incredibly useful, adding convenience to how we live, but for anyone visually impaired it can be transformative. Take something relatively simple such as voice assistance. Alexa from Amazon is the most popular of these, but Google Home and several others share similar functionality.
They may not be specific vision assistance technology, but make great independent living aids just the same. For instance, having voice activated lighting can make life much easier for anyone with visual impairment, and through something like Alexa, that ease of use can be added to so many things. From listening to the radio to finding out what the weather is going to be like today, everything is just a moment away, and all you have to do is ask the question.
Vision Assistance Products
The prevalence of assistive technology makes vision loss solutions more portable to carry, easier to use and more effective to operate. There are three excellent products that can make a real difference to your loved one’s life that make great gifts.
A portable low vision aid for reading and writing, the Zoomax Snow 12 has a 12-inch full HD display for crisp, clear text and images. It has a joystick to pan around an image, and a foldable stand that makes it easy to position over a book, menu, map or anything else you need to read. It offers excellent magnification too, and is the ideal aid for writing, whether signing checks or writing a birthday card. The device also has built-in OCR and text-to-speech function, which means it can scan a document and then read the content aloud, so can be a real help for anyone with vision impairment.
- Orcam Read 3
Orcam Read 3 is a highly portable magnifier and handheld reading companion that has a number of uses due to its flexibility. It can scan any materials and read it aloud for you. Easy to use with bold yellow control buttons for simplicity, it is the size of a small torch and perfect for travel use. When placed in the accompanying stand, you can control it with vocal commands or hand gestures, making it a truly user friendly vision aid.
When we think of assistive technology for visually impaired people, there are endless new products driven by the latest technology. Wearable low vision device like the Acesight VR E-glasses offers an impressive vision loss solution. It provides clear, sharp images that provide clarity for those with vision loss, making it available for multiple tasks such as reading books, enjoying movies, doing handcrafts, writing diaries, etc.
If you have ever seen VR glasses, then you will recognize the Acesight VR E-glasses, but they do something different. Instead of placing you in a virtual world, they project the actual world around you onto the screens in front of your eyes. With up to 16 times magnification, those with vision loss can have clarity, seeing what they are touching, holding or looking at in fine detail. It is fantastic technology and surely something that will change things for anyone with low vision.
Offering great performance and ease of use, either of these devices will have a big impact on the daily life of anyone with low vision. That is why they make such great Christmas gift ideas, not just as a lovely present for the holidays, but as something that can positively impact their lives going forward.
Spend More Time with Your Loved Ones
Everyone loves to receive gifts, but spending time together is probably the best part of the holiday season for most people. If you have visually impaired loved ones, you can make sure that time is fully inclusive in a number of ways, with a range of Christmas activities for low vision individuals to try.
Family games are a fun way to spend time together over the holidays, and by using tactile games such as adapted versions of checkers, backgammon, braille chess and so on, you can have a great time together. 3D puzzles, braille cards, Uno and more allow a wide variety of games and activities to be played together in an inclusive way, making sure that you choose Christmas games for people with vision loss in mind.
Additionally, no matter which of the Christmas cuisines you prefer, cooking it together is always fun. Using a variety of vision assistance technology such as digital magnifiers like the Zoomax Snow 12 to read recipes or decorate the cookies, visually impaired individuals can be part of this in a safe, enjoyable way.
When all the excitement is over and you are too full to move, it’s time to sit back, relax and watch a Christmas movie together. With the assistance of Acesight VR E-glasses, your vision impaired loved one can enjoy the movie with you and join in. It’s definitely one of the best Christmas activities for low vision inclusion.
References
https://realsam.co.uk/12-gift-ideas-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-loved-ones/
https://www.rnib.org.uk/living-with-sight-loss/assistive-aids-and-technology/everyday-tech/navigation-and-communication/helpful-apps/
https://www.rnib.org.uk/living-with-sight-loss/education-and-learning/games-and-gaming/
