Articles

[Ms. Kathy]

Young people with a vision
Hampton pair raising funds to open eye clinic
Source Link: www.post-gazette.com/pg/07312/832050-54.stm#
Thursday, November 08, 2007
By Jill Daly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette
Nyan Pendyala, 8, above, uses a plastic filter at Central Elementary School in Hampton to simulate the vision of a person with cataracts.Nyan Pendyala, 8, holds a translucent lens in front of his eyes. Everything looks blurry.

Nyan's eyes are healthy, but he knows that for some children, this fuzzy grayness is all they see.

The lens simulates cataracts -- a disease that causes the lens of the eye to become opaque. Nyan tells his third-grade classmates at Central Elementary School in Hampton that blindness from cataracts is common in some parts of the world.

"Eye drops for kids will prevent it, but in India, every four minutes a child goes blind," he says. "They don't have the proper care."

Nyan and his 6-year-old sister, Lehka, are trying to change that, and on the way, their friends and classmates are learning about vision problems that are preventable or treatable.

Nyan and Lehka launched their campaign on World Sight Day, Oct. 11, to increase awareness of preventable childhood blindness. Their goal is to raise $260,000 for a pediatric eye care unit and training center in India. That project is one of 50 similar centers planned for India by ORBIS International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving sight worldwide.

The project started four years ago, said their father, Krishna Pendyala, of Hampton. With his son on his lap, he was leafing through the annual report of nonprofit agency he and his wife, Sangeetha, support when a picture of a red-haired clown caught the boy's eye.

" 'Nyan says, 'Stop, what's that?' It was Ronald McDonald at the opening of a new pediatric eye hospital in New Delhi," Mr. Pendyala said. "This 4-year-old then said to me, 'Papa, I want to open an eye hospital in Hyderabad.' "

"I almost fell off my chair," the father said. "My wife's family is from Hyderabad." Then the boy repeated his plan.

"I said, 'If that's what you want to do, we will do that,' " Mr. Pendyala said. "I had no money at the time, but I said we will do it."

He contacted ORBIS and assured the people there that his family's intention was serious, although modest at first.

Then last year, one of Nyan's friends, Ian Rodeberg, said he didn't want presents on his birthday but instead wanted the gifts to go to Children's Hospital.

"Nyan got the idea, 'I want to give my money to ORBIS,' " his dad said. "Now he is serious. It isn't my money; it's his money."

"In Sanskirt, my name means 'eyes' and 'vision,' " Nyan said. "I want to help blind children see their family and friends."

Lehka got involved while the family was on the way to an ORBIS meeting in New York. "I asked my daddy if I could help," she said.

Mr. Pendyala said he responded, "Your name, Lehka, means 'line' and 'writing' in Sanskrit."

They decided she could help the children see so they could learn to read and write.

Mrs. Pendyala is a volunteer for vision screening with the Western Pennsylvania Montessori School.

The Pendyala family learned that Hyderabad already had a center and nearby Guntur was set to get a center paid for by the British government. They're now raising money for a center in Chennai, where they visited in December.

Nyan and Lehka have the full support of their teachers at Central Elementary. Last year Nyan's teacher, Shirley Baldwin, rallied second-grade parents to donate. This year, his third-grade teacher, Ashley Kauffman, and Lehka's first-grade teacher, Mary Anne Librich, support the effort. Lessons and materials from ORBIS about eye health and blindness prevention, as well as a history of the ORBIS flying eye hospital, have been sprinkled into their classroom schedule since Oct. 11.

"I think it's teaching them world awareness of disabilities," Mrs. Librich said. "They take for granted their eyesight." She said the lessons at the first-grade level stress the importance of sight.

Reviewing their lessons last month, the children in Mrs. Librich's class remembered these facts:

• Every hour, 60 people go blind. "That's three first-grade classes in one hour, and they don't have to be, if they get treatment," their teacher added.

• The ORBIS plane goes around the world and serves as a hospital for people without an eye hospital.

• The lens is the part of the eye that enables a person to see.

• People have to be very careful with their eyes. "No running with pencils," one pupil added.

After the review, children put on sunglasses covered with masking tape and tried to draw on the chalkboard. Some of the pictures were difficult to identify, particularly David Hanna's cat, which, because he couldn't see to draw the details, looked kind of like a horse or a pig or a dog.

The wrong guesses flew with giggles, and the children discovered how important seeing is to drawing.

As of yesterday, Nyan and Lehka had raised more than $12,000 by sharing information and collecting donations online at their "Kids for Sight" Web page: www.orbis.org/KidsForSight.

Another brother and sister in Wisconsin and other children are also helping ORBIS.

"What Nyan and Lehka are doing for ORBIS is magnificent," said Geoffrey Holland, executive director of ORBIS International. "Their efforts will make it possible for so many children who are unnecessarily blind in India to see their parents, perhaps for the first time."

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 75 percent of all blindness in the world is avoidable and, depending on circumstances, about half the cases of childhood blindness are avoidable. Poverty underlies both the causes of blindness and the poor health that follows a blind person through life, according to the organization's Web site, www.who.int.

When asked by an ORBIS official if he wanted all of his friends to give to ORBIS, Mr. Pendyala said Nyan responded, "No, they don't have to give to ORBIS. They can give to whoever they want."

In front of his classroom, Nyan said he's never seen the movie, "Pay It Forward," but he has learned what the saying means: "If someone's mad at you, don't pay them back. Do something nice for someone and tell them to pay it forward."

Jill Daly can be reached at [e-mail] or 412-263-1596.
First published on November 8, 2007 at 6:11 am

[Ms. Kathy]

Differential occipital responses in early- and late-blind individuals
during a sound-source discrimination task.

Abstract.

