Ben Byrer is legally blind, but technology has let him rediscover his love of painting
MIDDLESEX TWP — Although Ben Byrer has painted countless pictures in his time, the 91-year-old World War II veteran was especially pleased to complete one in particular.
Byrer began painting the portrait of a Santa Fe, New Mexico child in 1995 — but the project came to a halt as Byrer's eyesight began to deteriorate from macular degeneration.
“I painted on it for a little while, but I just couldn't see,” said Byrer, legally blind since 2000.
Despite that diagnosis, the former professional artist rediscovered painting several years ago through a special program at VA Butler Healthcare.
With help from the VA's Vision Impairment Services Team, or VIST, Byrer uses adaptive equipment to paint the most intricate details on peanuts he uses to create characters like snowmen, pilgrims or wisemen in a Nativity scene.
“It's amazing what he can do,” said his wife Violet, watching her husband assemble a model ship under a machine called an Acrobat.
With a camera positioned over Byrer's hands as he paints or sculpts in his studio, the Acrobat projects his activities onto a monitor — magnifying them up to 75 times.
VIST also equipped Byrer with an audio book reader and a CCTV: a monitor that magnifies text from books or newspapers secured under glass on a sliding tabletop.
Demonstrating its use with an 8½-by-11 pamphlet, Byrer read words magnified to an inch tall from their original text on the page, which he otherwise described as a gray block.“He does good,” Violet said. “He opens all the mail. He can read it all. He can read the newspapers on Sundays.”Jaime Brewer, VIST coordinator at the VA in Butler Township, said although the program was launched in the 1980s, services in the past year have mirrored an increasing need.“We've had an increase in the number of people who are having sight loss,” Brewer said, explaining clients now include more vets from Korea and Vietnam.“Most of the people I work with have age-related eye diseases such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts and diabetic retinopathy,” Brewer said, explaining the program is available to any vet with sight loss regardless of the cause.The service and equipment are free to vets who are legally blind or who meet income guidelines. A co-pay is otherwise required.According to Brewer, the local VIST program is working with about 150 vets, with about 1.2 million sight-impaired vets nationwide.“That number is supposed to increase. We're also seeing an increase in people who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan who have traumatic brain injury. We're finding traumatic brain injury can disrupt visual circuits in the brain,” she said.VIST participants can attend a support group with their peers and learn about other resources available, such as the Butler Blind Association and the Carnegie Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
As part of the program, participants are evaluated by a low-vision optometrist, who prescribes sight aids offered through VIST.The aids also can include talking watches and clocks or devices that make prescription bottles talk. Computer software is available for those with no sight at all, Brewer noted.“By the time I get to them they are told by their eye doctor ‘There's nothing more we can do for you.' They sort of feel it's the end of the line,” Brewer said.“(But the program) opens up a whole other world even for people who have no functional vision,” Brewer said. “They can receive skills and training so they can live independently.”Byrer couldn't agree more.“I just do all kinds of stuff,” he said, sitting over his Acrobat.“I can't do a thing without this.”For more information about VIST, call Brewer at 724-285-2736.
