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Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 13:01 -- admin

Jazz saxophonist

     Roland Kirk was born on August 7, 1935 (the frequently seen 1936 birth date is incorrect) and got blinded soon after his birth. "When I was one or two a nurse came into work drunk or high or mad at somebody and she slipped and put too much medicine in my eyes."

Ray Charles

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 13:00 -- admin

Blues singer

Place of Birth : Albany , Georgia

Ray Charles was a pioneering soul singer who helped shape the sound of rhythm and blues and brought a soulful sound to everything from country music to pop standards to 'God Bless America'. His birth name was Ray Charles Robinson but he shortened it when he entered show business because of the fame of Sugar Ray Robinson.

Joaquin Rodrigo

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 12:55 -- admin

Composer

Visual impairment : Lost sight at the age of three due to diphtheria

Joaquin (pronounced "hwakeen") Rodrigo was born in Saguntum (now Sagunt), an ancient city in Valencia, in eastern Spain. When he was just three years old, an epidemic of diphtheria made him almost blind. Medical treatment was in vain and then he went completely blind due to glaucoma. He once said it was his blindness that led him to the field of music.

George Shearing

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 12:54 -- admin

Jazz Pianist

Visual impairment : Blind since birth

Blind from birth, Shearing was born in London on August 13, 1919 , the youngest of nine children. He received classical musical training at Linden Lodge, a school for the blind, where he also displayed his double threat abilities. Not only could he quickly memorize scores, he could effortlessly play by ear any tune he heard. A teacher at Linden introduced him to jazz.

Clarence Carter

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 12:45 -- admin

Guitar, Vocals

Visual impairment : Blind since birth

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, on January 4, 1936, Clarence grew up and learned to play guitar from listening to records by John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins and Jimmy Reed. He attended Alabama State College in Montgomery where he earned a music degree. By the time he graduated, Carter had developed sufficiently diverse skills that on his recordings, he would not only sing and play guitar but also occasionally do his own keyboard work and write and arrange, writing charts in Braille.

Blind Willie McTell

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 12:43 -- admin

Blues singer and Guitarist

Visual impairment : Blind from birth

Willie Samuel McTell was probably born in 1898 (although May 5, 1901 has also been given as his year of birth) south of Thomson , Georgia , about thirty miles west of the city of Augusta.

SC directs Centre to appoint blind to IAS

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 11:16 -- admin

Three years after he cleared the civil services exams, a visually impaired man, Ravi Prakash Gupta, is all set to join the elite Indian Administrative Services (IAS) with the Supreme Court on Wednesday directing the Centre to grant him posting within eight weeks.

A bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph also directed the Centre to pay Rs 20,000 to Gupta who successfully argued his own case in SC.

Second sight: breakthrough research offers hope to millions

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 11:15 -- admin

EU-funded scientists have succeeded in awakening dormant vision cones, an achievement that may lead to saving millions of people from going blind. The dormant cones, which normally remain in the eye even after blindness has occurred, were successfully reactivated by an international team of scientists led by the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Switzerland and the Institut de la vision in France. The findings are published in the journal Science.

HC seeks govt take on admission to disabled

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 11:13 -- admin

The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to clarify its stand on allowing visually challenged and other disabled students from pursuing professional and health science courses.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a 17-year-old visually challenged Ruparel College student who is seeking admission to the physiotherapy course at G S Medical College attached to KEM Hospital. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S C Dharmadhikari has sought the information from the government by August 2.

Artificial corneas restore sight for the first time

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 11:12 -- admin

Scientists hope the breakthrough will also slash the cornea transplant waiting list which every year falls short by more than 500 in Britain alone.

The new technique involves growing human tissue or collagen in the laboratory and then shaping it using a contact lens mould.
 
Damaged and scarred tissue from the front of the eye is then removed and the "biosynthetic" replacement is stitched in its place.

Eventually existing cells and nerves in the eye grow over the artificial cornea incorporating it fully into the eye.

Table Talk: Blind restaurant an eye-opener for London diners

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 11:11 -- admin

Dining in a completely dark room, unaware what's on your plate while sitting next to a complete stranger may not sound like an ideal restaurant experience but it's certainly an intriguing way to spend a rainy night in London.

Dans le Noir?, close to London's City financial district, is staffed by blind waiters and waitresses who become your eyes according to the restaurant, whose original Paris branch opened in 2004.

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