The UCAL annual car rally, where drivers are given authorised blind navigators who read maps in Braille, was held recently. Visually impaired navigators are certified by the National Association for the Blind.

The 50.03 kilometre rally is based on the time, speed and distance format. The rally takes about 124 minutes. There were four categories — expert, for teams that have won earlier; regular, for teams that have participated earlier; novices; and all ladies.

In a first-of-its-kind programme, ‘Blind With Camera’, nine visually impaired persons learnt the art of photography. They captured sounds, voices, smells and touches through the camera.

The exhibition of those photo shots titled ‘Beyond Sight’ was inaugurated by chairman of R.P.G. Enterprises, Harsh Goenka at the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind, Mumbai. The show was held at the National Centre for Performing Arts for public viewing from 17-25 February 2007.

The first ever tandem bicycling event in the U.A.E. was held on 16 February 2007. The cycling challenge was organised to raise money for research into retina degeneration and hereditary eye diseases.

This was the first time that riders who are visually impaired had ventured out on the roads of U.A.E. The visually impaired participants rode on tandems as the ‘stoker’ (in the rear position) with a sighted person as the ‘captain’ (at the front). The teams completed the 220 kilometres coast-to-coast ride from Dubai to Fujairah in nine hours.

Bharatiya Welfare Association for the Blind’ (Gulbarga, Karnataka) is offering karate training to visually impaired boys to equip them with self-defence skills.

The training programme was inaugurated by Amrita Somnath, national referee for Karate and an international karate player from Kerala, recently.

She said karate is a means for self-defence, not attack. It creates tolerance and inculcates discipline in a person, she added.

Association president, Dattu Agarwal, said it was for the first time in North Karnataka this unique programme has been taken up.

The International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (I.I.I.T.-B) and Chennai-based companies, Lattice Bridge Info and Spatial Data (Spinfo), are jointly developing cellphone-based technology to help visually impaired people and tourists find their way in a particular location.

Call a designated number and ask a question like 'Where am I?' or 'Where is the nearest A.T.M.?' and disconnect. In a few seconds, you will get a call with an automated voice informing you where you are exactly and where you can find the nearest A.T.M.

Chennai based N.G.O. Nethrodaya organised a one-day career counselling guidance session for visually impaired students appearing for class X and XII examinations.

Students from remote villages of Tamil Nadu got an opportunity to study various government and private schemes and other career options.

The speakers who motivated the students were also visually impaired. These included, Veerakumar, advocate, Mani, stenographer, Jalal Ali, musician, Kasi Mani, vocal training instructor and Dakshinamoorthy an English teacher.

Eberhart Zrenner, executive director of the Eye Hospital at the University of Tübingen, announced at a recent press conference the findings of the test, the first of its kind.

The researchers conducted surgery on seven blind patients between 26 to 58 years of age, and implanted a three-millimetre-square chip behind the retina of one eye in each of them. They found that the chip had restored limited vision to three of the patients.

Manufactured for the convenience of blind customers, the updated ATM now makes it possible for individuals to hear all options in addition to seeing them.

Installed in Oslo's Nordea bank, the machine is manufactured by Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted. Aftenposten quotes official Kristin Ruud, from the organization as saying, "All messages from cash machines used to come via the screen. This has made it impossible for the blind to use the machines."