StemCell Therapy

I cannot see you Mommy, when you cuddle me so near.And yet I know you love me, it's in the words I hear.I cannot see you Daddy, when you hold me by your sideBut still I know you love me when you tell me so with pride.I cannot see to run and play out in the sun so brightFor here inside my tiny head it's always dark as night.I cannot see the treats you give when I am extra goodBut I can wag my tail in Thanks just like a good dog should."She cannot see. The dogs no good" is what some folks might say"She can't be trained, she'll never learn, She must be put away."But not you, Mom and Daddy, You know that it's alrightBecause I love you just as much as any dog with sight.You took me in, you gave me love and we will never partBecause I'm blind with just my eyes, I see you in my heart.

Sherrill Wardrip

Causes and Treatments

The causes of vision loss and blindness in dogs range from normal aging and heredity to disease and injury. Vision problems ranging from hazy vision to complete blindness occur in many dogs as part of the aging process. An untreated eye infection or stroke may result in temporary or permanent blindness. Blindness is sometimes a secondary symptom to other canine diseases such as heart, liver, and kidney ailments or systemic diseases such as diabetes.

Diabetes in dogs is on the rise. Its estimated that one in 10 dogs worldwide will eventually become diabetic. Heredity plays a large factor, and larger, older dogs and breeding females are at a higher risk. Poor nutrition and obesity are other risk factors. Three out of four dogs with diabetes will develop cataracts within a year of being diagnosed, which may result in partial or total blindness. In fact, development of cataracts may be the first indication that a dog is diabetic. Other symptoms include extreme thirst, more frequent urination possibly with accidents in the house, sudden unexplained weight loss, lethargy or depression, and abdominal pain. If your dog shows any of these signs, seek veterinary treatment immediately. As with humans, treatment for diabetes can range from a change of diet and exercise to daily insulin shots and, as with any disease, the prognosis is better with early intervention.

Cataracts, a condition where the normally transparent lens turns cloudy preventing light from reaching the retina, can result in partial or total blindness. It can be inherited or caused by infections, injury, and other diseases as well as diabetes. Cataracts can develop very quickly. Early intervention through surgery may save a dogs sight. However, if caused by diabetes, healing may be slowed and scarring could result in less than optimal results. If left untreated, cataracts can sometimes cause an inflammation called Lens-Induced Uveitis (LIU) causing glaucoma. And if the LIU is untreated and glaucoma develops, cataract surgery might not be possible.

Glaucoma a painful condition where fluid pressure increases inside the eye causing damage to the retina and optic nerves resulting in partial or total blindness. The pain is similar to that of a migraine headache. Symptoms include dilation of one or both pupils, green or yellow discharge from the eye(s), delayed response to bright light, or bloodshot eyes. Seek veterinary care as soon as possible if you notice any of these symptoms. Both medical and surgical treatments are available, but are more successful with early intervention.

Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) is an inherited condition where the cells of the retina deteriorate causing blindness. Although not painful, both eyes are affected. It is found most often in Collies, Poodles, Schnauzers and Cocker Spaniels. The first sign of PRA is decreased night vision. Your dog may become more reluctant to go out after dark or become disoriented in low light situations. This is a degenerative disease with no cure. However, there are some antioxidant supplements available to slow the deterioration of your dog's sight.

Perhaps the most tragic and scariest of conditions is Suddenly Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS). Much like PRA, it involves the deterioration of the retina, usually affects both eyes, and causes no pain. Unlike PRA, the blindness is sudden rather than gradual, with total blindness occurring over a few days to several weeks. Older dogs, females, and overweight dogs appear to be more at risk. The disease is diagnosed by a lack of electrical activity within the retina. Initial observation of the eye shows no structural damage, but the retina degenerates quickly over a short period of time. University of Iowa College of Veterinary Medicine has had some success in restoring the sight of dogs, but treatments are still the experimental stages. Long-term prognosis is still unknown and the costs are high. Again, successful treatment required quick intervention. For more information on SARDS, click here.

Other conditions and diseases that affect vision include high blood pressure, Cushings disease, epilepsy, tumors, heart, liver, and kidney diseases. Regardless of what you may suspect as a cause, if your dog appears to be having trouble with his vision, you should seek veterinary treatment immediately.

Vision Impairment and Blindness

Dogs do not rely on their sense of vision to the same extent as do humans. The dog's vision is also not as highly developed as it is in humans. Dogs also cannot focus well on near objects, are partially color blind, and have poor detail vision. Canine vision is superior to human vision for detecting moving objects in dim light. This vision suits their original need as nocturnal hunters. Since the majority of domesticated dogs no longer hunt to survive, blindness does not interfere with their domesticated primary function--being a companion and pet.

The Animal Ophthalmology Center

Dogs who are blind from birth are unaware that they are different from other dogs. They interact with the world much like any other puppy; they just go about it differently. Blind dogs rely on their senses of smell and hearing to compensate for the lack of sight, and those senses become more acute over time. Without proper socialization, however, a dog may become fearful and stressed in unfamiliar situations. Therefore early and frequent socialization with other animals and humans is important and should continue throughout life. It allows the dog to develop self-confidence and dog and his owner to bond more closely. The dog will experience a richer life with exposure to a variety of new people, situations, and experiences.