Blind individuals do not necessarily receive more auditory stimulation
than sighted individuals. However, to interact effectively with their
environment, they have to rely on non-visual cues (in particular
auditory) to a greater extent. Often benefiting from cerebral
reorganization, they not only learn to rely more on such cues but also
may process them better and, as a result, demonstrate exceptional
abilities in auditory spatial tasks. Here we examine the effects of
blindness on brain activity, using positron emission tomography (PET),
during a sound-source discrimination task (SSDT) in both early- and
late-onset blind individuals. This should not only provide an answer
to the question of whether the blind manifest changes in brain
activity but also allow a direct comparison of the two subgroups
performing an auditory spatial task. The task was presented under two
listening conditions: one binaural and one monaural. The binaural task
did not show any significant behavioural differences between groups,
but it demonstrated striate and extrastriate activation in the
early-blind groups. A subgroup of early-blind individuals, on the
other hand, performed significantly better than all the other groups
during the monaural task, and these enhanced skills were correlated
with elevated activity within the left dorsal extrastriate cortex.
Surprisingly, activation of the right ventral visual pathway, which
was significantly activated in the late-blind individuals during the
monaural task, was negatively correlated with performance. This
suggests the possibility that not all cross-modal plasticity is
beneficial. Overall, our results not only support previous findings
showing that occipital cortex of early-blind individuals is
functionally engaged in spatial auditory processing but also shed
light on the impact the age of onset of blindness can have on the
ensuing cross-modal plasticity.

By Patrice Voss, Frederic Gougoux, Robert J. Zatorre, Maryse Lassonde
and Franco Lepore.

Source URL:
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.12.020

[Ms. Kathy]

Perkins School for the Blind Acquires Adaptive Technology Consulting
Source Link: www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/Perkins+School+for+the+Blind+Acquires+Adaptive+Technology+Consulting/3308274.html

January 31, 2008 11:20 AM EST

WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Perkins School for the Blind announced today its intention to acquire the assets of Adaptive Technology Consulting, Inc. (ATC) of Salisbury, MA. ATC is a privately-owned company whose high-technology adaptive devices, training and consulting services bring greater independence to individuals who are blind, visually impaired or have learning disabilities.

Perkins president Steven Rothstein says, "For 179 years, Perkins has been on a mission to enhance the ability of people with impaired vision to succeed. That goal is shared by Gayle Yarnall and her highly-qualified team at ATC. By combining their products, technologies and expertise with what we have built here at Perkins, we take a huge step into the future. Students on campus, clients in the community and people around the world will benefit."

"Our knowledgeable staff will join the operations of Perkins Products/Howe Press," said Gayle Yarnall, president and founder of ATC. "I am thrilled to join forces with Perkins School for the Blind. Together we will offer our unmatched customer support, training and evaluations to a wider audience."

Perkins Products/Howe Press is the division of Perkins School for the Blind that manufactures and distributes the Perkins Brailler(R), Perkins Panda Early Literacy Kit(R), and other mission-related products. The products and services of ATC will be absorbed into the non-profit Perkins organization.

"This is an exciting opportunity for Perkins Products to increase our service to individuals in the United States and around the world," said David Morgan, the general manager of this Perkins division. "Good business practices and viable products are as highly valued in the non-profit world as in the commercial realm."

Rothstein anticipates the transition will be completed, contingent on appropriate due diligence, during the next few weeks. The move will have numerous positive effects for people with impaired sight seeking services and products:

-- Greater selection of high-tech adaptive devices from a single,
well-known source.

-- Expansion of critical adaptive technology services for
on-campus and off-campus Perkins students and clients

-- Access to many more products worldwide via the internet at
www.perkins.org

-- Wider adaptive technology service offerings for students and
adults across New England

-- A broader array of assistive devices and consulting services
for clients of Perkins Low Vision Clinic and 55+ Outreach
services

-- Growth in the technological expertise of Perkins staff and the
teachers who come to Perkins for professional development

"We have been looking for a way to dramatically increase our technological expertise and offer a greater variety of adaptive devices to better educate students and to enhance lifestyle for all," says Rothstein. "Adding hundreds of products that help to increase independence and self-esteem, plus embracing ATC personnel and their experience is a golden opportunity."

Perkins School for the Blind, the nation's first school for the visually impaired, provides education and services to help build productive, meaningful lives for more than 90,000 children and adults who are blind, deafblind or visually impaired with or without other disabilities in the U.S. and in 62 countries worldwide. Founded in 1829, Perkins pursues this mission on campus, in the community and around the world. Learn more online at www.perkins.org. The Adaptive Technology Consulting website can be found at adaptivetech.net/

Photos available for this release:

Toddlers, students and elders alike with benefit from Perkins acquisition of ATC

Devices such as braille notetakers, video magnifiers soon available through Perkins new ATC division

To view photos, go to www.enewsrelease.com/pressroom and enter Release ID: 129718

Source: Perkins School for the Blind

[Ms. Kathy]

OcuSource Announces Year-round Virtual Conference for Vision Impairment Industry: Brings Presentatio
Source Link: www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63420&Itemid=9

Low vision and blindness portal, OcuSource.com, announces the OcuSource EXPO 2008, a year-long virtual conference for the visual impairment industry. Through the integration of accessible web-conferencing, visitors to this online event can participate in interactive online presentations, visit exhibit "booths," and even attend online entertainment events, all from any sound-enabled computer with access to the internet. Hosted by the virtual tradeshow system from LetsGoExpo.com, the resource will offer a series of monthly events throughout the coming 12 months, kicking off March 26, 2008 at ocusource.com/main.cfm?page=vision&topic=osexpo , and can also be found via the LetsGoExpo calendar of events: letsgoexpo.com.


