Microsoft Mouse for those with Low Vision

This is an older video that I ran across a few weeks ago, but I thought it would be beneficial for those who didn't know this existed.

Its a Microsoft mouse with a zoom feature built it.  I use something similar with just keyboard hotkeys, but this might go on my christmas list.



This is Microsoft's site detailing all its products that have zoom features.

Art by the legally blind

The New York Times has a 10 slide gallery spotlighting Art and Photographes from the legally blind.

Click the title to see the slides.

Embryonic Stem Cell treatment for Stargardt 's starting soon

A company call Advanced Cell Technology based in Massachusetts has applied for an IND (investigational new drug) application with the FDA.  This application would allow them to start a phase 1 trial for using Embryonic Stem Cells to treat Stargardt 's disease in 12 people. 

This would be only the 2nd time the FDA approves the use of Embryotnic Stem Cells for treatment.  The 1st was for the treatment of paraplegics but that study has been on hold since January.

ACT has had promising results with curing macular problems in rats and in other animal trials.  This would be a milestone for medicine in general opening up a new field called Regenerative Medicine.

Here is ACT's press release in its entirety.

WORCESTER, Mass., Sept 22 (BUSINESS WIRE)—Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (OTCBB:ACTC.PK–News) provided an update on pre-clinical activities in preparation of its first IND filing with the Food and Drug Administration for its retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell program for the treatment of various eye diseases. In the next few weeks, the Company will be completing the preclinical work necessary for filing the IND. To date, no adverse events have occurred in testing. The results will be part of the submission which Advanced Cell expects to submit to the FDA prior to the end of the year.

“We are very pleased with the long-term safety and efficacy data,” said Dr. Robert Lanza, ACT’s Chief Scientific Officer. “We have carried out pre-clinical studies using these cells in multiple animal models, and to-date have not seen any teratoma formation or untoward pathological reactions. We are optimistic that human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) will serve as a potentially safe and inexhaustible source of RPE for the treatment of a range of macular degenerative diseases.”

“We are pleased with the progress we have made in preparation for the FDA submission,” said William M. Caldwell IV, Advanced Cell’s Chairman and CEO. “In the retina, compromised RPE function can lead to deteriorated vision and photoreceptor loss in both age-related macular degeneration and other forms of degenerative eye disease. We look forward to further studying the role that our RPE cells can play in providing a potential solution to this problem.”

This is very exciting and we'll have to keep an eye on this company and this trail.

Click the title for full article

Update: The application has been approved!

Intel Reader reads books to those with low vision.

This is a 5 megapixel digital camera  with built in text to speech functionality.  So you just take a picture of a page of text and the device will read all the words to you.  It seems very impressive but at $1,499.00 it carries a steep price.

Here is a video demonstrating the device.


Here is Intels promo video that also shows a portable capture station for capturing large amounts of pages like books or magazines.

Here is the Press Release

Ready, Set, Read: Intel® Reader Transforms Printed Text to Spoken Word
Intel Launches Mobile Handheld Device for People with Reading-Based Disabilities, such as Dyslexia or Low-Vision, or for Those Who are Blind

* The new Intel Reader, a mobile handheld device, increases independence for people with reading-based disabilities.
* The size of a paperback book, the Intel Reader converts printed text to digital text and then reads it aloud to the user.
* The Intel Reader can help the estimated 55 million people in the U.S. who have specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia or vision problems.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 10, 2009 – Intel Corporation today announced the Intel® Reader, a mobile handheld device designed to increase independence for people who have trouble reading standard print. The Intel Reader can assist the estimated 55 million people in the U.S. who have dyslexia or other specific learning disabilities, or have vision problems such as low-vision or blindness, which makes reading printed words difficult or impossible.

The Intel Reader, about the size of a paperback book, converts printed text to digital text, and then reads it aloud to the user. Its unique design combines a high-resolution camera with the power of an Intel® Atom™ processor, allowing users to point, shoot and listen to printed text. The Intel Reader will be available in the United States through select resellers, including CTL, Don Johnston Incorporated, GTSI, Howard Technology Solutions and HumanWare.

