World Sight Day Photo Competition
World Sight Day (WSD), Thursday, October 14, is an international day of awareness held every October to focus attention on the global issue of eye health.Each year, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness holds the World Sight Day photo competition. The IAPB has announced the 2021 winners of the photo competition. A panel of five judges has chosen ‘Ladakhi Weaver’ by Julie-Anne Davies as this year’s winning professional Photo of the Year and ‘Going to School’ by Saiful Islam as the winning amateur Photo of the Year.“Our hope was that the competition would provide professional and amateur photographers with the opportunity to share the stories they’ve captured, and we have been blown away by the calibre of submissions, which are nothing short of exceptional,” said Simon Darvill, head of communications for the IAPB. “We thank everyone who participated and congratulate our winners.”
SDCB can help you or a loved one with vision loss or blindness; please reach out to us to learn more about our programs and services.
“IAPB announces winners of World Sight Day 2021 photo competition”
Children in Orange County, California are benefiting from a non-profit organization in Santa Ana. Beyond Blindness helps kids with vision loss and blindness discover their potential. The services that they offer include early intervention, education, enrichment, and family support. Thanks to Beyond Blindness, eleven-year-old Mason Lopes has accomplished major milestones despite his optic nerve hypoplasia.
Glaucoma, or the “thief of sight,” is one of the leading cause of vision loss and blindness. There are more than one types of glaucoma; angle-closure glaucoma is an eye disease worth understanding better. While not the most common type, it is unique in that it can progress much faster than other forms of the eye disease. Which means it should be addressed immediately. Courtney Ondeck, MD, an ophthalmologist in the Glaucoma Service at Mass Eye and Ear, says it’s a medical emergency requiring immediate attention to relieve eye pressure and save the optic nerve from damage.
Antidepressants could be used to help treat a common eye disease one day. Researchers found that the antidepressant Prozac could help people with macular degeneration (AMD). Scientists at the University of Virginia found similarities in the antidepressant Prozac and AMD. Dr. Bradley Gelfand says finding new uses for old drugs could be the future of medicine, considering that getting a new drug approved by the FDA takes 10 to 12 years.
Did you know that 70 percent of blind or low-sighted individuals are unemployed? So it will probably come as little surprise that the vision loss community is often excluded from diversity and inclusion conversations in the workplace. After watching his mother become blind and overcome obstacles, Isaac Shapiro, CEO and founder of beauty brand Cleanlogic, was inspired to champion the blind community.
In 1919, Bertha Hanford established the Duluth Lighthouse for the Blind in 1919. It included a workshop and social center for blind people in Duluth, Minnesota. What's more, the members of the local blind community operated a broom factory until 1943. Hanford, who had lost her sight in 1903, wanted to offer employment for people on the Iron Range. The broom factory manufactured five sizes and styles of whisk brooms, seven kinds of house and parlor brooms, and four varieties of mops.
James Tate Hill has published an interesting story about his high school experience while being legally blind. Hill lost his vision to what he described as "genetic burnout of my optic nerves." He shares what it was like discussing what he could or could not do with his teachers for the first time.
New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine published in the journal Science Advances indicates a buildup of damaging DNA in the eyes of patients with macular degeneration. The toxic DNA, researchers believe, could cause blindness. Interestingly, scientists suggest that common HIV drugs may help stem the tide of vision loss.
4to24 is a free app available for iPhone and Android users to help young people with vision loss excel in life. The app is designed to help blind and visually impaired youth and parents understand what they are capable of as far as employment goes. While most young people living with vision loss are likely to pursue post-secondary education, they are less likely to land jobs in adulthood. 4to24 could bridge the gap between college and careers. The app was created by Mississippi State's National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision (NRTC).
Those who have taken part in a spin glass at the local gym know that the bikes have heads-up displays providing the rider with valuable information. However, what if the participant is living with vision loss. Rider Jasmin Sethi, who is blind, is working with Revel Ride instructor-to-be Richard Brandon to create and communicate a method to relay valuable speed, resistance, and ride positions data in real-time.