"The OcuSource EXPO fulfils many needs of the vision impairment industry" states Dr. Lou Lipschultz, founder of OcuSource.com. "The key here is that there are around 14 million individuals in the United States with some form of vision loss. Yet, we estimate that less than a total of 10,000 visually impaired persons attend the five major vision impairment tradeshows in U.S. There is obviously a significant access issue here," stated Lipschultz, a low vision specialist and former executive of one of the manufacturers of technology for the visually impaired. "Lack of awareness, transportation, and financial constraints contribute to poor attendance by both consumers and professionals. OcuSource is now bringing the conference to attendees around the world, and we're doing it all through an interactive online venue designed specifically for low vision and blind users."


The "virtual conference center" is provided by sister company, LetsGoExpo, is constructed to seamlessly work with software called a screenreader such as Jaws or WindowEyes. Users easily navigate through "presentation halls" and "exhibit halls" allowing the visitor to find his or her way to the topic of interest. Presentation halls are organized by topic including macular degeneration, education and employment resources. Exhibit halls are filled with "booths" staffed by manufacturers, vendors, agencies, organizations, and other entities eager to share information about their services and products. Attendees can also speak directly to booth representatives over the internet via the integrated web conferencing tool from venture partnerTalking Communities, which allows the exhibitor to show PowerPoint and video presentations from within their booth.


Visitors who are unable to attend the live portion of the conference can still experience all the benefits around the clock through archived streamed videos of the presentations which will be available for 12 months after the live presentation.


"Our greatest challenge is getting the word out around the world of this valuable resource. We're hoping that as the year progresses, a network of low vision, blindness and senior oriented sites will share the availability of this valuable resource with their visitors" describes Lipschultz. The management team is now accepting applications for exhibitors, presentations, and sponsors.

[Ms. Kathy]

From HealthNewsDigest.com

Research
Where Your Blue Eyes Came From
By
Feb 4, 2008 - 12:03:43 AM



WHERE YOUR BLUE EYES CAME FROM



(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Many articles on HealthNewsDigest.com concern personal characteristics that people are able to change, such as their weight, muscle development, and overall facial appearance. For once, let's discuss an attribute that you can't change: Your eye color.

Eye color exists on a continuum from the darkest shades of brown to the lightest shades of blue. Within this continuum are such types as blue with brown spots, brown-green/hazel, gray, and amber. Variation in eye color—most pronounced in Caucasians—is due to differing amounts and distribution of melanin pigment in the iris. Many of us were taught that brown eyes are a "dominant" trait over blue eyes, but simple observation would indicate that there must be more to the story than such a monogenic inheritance model would suggest.

In 1996, geneticist Hans Eiberg, of the University of Copenhagen, was the first to identify the OCA2 gene as being primarily responsible for eye color. Now, in an article just published in Human Genetics, Eiberg and colleagues demonstrate that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. As Professor Eiberg puts it...



"Originally, we all had brown eyes. But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a switch, which literally turned off the ability to produce brown eyes."


It has been known that the OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P protein, and this P protein is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment giving color to our eyes, as well as hair and skin. Clearly, Eiberg's switch must provide far finer control than simply on/off, otherwise albinism would result. Rather, this switch somehow reduces the melanin production in the iris, "diluting" as Eiberg calls it, brown eyes to blue.

Eiberg's team analyzed a goodly amount of mitochondrial DNA and compared the eye color of blue-eyed individuals from countries including Jordan, Denmark, and Turkey—representing considerable ethnic diversity. Yet, no matter what the ethnicity, his switch appears on exactly the same spot in their DNA—within the HERC2 gene. From this finding and the point that all blue-eyed individuals have only the smallest degree of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes, Eiberg concludes that "...all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor."

It is noted that brown-eyed folks exhibit much individual variation as to the DNA locus that controls melanin production.

Mitochondrial DNA was used here because the mitochondria derive entirely from the mother's egg cell, with no input from the father's sperm. As such, DNA in the mitochondria has passed down from mother to daughter since the dawn of humanity. By looking at the mutations that have occurred in the mitochondrial DNA, and documenting where those mutations are commonly found, we have a way of tracing our ancestors.

Eiberg references the classic work of L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza et al. entitled The History and Geography of Human Genes to posit that the mutations responsible for the blue eye color most likely originated from the Near East, or the northwest part of the Black Sea region, where the great agricultural migration to northern Europe occurred in the Neolithic period (6,000-10,000 years ago).

As to the preponderance of blue-eyed people in the Scandinavian and Baltic areas, one theory cites the lack of sufficient sunlight to produce Vitamin D. Lighter skin can absorb more sunlight, and the lower melanin to achieve this is reflected in blond and red hair and blue and green eyes. That blue eyes are an apparently survival-neutral manifestation of sundry mutations that improve Vitamin D synthesis, bespeaks the incredible complexity of the human genome.

Michael D. Shaw
Exec VP
Interscan Corporation

[e-mail]
www.gasdetection.com

www.HealthNewsDigest.com

[Ms. Kathy]

Sharing valuable real estate
Source Link: www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/32080/title/Sharing_valuable_real_estate

By Tina Hesman SaeyMay 13th, 2008Web edition
Rewired areas of the brain retain their old abilities
DOUBLE DUTY
Brain scans of sighted people show that visual motion is processed in the MT+/V5 area of the visual cortex (blue) while sound motion is processed in many areas in the brain (yellow), with a small amount of overlap (green). A man (Subject MM) who regained his sight after many years of blindness uses MT+/V5 for both sound and visual motion (green).Journal of NeuroscienceOld brains can learn new tricks but retain their knack for lost senses.

A new study of two people who went blind while young and regained sight as adults shows that blind people’s brains remember how to see even when rewired for sound.

Scientists have known for some time that when a person loses a sense, the brain rewires itself to use parts previously dedicated to the lost sense. In blind people, for instance, vision centers can be remodeled to make sense of sound or turned into touch-processing areas.

But rewired brains don’t erase the old vision-processing software. Instead, sight and sound processors occupy the same space in the brains of people with recovered vision, Melissa Saenz of the California Institute of Technology and her colleagues show in a study published May 14 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Essentially, blind people’s brains allow hearing circuits to squat on territory normally reserved for vision, Saenz says — and that’s not surprising.

