
Change Makers: A Podcast from APH
Change Makers: A Podcast from APH
2024 Holiday Gift Ideas
On this episode of Change Makers, get ideas for the perfect holiday gift!
Participants (In Order of Appearance)
- Narrator
- Sara Brown, APH Public Relations Manager
- Kathryn Frederick, APH ConnectCenter, Digital Content Manager
- Richard Rueda, APH ConnectCenter, Assistant Director
- Melisa Matthews TVI, APH FamilyConnect, Digital Content Manager
Additional Links
<silence> Welcome to Change Makers , a podcast from APH. We're talking to people from around the world who are creating positive change in the lives of people who are blind or have low vision. Here's your host.
Sara Brown:The holidays are here. Hello and welcome to Change Makers. I'm APH's Public Relations Manager , Sara Brown . And on this episode of Change Makers, learn about some great gift ideas for adults and children, and hear what kind of gifts might have a more meaningful impact. I have Kathryn Frederick and Richard Rueda here. Hello, Katie and Richard, and welcome to Change Makers.
Kathryn Frederick:Uh , good afternoon, and thank you. Thank you for having us.
Sara Brown:So glad you both are here. Before we get started on potential gift ideas, do you each mind to just share what it is that you do at APH?
Kathryn Frederick:Sure. So I am Katie Frederick , and I am the digital content manager in our connect center, focusing on Vision Aware, which is our content that is geared primarily toward adults, families, and professionals who work in the Field of Blindness or Low Vision .
Sara Brown:And Richard, what about you?
Richard Rueda:Yes, and I am Richard Rueda the assistant Director of the APH Connect Center. And I work closely with all of our team, but primarily with CareerConnect, which is where I started at with APH three years ago.
Sara Brown:And this podcast is about potential holiday gift ideas. Would you mind sharing, what are your thoughts for this Gift Giving podcast that would be some great gifts or ideas for anybody out there that's looking to buy for an individual who is blind or low vision?
Richard Rueda:Thank you, Sara. Uh , always happy to share out some gift giving ideas for the holidays for people who are blind or low vision. Um, I , I have quite the list here, so you tell me when to stop and, and , and , or obviously we could go in any order, but I always think of the individual at, at, at the holistic view and what do they like? Try to get to know who the person or persons are that you're giving to , uh, whether it's a , you know, holiday gift or another special occasion. And I always think of , um, first and foremost at the higher end of thing , the experiences. I , I like travel experiences, experiences where you can get a cooking lesson, whether you do it yourself and you give them that , um, expertise of yourself or someone you know , um, very accessible, tangible , um, things that you can do traveling overseas , uh, with a group that is specializes on tours for people who are blind and low vision. Um , there's organizations such as Wilderness Inquiry, Travel Eyes , and , and dozens of others who, who provide those experiences. And obviously, yes, that's at the higher end of the, of the gift giving , and that might be someone really closer special to you. But again, that, that what comes first and foremost to mind . Uh , on the other hand, folks , um, like myself are like to be connected to our devices, technology, technology that helps us, I navigate the world and , and , and cue into things that are important to us. And so , uh, if you're looking at phones or tablets, so it's always nice to get , uh, power banks or headsets, power banks these days have , um, in some situations , uh, audible features . So you know how much battery you have in your power bank , so when you're charging your device on the go, and that's always a , a great , uh, a thing. And I know folks over at, at guys and there are other vendors who carry, carry those devices. Um, uh, some people like AirPods or, or various versions of the ones that go right into your ear that are wireless , uh, are very helpful. Um, but if you know the person and if they tell you, oh, I might like , uh, around the ear headset where you can , uh, open ear headset so you can hear the environment around you when you're navigating with your GPS . But you can still hear traffic reading a , a travel article earlier this , uh, month. Uh , somebody proposed to buying air tags, which are part of the Apple sphere, but tile as well. And what you can do with those is you can put those in places around your home or , uh, in , in certain environments where you can help locate or, or learn to navigate