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Maine is so rural,” says Pat Monahan, “that it’s difficult for visually impaired people to get the services they need. There just aren’t enough community resources in some of these areas.”
Monahan is a certified vision rehabilitation therapist for the Iris Network, a century-old statewide service formerly known as the Maine Center for the Blind. She is an office of one in Bangor, working out of a secluded corner in the Career Center near the old iron bridge to Brewer. The office is filled with viewscreens, light tables, large-screen monitors, and large-print books. Monahan, who has been visually impaired since birth due to an eye condition associated with albinism, is responsible for the Iris Network’s outreach services in Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Somerset Counties.
Her work frequently takes her away from the office. The Iris Network provides a driver for her when it’s time for her to pay house calls to some of the more than 40 clients in the far-flung, three-county area. She travels as far as Jackman to help the visually impaired with “anything that has to do with day-to-day living.” She also visits nursing homes, group homes, and medical facilities, and appears at community fairs and other events to promote the Iris Network’s services.
Ninety percent of the folks she serves are elderly people suffering from macular degeneration, and the majority of them are women. “Going blind is one of the scariest things that can happen for a lot of people,” Monahan says. “There’s this perception that blind people are helpless.” Her job is to show them that they don’t have to be.
Besides her elderly clients, Monahan also assists college students and working adults like herself, all of whom face challenges over and above those faced by a sighted person when moving into a new living situation or starting a new job.
The Iris Network was founded in 1905 as the Maine Institution for the Blind by William J. Ryan, a visually impaired traveling almanac salesman. Helen Keller was among the donors who helped launch the program, and Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain sat on an early board of trustees. It operated a residence for blind individuals, who produced brooms and other products that were sold to support the program.
Today, funding comes from donations, grants, charitable organizations, and fundraisers like the annual golf tournament held in June. Yet, when it comes to specialized residences, the program has come full circle: The Iris Park Apartments, a new high-tech low-vision housing facility, is scheduled to open in Portland in August.
Most visually impaired people retain at least some vision, Monahan says. She gives demonstrations around the state using simulators that represent types of vision loss caused by different conditions. A person with macular degeneration, for example, feels like he or she is trying to look around a blurry fist in front of his or her face, while a person with glaucoma (which is hereditary and “very treatable if caught early,” Monahan says) suffers from tunnel vision.
Across the river in Brewer, Les Myers is also a one-person office, unless you count Blueberry, the dark-haired, blue-eyed sheepdog who shares it with him, a part-time student assistant from the University of Maine, and the 60-odd volunteers who come in to read the Bangor Daily News, the Morning Sentinel, Down East, Bangor Metro, and other publications over the airwaves.
Myers is director of Maine AIRS, which broadcasts programming for the visually impaired via the second audio program (SAP) channels of Maine Public Broadcasting. The programs reach listeners through SAP receivers, which the Iris Network loans indefinitely at no cost, or through the SAP channels on stereo TVs. Listeners can also tune in through the agency’s website and on several local access channels. “The goal is to help the blind and visually impaired regain and maintain independence,” Myers says. “One of the things people miss is reading the newspaper. We read all those stories, like the community events calendar and the obituaries, that aren’t news for the TV sound bites.”
Maine AIRS has been broadcasting since April 2000. Volunteers range in age from high school students to “those who don’t want to tell me,” Myers says. The network has 361 receivers out; Myers estimates upwards of a thousand listeners.
Over the years, the Iris Network has added programs to address issues such as orientation and mobility, as well as basic skills to ensure safety in the home and on the street, and computer training that helps the visually impaired use computers with adaptive equipment.
As a vision rehabilitation therapist, Pat Monahan helps clients with a variety of needs, from kitchen skills such as measuring food and safe stove operation, to household tasks, recreation, and hobbies. She helps each person design a program to maximize independence and self-reliance.
Monahan also works closely with medical professionals at St. Joseph Healthcare to help people with health issues. “We see some diabetics, who are unable to see well enough to measure their insulin or test their blood sugar,” she says.
In many cases, the Iris Network can provide equipment, at no cost to the users, that help the visually impaired work and carry on productive lives. Some of that, including the type of magnifying screen Pat Monahan needs in order to read print, is displayed in her office. “I learned to read Braille growing up, and switched to print when I got older,” says Monahan, who has a master’s degree in rehabilitation teaching from Central Michigan University. “My eyes tire easily. I don’t read for enjoyment; I read because I have to.”
Prior to going back to school, Monahan worked with her husband, Gene, who is almost totally blind, and services the vending machine contract at Eastern Maine Community College through the state’s Business Enterprise Program. She has been the Iris Network’s outreach person in Bangor for the past four years.
“I feel very honored to work with these folks and make a difference in their lives,” Monahan says. “I’ve had people who’ve passed on and left the Iris Network in their wills, or directed memorial contributions be sent to us. And most of the time I was the only person they knew from the Iris Network, so that makes me feel good.”
