A Dedicated Teacher Helping the Visually Impaired Teacher's Testimonial - by Curtis Warren

In 1974 while teaching at Fairfax Elementary School in Kansas City, Kansas, Independence, Missouri native, Doug Nagel, never dreamed he would one day dedicate his life to helping visually impaired senior citizens. Even though his life revolved around teaching; a career he truly loved, he began to feel something was missing; something that would take him outside the confinements of four walls, a room full of students and a blackboard.

"Teaching was my life, but I wanted to travel and teach, and I knew the traditional means of educating would keep me confined to a classroom," he reflected. With very little money under his belt, Doug began a 12-year odyssey of moving within the sales and marketing industry only to find himself discouraged and disillusioned.

In 1986, feeling tired and wary, he began looking through the help wanted classifieds and stumbled upon a distributorship inquiry for a VTEK Corporation, a California-based company that manufactures low vision products. "There was something about the ad that really intrigued me," said Nagel. "Suddenly I saw my sales and teaching background come together for the first time, and I knew this was the opportunity I had been waiting for."

Nearly fifteen years later, Doug Nagel, with the unwavering support of his wonderful wife, Marcia, has indeed found that once elusive career. President of Nagels Visual Aid Systems, and a four-state distributor for TeleSensory, Doug Nagel travels extensively throughout Missouri, Kansas and Iowa providing what many of his clients have termed, 'the gift of sight.' Doug Nagel is not and ophthalmologist, optician or an optometrist, but for the visually impaired seniors he serves he has become the bearer of good news.

And for thousands of seniors who suffer from impaired vision as a result of diseases like Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Retinopathy, Cataracts and Glaucoma, Doug, for many, has become the missing !ink between isolation and despair and a life filled with hope through improved vision.

Low vision aid, like the Video Magnifier Doug Nagel offers, provide the visually impaired with an easy-to-use closed-circuit television that enables the user to see print up to 60 times its original size. Unlike the more traditional, handheld magnifiers which may prove awkward and limited in use and in scope, the easy-to-utilize video magnifier can focus in on entire pages, provide the user with hands-free reading and can be viewed by the user with black letters against a white background or white letters against a black background.

Traveling throughout a four-state area in what he refers to as his "mobile showroom", Doug offers his clients a fully equipped 45-minute to one-hour testing environment that ensures they receive a video magnifier that fits their specific needs. He says his clients express amazement over his customized van and are quite impressed within seconds of entering its showroom and lab-like environment. "My clients love the atmosphere and there are no outside distractions,*' he explained.

Video magnifiers have proven most useful in a variety of appropriate environments such as libraries and schools, but Doug Nagel's greatest satisfaction comes from his older clients. 'I love working one-on-one with seniors," he says. "For so many who may be isolated or suffer from diseases Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Retinopathy or Terinitis Pigmentosa, the video magnifier offers many the ability to see and experience things they may have thought were only memories."

Doug says that nearly 80% of the people he visits discover a real need for visual aids like the video magnifier. "Needless to say, I can't help every visually impaired person out there," he said, "but the approximate eight out of ten I can help find the machines so helpful they can't imagine life without one." He suggest that anyone who has a visual acuity of 20/200 are probable candidates for low vision aids like the video magnifier he offers his clients.

The uses for the video magnifier seem limitless. Anything that requires reading can be viewed instantly on the closed-circuit monitor. Items many of us take for granted like prescription labels, recipes, bills, newspapers, magazines, telephone and address books and letters, can be viewed easily and quickly with the Telesensory / VTEK video magnifier. 'I even know of women who use the closed-circuit magnifier for sewing, quilting and embroidering," he added.

Low Vision aids have been available to the public for over two decades, but until recently most consumers were not fully educated on the more technologically advanced products like the video magnifier. Nagel suggests that even physicians themselves are becoming better informed on the may benefits of low vision aids. 'I believe we will see more and more eye care physicians recommend low vision products, like the video magnifier, to their patients," he says. "And as long as there are visually impaired people out there who suffer from eye diseases and degenerative conditions like Macular Degeneration, eye care professionals should provide their patients with all of the options available."

Doug says his base of satisfied clients is growing every day. "As seniors become better educated about the benefits of low vision products like the video magnifier," says Nagel, "I'm sure more and more will experience a renewed feeling of hope and an improve quality of life." And to a hopeful Doug Nagel, nothing could be more rewarding!