“This is a big part of the brain. It’s valuable real estate,” she says. “What we didn’t know was how these new functions move in.”

In order to find out, Saenz and her colleagues studied two people who regained sight as adults after many years of blindness: Mike May, 54, a businessman from California who lost his sight in a chemical accident when he was 3 years old; and a 53-year-old woman who was blind from a young age as a result of both retinopathy of prematurity and cataract growth. A cornea and stem cell transplant when May was 46 partially restored his vision in one eye. The woman had surgery to partially restore her sight at age 43.

Sighted people use a part of the visual cortex called MT+/V5 to see objects in motion. Other parts of the visual cortex are responsible for recognizing faces or stationary objects. Auditory motion, such as the sounds of a car driving past or footsteps retreating down a hallway, is deciphered by a network of brain areas, including an area adjacent to MT+/V5.

May and the other sight-restored volunteer used MT+/V5 for deciphering both visual and sound motion, but not speech or other types of sights or sounds.

That indicates that MT+/V5 shouldn’t be thought of as exclusively a visual area or an auditory area, says Alvaro Pascual-Leone, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston who was not involved in the research. “It’s not a visual area per se; it’s a motion area.”

Learning how the brain uses its real estate may improve therapies for restoring vision and hearing, Pascual-Leone says. “Restoring visual input is not enough for seeing,” he says. The brain must also be prepared to handle the information.

May is still amassing an encyclopedia of clues to tell him what he sees. “It wasn’t until I had the operation, took the bandages off and started to see again that I was introduced to the intricacies of vision,” he says.

He can see colors. Motion is no problem. But he’s terrible with recognizing faces and objects.

“Why can I run and catch a ball, but I can’t recognize my wife’s face,” he wonders.

The researchers in the new study didn’t test how well the sight-restored people process motion information. It’s possible that having both senses integrated in a single area could improve motion detection, or it could hinder one or the other, says Franco Lepore, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Montreal.

He has studied similar phenomena in deaf people who have had cochlear implants to help them hear again. Parts of the audio-processing areas of deaf people’s brains get rewired to deal with vision. After hearing is restored, competition in the auditory centers of the brain impair people’s ability to decipher complex images while listening to sound, he says.


Regaining sight means getting another useful piece of information about the world, May says, but he still uses sound and touch to make sense of what he is seeing. And while the study shows that losing and regaining his sight has changed his brain, May says the experiences haven’t revolutionized his life.

“It’s life enriching. It hasn’t changed my life at all,” May says. “It’s like going to another country or meeting a really neat person. These things enrich your life, but they don’t change it in a profound way. Having vision is great, but being blind is great too.”

[Ms. Kathy]

Interactions of cognitive and auditory abilities in congenitally blind individuals.
Source Link:
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.12.017
Abstract.

Congenitally blind individuals have been found to show superior performance in
perceptual and memory tasks. In the present study, we asked whether superior
stimulus encoding could account for performance in memory tasks. We
characterized the performance of a group of congenitally blind individuals on
a series of auditory, memory and executive cognitive tasks and compared their
performance to that of sighted controls matched for age, education and musical
training. As expected, we found superior verbal spans among congenitally blind
individuals. Moreover, we found superior speech perception, measured by
resilience to noise, and superior auditory frequency discrimination. However,
when memory span was measured under conditions of equivalent speech perception,
by adjusting the signal to noise ratio for each individual to the same level of
perceptual difficulty (80% correct), the advantage in memory span was completely
eliminated. Moreover, blind individuals did not possess any advantage in
cognitive executive functions, such as manipulation of items in memory and math
abilities. We propose that the short-term memory advantage of blind individuals
results from better stimulus encoding, rather than from superiority at
subsequent processing stages.

By Ariel Rokema and Merav Ahissar.

[Ms. Kathy]

Blind man finds chiropractor helpful
Here's a strange story!


Doug Harkey - a Dubuque, Iowa, man whose left eye suddenly stopped working 12 years ago - thought he was making a routine visit to his chiropractor. But the results of his normal adjustment left Harkey with newfound vision while leaving friends, family and some in the medical community speechless. However, chiropractor Dr. Pavel Bence of Sterling Heights is quick to credit his colleague from the Hawkeye State and the power of the human body.
Harkey’s miracle - as first reported by Katie Wiedermann of KCRG-TV Channel 9 News in Dubuque - began to unfold following his visit to the chiropractic offices of Dr. Tim Stackis.

“My blind eye started watering after I left there and it watered for 45 minutes straight,” Harkey said. “It started making my good eye water. I went to wipe my right eye and I could see out of my left eye again.”

Stackis told his patient that the adjustments that he had been receiving alleviated the nerve interference that had prevented his spinal column from properly communicating messages from his brain. Once full communication was restored, so was Harkey’s sight.

“It is important to note that Dr. Stackis never once claimed that chiropractic care cured this man’s blindness,” Bence said. “He just provided quality care. The adjustments eliminated nerve interference that had prohibited the human body from operating at peak efficiency. And when operating at peak efficiency, the human body can do great things. Just ask Doug Harkey.”

As for Harkey, the timing could not be better. He credits Stackis’ “miracle hands” for the depth perception he had been missing, which helped him navigate his walk down the aisle with new wife Gina. The return of his vision, now nearly perfect with the help of corrective lenses, has left the couple with some welcome adjustments.

“I’m not quite used to him not running into things or stepping on my feet,” Gina said.

Bence sees Harkey’s tale as one that will help educate the public about chiropractic care and the importance of taking good care of your body.

“No manmade technology or medicine will ever surpass the capabilities and genius of the human body,” Bence said. “Think about this: When you cut yourself, you heal. When the climate changes, your body adjusts. Who wouldn’t want their body operating at maximum capacity? In short, chiropractic care is a great vehicle to improve your general health and function.”

