In a contract signed between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.) and Electronic Vision Access Solutions (E.V.A.S.), blind and visually impaired veterans throughout the United States will receive specially equipped Dell computers. E.V.A.S. is a small business, specialising in computer access for people with disabilities.
With a program specifically addressing the needs of disabled people and several existing technologies - for overcoming speech, hearing, visual, tactile and cognitive impediments - IBM is positioned to offer baby boomers, tools they need to stay productive and connected as they age.
The latest in the series of assistive technology are the Home Page Reader, WebAdapt2Me, ViaScribe, and CaptionMeNow. These serve aging workers as well as people with disabilities.
Tampa Bay Spanish radio broadcaster, Enrique Oliu has been a witness to almost every great play Devil Rays have turned at Tropicana Field, ever since he joined the broadcast crew in 1999. Oliu, a native of Nicaragua, has been blind since birth. He fell in love with baseball as a child and followed games via his small transistor radio.
Visually impaired athletes Gurpreet Singh, Rajinder Singh, Vivek Monga and Balwinder Singh kept their promises and won medals for their country. But Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amrinder Singh is yet to honour promises that he made to them.
Before leaving for the athletics meet at Manchester (UK) in June, Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amrinder Singh assured the four that all their expenses would be refunded by the state government. However, months later the athletes have still not received any money.
Students at Utah State University have created the “Way Finder", which combines four location technologies into one unit. A wireless network, Pedometer, Global Positioning System and Digital Compass together form a device that can help a visually impaired student find their way anywhere on campus. These four technologies have their limitations individually but with sensor fusion they work as a unit.
Researchers at the University of Florida's Genetics Institute successfully used gene therapy in mice to treat Retinoschisis, a rare incurable genetic eye disease that affects boys.
Retinal cells secrete a protein called Retinoschisin (RS1), which acts like a glue to bind the layers of the retina. Boys with Retinoschisis lack the ability to secrete RS1. The absence of this protein causes the retinal layers to separate and leads to the formation of tiny cysts. The boys lose their sight gradually, often with devastating results.
The Pt Brunei Marathon will be held on December 11, 2005. Among the many marathon enthusiasts taking part, is Noralizulrainee Ali Yusop, a visually impaired university student in Brunei.
Both Noralizulrainee and Henry Lu will be taking part in the 21 Kilometres category. Being visually impaired does not stop Noralizulrainee from undergoing training three to four times a week.
“I am equal to any sighted person on a chess board,” said blind chess player Chris Ross. He will take part in the World Individual Championships next year in Mumbai, India after retaining his title as British Champion. Ross competed in his first World Championship for visually impaired players in Turkey in 2002, where he displayed incredible performance, finishing 17th, which was well above his seeded position and just behind the overall winner. “I would say chess is the only game where I can sit down with a sighted person and play on a level playing field.
Visually impaired persons will no longer have to depend on their family or friends to read out the bill at a telephone booth. A machine manufactured by Tata Indicom reads aloud the bill amount. After the customer makes the call, the talking phone billing machine, ‘speaks’ the bill amount to its customer.
Richard Erickson, a resident of Burlington, Vermont, USA, is delighted. He is legally blind, but the next time he goes out to vote, he will not need to rely on a member of his family to read out the ballot paper to him. The Inspire Vote-by-Phone system will soon enable visually impaired people in Vermont, to vote using the keypad on a special telephone in the privacy of a voting booth.
In a novel gesture, the Uttar Pradesh government has initiated a long-term strategy to develop all urban pockets in a disabled-friendly manner. To start with, the new civil structures comprising easy slopes with handrails and ramps have been erected at the Charbagh Railway Station and in the posh Hazratganj market. Auditory signals along with traffic lights will soon be in place at the main crossings in Lucknow, to facilitate movements for the visually impaired people.
Scientists have discovered how to make cells sensitive to light. The research was published in the science journal, Nature. A team of experts, led by Dr. Rob Lucas, from the University of Manchester and Professor Mark Hankins, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom, found that melanopsin made the cells photoreceptive, which meant that the protein was able to absorb light.
Dr. Lucas said, “We introduced melanopsin to cells that do not normally use it. We found that the cell became photosensitised and was able to produce a biological signal.”
Visually impaired voters of Citrus County, Florida, will be able to vote in private and without assistance. The AccuVote-TSX touch screen voting machines feature a standard telephone keypad with a raised indicator on the No. 5 key. A headset and detailed audio instructions make voting private.
A poll worker will be assigned to each machine to help the voters, if needed. The machines will be available at each polling location.
Acuity Medical has successfully completed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) complied clinical trial of its TheraMac device. This would treat dry age-related macular degeneration (A.M.D.). Prior to the F.D.A. trial, an open label study was conducted on 404 patients.
The Central Government has announced decentralisation of grants being given to N.G.O.s for blindness control programmes. On the occasion of, World Sight Day the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss announced that “the power to provide grants to N.G.O.s working in the field of ophthalmology has been passed on to the states under the National Programme for Control of Blindness”.
In a campaign launched to mark World Sight Day, Sight Savers International, a U.K.-based charity, aims to track down and save Bangladeshi children in need of cataract surgery.
Since last year, Sight Savers' activities have saved 2,500 children from blindness. The procedure includes two surgeries: one to remove the cataract and a second to implant an intra ocular lens (I.O.L).
Can you imagine getting on your bicycle and taking a 22-mile ride with your eyes closed? The Tallahassee Council of the Blind, in the U.S. state of Florida, was up to the task.
Capital City Cyclists and bicycle shops, Higher Ground and Sunshine Cycles, lent their bikes and their talents to take 24 visually impaired people on a tandem bicycle ride.
More and more Business Process Outsourcing (B.P.O.) companies and IT-enabled services (I.T.E.S.) are recognising the potential of disabled people and are keen to hire them. Most of these companies recruit through N.G.O.s and also provide job training. Estimates suggest that the number of disabled people working in the B.P.O.- I.T.E.S. sector could be about 2,000.
More than 40 million people infected with H.I.V./AIDS worldwide. Loss of vision and ocular complications are among the most common complication of infection, affecting 50 to 75 per cent of all AIDS patients.
India, with 5.3 million H.I.V.-affected people, faces a potential epidemic of blindness.
Cytomegalovirus Retinitis (C.M.V.), from the herpes virus group, is by far the most common disease affecting vision in people with AIDS.
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