When the Intel Reader is used together with the Intel® Portable Capture Station, large amounts of text, such as a chapter or an entire book, can be easily captured for reading later. Users will have convenient and flexible access to a variety of printed materials, helping to not only increase their freedom, but improve their productivity and efficiency at school, work and home. The Intel Reader has been endorsed by the International Dyslexia Association as an important advance in assistive technology. Additionally, Intel is working with the Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs, the Council for Exceptional Children, Lighthouse International, the National Center for Learning Disabilities and the National Federation of the Blind to help reach and address the needs of people who have difficulty reading print.

"The Intel Digital Health Group's expertise is in finding innovative technology solutions to improve quality of life," said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of Intel's Digital Health Group. "We are proud to offer the Intel Reader as a tool for people who have trouble reading standard print so they can more easily access the information many of us take for granted every day, such as reading a job offer letter or even the menu at a restaurant."

The original concept for the Intel Reader came from Ben Foss, a researcher at Intel who was identified in elementary school as one of the estimated 20 percent of people nationwide who have symptoms of dyslexia. Throughout high school, college and graduate school, he had to depend on others to read to him or work through the slow process of getting words off of a page himself. As an adult, much of the content he wanted, from professional journals to pleasure reading, just wasn't available in audio form.

"As someone who is part of this dyslexic community, I am thrilled to be able to help level the playing field for people who, like me, do not have easy access to the printed word," Foss said. "Feelings of loneliness are often the experience of not being able to read easily. We hope to open the doors for people in these communities. The Intel Reader is a tool that can help give people with dyslexia, low-vision, blindness or other reading-based disabilities access to the resources they need to participate and be successful in school, work and life.

Click the title for more information.

Those with low vision can use the Kindle DX to read

ABC News chicago has a piece about Amazon Kindle DX being used by those with low vision. here's the video



The Kindle has text to speech functionality for the books but not the menu's or navigation. The Font can go as high as 18pt which from the looks of the video is a good size.

Click the Title for the full article.

Update: Amazon announces new features coming to Kindle for thos with low vision

Video of Corey Haas 9 year old boy from gene therapy trial

In my post yesterday I spoke of 12 patients who went through gene therapy to restore their sight.  Here is a video of the youngest participant Corey Haas and his family


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Gene therapy transforms eyesight of 12 with retinitis pigmentosa

This is very exciting stuff. 

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine performed a gene therapy study with 12 participants of varying ages.  All participants had a specific form of retinitis pigmentosa called Leber's congenital amaurosis.  Each patient had the therapy done to one eye.  After a few weeks every patient showed measurable improvements in their vision.  Here is the article in its entirety.

A single injection in a patient's eye brings 'astounding' results. The findings may offer hope for those with macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

Pennsylvania researchers using gene therapy have made significant improvements in vision in 12 patients with a rare inherited visual defect, a finding that suggests it may be possible to produce similar improvements in a much larger number of patients with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration.

The team last year reported success with three adult patients, an achievement that was hailed as a major accomplishment for gene therapy. They have now treated an additional nine patients, including five children, and find that the best results are achieved in the youngest patients, whose defective retinal cells have not had time to die off.

The youngest patient, 9-year-old Corey Haas, was considered legally blind before the treatment began. He was confined largely to his house and driveway when playing, had immense difficulties in navigating an obstacle course and required special enlarging equipment for books and help in the classroom.

Today, after a single injection of a gene-therapy product in one eye, he rides his bike around the neighborhood, needs no assistance in the classroom, navigates the obstacle course quickly and has even played his first game of softball.

The results are "astounding," said Stephen Rose, chief scientific officer of Foundation Fighting Blindness, which supported the work but was not involved directly. "The big take-home message from this is that every individual in the group had improvement . . . and there were no safety issues at all."

The study "holds great promise for the future" and "is appealing because of its simplicity," wrote researchers from the Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands in an editorial accompanying the report, which was published online Saturday by the journal Lancet.

The 12 patients had Leber's congenital amaurosis, which affects about 3,000 people in the United States and perhaps 130,000 worldwide. Victims are born with severely impaired vision that deteriorates until they are totally blind, usually in childhood or adolescence. There is no treatment.

Leber's is a good candidate for gene therapy because most of the visual apparatus is intact, particularly at birth and in childhood. Mistakes in 13 different genes are known to cause it, but all 12 of the patients suffered a defect in a gene called RPE65. This gene produces a vitamin A derivative that is crucial for detecting light.