According to survey results released last year by an organization called Swabhiman, about 43 percent of students with disabilities are planning to drop out of schools because of impediments caused by online education. '
If you followed the 2020 Paralympics, then you may have heard of Chris Skelley's gold medal win in the sport of judo. The young athlete is still delighted with his victory, and he wants to encourage other athletes with disabilities to join the sport. Skelley's vision began to deteriorate at age 17, but he persisted in sports.
Joanne Callahan was born congenitally blind, with a severely damaged optic nerve. Despite vision loss, Callahan earned a bachelor's degree at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude. She also earned master's degrees at Stanford University. A 33-career with the CIA followed. How was she able to accomplish it all. Beyond being brilliant, the blind CIA analyst navigated through life with guide dogs. The same will be true in retirement; her eighth guide dog is named Magnum.
Joshua Miele was blinded at the age of four when his neighbor poured sulfuric acid on him. For the last forty years, he has been advocating for the blind and visually impaired. Miele has also worked on several projects to improve the lives of those living with vision loss. Those projects include:
Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) is a rare genetic disease that begins to rob people of their sight at birth. Over time, vision loss worsens and leads to people becoming legally blind. Thanks to the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR, LCA patients have regained some of their vision.
Accessible Pharmacy Services is not like your average pharmacy. The company does not accept walk-ins or cater to your average person, in fact, its patient base does not include sighted people altogether. Accessible Pharmacy's mission is to make medication management easier for those living with blindness.
Cooper and Ethan Waisberg love playing tennis. They also love their grandmother, so much so that when she developed glaucoma, the two young men wanted to come to her aid and help other blind people in the process. Their way of helping: starting an organization with the mission of raising money to help fight blindness. The brothers said:
Living in any city or town can present many obstacles for the blind or visually impaired. Those living with blindness need to be vigilant to navigate through the world safely. What if there was a city that was designed to cater to the needs of blind people. Well, in fact, there is just such a place!
Blind people may find a new concept beneficial for managing their wardrobe. The award-winning app concept could help visually impaired people choose clothes. The Closet app won first place in the Universities Canada Innovative Designs for Accessibility (IDeA) competition. The contest asks students to come up with innovative solutions for people with disabilities who experience accessibility barriers. Closet will help people match clothes, determine clothing color, read wash label QR codes, and help users to read Braille on tags.
It’s been twenty years since one of the most tragic events in America’s history, 9/11. Many lives were lost, but fortunately, some individuals were able to escape the towers before they fell. One such instance, a guide dog helps a blind man escape the World Trade Center. When the tower that Michael Hingson worked in was struck, he managed to navigate his way from the 78th floor to the street with the help of his guide dog Roselle. Hingson remembers:
The creation of a new robotic white cane for the blind community was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute (NEI) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). The white cane features a color 3D camera and an inertial measurement sensor to help the visually impaired navigate safely indoors.
Glaucoma can cause irreversible vision loss and even blindness if the condition goes untreated. The eye disease affects 3 million Americans. It's essential to catch the signs of glaucoma early on. Doctors recommend getting an annual eye exam with an ophthalmologist if you are over the age of 40 or have a family history of glaucoma. Now there is a new app that can help patients spot the early signs of glaucoma.
Apple TV Plus' show "See" brings the world of blindness to life for viewers. What's more, there is a blind consultant working on "See" to help steer producers in the right direction regarding the authenticity of the Blind world. Joe Strechay teaches the actors about what it's like being blind and teaches them the mannerisms of people living with blindness. "See," starring Jason Momoa, is now in its second season.
Anastasia Pagonis began losing her vision at age 12 due to genetic retina disease and autoimmune retinopathy. Her doctor suggested that she might try swimming because she could no longer play soccer. Last week, the US blind athlete won gold at the Tokyo Paralympics in the 400m freestyle swim. On top of being a world-record-setting athlete, Pagonis uses social media to educate people about adaptive sports and the visually impaired community. Pagonis has one event left in the Paralympics, the 100m free on Friday, Sept. 3.