Most dogs with vision loss and blindness experience a gradual loss of vision over time. Frequently owners rush to the veterinarian with a claim of sudden blindness when examination indicates that the animal has been blind for some time. The dog has managed to compensate so well, its only when there is a change in their home environment or exposure to a new situation that the problem becomes apparent. These dogs are far better equipped to deal with the vision loss/blindness than the owners. The owners sense of grief and loss is understandable, but usually the pet has moved on and is coping just fine. Many people consider euthanizing their blind pets, thinking that their quality of life will be diminished.

What I say to people is, look, your dog couldnt read, write or drive a car, anyway. Hes already got four other senses that are better than yours. As long as you take good care of him, hell be okay.

Nick Whelan, Canine ophthalmologist, Ontario Veterinary College

Sudden onset blindness can be much harder for both the dog and owner than a gradual loss of vision. Even then, most dogs can adjust, but the adjustment period is likely to be longer and harder. Where a dog whose vision gradually diminishes has the opportunity to work on mapping out his environment and developing coping strategies without the owners help or knowledge, a dog with sudden onset blindness is plunged into darkness without warning. He is more likely to experience depression, nervousness, and anxiety. The owner will have to take more precautions, such as adding baby gates or otherwise blocking off stairs and other hazards, removing or padding sharp corners on furniture, and make other accommodations until the dog has adjusted to his condition and mapped his environment. You may need to limit access to one or two rooms at a time until the dog is comfortable there, before expanding his access to the rest of the house. Once he has mastered those, add another room or two. You may need to walk him around the rooms and show him obstaclesplacement of furniture and other objects, and the location of his food and water bowls and bed or crate.

How well your dog will cope with blindness will depend on the dog. Young dogs will adapt better than old dogs, but may require more vigilance because their exuberance can lead them to dangerous situations. Indoor pets are likely to adjust more easily than those allowed to run free. A dominant dog in a multi-dog environment may have more difficult adjusting than a single dog, especially if the other dogs challenge his pack position. Or his companions may help him with adjusting. If blindness is caused by a painful condition such as glaucoma or a systemic disease such as diabetes, the dog may have more difficulty adjusting until the underlying condition is treated.

Even dogs who adapt well otherwise may experience some personality changes. Many dogs will develop some degree of separation anxietythey are more dependent on their owners and will become distressed when the owner leaves. This can be addressed through training and behavioral modification, but it will be more challenging because the underlying condition, blindness, cannot be changed.

Training is good for any dog. It increases bonding between the dog and owner and gets him accustomed to taking direction from the owner. For a blind dog, it can be a lifesaver. The wait command can save your dog from injury or even death when facing hazards he cant see. If the dog was trained before going blind, he will have an easier time learning the additional commands you will need to teach him to help him navigate his darkened world.

Perhaps the most important factor in how well a dog copes with his new condition is the owner. Giving your dog the love and support he needs during his adjustment is crucial. If you must give in to your emotions, do it away from the dog. It is important to remain upbeat and positive in his presence.

Detecting Loss of Vision

Some signs that your dog may be experiencing vision loss or blindness include general clumsiness, bumping into walls and furniture, startling easily and apprehensive behavior, inability to find toys or food and water bowls, reluctance to go out at night, excessive sleeping or loss of playfulness, disorientation or confusion, or changes in the appearance of the eyes. If you notice these behaviors in your dog, you should seek immediate veterinary care.

Your veterinarian will likely conduct a thorough physical exam to determine the cause and extent of the dogs vision loss. This may include blood work, neurological exam, cerebral spinal fluid test, MCR or CT scan, and ophthalmologic exam. You may be referred to a veterinary ophthalmology specialist. Treatment of the condition will depend on the cause. And while the vision loss may not be reversible, your dog can still live a fulfilling life after adjusting to his new condition.

How Do I Help My Pet Adjust to Vision Loss or Blindness?

Naturally, you are going to be distressed at your pets vision loss. Remember that animals key in to your emotions, and that the best thing you can do for your pet is to maintain a calm, upbeat, positive attitude. Dogs can adjust to vision loss or blindness rather quicklyassuming you help, rather than hinder, the adjustment. Coddling or babying your pet usually results in a much longer adjustment period, loss of self-confidence, and may increase his dependence on you increasing his stress level. If you have a small pet, you may want to pick her up to take her to her bed or food and water bowls, or just to comfort her. Try to avoid this. It disorients her. If you do pick her up for petting and snuggling, return her to the same spot and facing the same direction. Talk to your dog when entering and exiting rooms, and prior to touching her when she is sleeping. Let her figure things out for herself. You will be surprised at how well and quickly she will adjust.

This doesnt mean you shouldnt make changes to your behavior, home and routine to accommodate your blind pet. There are a number of actions you can and should take to make to keep your pet safe and increase his confidence.