About five children are born each year in the United States with that defect, which was chosen because researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine had cloned the gene, making copies available for use.

The study, led by Dr. Katherine A. High, Dr. Albert M. Maguire and Dr. Jean Bennett of those two institutions, enrolled five people in the United States, five from Italy and two from Belgium. Five were children, and the oldest was 44.

The good copy of the RPE65 gene was inserted into a defanged version of a human adenovirus. The engineered virus then invaded retinal cells and inserted the gene into the cells' DNA.

Maguire used a long, thin needle to insert the preparation into the retina of the worst eye in each of the patients. Within two weeks, the treated eyes began to become more sensitive to light, and within a few more weeks, vision began to improve. The younger the patients were, the better they responded. That was expected, Bennett said, because similar results had been observed in dogs and rodents.

By both objective and subjective measures, vision improved for all the patients. They were able to navigate obstacle courses, read eye charts and perform most of the tasks of daily living. The improvement has now persisted for as long as two years.

The children who were treated "are now able to walk and play just like any normally sighted child," Maguire said.

Bennett noted that the oldest patient in the trial, a mother, had not been able to walk down the street to meet her children at school. "Now she can. She also achieved her primary goal, which was to see her daughter hit a home run."

There are clear limitations to the study. The patients' vision was not corrected to normal because of the damage that had already been done to the retina, and only one eye was treated.

"The big elephant in the room is: Can you treat the other eye?" Rose said.

The foundation will put more funding into the research "to make sure that if you go back and treat the other eye, it won't ablate the positive results in the first eye due to an immune reaction or something else."

Researchers also have not optimized the dosage of the adenovirus used to carry the gene into the eye. Those issues will be studied in Phase 2, a larger clinical trial that they hope to begin soon.

Meanwhile, the team has begun treating some patients at the University of Iowa.

Researchers also hope they will be able to translate the results to other congenital conditions using different genes.

Leber's is one form of retinitis pigmentosa, which affects an estimated 100,000 Americans.

The findings might be applicable to macular degeneration, which affects an estimated 1.25 million Americans and is the major cause of visual impairment in the elderly.

I also received an email from The Foundation Fighting Blindness stating that Dr Rose would be interviewed tonight (10/25/09) on CBS Evening News at 6pm.  Now my schedule doesn't list the evening news being on tonight, so i'm not sure if this is a misprint but it also says the interview will also be run tomorrow morning on the CBS Early Show.

Coping with Low Vision: Tips and Tools

This article has some tips on how to better cope with Low Vision and keep your independance.  Here are the tips it suggests.

• Magnifiers, available in various sizes and designs, allow users to see objects up close and far away. New magnifiers can provide additional light or digital imaging.

• Telescopes, handheld or head-worn, improve sight at a variety of distances. Newer devices auto-focus and come with a portable control and battery.

• Low vision-specific eyeglasses are designed to improve sight near, far and in between. These include mirrors and prismatic devices that move images to the area of the eye with the best vision.

• Closed-circuit TV (CCTV) consists of a monitor and video camera that allow users to enlarge and position an image on a moveable table until it's large enough to be read on a monitor.

• Nonoptical aids such as large print or talking clocks, phones and TV remotes, color-coded organizers and containers and check-writing and signature guides are also helpful.

 Click the Title for the tull article

Near blind can be Oceanographers.

This  article is interesting for a few reasons.  It is about Amy Bower who is an oceanographer despite having macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.  One affecting her central vision, and the other her peripheral vision.  The article is an inspiration for those with low vision who think they may not be able to perform a particular job.   It is also a testiment to the technology avialable to help those of us with low vision.
In Amy's words

"For anyone who finds themselves in the situation I was in 25 years ago, they need to learn to become a very strong self-advocate," Bower said. "And hopefully, you want to pursue something that you're passionate about, because you're going to need the energy that comes from such a passion to push through the challenges."

Click the Title for the full article and a short video.

World Sight Day 2009

Today is apparently World Sight Day.  This year’s theme to World Sight Day is equal access to care.  There seems to be events in Thailand, Botswana, and Iran.  The events and the day are sponsored by Vision 2020.  From their home page

VISION 2020 is the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness, a joint programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) with an international membership of NGOs, professional associations, eye care institutions and corporations.

Click the Title for more details