Artificial intelligence has been revolutionizing the field of medicine in the last decade. Now, AI is being used for an eye test that can predict a condition that can lead to blindness. The retinal imaging device is called Detection of Apoptosis in Retinal Cells (DARC). A new study showed that DARC could identify areas of the eye showing signs of geographic atrophy. GA is a common condition that can cause reduced vision and blindness. Professor Francesca Cordeiro, Chair and Professor of Ophthalmology at Imperial College London, said: 
Audio descriptions help blind and visually impaired people to experience the joy of Hollywood films. Visually impaired people can enjoy audio descriptions describing what is on the screen on major video-streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Tomorrow, a group of blind and visually impaired people will achieve a remarkable feat. The Audio Information Network of Colorado (AINC) will lead the team of 10 to summit a 12,456-foot peak at Keystone in Arapahoe Basin. The blind and visually impaired hike will be done in partnership with No Barriers USA. The free event helps AINC reach its mission, “to empower individuals to be self-sufficient, connected to the community, and continuously learning.”
Several different navigation applications can help blind people. Those include AccessNow, AroundMe, Autour, and BlindSquare. However, not many can assist blind people in navigating indoor spaces. One Israeli start-up hopes to change that with the RightHear app. The application can help visually impaired users navigate through malls, hospitals, grocery stores, restaurants, museums, and universities. RightHear is available in 26 languages and is free for Android and iOS users.
Blind and partially sighted people can now benefit from a new accessible radio set designed for blind and partially sighted people. Created by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, the DAB+ and FM radio offers users easy-to-use tactile buttons and clear voice prompts. Blind people will also benefit from audible confirmations when buttons are pressed. What's more, the DAB+ and FM radio has a dual alarm with a snooze function, sleep timer, and supports USB, making it compatible with RNIB's Talking Book Service, giving users access to over 34,000 fiction and nonfiction books.
The Smithsonian Museum created an Open Access Challenge to help users explore online museum collections from the Smithsonian's Open Access collections. Seven teams were commissioned; the winning team included a group of Parsons Design and Technology alumni. The team, led by Zhizhen (Jerry) Tan, created ArtEcho, which will provide broader access for blind echolocation users to perceive the Smithsonian and other museums' 3D objects directly through sounds.
The Swiss sportswear brand On has produced films profiling gifted athletes and adventurers. The films show the human side of the athlete and delve into social issues. Some of you may have seen the two-year-old On film about Olympic gold medalist Nicola Spirig from Switzerland. In 2020, On covered a couple's epic mountaineering trek through a mix of stirring live-action and animation.
Blind workers were not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set standards for safety and pay. Historian Felicia Kornbluh explores the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) 's efforts to organize visually impaired people during the 1950s to fight for their rights.
The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) has a long history of helping the blind and visually impaired community. The non-profit's humble beginnings go back to 1854 when Morrison Heady, a blind Kentucky resident, started collecting donations in order to print a raised letter version of John Milton's Paradise Lost. Today the organization is dedicated to empowering blind and visually impaired people by identifying obstacles in blind students' education. APH provides innovative products, materials, and services that support visually impaired people throughout their lifetime.
Dr. Agatha Aboe has a mission: stop the world's leading infectious cause of blindness—trachoma. Untreated, trachoma can lead to permanent damage to the cornea, causing vision loss and blindness. Over the course of two decades, Dr. Aboe was instrumental in reversing and preventing trachoma in Ghana. 
Samantha Johnson is a bioengineering student at Northeastern. She created the Tactile ASL Translational User Mechanism (TATUM) – a robotic arm – to help deaf-blind people communicate without an interpreter. While deaf people can communicate using ASL visually, deaf-blind people need to touch the signs; this requires an interpreter to be present to sign what others are saying because most people don't know how to sign. In the future, TATUM could allow the deaf-blind community the ability to speak privately; this could be helpful in settings like doctor's offices.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People's (RNIB) Talking Books service offers the visually impaired thousands of audiobooks sent out to customers in CD or USB format or as digital downloads. The RNIB first launched the service in 1935. Now, Amazon provides blind people access to the RNIB Talking Books service via its virtual home assistant, Alexa. By asking "Alexa, open RNIB Talking Books," blind users will be able to choose from more than 30,000 audiobooks.