Establishing schedules and routines will be helpful to your blind pet. Feeding should be done on a set schedule and food and water bowls should not be movedeven by inches. Use adhesive stars or dots to mark locations. Some veterinarians recommend placing a small rug under food bowls and using a scent on it, a drop of peppermint or vanilla, to help her navigate to it. It usually isnt necessary as long as you keep the food and water bowl in the same place. Call your pet to dinner with the same words and tone of voice every time. Do check to make sure your pet is eating and drinking, and lead her to her bowls if she is not. If she still doesnt eat or drink, seek veterinary care immediately.

When walking a blind dog, he may be more comfortable if you walk the same route every time while he adjusts to his blindness. The smells, textures, and sounds will be familiar and comforting to him. You may want to give him more sniffing time in safe areas than you would a sighted dog. Many animals are less open to new experiences after becoming blind or experiencing vision loss. Introduce them to changes slowly and pace changes to the pets comfort level.

You can use aromas in your home to help your pet navigate. You may just elect to use twoone to signal good and one to signal bad. For example, use a drop a vanilla on food bowls, on doorways (get both sides of the doorframe so can navigate between the two) and at the top and bottom of stairs, and bitter apple on stoves, fireplaces, and rooms he would be best avoiding. Some experts suggest using a different plug-in air fresher fragrance in each room. You need to be certain to use the same fragrance in each room every time and keep a back-up supply on hand in case your local store runs out of a particular fragrance.

Talking to your dog can relieve the sense of isolation brought on by blindness. Talk to her frequently. Discuss the weather, current events, the garden, or what your mother or children said on the phone. Even taboo subject such as politics and religion, she really doesnt care! Talking to your dog will provide comfort, lessen her sense of isolation, and let her know you are there regardless of what you are saying!

Home Hazards

To the extent possible, dont rearrange the furniture in your house. After eating, move dining room chairs back to their original positions. Again, you can do this with the use of adhesive dots or stars. Keep objects off the floor and train your family members to do the same. Laundry baskets, toys and shoes left on the floor create an obstacle course that your blind dog cant see to navigate. Use your dots or stars to mark the locations of furniture and other object you move when cleaning or vacuuming. Some dogs can map a house down to within inches. Be sure to close cabinet doors and drawers so your dog doesnt bump into them.

Be especially vigilant of hazards along the walls of your home. A newly blind pet may have a tendency to hug the walls in order to avoid obstacles in the middle of the room. Your pet may become tangled up in cords for electrical appliances, blinds and drapes and be unable to free himself.

Pad the sharp corners on coffee tables and other furniture with sharp corners, especially those at your pets head height or treat them with bitter apple until he is comfortably navigating around them. You may want to use runners in rooms to indicate a clear path from one room to another, and rugs at the top and bottom of stairs. Be sure to anchor them. You will be amazed at how quickly your pet adapts and dislocates them running up and down stairs or tearing through rooms. Stairs, both indoors and out, should be blocked off until the dog learns their locations and can navigate them easily without assistance.

When turning off televisions and stereos return them to the lowest volume so that you dont startle your pet when you turn them back on. Train your teenagers to do this if they listen to music at a high volume. Gradually increase the volume when you turn them back on. Your pet will thank you!

Outdoor Hazards

You should never allow a blind pet to run loose outside a fenced area until he has perfectly mastered recall. Even then, you want to limit off-leash time to situations where you are absolutely certain he will not encounter any hazards. In the yard, trim low branches on bushes and trees in your yard and keep fallen branches picked up. Make sure childrens toys are put away or stored in a regular place. Decks and porches need to have railings low enough to keep your pet from falling off if you are going to let him out in these areas. You can use chicken wire or screening to block openings below rail level. Cedar chips, mulch, landscaping rocks, and paving stones can be placed to create a zone around obstacles such as trees, bushes, and outdoor furniture.

If you have a ground level door, it might be easier to have him always go out that door until he is fully adjusted to his disability, rather than deal with steps, porches, or raised decks without low railings. Just like a dog who can see, hes going to be excited to go outside and it might be better to take a few extra precautions to keep him safe, especially when hes newly blind.

Buy bells and attach them to the collars of your other pets or make sure their tags make noise when they are running. At a walk, most blind dogs and cats can pick up the scent of a familiar animal approaching. At a run, they may not. Blind dogs enjoy running and playing as much as sighted dogsthe noise your other pets make will help him follow his friends lead. Your other dogs are probably going to sense that he is special pretty fast and, if they are like most dogs, they will help him out.

Training

When training a blind dog, conduct your initial training sessions for any new command in a familiar place free from any obstacles and distractions. You want the dog as relaxed and at ease as possible, as this will be more conducive to learning. The sit, down, stays and recall/come commands are taught to a blind dog in the same manner as a sighted dog. Stays may be a bit more challenging for a blind dog. You should reward the dog for stays of a second or two and slowly increase the time while by her side, and do the same for increasing distance. For the recall/come command, be sure you have a large area free from any obstacles in case your dog goes a little off-course. You may need to keep talking to him until he finds you at first or in noisy situations. While walking your dog, you may find that a halter gives you more control than a leash and that your dog is more comfortable with it than a regular collar. Teaching a heel is much the same for other dogs. You should, however, work at the commands left, right and slow to let your dog know where you want her to go since she cant see you turning. These are taught by luring her with a treat just as you do when teaching a heel. For more information on basic training, click here.

