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Sharq Village & Spa adopts Al Noor Institute for the Blind

The Sharq Village & Spa, operated by the Ritz-Carlton Company, has adopted Al Noor Institute for the Blind.

The company said the move is a part of its efforts in fulfilling its corporate responsibility. With this decision, the Sharq Village & Spa reasserted its tradition that extends into the hotel chain's social responsibility programme, Community Footprints, which inspires to positively impact the lives of others through community outreach and corporate giving.

Disability cricket given timely boost

A special dinner held to celebrate the life and achievements of England and Yorkshire cricketer Fred Trueman has raised £3,000 for disabled cricket to help fund the England Blind team's bid to win the upcoming Ashes series for cricketers with visual impairment.

ECB National Disability Cricket Manager Ian Martin received the £3,000 cheque from Geoff Hastings, chief organiser of the dinner held in the Nursery Pavilion at Lord's in November where raffle prizes included a round of golf with Sir Richard Hadlee.

Welsh language technology to help blind in India

A UK University has come out with a speech recognition technology for languages used in India and Sri Lanka.

The Language Technologies Unit at the Bangor University, Wales, has adapted some of its speech recognition technology for popular languages of the two nations.

The technology adapted to various Indian languages would help blind people communicate better with the outside world as it converts spoken words into machine-readable input.

Trinidad to host cricket tournament for visually impaired

Visually impaired cricketers from the six Caribbean countries will get a chance to display their skills at a tournament organised exclusively for them and the best among them will find a place in a West Indies team.

Gift to visually challenged

Lakhs of visually challenged students, deprived of text books and magazines in Braille for years, will be a happy lot. The reason — a software called ‘Poornachandra Tejaswi Braille Kannada Thanthra msha’, developed by three IT professionals in Mysore. The software can translate 14 vernacular languages into the 172-year-old Braille script within no time. It converts convert data typed in Kannada fonts into Braille. However, the Government has not shown any interest in purchasing the software, which costs Rs 17 lakh.

Robot helps blind children find write way

A robot and special computer are helping New Zealand blind children learn to write for the first time.

The system works by combining a touch-screen computer and a robotic arm. As a teacher draws on the screen, a pen on the arm writes the shapes.

The children hold the pen in one hand, learning the motion involved in drawing the shapes, while their other hand rests on a tactile pad, bringing up the letter shapes for them to feel.

As they write, a computerised voice speaks the letters.

Gelman helps disabled students access library resources

Thanks to a donation and collaboration between Gelman Library and Disability Support Services, blind and visually impaired students can now access resources in the library with more ease.

Last month the library held a ribbon cutting ceremony in celebration of its two new assistive technology suites - study rooms that are equipped with speech, scan and read, magnification and voice recognition software that help blind and visually impaired students see text and use other library materials more easily. About 35 students, library staff and faculty attended the ceremony.

National Federation of the Blind

Dr. Narendra Bhiwapurkar Andha Vidyalaya

Smt. M. B. Jain Andhjan Vidyalaya

Sense and sensibility

EAR TO THE GROUND

Pioneering Eye Surgery Network Receives 2008 Gates Award for Global Health

In recognition of its groundbreaking work to prevent debilitating blindness and provide affordable, world-class eye care to the poor, the Aravind Eye Care System, based in Tamil Nadu, India, has won the 2008 Gates Award for Global Health. The 1 million Gates Award—the world's largest prize for international health—honors extraordinary efforts to improve health in developing countries. Founded by Dr. G. Venkataswamy in 1976, Aravind has saved millions of people in India from debilitating blindness.

Helping blocks for handicap

The visually-challenged commuters travelling on Western Railway (WR)will soon find it easy to locate compartment meant for handicaps, asthe administration has decided to fix special chequered blocks on allthe platforms. Earlier,platforms had no indications for the visually challenged to reach thehandicaps’ compartment. Many visually challenged people would countpoles at railway platforms to find their way.

Vidya Vrikshah

Packaging innovations from Drupa 2008

Drupa 2008, the largest printing equipment exhibition in the world, had new products for the pharmaceutical industry on show from FAG, Xerox, Amcor Flexibles and AVT.
Switzerland-based FAG Graphic Systems unveiled its solution to the problem of ensuring braille in pharmaceutical leaflets is free from mistakes.

Scientists invent bionic eyeball to cure blindness

German scientists have invented a wireless bionic eyeball that canrestore vision to patients who have become blind due to retina damageor disease.

The new prosthetic device caps 12 years of research to help thesepatients. This work has resulted in a unique system - a fullyimplantable visual prosthesis.

The scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for MicroelectronicCircuits and Systems in Duisburg, Germany, say that the bionic eye canbypass the damaged retina.

The system comprises an implant and an external transmitter integrated in an eyeglasses-frame.

St. Louis Institute for the Deaf and the Blind

Plan Seeks More Access for Disabled

The Bush administration is about to propose far-reaching new rules thatwould give people with disabilities greater access to tens of thousandsof courtrooms, swimming pools, golf courses, stadiums, theaters, hotelsand retail stores.

Visually impaired people in the Civil Services

Working ona query received on Eyeway helpdesk, Mr Pranay Gadodia approached the UnionPublic Service Commission (UPSC) on behalf of Eyeway looking for specificinformation pertaining to visually impaired people in the Civil Services. Onrefusal from the commission to answer anything over the phone, the sameinformation was sought using the RTI Act.

Chandigarh docs find safer cataract-glaucoma treatment

A team of ophthalmologists from Chandigarh has evolveda way to concurrently treat two eye diseases - cataract and glaucoma -without post operative complications. And that's great news for acountry like India, where 80 percent of those above the age of 50 arelikely to have cataract and six percent are likely to have glaucoma.

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