News

Losing your sight can happen slowly over years or it can come on suddenly, as quickly as one week. It can occur later in life as the result of macular degeneration, or disease and injury can cause it in youth or middle age.

However and whenever it happens, going blind is a traumatic event, likened by those who've been through it to the horror of losing a family member. Everyday assumptions about mobility are utterly shattered when the sense that most connects us to the world is unavailable. People who go blind have to restart their lives, rethinking everything from their job situation to the position of the furniture in their living room.

“Either you can stay at home and wallow in your self-pity,” says Mike Potvin, 32, who lost his sight to a genetic disorder seven years ago, “or you can get on with your life.”

Potvin chose the latter. He is now both a member and organizer of a book club for the blind in Ottawa, its members gathering once a month in a spare office at the Canadian Council for the Blind (where Potvin works) to discuss The Book of Negroes , or a mystery novel, or the works of Bill Bryson.

“It's a wonderful group,” Jane Beaumont says of the 15 members of the Canadian Council of the Blind Ottawa Book Club. “And it's made a huge difference in people's lives.”

Beaumont is a former chair of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) library board. Four years ago, she teamed up with Potvin at the CCB and the Ottawa Public Library and, with a $10,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Ottawa, purchased 20 specialized audio-book players called DAISY readers.

But instead of simply handing the $500 readers over to CCB members and never seeing them again, Beaumont and Potvin formed the book club. They chose the CCB office for meetings because it's on a bus route, which is good for members who can still negotiate Ottawa's transit system (others get driven to the meetings by family members or specialized transit).

The ultimate goal, says Beaumont, was to get people out of their homes and doing the things they'd always done.

“It's proving to be a good book club,” says Lois Batten, 82 and one of the founding members.

Batten knows from book clubs: She was a long-standing member of one before losing much of her sight six years ago. This new one, though, is different – there are more men than woman, which strikes Batten as both unusual and educational.

“They read what they want!” she says of the men, somewhat startled by it. “If they don't like it, they don't read it!”

The DAISY readers use specialized CDs made by the CNIB that have enhanced navigation features not available on commercial audio books, according to Beaumont. Volunteers voice the books in a studio at the CNIB headquarters in Toronto, and the CDs are distributed in Ottawa by the library system.

One issue for blind readers is the delay between the release of a book and its availability from the CNIB. It's usually six months, Beaumont says, and can be longer for Canadian books.

Publishers and authors are touchy about protecting their copyrighted material, especially in the digital age, Beaumont points out. As little as 3 per cent of all books are available from publishers in alternate formats, leaving the CNIB with a large hole to fill.

It's clearly worth the effort. At least 10 members aging in range from 30 to 90 attend the meeting every month. The discussions are passionate, by all accounts.

“Socially, I think it's a good thing for the members,” says Batten, who calls herself “a joiner.”

Potvin, a passionate reader before going blind, says he had a “real transition period” after losing his sight that included wondering whether he would be able to continue with books.

That's all changed; he now does his reading in ways he never imagined. “I crank a book and do the dishes before my girlfriend gets home from work,” he says.

Being able to read, he said, “sort of opens the world back up to you.”

What other book clubs are reading this month

The BS and More BS Book Club, OttawaThe Book of Negroes , by Lawrence Hill

Halifax book club (submitted by Skana Gee)Homing , by Stephanie Domet

NCJW Founders Book Review Group, WinnipegOctober , by Richard B. Wright