Dining in the Dark is more than a meal: It is an experience designed to give the public a taste of daily life as a person dealing with visual impairment.
“We want to give people an idea of what life is like for people who are blind or visually impaired. We want them too understand how hard it is to eat when you can’t see what you are putting in your mouth and you can’t look at your food. It is a very different experience,” said Mitzi Tharin, coordinator of the unique benefit.
Tharin is also the founder of Education and Mentoring for the Visually Impaired Association, a nonprofit dedicated to providing comprehensive information and resources to those with visual impairments and their families and friends. The association encourages and mentors people with visual impairments to help them become active participants in the community.
“We are on a mission to let people know what is out there for them. When my vision first started to go, I didn’t know one person who was visually impaired. I was very upset and didn’t know what to do or who to talk to or what was out there to help me,” said Tharin, 58, who has retinitis pigmentosa and is completely blind.
To battle back against the isolation she experienced, Tharin began working at Sun Sounds of Arizona, which provides audio access for people who can’t read due to disabilities. She also accessed services and programs through Southern Arizona Association for the Visually Impaired, which serves more than 2,000 blind and visually impaired clients annually.
After more than 25 years of experience with these organizations, Tharin wants to share the knowledge she had garnered. She started the association part-time about 10 years ago in hopes that one-stop informational resources would ease the transition for those with visual impairment.
The organization highlights mentoring, literacy, gadgets, mobility, recreation, calendars and other resources while promoting the array of social events and educational programs available locally for the visually impaired.