where those things are. And I thought that was kind of a cool idea. Um, for, for air tags, gift cards are always welcome . You know , you get a gift card, you braille it, and here's a , here's an Amazon gift card, here's a coffee shop gift card. People always like that so they can really get what they want. And , um, I , the other thing I will, I will say, Sara, that I like and, and I like going to Christmas markets or, or fairs. Uh, earlier I went to a pumpkin festival and they had all kinds of crafts. And in those crafts they had handmade candles, handmade wooden items and soaps that are great 'cause they're, they really touch all the senses, the smell of touch of feel. And , um, you know, giving that to someone in a gift bag or a gift exchange is always a great idea. And I, even as a guy, I love getting <laugh> , getting the , receiving those , uh, those items. Um , and the last thing I will end with for, for the moment is , um, uh, memberships, gifts of memberships. Maybe you give someone a memberships who , an organization where they can learn more about a certain topic or, or advocacy group or, or some kind of a , a book club or, or just something where there's a nominal , uh, fee, but it might be , uh, something that's not in their budget. So you say, I'm gonna give you a subscription to this club or to this organization for the next year. It might be $20, it might be 20 , $30, but it might mean the world to them. Uh, if you put that in a nice, a nice , uh, greeting card that's either braille or large print, it'll even mean be more meaningful to that person.
Sara Brown:You know, I think you're, you are so right on those gifts from like the craft fairs and the subscription services . Uh , I've had a few and I've gone to a couple of the craft markets and from, you know, food is always a big hit with it , you know, anybody and everybody, but definitely those subscription ones where, you know, you get something every month or, you know, you just learn something new. And those tangible ones, yes . Where you learn a skill or you learn something because that stays with you more so than a shirt, <laugh> or a pair of shoes. And ,
Richard Rueda:And , and the thing I would say about those is you're supporting small businesses and when and where possible, that's always a good thing to do. So I , I love , love though doing that.
Sara Brown:Absolutely. Katie , what about you?
Kathryn Frederick:Sure. So Richard has a lot of great ideas and , um, we have some more. One of the things that we do each year is we reach out to our , uh, Vision Aware peer advisors who are a group of volunteers who help us create much of the content on our site. And one of our most popular pages is a gift guide that we have on our website. And , um, Sara, I can send you a link to that for the show notes. Um, but some of the other things that we have , um, that weren't mentioned where , you know, Richard kind of talked about , um, you know, getting people memberships to things or, or gift cards. But something else that also came up , um, from our peers was an idea of, you know, just having a movie night watching an audio described movie with someone , um, whether that's, you know, a friend or, you know, maybe someone who's new to blindness or the vision , introduce them to the cool, what I think is cool , uh, coolness of audio description, right? And having them engage in that way. And I think for many people, especially who lose their vision later in life, they think, oh, I, you know, I can't watch TV anymore, right? I can't, you know, how do I do that? I can't see. But, you know, when , when we have things like audio description that really , um, allows all of us for , to equally participate in entertainment , um, and that's becoming more available , um, through, you know, streaming services and cable, nearly all of the, all of those have have it, especially on the streaming services. There's so much content out there that's, that's audio described . Um, so that's an option. Also, the , um, you know , I think Richard might have mentioned this, but the, you know, cooking a meal together or , um, you know , um, going shopping , um, if you do have, you know, a driver or others, you know, getting, you know, getting gift cards to services like Lyft or Uber , um, you know, transportation is a huge deal, right? For those of us who can't, can't drive, we we're still waiting on our autonomous vehicles, but until they arrive , um, you know, using things like Lyft and Uber are, are really, you know, crucial helping us get around. So a gift card to those services is also really appreciated. Um, some other items of interest are , um, you know, some, some warm fuzzy