For more information, call Bence at 978-9900.



Click here to return to story:
www.sourcenewspapers.com/stories/020109/loc_story38001.shtml

[Ms. Kathy]

Blind student attends UTM
By: Jay Baker
Posted: 2/3/09
Getting to class on time is a pain for most students, but for Melissa Hunt, it's just a little bit harder.

Hunt, an undeclared freshman planning to major in music and theatre, is blind.
But Hunt doesn't let her disability get in the way, and neither do her fellow students and professors Hunt told The Pacer in an interview.

" No trouble, participating in class ... there's lots of people that will help me. They don't think of me as just a blind person, they think of me as just a person with feelings," Hunt said.

Hunt feels that UTM is doing enough to accommodate her, despite being the first blind student UTM has had in some time.
"They're helping a lot, but they still need to work on some stuff. Like getting things brailled, when they're supposed to be. They're doing their best right now since it's the first time they've ever had a blind student stay for over a semester. But overall, I think they're doing enough," Hunt said.

Hunt has a few tools at her disposal to lessen the problems associated with her disability. She uses a Pack Mate, a personal computer designed for the blind, to take notes.

"I use it for writing notes ... you can stream music on it, you can download programs for it ... It's really kind of cool because it's a note taker, but it's also for entertainment," Hunt said.

Officials from the Student Success Center, the office responsible for students with disabilities, declined to comment both on Hunt's specific case, citing disability laws.
Hunt, who loves to sing, said she's been accepted into the music program and one day hopes to perform.

"I want to eventually maybe perform ... opera and theatre. But if that dream doesn't happen, writing would be my next best," Hunt said. "I like singing and I love acting. Operatic pieces, usually."

Hunt said she loves musicals: Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables ... and The Little Shop of Horrors.

"Went to the campus production ... it was really funny," Hunt said.
Blindness can be a barrier between people, even a stigma. But Hunt said she hopes students can look past her disability, though.

"When people meet me, don't think of me as blind. Just think of me as one of your friends. Don't be afraid of me. Once you talk to me, you'll get to know me better," Hunt said.

Source Link: media.www.utmpacer.com/media/storage/paper1175/news/2009/02/03/ArtsEntertainment/Blind.Student.Attends.Utm-3608921.shtml

[Ms. Kathy]

Woman blind in one eye since teens can see again after more than 70 years
Source Link: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4435734/Woman-blind-in-one-eye-since-teens-can-see-again-after-more-than-70-years.html

A woman who has been blind in one eye since she was a teenager has had her sight restored after more than 70 years by an operation to remove cataracts.
By Richard Savill
Last Updated: 4:18PM GMT 02 Feb 2009

Beth Trubridge, 87, lost the use of her right eye when she was aged 15 and lived the next seven decades struggling with only partial vision.

The blindness had been caused by toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection caught from contact with animals, most notably cats.

Mrs Trubridge was thought to have picked up the condition during regular visits to her grandparents' farm in the 1920s.

Her daughter Jane Stanford recently took her to an ophthalmic surgeon, Nick Evans, who discovered previously-undetected deep-rooted cataracts and performed a successful operation to remove them.

"I have really just seen light and shade all my life, so I am absolutely delighted," said Mrs Trubridge, from Yelverton, Devon, who has three great grandchildren.

"I was about 13 when I started to notice I couldn't see so well. My teachers were getting very frustrated with me because nobody knew there was a problem with my eyes.

"By the time I was 15, I had no sight in the right eye."

Mrs Trubridge, a retired nurse, was taken to see specialists last year by her daughter after applying for a disability badge for her car.

The pensioner had been told she had to register as blind before she could be given a badge.

Her daughter said: "She had never actually registered as blind before because she had never needed to. She was trying for a blue badge when a friend told her she should register blind as it would help.

"She ended up seeing a specialist who told her he might be able to do something to get her sight back. Over the years she asked doctors about it but they all said it was too late."

She added: "The door has been opened for the first time in 72 years. My mother can read again properly and is totally overwhelmed."

Mrs Trubridge's husband Donald, 88, a retired engineer, added: "Everyone said there was no hope for her. It is strange to think you can go all this time without vision and then get it back.

"It has made a big difference to her getting around, and she is reading a bit. She can see shapes, movement and colour. It is marvellous."

The operation last November at the Royal Eye Infirmary, Plymouth, Devon, has restored vision in Mrs Trubridge's right eye to 80 per cent capacity.

Her daughter said: "All the family is very pleased. This is just fantastic."

[Ms. Kathy]

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Blind man treks to South Pole
Source Link: www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2009/0203/1232923383246.html

Mark Pollock has become the first blind person in the world to make it to the South Pole, writes LORNA SIGGINS .

MARK POLLOCK considers himself to be one of the luckiest men on this island. Not just because is one of a handful of Irish people to trek to the southernmost point of the planet, but because he was unable to see anything for the entire 22 days.

“And I have found that I just love the snow and the Antarctic environment – which is something I would never have imagined,” he said, speaking from South Africa en route home at the weekend.

“I am smitten – it has opened up a whole new world for me.”

Pollock, from Hollywood, Co Down, lost his sight 10 years ago at the age of 22, and is one of 10 per cent of blind people with no vision at all.

Last week, he and fellow competitors, Dubliner Simon O’Donnell and Norwegian Inge Solheim, came fifth overall of six teams in the first Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole race.

Pollock is the first blind person in the world to record the achievement. He did so in what is acknowledged to be the world’s harshest environment, with temperatures dropping to minus 50 degrees Celsius.

His South Pole Flag teammate, Simon O’Donnell, sustained frostbite on his hands, face and ear, and Pollock believes that it was due to his self-sacrificing nature.