The Wait and Slow commands, in addition to sits and recalls are especially important for a blind dog. These are the primary commands you can use to protect your dog from danger. You may want to use a sit instead of a recall in some situations, especially if he is likely to encounter hazards coming back to you. I cant overemphasize practicing in non-threatening situations so when a real emergency comes along, both your action and your dogs reactions are instinctive and immediate.

Wait (or Halt)

What you are really teaching here is stop, but if you are like most people, you use the word stop frequently for other purposes. Use whatever word you are comfortable with, but be consistent. Use this command when you open the front door, when getting your dog out of the car, or when he is about the wander into the street. Put your dog on a leash and begin walking with him. Tell him Wait (or halt, or whatever word you choose) while applying steady but gentle pressure on the lease until he stops. Praise and reward the second he stops. Practice this until he is responding reliably, both indoors and out, and with distractions. Then practice off lead in the house, then outside in an enclosed area and slowly add distractions. Always release your dog from wait with a release command such as Freeeeee!

Slow

Use this command to alert your dog that he's there is an obstacle is his way. Put your dog on a leash and begin walking with him. Tell him Slow while applying steady but gentle pressure on the lease until he slows. Praise and reward the second he slows. Practice this until he is responding reliably both inside and out, and with distractions. Use the Slow command if you see your dog is about to run into something.

Home

Use the home command to reorient your dog if he gets confused about where he is in the house or yard. You should have a home base both inside and out. Whatever place you pick, stay consistent. You may want to select the area where his food and water bowls are in the house or the back door outside. Lead him to home, and say home.

Stairs

If your dog has handled steps in the past, these commands may be a fairly simple for her to learn or maybe not! If she has not gone up or down stairs before (or you dont know if she has), start with a short flight of stairs or a single one if you can find it. Find stairs without an open back if possible. A street curb in an area free from traffic may be your best starting point. Going up stairs will be easier for her than going down, so start with that. Have the dog on a leash and walking beside you. As you approach the stair, say Up and lure her up one step with a treat while tapping the tread. Keep the treat close to the tread of the upper step. When she gets her paws on the step, reward and praise, and continue luring until she gets up on the step, reward and praise again. Repeat with the next step or steps. If she is reluctant, dont push her. It may take several days. If she is willing, next try going down the stairs. If she is tired, save it for another day! Lure the dog to around to face the steps. Tap the lower step, say Step and lure her with the treat. You do not want to say Step Down because she might confuse this with the down command. Going downstairs is very scary to a blind dog. Let her take as long as needed to learn this. It may take a week or more. Just be patient. Do not force her. If after a week or so, she is still reluctant to go down stairs, try to find some shallower steps or use a street curb in an area free from traffic. Going down stairs where it feels like there is nothing underneath her is the ultimate act of trust. Be understanding. Work on longer staircases only after your dog has mastered short ones comfortably. Introduce her to each set of stairs in and around your house. Block them off until she is comfortable with them.

Sudden Noise Alert

Your blind dog will be startled by loud and unexpected noisesa car starting, a door slamming, or vacuum or other appliance turned on. To the extent possible, you can minimize this by teaching her an unexpected noise is about to happen. You can use any word or words you want, maybe Uh Oh! prior to the noise occurring.

Toys and Games and Other Activities for Your Blind Pet

Keep your blind dog physically and mentally challenged to avoid him sinking into depression. Walk him often and allow him plenty of sniffing exploration breaks. At first, he may be reluctant to explore new places. If so, keep your walks to familiar routes. Give him time to adjust, and extend your walk by just a little each day. Soon exploring new places and smells will be a favorite activity.

Just like any dog, blind dogs love to play with toys and play with you. As stated before, their sense of hearing and smell will grow more acute over time. Consider these when selecting toys. Kongs filled with smelly treats are a wonderful way to keep your dog entertained. You can play fetch with a tennis ball scented with lemon oil or vanilla extract or a ball that makes noise when it bounces, but you may need to limit the distance you are throwing it. Be sure to have a clear space with no obstacles. Tennis balls inside a kiddie pool, with or without water, can be fun for your dog to chase, and they wont be able to get away from him. You can use rope toys to play tug of war. For other ideas on toys and games for your blind dog, click here and here.

Remember that blind dogs enjoy having fun, just like any dog. Click here to see the inspiring video, "Riddle's Song".

For a really fun and challenging activity, and one that depends on your blind dogs keen sense of smell, teach your dog scent tracking. Its both physically and mentally challenging for the dog, and it will simply amaze your friends. For details on training your dog to track, click here.

And, of course, snuggling and massages are fun activities for any dog, sighted or blind!

Additional resources that you might find helpful:

One of the best resources for Blind Dogs: "Living With Blind Dogs" by Caroline D. Levin RN

Other books and DVDS: http://www.petcarebooks.com

Owners of Blind Dogs website: http://www.blinddogs.com/

For information on cataracts, click here.