Monahan is a certified vision rehabilitation therapist for the Iris Network, a century-old statewide service formerly known as the Maine Center for the Blind. She is an office of one in Bangor, working out of a secluded corner in the Career Center near the old iron bridge to Brewer. The office is filled with viewscreens, light tables, large-screen monitors, and large-print books. Monahan, who has been visually impaired since birth due to an eye condition associated with albinism, is responsible for the Iris Network’s outreach services in Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Somerset Counties.
Her work frequently takes her away from the office. The Iris Network provides a driver for her when it’s time for her to pay house calls to some of the more than 40 clients in the far-flung, three-county area. She travels as far as Jackman to help the visually impaired with “anything that has to do with day-to-day living.” She also visits nursing homes, group homes, and medical facilities, and appears at community fairs and other events to promote the Iris Network’s services.
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Ninety percent of the folks she serves are elderly people suffering from macular degeneration, and the majority of them are women. “Going blind is one of the scariest things that can happen for a lot of people,” Monahan says. “There’s this perception that blind people are helpless.” Her job is to show them that they don’t have to be.
Besides her elderly clients, Monahan also assists college students and working adults like herself, all of whom face challenges over and above those faced by a sighted person when moving into a new living situation or starting a new job.
The Iris Network was founded in 1905 as the Maine Institution for the Blind by William J. Ryan, a visually impaired traveling almanac salesman. Helen Keller was among the donors who helped launch the program, and Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain sat on an early board of trustees. It operated a residence for blind individuals, who produced brooms and other products that were sold to support the program.
Today, funding comes from donations, grants, charitable organizations, and fundraisers like the annual golf tournament held in June. Yet, when it comes to specialized residences, the program has come full circle: The Iris Park Apartments, a new high-tech low-vision housing facility, is scheduled to open in Portland in August.
Most visually impaired people retain at least some vision, Monahan says. She gives demonstrations around the state using simulators that represent types of vision loss caused by different conditions. A person with macular degeneration, for example, feels like he or she is trying to look around a blurry fist in front of his or her face, while a person with glaucoma (which is hereditary and “very treatable if caught early,” Monahan says) suffers from tunnel vision.
Across the river in Brewer, Les Myers is also a one-person office, unless you count Blueberry, the dark-haired, blue-eyed sheepdog who shares it with him, a part-time student assistant from the University of Maine, and the 60-odd volunteers who come in to read the Bangor Daily News, the Morning Sentinel, Down East, Bangor Metro, and other publications over the airwaves.
Myers is director of Maine AIRS, which broadcasts programming for the visually impaired via the second audio program (SAP) channels of Maine Public Broadcasting. The programs reach listeners through SAP receivers, which the Iris Network loans indefinitely at no cost, or through the SAP channels on stereo TVs. Listeners can also tune in through the agency’s website and on several local access channels. “The goal is to help the blind and visually impaired regain and maintain independence,” Myers says. “One of the things people miss is reading the newspaper. We read all those stories, like the community events calendar and the obituaries, that aren’t news for the TV sound bites.”
Maine AIRS has been broadcasting since April 2000. Volunteers range in age from high school students to “those who don’t want to tell me,” Myers says. The network has 361 receivers out; Myers estimates upwards of a thousand listeners.
Over the years, the Iris Network has added programs to address issues such as orientation and mobility, as well as basic skills to ensure safety in the home and on the street, and computer training that helps the visually impaired use computers with adaptive equipment.
As a vision rehabilitation therapist, Pat Monahan helps clients with a variety of needs, from kitchen skills such as measuring food and safe stove operation, to household tasks, recreation, and hobbies. She helps each person design a program to maximize independence and self-reliance.
Monahan also works closely with medical professionals at St. Joseph Healthcare to help people with health issues. “We see some diabetics, who are unable to see well enough to measure their insulin or test their blood sugar,” she says.
In many cases, the Iris Network can provide equipment, at no cost to the users, that help the visually impaired work and carry on productive lives. Some of that, including the type of magnifying screen Pat Monahan needs in order to read print, is displayed in her office. “I learned to read Braille growing up, and switched to print when I got older,” says Monahan, who has a master’s degree in rehabilitation teaching from Central Michigan University. “My eyes tire easily. I don’t read for enjoyment; I read because I have to.”
Prior to going back to school, Monahan worked with her husband, Gene, who is almost totally blind, and services the vending machine contract at Eastern Maine Community College through the state’s Business Enterprise Program. She has been the Iris Network’s outreach person in Bangor for the past four years.
“I feel very honored to work with these folks and make a difference in their lives,” Monahan says. “I’ve had people who’ve passed on and left the Iris Network in their wills, or directed memorial contributions be sent to us. And most of the time I was the only person they knew from the Iris Network, so that makes me feel good.”
