Intelligent Bus Information System, (I.B.I.S.) should go a long way in ensuring travel is easier for visually impaired persons. At present, 12 bus stops across the Strathclyde region have been installed with the system.
The three-month pilot will allow vision-impaired bus passengers to use Brailled buttons to listen to the information.
Visually impaired people often have to take the help of escorts or a passer-by while travelling, but all that may change. A new navigational device Tormes System has been developed, which promises unprecedented travel autonomy to visually impaired people.
The Tormes System consists of a small Sonobraille computer (with a Braille keyboard and voice synthesiser) teamed with several navigation technologies to give a high degree of positioning accuracy. It is easy to carry as it weighs less then a kilogram.
For the first time, the United Nations will be able to print material directly in Braille. The credit goes to a donation of a state-of-the-art printer by the non-profit organisation, Services for the Visually Impaired, (S.V.I.), U.S.A., along with the World Blind Union (W.B.U.).
Harold Snider, Executive Director, S.V.I., said the high-speed, heavy-duty embosser would provide the U.N. with Braille production capacity in all six of the organisation’s official languages.
Till now, visually impaired people accessed the world of books through e-books, Internet sites offering electronic version of books. Now, a website development and graphics design company in U.S. helps visually impaired people not only read, but also publish their own books.
Visually impaired Elizabeth Goldring is a senior fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (M.I.T.) (U.S.), Centre for Advanced Visual Studies. Her ‘Seeing machine’ allows people with limited vision to see faces of friends, read or study the layouts of buildings they intend to visit.
Jamaica defeated hosts Barbados to win the first ever ‘Regional Blind Cricket Championship’, recently.
In the finals, played at the Carlton Sports Club, Jamaica made 196 for five wickets from 27.1 overs in reply to the Barbados total of 192 for seven from their allotted 35 overs. "It was worked out, it was planned, we just did to Barbados what had to be done to make us champions," said the winning coach Vivalyn Lattie-Scott.
Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University (C.M.U.) are developing affordable scanning systems to give blind people greater independence in daily activities, such as cooking, grocery shopping or riding a bus.
"The single biggest thing to a blind person is to have independence, to never have to ask a sighted person for assistance," said project leader Priya Narasimhan, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. Narasimhan's venture is called ‘Trinetra’, a Sanskrit word referring to the powerful third eye of the Hindu god,’Shiva’.
Key to preventing the spread of H.I.V/A.I.D.S disease is information. A book in Braille has been launched in Namibia that gives all the essential information on H.I.V./A.I.D.S. to visually impaired people. <br><br>Over 2,30,000 Namibians are affected with H.I.V. /A.I.D.S. Lack of awareness material in suitable format has only meant no access to information, discrimination in general, resulting in a lack of access to services. This book is being seen as an answer to them. <br><br>Titled ‘H.I.V. and A.I.D.S.
‘Talk 64’, the first-of-its kind talking software will make playing the game of chess for visually impaired players much easier and simpler.
Talk 64 has a distinct audio feature. It will keep players informed about all the moves in the game and will also interact with the player continuously. Another interesting feature attached to the speech module of the software is its synthesizer. With the help of the synthesizer the voice (male or female), rate and volume of speech can be regulated.
The world’s first photography exhibition for blind people began in Florence (Italy) in October 2006, as part of the inauguration of the ‘Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia’ or the National museum Alinari of Photography.
The photo (tactile) exhibition has showcased the works of pioneers, the Alinari brothers. Leopoldo, Giuseppe and Romualdo Alinari founded their photography business in Florence (Italy) in 1852, making it the oldest firm in the world working in the field of photography.
He listens to audio cassettes and dictates his sermons and notes on tape. His entire sermon is done by memory and he does not use any notes. He knows very little Braille.Ronnie Tollette is the new minister for the Church of Christ (Fallon, Nevada, U.S.) and he is blind. He is also hearing impaired, he wears aids for assistance.
"I ask people in the congregation ahead of time to read a scripture from the Bible if I haven't been able to memorize it ahead of time," said Tollette.
40 mountaineers from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea and Malaysia, will climb the tallest (12,966 feet) peak in Southeast Asia – Mt. Yushan. They are being led by David Chang.
Chang and his fellow climbers are blind, but that isn’t stopping them from scaling Southeast Asia’s highest mountain.
Through this adventure, Chang hopes to put Taiwan on the map by showcasing his determination in ascending Yushan by foot.
Injections of the drug ‘Lucentis’ can improve sight in people with a particular form of retina degeneration.
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine (U.K.) found that the drug slowed vision loss in around nine out of 10 patients. And, one in three had improved vision.
About 95% patients with wet macular degeneration (A.M.D.) maintain their baseline vision whilst on treatment with Lucentis. About one-third patients gain vision and the effect is sustained over the course of Lucentis treatment (1 to 2 years).
The apartment seems like any other model home at first. Then you hear the microwave and the bathroom scale talk.The new apartment, built inside the American Foundation for the Blind, Dallas, (U.S.), offices is filled with gadgets and design features to help visually impaired people live as independently as possible.
The model home includes a living room, dining area, kitchen, bedroom, closet and bathroom. It offers ideas on how to make daily life more manageable for visually impaired people.
The award winning project aims to develop a system that enables blind and visually impaired persons to read by means of a mobile device. The device reads out various information displays for everyday use such as microwave, advertising or transport information.
The panel of experts, on judging the ‘ONCE International R&D Award’, underlined that the project aimed to meet an important need for visually impaired persons, namely, easy access to information. Experts felt that the novel device can become a highly useful tool in daily life.
Twenty visually impaired players engaged the reigning world junior rapid chess champion in simultaneous chess, recently in Hyderabad. “Initially I thought it would be pretty easy. But I was taken aback by their wonderful aptitude for the game," said Pendyala Harikrishna. He was in for some real surprise as they lay some `traps' on their specially designed chessboards.
The ministry of information technology has embarked on a programme to provide job-oriented training in information technology (I.T.) to visually impaired students. The programme will include training for jobs at call centres.
Amruta Bhople is 21 years old, a gold medalist graduate in English literature who has overcome the obstacles of bias and doubt that so often limit the capabilities of visually impaired people.
With an immense interest and determination, she applied for an audition and screen test, organised by BCN, a local news channel in Nagpur. Right from the first test onwards she realised that she could not only make it to the top but be better than the most. Such was her confidence.
N.L.B., based in Stockport(U.K.), is the main provider of leisure reading material for blind and partially sighted people.
It is also one of the few organisations dedicated towards producing books in formats of Braille, audio and giant print, for people with visual impairments.
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