Read about two Great Danes (Lily is blind, while Maddison serves as her guide dog)! Click here for the original story about them, when they were up for adoption, and click here for the story about their adoption!

Read more here:
Loss of Vision and Blindness in Your Dog

From Nobel Prizewinning author Jos Saramago, a magnificent, mesmerizing parable of loss

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and assaulting women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides her c

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and assaulting women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides her chargesamong them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tearsthrough the barren streets, and their procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. As Blindness reclaims the age-old story of a plague, it evokes the vivid and trembling horrors of the twentieth century, leaving readers with a powerful vision of the human spirit that's bound both by weakness and exhilarating strength.

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Blindness by Jos Saramago - goodreads.com

Sashank Prasad MD(Dr. Prasad of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, has no relevant financial relationships to disclose.) Jonathan D Trobe MD,editor.(Dr. Trobe of the University of Michigan has no relevant financial relationships to disclose.)Originally released July 14, 1997; last updated June 6, 2018; expires June 6, 2021

This article includes discussion of cortical blindness, Anton syndrome, Anton-Babinski syndrome, cerebral blindness, cortical visual impairment, and geniculocalcarine dysfunction. The foregoing terms may include synonyms, similar disorders, variations in usage, and abbreviations.

Overview

Cortical blindness refers to visual loss due to bilateral lesions of the geniculocalcarine pathways in the brain. Patients with cortical blindness may or may not be aware of their visual deficits. When they are unaware of the extent of visual loss (often confabulating their responses), the clinical presentation is termed Anton syndrome. Etiologies of cortical blindness are numerous and diverse. In this article, the author discusses the diagnosis of cortical blindness and its various causes.

Key points

Cortical blindness is a term used to encompass visual loss from lesions of the retrogeniculate pathways. Pupillary responses are spared in a patient with cortical blindness because they rely on synaptic reflexes through the brainstem and do not require cortical inputs.

Patients with cortical blindness due to occipital lesions may be unaware of their visual deficits. If so, the clinical presentation is termed Anton syndrome.

Brain MRI is an important diagnostic test to determine the cause of cortical blindness, but not all causes produce MRI abnormalities.

When infarction is suggested by MRI, the diagnostic work-up should be aimed at identifying cardioembolism and other causes of stroke.

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome may cause cortical blindness and is associated with severe preeclampsia or eclampsia, hypertension, and use of certain medications.

Nonorganic visual loss should be considered a diagnosis of exclusion but can be suggested by examination findings that violate physiological patterns of visual loss.

Historical note and terminology

"Cortical blindness" is generally used to refer to visual loss due to bilateral dysfunction of the occipital visual cortex (striate cortex or V1). Some patients will exhibit unawareness of the extent of visual loss; this remarkable clinical state is termed "Anton syndrome" in reference to Gabriel Anton, who described this phenomenon in 1899 (Anton 1899). For lesions not isolated to the cortex, including the subcortical visual pathways, the term "cerebral blindness" may be more appropriate. The term "cortical visual impairment" has also been introduced (particularly in the pediatric population) when visual deficits are incomplete (Good et al 1994). Nevertheless, because the term "cortical blindness" continues to be in common use, it will be retained in this discussion.

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Cortical blindness - MedLink

Editor's note: This is the second article in a two-part series on the ongoing stakeholder discussions regarding the One Nation, One Poll proposal, called for by the Law Commission. Read part I here

***

The proposal to conduct Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections simultaneously, presently undergoing stakeholder consultation, led by the Law Commission of India, is yet to reckon with the question of whether simultaneous elections would damage the federal structure or any other basic feature of the Constitution.

Leaving this question open, at the tail-end of its Draft Working Paper, the Law Commission has laid out ways to ensure concurrent terms for the Lok Sabha and Assemblies (how to stave off dissolution of the House when a no-confidence motion is passed, or when there is a hung verdict in the election), and proposed some election scheduling options (all elections are held either together in 2019 and 2024, alongside the Lok Sabha elections, or in 2019 and 2021-22, such that elections are held every two and a half years, with state Assembly terms accordingly modified). Without testing the proposal against constitutional principles like democracy or federalism, the Law Commission has put the cart before the horse by suggesting amendments on the logistics of how to conduct simultaneous elections.

So what if we had simultaneous elections at the birth of India?

But first, it is crucial to address the Law Commission's and NITI Aayog's oft-repeated claim that simultaneous elections are somehow acceptable because "elections to Lok Sabha and all state Legislative Assemblies were held simultaneously between 1951 and 1967." To use our history in this way is flatly inaccurate and incorrect. First, several states had to go to polls in between the General Elections of 1951-52, 1957, 1962 and 1967 due to varied circumstances. Moreover, it is one thing for concurrent elections to take place organically, by virtue of the Centre and the states having commenced their democratic existence together under the Indian Constitution, and quite another, for simultaneous elections to be enforced, inorganically, in the way that is presently sought.

