Posts tagged blind
A working life: the guide dog trainer
As mobility instructor for Guide Dogs for the Blind, Gareth Evans has the rewarding job of matching dogs to their owners I’m blindfolded and frightened. Cars are roaring past as I stumble along busy Leamington Spa pavements, terrified I’ll unwittingly stray into the path of a vehicle
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A working life: the guide dog trainer
Scientists make eye’s retina from stem cells
The growing retina can be seen highlighted green
A section of the eyeball that is required for sight has been developed in the lab from mouse stem-cells, creating hope for the blind and partially sighted.
Soon it might be possible to make an eye in a dish, Nature journal reports.
Scientists used mouse stem cells – immature cells that have the ability to turn into many types of body tissue.
With the right mix of nutrients, the cells transformed and began to grow to make a synthetic retina.
Ultimately, the team hope they can use this approach to make endless supplies of retinal cells or indeed whole retinas that can be transplanted into patients with visual impairment.
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Scientists make eye’s retina from stem cells
Court Upholds Blind Woman’s Right to Use Technology to Take Examinations
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Blind Woman’s Right to Use Technology to Take Professional Examinations – National Federation of the Blind Applauds Ruling.
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Court Upholds Blind Woman’s Right to Use Technology to Take Examinations
Green Light for Blindness Stem Cell Trial
Twelve people left almost blind by a hereditary condition that strikes in childhood are to receive the world’s first eye therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).
Stargardt’s macular dystrophy currently affects 1 in 8,000 people in the US. Their sight deteriorates from around age six when retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPEs) start to die off rapidly, possibly due to a defective gene. Without RPEs to support and nourish them, adjacent photoreceptor cells which capture light signals, die too and blindness is the result. (more…)
RNIB Celebrates 75 Years of Talking Books
It was soldiers who lost their sight during the first world war and complained that learning to read using Braille was difficult that spurred the RNIB to come up with its Talking Book service.
This week, the service celebrates its 75th anniversary. The first titles, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie, and Typhoon, by Joseph Conrad, recorded on 12-inch shellac gramophone records were sent out by the charity supporting blind and partially sighted people on 7 November1935.
Some 75 million books on vinyl, cassette and now special compressed CD, have been issued free to more than 2 million people with sight problems
Source: The Guardian
Blind man reads his own name using chip implant
A chip implant fitted behind the retina of the eye has been shown to offer some visual aid to patients with a form of inherited blindness.
Miikka Terho from Finland was fitted with the temporary chip at a clinic in Germany and was subsequently able to discern a clock, household objects and letters.
Full story and video available at The BBC
