Editor’s note: January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month, and VisionAware is bringing you critical information about management of this serious eye condition. Glaucoma is a diverse group of eye diseases that leads to a characteristic form of damage to the optic nerve. Elevated eye pressure is the primary known risk factor for glaucoma nerve damage … Continued
Low vision and blindness affect a substantial portion of the older adult population in the United States. Although new research from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine indicates that the annual number of new cases of blindness and low vision among people aged 45 years and older is estimated to double during the next 30 … Continued
Vision rehabilitation professionals, including Orientation and Mobility Specialists, Vision Rehabilitation Therapists, and Low Vision Therapists, have long been aware of the need to incorporate sensory input, including echolocation, in their instructional programs. Human echolocation describes the ability of humans to detect objects in their environments by sensing reflected sound waves from those objects. Now it … Continued
Aira (pronounced “EYE-rah”) has made quite a debut on the access technology scene recently. It has impressed the likes of CSUN2017, Assistive Media, Inc., and won “Best in Show” honors at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. I learned about Aira at this year’s American Foundation for the Blind Leadership Conference, and it wowed me … Continued
Guest blogger Kay McGill (pictured at left recording a Public Service Announcement) is the manager of Project Independence: Georgia Vision Program for Adults Age 55 and Over. The Georgia Vision Program is administered by the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency and provides the following services to people who are at least 55 years old and have … Continued
The 21st Century Agenda on Aging and Vision Loss: Some Background AFB began a “national conversation” on aging and vision loss over a year ago in anticipation of the 2015 White House Conference on Aging. As noted in our post on the outcome of the conference, AFB and other stakeholders have been extremely concerned that … Continued
Gislin Dagnelie, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the associate director of the Lions Vision Research and Rehabilitation Center, a division of the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. His work over the last 20 years has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of … Continued
During the past several years, there has been much “buzz” in the popular press about the capabilities of the so-called “bionic” eye, described variously as “miraculous,” “restoring sight,” and “letting me see again.” At VisionAware, we have followed the development of “bionic” or “prosthetic” vision closely, avoiding hyperbole and striving to report factual, research-based information … Continued
by Mary D’Apice, VisionAware Contributing Writer An interview with Maureen A. Duffy, CVRT, Author Making Life More Livable Agencies that provide services to people who are blind or visually impaired offer vision rehabilitation to the 5.3 million Americans over 65 with age-related vision loss. But for those who are not quite ready to enlist the … Continued
Gene therapy for the treatment of specific eye and retinal disorders, such as Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), has shown promise, but research has produced uneven results thus far and has not produced a cure. To date, gene therapy studies have raised concerns among researchers, including inconsistent initial and longer-term results, such as this LCA gene … Continued