Visual Impairments

Vision impairments is a topic that hits close to home for me. I have minus nine vision and my worst fear is that I will lose my sight. I've had a few laser operations to repair some holes that I've had in the retina. My family has a history of macular degeneration so it is a topic of interest to me.

Macular degeneration is a condition that can affect older persons that causes a loss of sight in the center of a vision field. While macular degeneration does not in itself lead to total blindness, it can have devastating affects such as an inability to read.

For more information on macular degeneration, including leading causes and treatment there is an excellent article on wikipedia which is linked below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macular_degeration

However, with the use of assistive technology, much can be done to enable people with this condition to continue with their daily activities. For example, the late Israeli composer Josef Tal used a computer screen reader to read and create short scores of music.

Here's a short YouTube clip with Kathleen Gilmore, a research archaeologist discussing two of the assistive technologies that she uses to help her read.



Dorothy Barter, another woman who lives with macular degeneration, demonstrates some of her assistive tech devices to help her with daily living.