The birth of the Republic of India, was not a "coming together" of States as autonomous, pre-existing political units. As BR Ambedkar explained to the Constituent Assembly, "... though India was to be a federation, the Federation was not the result of an agreement by the States to join in a Federation and that the Federation not being the result of an agreement no State has the right to secede from it."

Representational image. AP

This statement is best understood in contrast with the United States of America, which was born from thirteen colonies coming together to sign the Declaration of Independence. Of the 50 states presently part of the United States, only eleven ratified the Constitution in 1787-88, two ratified the Constitution well after the first Congress was elected and convened, and other territories entered a country that was already governed by the US Federal Constitution. On the other hand, the Indian situation represents a "holding together" or unification of many socio-politically and culturally disparate political units under the terms of the Constitution of India. The Constitution took effect at the same time (more or less) for the princely States, the British provinces as well as the newly constituted Union Government Sikkim being the exception.

Now, the Indian Constitution governs the States and the Centre alike withregard to elections and political representation, unlike the Constitution of the United States, which governs only the Federal Government. So, the simultaneity of Central and State elections, 1951 onwards, to whatever extent, was a result of the Indian Constitution becoming effective at the same moment for the States and the Union Government. That situation cannot be compared with the present effort to forcefully ensure elections are simultaneously held at the Centre and the states. The deliberate transition from status-quo back to concurrent elections, and the enforced nature of concurrent elections are unconstitutional, even if simultaneity of elections in and of itself is permissible.

Enforced concurrent elections

To enforce concurrent elections, premature dissolution of the Lok Sabha or state assemblies must be prevented. In the case of a successful motion of no-confidence, Law Commission proposes that movers of the no-confidence motion propose an alternative government through a "motion of confidence". Likewise, in the case of a hung verdict after elections, it is proposed that all parties decide the leader of the Housewhich would require a relaxation in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution "only for formation of a stable government".

To permit the movers of a no-confidence motion to propose an alternative government, is to say that voters' choice only matters in deciding the origin of a government but not the continued survival of a government. This might appear to be democratic to the extent that the new government will be accountable to Parliament by winning a vote of confidence. But there is a second aspect of democratic accountability: the Parliament must answer to citizens, and needs to enjoy our continued confidence. In putting an alternate government into power through a "motion of confidence", parliamentarians will be forced to act according to the will of their political party. However, when MPs are answerable to their political parties, nothing ensures that they are similarly answerable to citizensthe voters who elected them into power, for the simple reason that political parties are not answerable to voters.

In India, citizens vote for candidates who contest polls on a party ticket they have obtained, unless they run as independents.There are no rules which dictate guidelines as to who might get the ticket.We do not have a system of party "primaries"wherein voters choose a candidate to ultimately contest the main General Electionson that party's ticket from the pool of candidates seeking that partys endorsement. In short, political parties are not democratic in their internal structure and organisation. To make matters worse, the Tenth Schedule forces all elected members of a House to vote in line with the party whip, on threat of disqualification from the House.

In effect, during elections, voters either choose the individual whose capabilities they trust, thus risking an implicit vote for the candidates political party, or they choose the political party they wish to see in government, thus risking an implicit vote for an incompetent candidate. No system exists for voters to choose which candidate gets a party ticket from the political party they wish to see in government. Political parties, therefore, are not anchored to voter preferences once their candidates are elected as parliamentarians, until the next election cycle.

With political parties being internally undemocraticand externally unanswerable to voters, creation of an alternate government through a motion of confidence is partisan and undemocratic, since the electorate has no say in the matter.Likewise, in the case of a hung verdict, the Law Commission proposes a relaxation of Tenth Schedule norms such that all parties can together choose a leader of their House without being restrained by the Whip. However, hung verdicts are where the threats of defections and loss of majority in the House loom largest on a party. Relaxing Tenth Schedule norms here is to permit parliamentarians to vote against their party affiliation and "defect" to another party.

However, parliamentarians can never know whether they won the election in their constituency based on votes for their individual worth or a vote to see their political party in power. Permitting defection is to ignore the electorates choice yet again, particularly that section of voters who chose candidates for the party she represented.

In short, enforced concurrent elections violates representative democracy, a basic feature of our Constitution.

The outcome of concurrent elections impairs federalism

The composition of the Rajya Sabha is determined by the composition of the States legislatures and is crucial for federalism because of its power to enable Parliament to make laws on matters in the State List.The interests of the State were assumed to be taken care of in the Upper House by virtue of itsstructure andcomposition andthe political process of election a feature of "cooperative federalism". Therefore, to alter this political process by holding elections concurrently at the Centre and in states, is to alter the feature that is meant to protect federalism in the Rajya Sabha.

Data - such as this study by IDFC - shows that scheduling of State elections determines the likelihood of the same party being elected both at the Centre and the state-level. Unfortunately, IDFC concludes that "when presented with an option to choose different parties for the Lok Sabha and state, with all other things being equal, a vast majority of voters did not exercise that choice. Leveraging this, NITI Aayog dismisses their concerns, suggesting self-assuredly, that unless simultaneity of elections can be established as the cause of the same party winning at both levels of government, the mere correlation between the two events is not good evidence.

