• 3056 East State Street, Hermitage, PA 16148
  • 724-347-5501
  • Monday-Thursday:  7:00am-4:30pm   Friday-Sunday:  Closed

The Rehabilitation Training program at Keystone Blind Association provides instruction with adaptive techniques that enable visually impaired and blind persons to independently perform daily living tasks. Vision Rehabilitation Therapists complete comprehensive assessments, service plans and make referrals for other services when needed. Instruction is provided in the areas of personal management, home management, communications, low vision skills, orientation and movement in familiar indoor environments and leisure/family interaction activities.

Personal Management skills development includes keeping time, identifying/ organizing money, personal grooming, medical management, and other self-care skills. Instruction in the area of home management include kitchen safety and food preparation skills, labeling and organization, home repairs, sewing adaptations and general home care. Communication instruction include braille instruction, keyboarding, handwriting, using writing guides to complete household correspondence and finances, and audible/low vision methods for information storage and retrieval. Low vision skills include using large print, lighting options, glare control, use and review of low vision devices to enhance and maximize the use of remaining vision. Indoor mobility skills in familiar areas include using sighted guide and protective techniques, trailing skills; low vision/tactile/audible games, cards, techniques for handicrafts and adaptive sporting equipment.

Cara (at right) fainted, fell, and hit her head, which resulted in some unusual visual problems. She is considered print impaired since she cannot recognize print or hand writing. Here, Cara is learning to use a braille typewriter (brailler) with Rehabilitation Therapist Kathy Buskirk to write braille notes. She also uses a computer with speech for completing homework. Thanks to two local Lion’s Clubs she also now has a talking bar code scanner for reading package directions/product information on food cans/packages, a talking digital voice recorder to record her class lectures and for reading her textbooks, and a scientific talking calculator for her math classes.
Cara (at right) fainted, fell, and hit her head, which resulted in some unusual visual problems. She is considered print impaired since she cannot recognize print or hand writing. Here, Cara is learning to use a braille typewriter (brailler) with Rehabilitation Therapist Kathy Buskirk to write braille notes. She also uses a computer with speech for completing homework. Thanks to two local Lion’s Clubs she also now has a talking bar code scanner for reading package directions/product information on food cans/packages, a talking digital voice recorder to record her class lectures and for reading her textbooks, and a scientific talking calculator for her math classes.