Consumer Case Studies
Professional organizers help visually-impaired client use tactile skills to get organized
Imagine trying to sift through voluminous files of paperwork to purge unneeded documents and organize the rest. Now, imagine attempting to do that task without the ability to see.
That has been a challenge for Karen Parsegian of Sacramento, Calif., who lost her sight completely about six years ago.
“I have a bunch of papers that I don’t know what to do with yet: Social Security, medical documents, etc. I’m scared to death to get rid of them, but it takes up so much room,” said Parsegian. “I have not on my own been able to figure out how to pull all these extraneous pieces together. I would get lost in some things.”
NAPO professional organizers to the rescue
Parsegian, who once thought of professional organizing as a luxury item, began to have a new perspective. Last year, she called on several NAPO members to help her in transitioning from sighted to tactile organization skills for independent living.
One organizer is helping Parsegian catalogue her photographs, another is assisting in getting her desk better organized, while other organizers are planning to help her in developing a Braille filing system and bill pay.
“She had systems in place, but I don’t know for her that it was allowing her to be completely self-sufficient,” one organizer shared.
“Karen has all of her concepts and visual perceptions in her head,” another organizer said. “In that sense it was easy to work with her. What I found very intriguing in working with Karen is that her hands are her eyes. It was the tactile differentiation of tools that I gave her that made the difference.”
For instance, with file folders, Parsegian was astonished to discover how containerizing file folders significantly simplified access to important documents. By integrating plastic and paper folders inside each project box, her filing system became more user friendly because it was easier to identify folders and feel the Braille labels. The organizers are hoping to apply some of these lessons learned with Parsegian in working with other newly blind individuals, or seniors with macular degeneration.
Since Parsegian is only newly blind, she and the NAPO members have coined the phrase “transvisual” to describe her journey from sighted to blind. Parsegian has created a blog on Word Press which follows her progress, highlighting the organizational challenges that she and the NAPO members have overcome and sharing emotional aspects of letting go, sorting and starting anew.
And, although Parsegian and the NAPO team have a bit more organizing tasks ahead of them, Parsegian is thrilled with the progress that’s been made so far.
“Professional organizers are worth their weight in gold,” Parsegian said. “Having the objective third person there, coaching to get down to it, is worth every penny. I fully expect to put a session with an organizer in my yearly budget for maintenance because I think that’s really important.
Connect with NAPO