However, studies have contradicted IDFCs assumptions of the non-discerning voter. Voters deliberately reward the same party at the Centre and State, depending on the timing of the election.

Timing is everything

Psephologists like Yogendra Yadav have found that the national ruling party gains support in state elections that are held earlier in their term during the honeymoon period but lose ground as their term progresses.

The explanation of this phenomenon runs thus: since "voters are likely to credit the state ruling party and not the national ruling party" when States spend more money on programmes, national ruling parties are inclined to spend more on states whose governments are controlled by their own party. As states get more funds when they are governed by the same party at the Centre, state voters deliberately ensure the same party holds power at both levels. However, their incentives to do so are highest when the Centre's term has just commenced, so as to maximise the States gains in the five years of the Centre's term.Two or three years into their term, state voters may not be sure if the national ruling party will return to power, and, therefore, may not be too inclined to vote for the same party at the state level.National ruling parties' advantage in state elections in the first two years, turns into a disadvantage by their third year in government."

Since timing of elections in state is crucial in deciding whether the national ruling party comes to power in states, holding simultaneous polls would ensure one party dominance over the nation.

Voters choice must be respected, even if the outcome of their vote hurts federalism. Normatively, there is no reason why a vote for the national incumbent at the state level is worse than a vote against it.However, with the knowledge that several studies show that timing of State elections is, in most cases, a determinant of the national ruling party's success in states, enforcing simultaneous elections would amount to wilful blindness to its federalism-impairing consequences.

With inputs from Krupakar Manukonda

The author is a Bangalore-based lawyer, currently working on teaching democracy and active citizenship through experiential learning. She tweets @MaLawdy

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One Nation, One Poll proposal is completely blind to the ...

As part of current research, work is in progress to establish a formal definition for face blindness and to have the condition formally recognised

For many people with face blindness, once they become aware of the existence of this condition, their lived experience is sufficient proof that they are affected by it. You can check out some of the common indicators of face blindness are listed in our Quiz So you think you may be face blind

However, there are also a number of routes to getting an assessment of your face recognition abilities and difficulties.

There are online tests which can give a provisional indication of whether you may have face blindness.

Famous Faces recognitionhttp://www.faceblind.org/facetests

Test my brain research toolshttp://www.testmybrain.org

These tests can help you learn more about your particular abilities or difficulties, while also participating in scientific research

For a more indepth analysis of your specific difficulties, you can contact one of the research institutes nvestigating prosopagnosia.

However, when volunteering to participate in a research project, you should be aware that research tests and projects are designed primarily for the purpose of furthering specific areas of research, rather than to give you an insight into your particular difficulties, and there is unlikely to be any follow up support.

People with Acquired Prosopagnosia (following a brain injury or trauma), may be referred to a clinical neuropsychologist working within the NHS or private practice, as part of their aftercare.

The British Psychological Society hold a directory of chartered psychologists in private practice.

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Assessment | Face Blind UK

Vision loss and blindness can be caused by several factors. These factors can be genetic, environmental or accidental. In order to better comprehend how blindness can affect the individual, it is important to understand what blindness is.

A person is legally blind if his/her central visual acuity, that is (what they see in front of them), is less than 20/200 in their good eye after correction, such as glasses or contacts. 20/200 visual acuity means that a person can see at 20 feet what a person with 20/20 vision can at 200 feet. A person can also be considered legally blind if their visual field, that is what they perceive to either side of them is 20 degrees or less.

For the purposes of this article, we will look at the top five eye conditions that cause blindness: Cataracts, Glaucoma, Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Retinopathy and Retinitis Pigmentosa. Other conditions do exist, however, they will not be discussed here.

Cataracts are caused by the clouding of the lens of the eye. This means that the light that comes through the pupil and passes through the lens to be focused to the retina is blurred. This will cause your vision to become cloudy, blurry and, or, dim. Colors may not seem as bright or vivid as before. Its like looking through the dirty windshield of a car. This condition occurs gradually and you may not notice it at first. Cataracts can be treated with surgery.

Glaucoma is a disease that damages your eyes optic nerve. It is caused by excess fluid in the eye which increases the eye pressure. This fluid is called aqueous humor. It is produced in the front portion of the eye and leaves the eye through the drainage angle. This keeps the intraocular pressure, at a healthy level. This pressure may vary from person to person. When the fluid does not leave the eye correctly, it will cause pressure to increase which will gradually damage the optic nerve.

There are several types of glaucoma. The two most common forms being: Primary Open-angle Glaucoma and Normal-tension Glaucoma. Open-angle Glaucoma is the most prevalent and happens when your eye can no longer drain fluid efficiently, causing the pressure to build. Open-angle Glaucoma has no early symptoms. As it progresses the optic nerve will become damaged, and you will start to notice blank spots in your field of vision. These spots will grow larger until all optic nerves are damaged, at which point, you will be blind.

Normal Tension Glaucoma is characterized by low pressure in the eye. This type of Glaucoma can also cause nerve damage and loss of vision. Treatment for both Open-angle Glaucoma and Normal tension Glaucoma is the same. The disease can be managed by prescription eye drops or surgery.