socks or nice cozy, you know, slippers. Um, if you're in the, in the Midwest like I am, we have chili winters. And so , um, nothing quite like putting on a nice cozy pair of, of, you know, socks or slippers , um, or a nice, you know, robe in the winter to stay warm and that feels good too. So , um, that's another option. And , um, some other gadgets , um, of course, you know, there are things like the, the air fryer and the pressure cooker, which are a couple of my personal favorite kitchen gadgets. Those are, you know, popular. Um, some of them have touch screens . Some of them can also be controlled by smart devices, so your Amazon smart speaker or other such tech. Um, but some of them, you know, the , some of the instant pot brands and things do still have nice buttons, so , um, you know, might take a bit of shopping and, and asking questions. But those are some accessible kitchen gadgets , um, along with, you know, things like cur , um, coffee makers and things like that to , um, place in the , in the kitchen. Some other items include Blend Girl designs is one that comes to mind. Who she's a , um, Tricia is a low vision business owner, and she makes , um, tactile shirts , uh, sweatshirts, t-shirts and dresses, and many of them feature , um, like, you know, white canes as there's their design theme and then different things around that. So colorful and, and tactile , um, shirts and things that people might appreciate from her. Also, there are a lot of, there's some jewelry, jewelry making , you know, accessible jewelry where there is, you know, putting braille on on charms and bracelets and things. So that is an option to, to consider. Another one is, you know, board games. Um, there are some accessible board games out there. You know, UNO , um, playing cards are available in Braille and large print. Um, you can also purchase large print and braille playing cards just for, you know, a deck of playing cards or , um, you can , um, buy kits from places like 64 ounce games, which sells , um, kits to help make some other games. Uh, quite a few games. They have a wide selection of, of kits where you can help make , um, games accessible. Um, on the tech side, there's of course the , um, still popular Amazon smart speaker and some other smart speakers. You know, apple has a home pod. Amazon has its echo line of products. Um, those are, you know, pretty, pretty cheap and um, really can help with a lot of automation tasks around the home and , um, just provide a lot of entertainment. Um, we hear from a lot of our people, especially in , you know, in the , on the vision or side who might be older and maybe living in an assisted living facility, having access to their Amazon device has really given them a sense of, of independence. You know, they can, they can listen to the newspaper, they can get their, their news , um, they can listen to music and, and that really makes people feel connected. And, you know, you can find an Echo dot for, you know , around $20. So it's , it's, it's a nice easy , um, Stocking stuffer to , uh, to give someone. Um, also if you have someone that might be a little bit more into the , um, into newer technology, the , um, Meta RayBan smart glasses are , um, an example of a product that wasn't specifically designed for people who are blind to low vision , but it's really kind of taken off in the community with some, you know, AI features that are , um, helping people, you know, navigate the world. And again, as , as those of us who are blind to low vision , it's always helpful to have as many tools in the , in the toolbox as we can. So those are just a few that I have mine . I , I do like Richard's idea of the air tags. Um, I personally use those when I travel, put my backpack and my, my luggage, so that's a really good idea. Um, you can also put one on your, on your white cane , um, so you don't lose your cane. Wow. So that's a really good, good idea. They are tags in the, the tiles to keep track of all of our devices.
Richard Rueda:Yeah. You can , you can put them on the collar of your guide dog. So <laugh>, yes , they could adventure without you, should
Kathryn Frederick:Your guide dog try to escape you , uh, wanna have that ready.
Sara Brown:No, that's interesting too about the kitchen gadgets, the air fryers. I did not know that you could program those with, I guess through the app, through the Amazon apps or the Alexa.
Kathryn Frederick:Some of them you can, you just have to kind of shop around. I don't wanna , you know , list brand names or anything, but of course , um, it is worth kind of shopping and , and doing your research because there are some that, that do have that capability. Yes.