All guide dogs loyally serve their owners by helping them get around and avoid obstacles. However, one guide dog continued to serve his owner log after he could see clearly. In the 1970s, seven-year-old golden Labrador Abel gradually went blind but never let his blind owner know as Abel continued to lead the way across the city.
The Wichita Association for Blind Athletes helps visually impaired residents get socially and recreationally involved in their community. Co-founded by Ira Mills, WABA has found numerous ways to do that, including creating a beep baseball team, the only team of its kind in Kansas. Beep baseball involves all players, except the pitchers and catchers, being blindfolded and identifying the ball by its chirping sound. Mills has been coaching the Wichita Falcons for the last four years. This year is the second time the Falcons The Wichita Falcons are competing in their second National Beep Baseball Association World Series.
EnChroma, the creators of specialized glasses for color blindness, announced the results of a workforce survey highlighting the obstacles that tens of millions of workers with color blindness face every day. Surprisingly, nine of 10 participants in the study on color blindness stated that identifying colors plays a role in their job. What's more, 75 percent reported that color blindness slows them down at work, 65 percent have issues interpreting color-coded materials, and over 20 percent can't do tasks requiring accurate color identification.
A new induction stovetop for blind people uses voice commands and haptic feedback to make cooking safer and more accessible. Dorian Famin, a French industrial designer, created Ugo, a two-part induction stovetop, in order to help streamline work in the kitchen for the blind and vision loss community. Ugo recites step-by-step recipes to users to aid blind people's cooking experience. The Ugo stovetop also includes wide, easy-to-grip handles, ensuring safe carrying and boosting the stove's tactile attributes.
Becca Meyers, 26, was born with Usher syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes hearing and vision loss. Meyers is a six-time Paralympic medalist. She won three gold medals and a silver at the 2016 Rio Games, and a silver and bronze at London 2012. Meyers was expected to compete in next month's Tokyo Paralympics. However, the USOPC denied her request to have a personal care assistant (PCA) in Japan. As a result, the blind swimmer withdrew from the Paralympics.
A wearable vision device for blind people could help prevent collisions. A new study showed that people who have visual impairments could reduce their chance of collisions or falls by 37 percent due to wearing such devices. The study, led by vision rehabilitation researchers at Mass Eye and Ear, a member of Mass General Brigham, was published in JAMA Ophthalmology.
Living with vision loss or blindness is not easy, but blind people can overcome obstacles with help. Arturo Soto graduated high school this spring, despite having lost his vision in early 2020. Naturally, the sudden loss of vision left Soto feeling discouraged. What’s more, he began to withdraw from his friends and began isolating. However, Soto has a new lease on life thanks to his new guide dog Vangie.
Sight Tech Global is an event about AI and the future of accessibility for visually impaired and blind people. Accessibility for visually impaired and blind people is crucial to progress. The next event will take place December 1-2, 2021. At last year’s event, Apple and Microsoft announced a remarkable tool that could enhance the lives of blind people—“scene description.” The AI cloud-based technology could inform users as to what was located in the room they are in. The tool could serve as a set of eyes for those who have lost their vision.
Over the years, many people have ridden their bikes from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. However, it’s truly an impressive feat when the person riding the bike is living with a disability. We are all watching as one blind woman rides coast-to-coast this summer.
Hari Roberts lives an action-packed life; he’s been riding horses for ten years and is currently studying Equine Care and Management at Coleg Cambria. Roberts has been blind since birth, but the young man is not deterred by blindness.
Did you know that nearly 90% of the world’s blind live in low-income countries? What’s more, the leading cause of blindness in such countries is, more times than not, preventable. Blindness due to cataracts, for instance, is avoidable.
Edmund Edward Fournier d’Albe was an Irish writer, inventor, and physicist. On June 25, 1912, d’Albe demonstrated a new invention at the Optical Society Convention in London. He called the machine an “exploring optophone,” he contended that his creation helps blind people detect light or “hear” light instead.
Both men’s and women’s USA goalball teams punched their tickets for the the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games goalball in Tokyo. Goalball is a sport designed specifically for visually impaired athletes.
Read inspirational stories about some of history’s best blind and visually impaired athletes. They overcame physical and emotional challenges in addition to societal obstacles and lowered expectations.
