Buying a fun, practical and useful gift for the blind parent on your Christmas list can be a little tricky if you aren’t personally familiar with non-visual accessibility. You may want to get your Secret Santa at work a book to enjoy with his children, but your local bookstore doesn’t have anything in Braille. Your sister just had a baby and you’d like to get her one of those cool new “forever car seats,” but you’ve heard her say that they’re too heavy to carry around when she’s using Uber and Lyft. You love your own new high-tech cooking device, but would it be accessible to your blind bestie?
I asked members of the Blind Parents Connect Facebook group what gifts they would love to receive and why. Here are some of their top suggestions:
Print/Braille kids’ books: Several organizations adapt popular children’s books, such as “Curious George” and “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” by putting Braille text alongside the print text and the pictures. These books allow blind parents to read to their kids, while their sighted children enjoy the pictures. “It’s very helpful when people give readily accessible gifts, such as print/Braille picture books. When I receive typical print children’s books, they come with a lot of added work. I don’t have the time to have someone read me every print book my child receives and Braille it personally, so these gifts often go unused,” says Kristen Coletta of Chino Hills, California. Print/Braille books can be purchased from various organizations, including National Braille Press, Seedlings Braille Books for Children and Beulah Reimer Legacy.
Audiobooks: Similarly, many blind parents with older children often enjoy listening to audiobooks together. Audible.com has a wide selection of kids’ books, young adult novels, parenting books and other reading material for all ages.
[Read: Myths and Misconceptions About Parents Who Are Blind.]
Lightweight and portable car seat: Because parents who are blind don’t drive, they generally use buses, subways and ride-sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, to take their kids to activities. This makes having a lightweight car seat that can easily be carried, installed and uninstalled several times a day a must.
“The thing I absolutely cannot live without is the Doona car seat/stroller combo,” says Alyssa Hicks of Simi Valley, California. “It’s basically an infant car seat that has wheels underneath it that collapse and come down so it acts as both a stroller and a car seat. It has been the absolute best thing that I could have gotten for my baby. It’s so convenient and really easy to pull behind me with a guide dog. I’m just really sad that it only fits infants.”
Most blind parents do not prefer the new style of forever car seats that accommodate babies from infancy through the preschool years. This is because they are generally much heavier and bulkier than a typical infant car seat or, when the child is older, a typical backless booster seat.
Generally speaking, blind parents tend to prefer infant car seats with handles that can be used as long as possible, such as the Graco SnugRide. Once a child needs a stage 2 car seat, popular models include Evenflo’s Tribute, Maestro and Maestro Sport, since they are among the lightest car seats on the market. When you’re carrying a child, a diaper bag, a cane and a car seat around the mall, lightness and portability are the features that matter most!
Lightweight and portable booster seat: After years of schlepping around heavy car seats, almost every blind parent rejoices when their child is finally old enough to use a booster seat. By far, the most lightweight and portable booster seat on the market at this time is the mifold. This booster seat has been popular among blind parents for several years; when folded, it’s about the size of a paperback book and easily fits into a purse or backpack. As a blind parent myself, this is my top recommendation of any product to any blind parent. If a parent prefers a high-backed booster seat, the same company also makes a model called the hifold, which folds to fit into a small carrying bag. Alternatively, the BubbleBum is an inflatable backless booster seat that is also popular among parents who are blind.
[Read: Your Kid Should Probably Be in a Booster Seat. Here’s Why.]
Uber and Lyft gift cards: For blind parents who live in areas without good bus or subway service, daily usage of Uber and Lyft can really add up. “We’re asking for gift cards for Uber and Lyft. They’re super helpful, since transportation can be a struggle,” says Katie Davis of Sacramento, California.
iGrill: My husband Greg, who is also blind, loves to grill. One of his favorite gadgets is the iGrill talking meat thermometer. It comes with four meat probes, an ambient temperature probe and an LED temperature display unit. While he can’t see the LED temperature display, the meat’s temperature and the ambient temperature within the grill are available on the iPhone app, which he can read with the iPhone’s built-in screen reader. He’s always been a good cook, but his steaks and pork chops are now sublime.
Instant Pot Smart: The Instant Pot Smart has a corresponding app that allows users to access recipes, operate many features of the pressure cooker remotely and check how much cooking time is left. “I really love my Instant Pot Smart,” says Kyla Topham of Springdale, Utah. “The app is completely accessible and makes using the Instant Pot extra easy. I use mine a couple times a week for quick and healthy meals.”
Experiences: Family outings can be prohibitively expensive for some blind parents on a limited income, because a trip to an otherwise free holiday festival, for example, might also necessitate an expensive Uber or Lyft ride. Therefore, many blind parents said it’s very helpful to them and their kids to receive zoo passes, children’s museum memberships, concert tickets and other experience-based gifts.
One parent said that it’s difficult for her to justify the expense of swimming lessons for her son, because not only does she have to pay for the lessons themselves, but she also has to pay Uber about $15 each way there and back from each individual lesson, which adds $30 onto the cost of every week’s lesson. Her mother-in-law giving her son swimming lessons as a Christmas gift freed up the money she would need for transportation and allowed her son to continue taking swim lessons. Restaurant gift cards, a massage gift certificate and movie theater tickets were other items many parents indicated they would enjoy receiving.
Memberships and gift cards to shopping services: Unless they live in an area with good bus or subway service, shopping can be a time- and labor-intensive process for many blind parents. Many members of the Blind Parents Connect group indicated that they would appreciate gift memberships or gift cards to services like Amazon Prime, Shipt, Instacart, Postmates, Grubhub, DoorDash or Uber Eats. However, keep in mind that not all of these services are available in every area of the country, so before purchasing a membership or gift card, please be sure that the service delivers to your friend or family member’s area.
[Read: When Mom Isn’t Looking.]
Hopefully this list has given you a few ideas to consider when buying a gift for the blind parent in your life. Just remember, when in doubt, there’s always chocolate and wine, which make just about every parent’s wish list!
The author and members of the Blind Parents Connect Facebook group quoted in this post attest that they have no financial interest or other vested interest in any of the products or companies mentioned.
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Gift Ideas for Blind Parents originally appeared on usnews.com
