Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) refers to a group of inherited retinal diseases that cause progressive deterioration of the light-sensing cells in the retina, leading to significant visual impairment and blindness. There are many forms of RP and related diseases including Usher syndrome, Leber Congenital Amaurosis, and Bardet-Biedl syndrome, among others. Symptoms and progression can vary from … Continued
Vision loss can happen suddenly or gradually in adulthood. Each eye disease has a characteristic pattern of loss and progression, so the impact is very individual from person to person. Total and sudden vision loss is very traumatic, and it requires immediate interventions and training. However, many eye conditions impair vision slowly and often in stages. This type of progression provides its own challenges. More often adults with … Continued
Editor’s Note: February is Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) Awareness Month. Be sure to read Retinitis Pigmentosa: Two Stories One Message Part 1 in our series. Denying the Diagnosis As a young teenager, I seemed as normal as my friends; roller skating around the neighborhood, talking to girlfriends over the phone in quiet whispers about boys, badgering my brother … Continued
Editor’s note: This review is part of our series on Reading to Enhance Mental Health and Well Being. Forget the old adage that says, “Don’t judge a book by its cover!” The cover of VisionAware Peer Advisor Amy Bovaird’s third book could indeed be judged by its cover, and the assessment would most likely be … Continued
Caption: Scene as Viewed by Person with Retinitis Pigmentosa In December 2017, news broke to great fanfare that the FDA had approved the first ever gene therapy for a genetic disease. Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec-rzyl) had been proven to restore vision in people living with inherited retinal diseases. Stories about children seeing their parents’ faces for … Continued
Retinitis Pigmentosa or Choroideremia? by Mary Hiland When Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) was the diagnosis for me at age 18 in 1963, I had already been through a battery of tests throughout the preceding 10 years. There was one test, however, that was not even suggested. Genetic testing was considered only for the sake of curiosity, … 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
At the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) in New Orleans, Louisiana, November 11-14, 2017, Dr. John D. Shepherd, Director of the Weigel Williamson Center for Visual Rehabilitation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, delivered a powerful lecture on older adults, depression, and vision loss. Dr. Shepherd discussed his own experience … Continued
As our readers know, VisionAware is committed to providing current and reliable information about eye and vision research that is relevant to adults and older adults, many of whom experience late-life vision loss resulting in low vision. During the past several years, gene therapy has gained traction and offers promise for treating (but not yet … 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