“Simon, a rugby strength and conditioning coach, was the man who got me to the gym every day to train for this. He was there every minute of the day to support me on this trek. Without him, I couldn’t have even got to the starting line,” Pollock says.

Yet Pollock is no mean achiever. He has won medals rowing for Northern Ireland at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, has completed six marathons in one week in China’s Gobi Desert, and ran against British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes in the North Pole marathon.

He has also kayaked across the Irish Sea, completed the Ironman Switzerland challenge, and was the first blind person to complete the lowest and highest marathons in the world – the Dead Sea Ultra in Jordan, followed by the Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon from Everest base camp in Nepal.

He undertook the series of extreme physical challenges after his traumatic experience a decade ago. “I was 22, had been studying in Trinity College, Dublin, I was cycling around the city and I had just got my driving licence,” he recalls.

“I had been short-sighted when I was born and lost the sight of my right eye when I was five years old,” he continues. “I had two detachments of the retina when I was growing up. Then, I had a third and within weeks my sight was gone.”

He believes he was “fortunate” in that it was not gradual, and there was “no uncertainty” about it.

He has come to terms with it to a large degree, but admits to “minor frustrations” associated with lack of freedom.

“I’m talking to you now from Capetown, a beautiful place, and I am not worried about not being able to view it. But if I did want to split from the group and head off by myself, I can’t.”

Skiing had not been on his list, when he began embarking on his various sporting challenges and developed a career as a motivational speaker. “When friends were going off on to the Alps, I just wrote it off as something that I couldn’t do,” he says.

“In fact, skis are ideal once you are accustomed to them. In running events, you have the rocky terrain to deal with. In snow, on cross-country skis, blindness is a minor factor and I really did feel I was actually in the race this time.”

He was apprehensive about navigating the surface irregularities caused by wind erosion, know as “sastrugi”. His concern was justified as he fell about 50 times over a four-day period and twisted his ankle badly.

“I couldn’t tell my team mates, as any serious medical intervention could have taken us out of the race.”

The trio had to pull 90kg pulks or sledges behind them. Pollock lost two stone, O’Donnell lost three stone and Norwegian Inge Solheim lost one.

“I did feel that my blindness was putting a lot more pressure on my teammates, as I couldn’t put up the tent. Well, I could, but I was very slow. I would crawl in and get the sleeping mats out, blow up the thermo-rests and organise the sleeping bags, but after that I was very reliant on them.

The race had been staged to mark almost a century since Norwegian Roald Amundsen reached the southernmost point on the globe, in 1914. Five years before that, and a century ago last month, Irish adventurer Sir Ernest Shackleton turned back from his attempt on the South Pole.

Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition had run out of rations and experienced a series of blizzards when the Irishman decided it was “better to be a living donkey than a dead lion” and retreated – just 97 miles from target.

The first Irishman to complete the journey was Kerry mountaineer Mike Barry five years ago on January 21st, 2004, and he has congratulated Mr Pollock on his achievement. So has Pat Falvey, leader of the first Irish expedition there in January 2008.

Pollock felt very at one with an environment which has a “great sense of history” about it, he says. “I will go back somewhere snowy, perhaps learning to kite-ski with my teammate up in Norway.”

For more details on the race, see www.southpoleflag.com

[Ms. Kathy]

How a £50,000 fund is adding colour to disabled artists’ lives
An exhibition or performance is the ultimate accolade for many artists, but for painter James Conn it means much more than just public recognition.

Conn, who is deaf and has serious learning disabilities, lived for most of his adult life in Banff's Ladysbridge residential hospital and still needs extensive support. He communicates mainly by using sign language but, since moving to more independent living in 2003, he has learned to express himself through his painting.

Now, at 63, Conn's late-life artistic career is being boosted by a pioneering fund to award grants to disabled artists.

Nine projects and artists from across Scotland have received a share of £50,000 from the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) to expand and develop their endeavours.

The fund is investing in artists who express the way that disabled people perceive society and the way it views them.

The canvas painting in which Conn specialises is one of a range of media chosen. A paper modelling project, integrated dance choreography and a photographic project have also benefited from the funding.

His artistic bent emerged after he took part in art lessons offered at the independent residence he lives in, run by the charity Sense Scotland. While other residents viewed the sessions as a hobby, it was clear they meant more to him. Continuous sessions gradually unveiled his flair. Yet initially, when art tutor Jemima Chillingworth began working with him in 2006, he was reluctant to let people into his space and to handle his belongings.

"My relationship with James had been pretty gradual," says Chillingworth. "He takes a lot of encouragement. It is going to be really interesting, the more his confidence builds. He has got a real sense of himself as an artist - it is a real extension of him."

Conn has a passion for painting objects that he finds in the world around him, either at his home or on one of his various trips. His canvas pictures also reveal his liking of the colour yellow. Each of the paintings also contains a comb from his extensive collection. When he loses a comb, he can use the images to indicate which one the staff need to look for.

A portion of the £1600 he has been awarded will pay for a digital camera, which Chillingworth thinks could help unleash another side of Conn's creative talents. The rest of the funds will buy Conn extra materials and help him to create more exhibitions and travel to new places.

Robert Softly, disability arts officer for the SAC, says the creation of his post in March 2008 was an indication of a "revived commitment" to disability arts in Scotland. "It gave it a bit more focus," he says. "It became quite obvious we had to work across a number of areas."

The new arts fund is helping address the fact that the situation in Scotland has been at odds with that south of the border. Protests in England in the 1970s and 1980s were led by disabled people who sought greater access and inclusion. Many of the people taking the front line in the protests went on to become artists and expressed how they felt through their work.

"It is about increasing the number of disabled artists who are out there creating work," says Softly. "We want disabled artists to be more visible in Scotland and to get their work out there."

Staff were unsure whether Conn would beat his natural unwillingness to allow his belongings to be left somewhere without him, but his pieces have gone on display in exhibitions across the country, including Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Collins Gallery in Glasgow and Duff House in Banff. He was happy for his paintings to be hung in a gallery and proud to show them off.

