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.
Keshav Chandra Pal, a 57-year-old sculptor of repute from Jamshedpur, refused to give up his family tradition of making idols despite losing his eyesight. He learnt the art of idol-making from his father and, except for a break of two years, has been working independently since the death of his father ten years ago.
“In 1996, I lost my eyesight and stopped working. After two years, my brother asked me to give it a try and I agreed. With full faith in God, I started work and now, even though I cannot see, I can make idols,” said Pal.
Despite rain and strong winds that whipped up high waves along the Outer Banks, a record amount of fish was caught during the 2005-North Carolina, Lions ‘V.I.P. Fishing Tournament’.
The tournament is an annual event for the visually impaired persons in the U.S. This year marked the 21st year that it was being held in the Outer Banks. Over 520 people representing 76 North Carolina counties participated in the event.
One volunteer was assigned to each three participants, placing the worm on the hook and removing the fish once caught.
At a 10-day camp for disabled people held in Ballabgarh, the Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has announced a substantial hike in unemployment allowance for blind people of the state.
The event was organised by the District Red Cross Society, Faridabad, Lions Club International and Bhagwan Mahavira Sahayta Samiti, Jaipur.
Legally blind chef Ken Lexer of Boynton Beach, Florida, U.S.A, displayed his culinary skills in the television show ‘Cooking Without Looking’. The cookery show, which is aimed at blind and visually impaired people, gives cooking tips and kitchen safety measures.
Koichiro Kobayashi started climbing at the age of 16. He used to organise tours for people to enjoy outdoor sports. At the age of 28, he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. But his diminishing eyesight did not deter him from continuing with adventure sports.
In September this year, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, with a group of disabled climbers from across the world. “I want people to know they can enjoy sports, despite their disabilities,” says rock-climber Kobayashi.
The Fonix Speech Group, an operating division of Fonix(R) Corporation (OTCBB: FNIX), announced Fonix DECtalk(R) text-to-speech (T.T.S) on screen reading software by Code Factory, a major producer of assistive software for handheld devices in the European and Asian markets.
SouthernLINC Wireless, an Atlanta, U.S.A. based company announced that it is offering ‘Enhancements for the Visually Impaired’ (E.V.I) software for Motorola's i355 phone.
The software includes Text-to-Speech (T.T.S) output. As the user scrolls through the handset's phone book playback of names, numbers and contact types occur. It also plays back the word "calling" as the user makes a call and reads off information such as signal strength, battery level, date and time.
Visually impaired Jannu Nagababu from Vuyyuru village in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, has created history. He is all set to pursue a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) Course. However, this youth from a poor family did not get a B.Tech. seat straight away. He waged a legal battle against the institutions which denied him his right on grounds that he was visually impaired.
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