The blind can climb mountains

This article follows Justin Grant who has Stargardt's disease and a team of blind, low vision, and sighted climbers who go on expedition to climb mountains.  They have climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt, Rainier, and up Machu Picchu.  The article explains how Justin got into climbing, as well as introduces the rest of the team, all of which are members of Team Sight Unseen. It shows that adversity drives people to acheive.  So having a disability is in many ways a benefit.  I don't agree with Justin when he said "If there was a cure for me, I’m not even sure I would want it."  I feel that my disability has given me a sense of drive that I may not have had otherwise, but getting a cure wouldn't remove that drive.

Click the Title for the full article plus some photos and a video

Do you have hallucinations in your blind spot?

Oliver Sacks studies the visual regions of the brain and hallucinations.  In this talk he describes people with sugnifficant vision loss seeing everything from geometric shapes to people and cartoons.  It is a very interesting talk.



I do see patterns in my blind spot.  Its not anything I can describe.  Its just chaos or fractals.  I'm not user if this is normal or if I have what he describes.

Low Vision Glasses An Option for Sight-Impaired

 This story is a few days old, but it seems very interesting to me, it is a special pair of reading glasses for those with low vision.  It says it improves reading ability up to 90% at close range.  Here's the bulk of the article

Optometrist Jeffrey Sonsino of Vandervilt Eye Institute created Illuminated Low Vision Glasses. They combine a high-powered L-E-D light in the frame, magnifying lenses, and prism correction that prevents eye fatigue.

"Those three things together provide magnification and enhanced contrast when the patient is reading at very close distance," Sonsino says.  "This doesn't cure anything, but what this does, is it allows people with the condition to function better."

In a study, the glasses improved patients' reading abilities by almost 90-percent compared to regular glasses.

Click the title for the full story and video

This really intrigued me.  I did some digging about Jeffrey Sonsino, he is an optomatrist and Director of the Center for Sight Enhancement at Vanderbilt Eye Institute, located in Nashfville TN.

The glasses may just be a set of powerful reading glasses with LED lights in the frame.  I found this PDF that is a brief description of the glasses.  Here is an excerp

Illuminated Low Vision Glasses are portable, far less bulky, easier to use than other reading aids, relatively inexpensive to manufacture and do not need to be prescribed by a low vision specialist. Illuminated Low Vision Glasses use high powered LED lighting built into the spectacle frame, magnifying high powered lenses and prism correction to fi x the reading distance.

I tried looking for the patent but couldn't find it.

Microchip in the Eye Seeks to Restore Vision

This technology isn't my favorite, but it is something that is making progress.

Patients who receive the implant will wear a pair of glasses that has a tiny camera attached to it. The camera will send images to a microchip implanted in the eyeball that channels the input to the brain.

It won’t entirely restore normal vision, say the researchers, but it will offer just enough sight to help a blind person navigate a room.

This is a good solution for those who are completely blind.  I'd prefer not needing an external camera to see.  The upside would be that you could possibly alter the camera to see infared and other light spectrums.

click the title for full story

Welcome

So I've had this idea to create a comprehensive site for the visually impaired community.  A place to aggregate useful information on the subject,  post related articles, and talk to others in similar situations.

This blog is my first step.  In the coming weeks I'll be posting articles and useful links.  Hopefully this is just the beginning and we can grow this community together.  If you have an suggestions, criticisms, or advice please leave me a comment

Thanks

LD