"We are really impressed. He has really come on," says Chillingworth. "James is exceptional."

Four of the artists chosen by the fund, from two dozen applicants, are supported by Sense Scotland, a charity specialising in communication and support with people with complex needs, healthcare issues or challenging behaviour.

Spokesman Graeme Thomson says that where artwork could help bring new colours to the lives of people such as Conn, others might respond equally strongly to other creative pursuits.

"Resources are always an issue," he says. "We have had a long relationship with the Scottish Arts Council, whose funding is crucial for a lot of the work we do."

Another artist who benefited from the SAC disability fund is the Glasgow-based Ghazalla Akram. As a performer, she has had roles in a number of projects including the Enchanted Lands show at the Edinburgh Festival. She was also part of a live dance show called Bharatanatvam, part of the Threads project which explored cultural awareness and inclusion with disabled people.

The money will allow her to create a new piece entitled Look at Me, which is based on her identity. The end product will combine the piece itself with a video showing how she created it.

Visually impaired artist and photographer Rosita McKenzie will use the grant to train other blind and visually impaired participants in digital photography in Edinburgh. Audio recordings of their thoughts and observations during the exercise will be incorporated into a final exhibition of their work.

The Caithness-based artist Lydia Popowich will use the funding to create an interactive visual arts installation called Disability Pursuits, based on a traditional-style board game. Each section will depict a different aspect of her journey through life, and the exhibition is due to tour venues in the north of Scotland.

With the first group of successful artists about to start benefiting from the money, the SAC is already looking to the future.

Softly says the organisation - which will be replaced by Creative Scotland next year - is exploring the possibility of another round of funding this year. "Over the next year or two, it will be great to see how the work materialises."


Disability arts on show

The nine projects and individuals benefiting from the new fund.

Amir Asnafzadeh
The visual artist's project will explore the role of the support staff who assist him with his daily life. The work will take the shape of a sculpture made out of the timesheets of employees that he has collected over many years.

Disability Cultural Projects
Three established deaf and disabled artists will create paper-based models that reflect views of disability which can be printed, cut out and replicated.

Sputnik
A new installation by Liverpool-based Fittings Multimedia Arts and Scotland's Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre which will explore the relationship between humans and machines, in the form of "alien" machinery powered by a "disabled" human being inside.

Ghazalla Akram
Deafblind Asian performance artist Ghazalla will create live and video works entitled Look At Me, exploring her identity as an Asian woman with a disability.

James Conn
Aberdeen-based visual artist who uses bold colour over line and photography. He will undertake an artistic train journey through Scotland to produce work for a new exhibition.

Lewis Scott
Deafblind musician Lewis has a band in which he sings and his support staff play a variety of instruments. The Lewis Scott Project will produce a new album.

Lydia Popowich
The Caithness-based visual artist will proudce a work called Disability Pursuits, based on a popular board game.

Robert Arnold Synge
Edinburgh-based artist/choreographer will create a new dance project exploring the relationship between disabled and non-disabled dancers.

Rosita McKenzie
An experienced visually-impaired photographer and visual artist, she will train visually impaired participants in digital photography in Edinburgh and record their thoughts and observations.


Click here to view a gallery of the artists' work

www.theherald.co.uk/artists

[Ms. Kathy]

The vision thing
Source Link: Opinion L.A. : Los Angeles Times: opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2009/02/when-we-were-ki.html

When we were kids my mother often would set a topic for dinner-table discussion. One of the most memorable questions was: Which physical handicap would be the worst? For my brother Martin, who couldn't, and still can't, sit still, it would be paralysis of the legs. Another sibling's most dreaded disability was deafness. For me, the bookish brother, the worst-case scenario was blindness. Fifteen years ago I spent an anxious weekend after a young emergency-room doctor diagnosed my sudden vision problem (straight lines looked curved) as macular degeneration, which can make it difficult if not impossible to read. The next week a retinologist assured me that the initial diagnosis was wrong and that my problem was much less dire and would, for the most part, go away. (For all the ophthalmology junkies out there, the condition was central serous retinopathy.)

This is all by way of establishing my credentials as someone who would never minimize the hardships of being blind. Yet I confess to laughing at a long-ago "Saturday Night Live" ad parody in which that night's host, Stevie Wonder, played shutterbug as the announcer intoned: "The Kannon AE-1. So advanced, so simple, even Stevie Wonder can use it." Wonder was a good sport, obviously. Gov. David Paterson of New York -- not so much.

The governor, who is legally blind, wasn't amused by a latter-day SNL in which Fred Armisen portayed him, "imitating his wandering eye, gravelly voice and blunt, self-effacing demeanor." (The quote is from an article in The New York Post headlined: "Paterson in a Blind Rage Over SNL Skit.") Paterson's spokesman huffed: "The governor engages in humor all the time, and he can certainly take a joke. However, this particular 'Saturday Night Live' skit unfortunately chose to ridicule people with physical disabilities and imply that disabled people are incapable of having jobs with serious responsibilities."

The same, I suppose, could be said for Jeremy Clarkson, the British TV personality who has apologized for calling Prime Minister Gordon Brown "a one-eyed Scottish idiot." Brown, who lost sight in one eye in a rugby accident as a teenager, may have been spared Cyclops jokes until now, but he's accustomed to being kidded about his ethnicity. George W. Bush once introduced Brown this way: "He's a Scotsman, you know, kind of -- he's not the dour Scotsman that you described or the awkward Scotsman. He's actually a humorous Scotsman...." In the uproar over Clarkson's gaffe, the voice of reason belonged to David Blunkett, a former British Cabinet member who is blind. Said Blunkett: "I believe that Gordon Brown is such a big and mature person that he would wish to treat [Clarkson's remarks] as the passing babble and banter of a media personality whose success depends on maintaining his profile, rather than his own reputation for decency and common sense."

