Sensory aids.

Within recent years blind persons with diabetes have emerged as an increasingly significant segment of the visually impaired population in the United States. Heightened sensitivity to complexities imposed by diabetes upon blind persons is. apparent among vocational counselors, rehabilitation teachers, mobility instructors, and others. Physicians, nurses, and health professionals, too, seek guidelines, resources, and materials specific to problems associated with diabetes and blindness. Aside from its psychosocial and economic impact on the patient and his family, diabetes endures for a lifetime. Its management pervades the individual's daily life, diet, exercise, urine testing, injections of insulin or oral medications. And although significant, often crucial benefits accrue from self-administered treatment, the existence of reliable devices that enable blind diabetics to measure and administer all types and combinations of insulin safely is not as widely known as it should be. These products, in conjunction with instruction and training in their usage, assist many blind persons to achieve optimal independence in controlling their diabetes. The selection and suitability of a particular device must, of course, be based upon the special needs, idiosyncrasies, and circumstances of the individual diabetic. Descriptions of products that a number of visually impaired diabetics have found suitable and manageable are contained in the following paragraphs.