Sara Brown:Wow , that's so cool. Can you tell, I like to eat? The air fryer, the, the food and popcorns of the month, tasty treats from gift fairs. Yes. U m, right, < laugh>. And what about kids? Do you have any thoughts about any potential gifts for, for the younger people, the, the kids, or even, um, you know, the high schoolers and the young college a ge people?
Kathryn Frederick:Well, I think, you know, students enjoy, you know, again, some of the more hands-on things, you know, going, going out to, you know, doing something together. Um, you know, whether it's, it's, you know, crafting or kind of more of those ex experiences that we touched on a little bit ago, you know , um, going, you know, somewhere doing something, whether it's like a touch tour of a museum , um, or, you know, some other kind of event like that is , um, something I've heard a lot of, you know, parents mention is, is, you know, a fun, fun event for the kind of the whole family.
Sara Brown:Alright , well, Katie and Richard, do you have anything else you wanna share with us?
Richard Rueda:Uh , this is Richard, and I guess to really wrap it around , uh, the , I think some of the best gifts are the gifts that don't cost anything. The gift of time spending a an hour or two with loved ones or friends or, or going out and doing things together so that excursion is, is , uh, accessible. It's less daunting. Uh, we're, we're gaining our confidence. Maybe you just wanna go to the mall and , and pick out a couple of things, but with all that noise, and some of us call it sensory overload, if you do it with another friend and it , it's, it's less daunting even if both of you are blind or low vision, you know, things are better in numbers or if you have a loved one that you just wanna spend time with, you haven't spent time with.
Sara Brown:Alright , Katie and Richard, thank you both so much for coming on and talking to me on Change Makers and sharing gift ideas.
Richard Rueda:Thank you, Sara.
Kathryn Frederick:You're welcome. Thank you for having us. Happy holidays, everyone.
Sara Brown:Now I'm talking to a's digital content manager for APH Family Connect, Melisa Matthews, she's here to give us some ideas for holiday gifts for the younger ones. Hello Melisa and welcome to Change Makers .
Melisa Matthews:Thank you, Sara. I'm so excited to be here and share all of my knowledge that I have with you and the audience,
Sara Brown:<laugh>, and you do, you've got wonderful, extensive knowledge. But before we get into the topic at hand, would you like to share with our listeners what it is that you do at APH?
Melisa Matthews:Absolutely. I am the digital Content Manager for Family Connect, which is on the service side and under the Connect Center at APH. And my role is to provide resources, digital information, webinars and videos to support families and other , um, family members per professionals and others raising children who are blind or low vision .
Sara Brown:Wonderful. And Melisa, this is about holiday gift ideas. What holiday gift ideas do you have for children?
Melisa Matthews:Oh my goodness, I, when you asked me to do this, I had a really tough time because as a parent of two children with albinism and as a TVI, I was like, where do I even start with so many ideas? And the first thing that I thought of was really kind of, where is your child and what is your child's interest? And really diving into the next steps of that. So for those that are, you know, sports or , um, passionate about music, what are the next things that they need in the next year to come? Maybe that's private lessons or , um, experiencing an orchestra or a concert or something like that. So that was the first thing that I kind of thought was, what are your child's interests and where can you go , um, from there? And then, you know, my passion is the early childhood, so I thought about all the fun things that we can do with our young ones , um, and even those that may be older, but , um, really enjoyed that sensory play. I know for my child, she is going to be 13 , but loves, ooh , black or making gross and like strange textured activities and getting messy. So some of those sensory bins , um, and ideas can be super fun even for older kids. And , um, I did wanna share , um, with your audience the list of games and puzzles and places that you can find , uh, accessible and adapted materials and games. I always think, you know, the holidays of the fun time when you've got lots of family members and , uh, an opportunity to play different games or be competitive with your loved ones. Nothing says more fun than playing a game of, sorry, <laugh> and sending somebody back to start. Um, but a lot of, again, those games and activities and I always think to pretend play and how can we engage our younger ones with different activities that may lead to future careers or different activities. And as , as an adult , um, oh my goodness, Sara, I have to think. So again, kind of moving from some of those games we can explore some music and reading. Uh, Tony Box and