Clarkson was engaging in an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink political attack, Armisen was having fun with Paterson's persona the way Tina Fey did with Sarah Palin's. But neither was suggesting that "disabled people are incapable of having jobs with serious responsibilities." Bad taste is not bigotry. Those who equate the two may have eyes, but they do not see.
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[Ms. Kathy]

PATERSON IN A BLIND RAGE OVER 'SNL' SKIT

By DAVID K. LI
Comedian Fred Armisen makes fun of blind Gov. David on this weekend's "Saturday Night Live."Last updated: 11:51 pm
December 14, 2008
Posted: 8:35 pm
Source Link: New york Post:www.nypost.com/seven/12142008/news/regionalnews/paterson_in_a_blind_rage_over_snl_skit_144182.htm

Gov. Paterson didn't see the humor in a "Saturday Night Live" bit that mocked his blindness.

During the "Weekend Update" segment of NBC's irreverent comedy show, actor Fred Armisen played Paterson, imitating his wandering eye, gravelly voice and blunt, self-effacing demeanor.

But Paterson and advocates for the visually impaired didn't appreciate stock blind jokes that had Armisen pretending to be disoriented and wandering aimlessly.

"The governor engages in humor all the time, and he can certainly take a joke," Paterson's spokesman, Errol thingyfield, said today.

"However, this particular 'Saturday Night Live' skit unfortunately chose to ridicule people with physical disabilities and imply that disabled people are incapable of having jobs with serious responsibilities."

Although Paterson is legally blind and has aides help him with some tasks, the governor is rarely out of step with his surroundings and seems comfortable in virtually every setting.

After Armisen's sketch with "Weekend Update" co-anchor Seth Meyers, the "joke" continued.

As longtime "SNL" player Amy Poehler was announcing her departure from the show to the audience, Armisen's Paterson started wandering, as if lost, in front of the camera.

"Gov. Paterson . . . you're in the shot!" a chuckling Poehler said.

The skit could leave viewers with the impression that blind Americans cannot be competent employees, advocates for the disabled said.

"When you have a perception problem like we have, you take these things a little more seriously," said Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind.

"We have 70 percent unemployment - and it's not because we can't work. Obviously, the governor of New York is blind, and he's doing the job. Whenever you have a portrayal that calls the basic capacity of [blind people] into question, that's a potential problem."

Danielsen claims "SNL" has a long history of mocking the blind - going back to Eddie Murphy's Stevie Wonder impression and, more recently, a "Weekend Update" one-liner that hybrid cars are dangerous to blind people because they can't hear the engine.

Paterson said through his spokesman that "SNL" writers can do better than taking pot shots at the blind.

"The governor is sure that 'Saturday Night Live,' with all of its talent, can find a way to be funny without being offensive," thingyfield said.

"Knowing the governor, he might even have some suggestions himself."

An NBC spokesman could not be reached for comment today.

[Ms. Kathy]

The Secret Lives of 7 Well-Known Meds
Widely Known for One Effect, They Often Possess Surprising Hidden Uses
By DAN CHILDS
ABC News Medical Unit
Feb. 10, 2009—

Most people think of medicines as single-role actors -- one-trick ponies with clearly defined uses.
But some pills can't be so easily pigeonholed. Few would guess, for example, that the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra is also used by doctors to help increase blood flow to other parts of the body when needed, possibly sparing patients the horror of amputation. Or that a drug originally used to treat glaucoma is getting a second life as a means to thicker, more luscious eyelashes.

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Botox
It's a drug whose name has become synonymous with cosmetic treatment. But many forget that Botox -- the most commonly known brand name for botulinum toxin type A -- had its humble start in the treatment of crossed eyes and spastic conditions as early as the 1970s.

However, the reputation of the drug changed forever in 2002 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it for the treatment of facial frown lines. Injecting the solution into the faces of their patients, doctors could selectively paralyze certain muscles implicated in the formation of wrinkles.

Now, doctors are further stretching the drug's usefulness by treating patients who experience certain type of hyperlacrimation -- in other words, the overproduction of tears in response to certain stimuli.

For 58-year-old Patricia Webster of Maidstone, England, who had been living with the degenerative nerve condition known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, the occasional shot straight into her tear ducts means freedom from an embarrassing symptom of her condition in which she would appear to cry whenever she ate.

"For the last 18 years of my life I've done nothing, and the embarrassment of my eyes was a major part of this," she told ABCNews.com.

Still, even Webster was skeptical when her doctor first offered up the treatment.

"Of course, I'm thinking, 'Botox ... it's a cosmetic treatment.' I thought, 'He's not worried about my eye, he's telling me that I'm wrinkly,'" Webster said.

In addition to hyperlacrimation, some doctors are also using Botox to help relieve chronic pain.


Latisse
Many glaucoma patients using an eye drop known as bimatoprost to improve their vision have enjoyed an unexpected side effect -- thicker, more luxurious eyelashes.

The effects of the medication were so pronounced, in fact, that the FDA recently approved the drug for this cosmetic use. Allergan, the company that manufactures the glaucoma drug known as Lumigan, rebranded it under the new name Latisse.

Dr. Scott Whitcup, Allergan's executive vice president of research and development, told ABCNews.com that researchers noted the eyelash-enhancing side effects of the eye drops during the Phase 3 trials for the drug.

"At the time, we began thinking of developing Lumigan as a treatment for eyelash growth," Whitcup said.

Essentially, the drug works by keeping hairs in their growth phase -- the phase during which they become longer, thicker and darker. Of course, the eyelash-enhancing effects of Latisse are not permanent once the drug is discontinued. And at $120 for a 30-day supply, Latisse is not cheap. But it is still far cheaper (and most likely less risky) than surgical procedures designed to achieve the same end.

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This article was posted in part. For the complete article go to abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6839835&page=1