A VISIONARY
Advocate seeks center dedicated to helping blind
In a city the size of Columbus, Reggie Anglen said, he shouldn’t have to dream about a center for the blind. He and the thousands of other adults with visual impairments ought to be able to call or visit for the resources they need.
“We have no place,” Anglen said.
So the East Side resident is going about the hard work of trying to fill the void that has lingered, and grown, in the years since central Ohio last had a nonprofit agency dedicated to providing a broad array of services for adults who are blind or visually impaired.
Anglen’s long-range goal — he concedes it’s lofty — is to establish
a stand-alone center, one with Braille and computer instruction, an exercise area, room for teaching dailyliving activities, a social lounge and market space for consumers to purchase affordable aids used by the blind.
“I’d like it to have a sensory garden,” he said, with herbs and flowers chosen for their fragrance and feel.
Anglen has a more immediate plan, too: He’s aiming for a robust website and a network of volunteers willing to dedicate at least four hours a month to helping blind central Ohioans with chores and social activities.
In Franklin County, there are more than 12,000 people 40 or older who are blind or visually impaired, according to data from Prevent Blindness Ohio. “And a lot of them are newly blind,” said Anglen, 65. “They’re not all able to take care of everything themselves.”
Centers for the blind — Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo all have sight agencies — are important because they can reach beyond the training and employment focus of government agencies, advocates say.
The federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act helps on the jobs front, but has limited the pool of money that state rehabilitation agencies can provide in other areas, said Katie Frederick, president of the American Council of the Blind of Ohio, Columbus chapter.
“When the sight center here in central Ohio closed, there’s no doubt it left a gap in service,” said Kevin Miller, director of the state agency Opportunities for Ohioans With Disabilities. “Mr. Anglen’s concerns definitely are something to be looked at when it comes to this area.”
Vision & Vocational Services, formerly the Vision Center of Central Ohio, closed amid financial struggles about six years ago. The center was founded in 1927 and had been serving more than 2,000 people a year.
Central Ohio apparently didn’t have much of a shot at landing the pilot program announced last week by Opportunities for Ohioans With Disabilities and the Ohio Department of Higher Education, which seeks to increase Braille literacy by training more instructors and recruiting students. The effort is to be based at the 110-year-old Cleveland Sight Center.
“A lot of blind people can’t read Braille,” Anglen said.
Born blind, he moved from Cleveland to Columbus to attend the Ohio State School for the Blind on the North Side. He stayed and went to Ohio State University, working with at-risk youths and in public relations. A longtime community activist, he also ran unsuccessfully for the Columbus Board of Education.
A fall in 2010 left Anglen with a broken neck “and changed my whole world,” he said. Anglen now uses a wheelchair and relies on home-health aides several hours a day. “There’s been many times I’ve wanted to give up. You have to have faith, though. You have to believe in yourself.”
Anglen is awaiting nonprofit status for his organization, which he’s calling LightHouse at Teachable Moments (online at teachablemoments.us).
“What Reggie is doing falls under our philosophy,” said John Coats, executive director of MOBILE, the Mid-Ohio Board for an Independent Living Environment. “Not only is it an attempt to provide services to adult people who are blind in central Ohio, but it’s a blind person initiating that service.”
Anglen said he’s just trying to live by his motto. “Vision loss,” he said with a smile, “is not a loss of vision.”