YTO Player are great activities for some younger students , um, and children to engage with different music, different stories. I know if I say "Alexa," she's gonna start talking right now. Um, but that's always a great one for older children to start playing different games or save playlists or other things. Um, I really think kind of shifting to what we do at our houses and exploring the kitchen, which I know sounds kind of silly, but those independent living skills at a young age, there are some really great , um, knife sets or measuring bowls and measuring spoons and measuring cups and all sorts of different activities to really support your child engaging in the kitchen. Um , I really like there is a step stool for the kitchen for toddlers. It's a safe way for them to be counter level and engage with all the different things that occur in the kitchen. I think cooking provides a great opportunity for conversations about what happened in the day, talking about family conversations , um, things that you did as a child provides a lot . Also a lot of math and science activities. And again, a way to get messy when you're mixing and flour goes everywhere. Um, and then I, I think one of the things that sometimes is overlooked is families or parents sometimes, you know, we wanna get them those items off of Amazon or in the target in the Walmart Isles . I think for parents and families, it's really important to allow our children to engage with different toys where representation matters. So there are some toys , um, that represent someone who is blind or low vision, such as the Barbie. There is also for girls, the American Girl Collection does have a guide dog as well as the, our generation has a doll with the guide dog and a cane as well as Matt Murdoch, the Marvel figure from Spider-Man. He also has a cane as well. I think finding characters or ways to adapt and show that representation is really important for our children to kind of see and engage with. And lastly, I think books are just, oh my gosh , uh, just a fun and engaging way for your child to really get lost in their imagination. So whether it's Audible or it may be Bookshare and downloading some books from your library onto , um, your Libby app or another app from your library or creating story boxes , picking books and adding representation of what is occurring in the story is a great way for young children to bring their books to life. And then finally, again, that representation that matters. There are a ton of books where the character throughout the story is blind or low vision. And again, having your child see themselves in their stories and how they interact with others is really important. Um, and I just think sometimes we get lost in the gifts and the what's under the tree or what's, you know, there to open. I think more than anything, sometimes it's those experiential gifts where you can engage with a child or maybe it's an opportunity for grandma and grandchild to make cookies or do a fun activity, or maybe you and grandpa go to a game or something as an experience in a way to create those memories are also just as important as the things that are wrapped beautifully and under the tree.
Sara Brown:So it sounds like experiences are the leading top gift idea. We heard that when I interviewed two of our colleagues, Katie and Richard earlier in this podcast. They mm-hmm . <affirmative> put us a heavy emphasis on experiences, but it's always nice to hear, you know, maybe you're not able to send an experience or provide an experience. It's always great to hear other ideas. Um, before I let you go, is there anything else you'd like to share, whether it be about gift ideas or, you know, something, something with our listeners out there?
Melisa Matthews:Absolutely. I, I just think, you know, sometimes we put so much stress on, again, I go back to that experience and I know it's been probably drilled home, but I think sometimes the activity and just being with family is way more meaningful than a gift or something that someone may open and enjoy for a little bit of time. Um, so again, I go back to build that calendar of experiences and provide the opportunity to learn and grow and let the child lead what their interests are and enjoy just the time together.
Sara Brown:Okay, Melisa, thank you so much for coming on Change Makers and talking to me today . You
Melisa Matthews:Are so welcome, Sara. I hope that , um, lots of new or innovative ideas were shared and everybody has a wonderful holiday season. And thank you Sara, for providing the opportunity to share this information.
Sara Brown:Great! And I will be sure to put those, those products and links to a lot of the ideas Melisa suggested in the show notes. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Change Makers . Please check the show notes for additional information for some of the products mentioned in this podcast. Also, do you have a podcast idea? Send me an email Changemakers@aph.org. As always, be sure to look for ways you can be a change maker this week.