Unlike Primary Open-angle Glaucoma however, Primary Acute Closed-angle Glaucoma happens quite suddenly and should be attended to immediately. It results from a buildup of fluid because the drainage system is blocked and fluid can no longer drain from the eye.

Macular Degeneration destroys the light sensitive cells in the macula, the part of the eye that lets you see objects in great detail. Often, the progress of AMD is so slow that you do not notice any change in your vision, but it can progress quickly as well. There are two types of Macular Degeneration: wet and dry. Wet Macular Degeneration occurs when irregular blood vessels begin growing behind the retina under the macula. Dry Macular Degeneration is caused by the breakdown of light sensitive cells in the macula causing the central vision to blur. The treatment for Wet Macular Degeneration includes surgery. At this time, no treatment exists for Dry Macular Degeneration.

Diabetic Retinopathy is caused by diabetes. It affects the retina, the part of the eye sensitive to light. It is a result of high blood glucose, or sugar, over a prolonged period of time. High blood sugar prevents the blood vessels in the back of the eye from delivering the proper nutrients to the retina. Early on in the progress of the disease, these blood vessels will leak fluid and will cause site distortions. As the disease progresses, new blood vessels are formed around the retina and in the vitreous humor. These blood vessels will bleed making the vision cloudy and eventually causing the retina to detach. If not treated, a retinal detachment may cause permanent blindness. Vision loss caused by Diabetic Retinopathy can be prevented by laser surgery, a proper diet and controlling your blood glucose levels and blood pressure.

Retinitis Pigmentosa affects the retinas ability to respond to light. It is a geneticly inherited disease. The symptoms include loss of night vision and peripheral vision. The gradual degeneration of the retinas Photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) will eventually cause the individual to become blind As the disease progresses. While research is on-going, there is no cure at this time.

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Causes of Blindness BLIND, Inc.

Color blindness, also known as color vision deficiency, is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color.[2] Simple tasks such as selecting ripe fruit, choosing clothing, and reading traffic lights can be more challenging.[2] Color blindness may also make some educational activities more difficult.[2] However, problems are generally minor, and most people find that they can adapt.[2] People with total color blindness (achromatopsia) may also have decreased visual acuity and be uncomfortable in bright environments.[2]

The most common cause of color blindness is an inherited problem in the development of one or more of the three sets of color sensing cones in the eye.[2] Males are more likely to be color blind than females, as the genes responsible for the most common forms of color blindness are on the X chromosome.[2] As females have two X chromosomes, a defect in one is typically compensated for by the other, while males only have one X chromosome.[2] Color blindness can also result from physical or chemical damage to the eye, optic nerve or parts of the brain.[2] Diagnosis is typically with the Ishihara color test; however, a number of other testing methods also exist.[2]

There is no cure for color blindness.[2] Diagnosis may allow a person's teacher to change their method of teaching to accommodate the decreased ability to recognize colors.[1] Special lenses may help people with redgreen color blindness when under bright conditions.[2] There are also mobile apps that can help people identify colors.[2]

Redgreen color blindness is the most common form, followed by blueyellow color blindness and total color blindness.[2] Redgreen color blindness affects up to 8% of males and 0.5% of females of Northern European descent.[2] The ability to see color also decreases in old age.[2] Being color blind may make people ineligible for certain jobs in certain countries.[1] This may include being a pilot, train driver and working in the armed forces.[1] The effect of color blindness on artistic ability, however, is controversial.[1] The ability to draw appears to be unchanged, and a number of famous artists are believed to have been color blind.[1]

In almost all cases, color blind people retain blueyellow discrimination, and most color-blind individuals are anomalous trichromats rather than complete dichromats. In practice, this means that they often retain a limited discrimination along the redgreen axis of color space, although their ability to separate colors in this dimension is reduced. Color blindness very rarely refers to complete monochromatism.[3]

Dichromats often confuse red and green items. For example, they may find it difficult to distinguish a Braeburn apple from a Granny Smith or red from green of traffic lights without other cluesfor example, shape or position. Dichromats tend to learn to use texture and shape clues and so may be able to penetrate camouflage that has been designed to deceive individuals with normal color vision.[4]

Colors of traffic lights are confusing to some dichromats as there is insufficient apparent difference between the red/amber traffic lights and sodium street lamps; also, the green can be confused with a grubby white lamp. This is a risk on high-speed undulating roads where angular cues cannot be used. British Rail color lamp signals use more easily identifiable colors: The red is blood red, the amber is yellow and the green is a bluish color. Most British road traffic lights are mounted vertically on a black rectangle with a white border (forming a "sighting board") and so dichromats can more easily look for the position of the light within the rectangletop, middle or bottom. In the eastern provinces of Canada horizontally mounted traffic lights are generally differentiated by shape to facilitate identification for those with color blindness.[citation needed] In the United States, this is not done by shape but by position, as the red light is always on the left if the light is horizontal, or on top if the light is vertical. However, a lone flashing light (e.g. red for stop, yellow for caution) is still problematic.

Color vision deficiencies can be classified as acquired or inherited.

Color blindness is typically an inherited genetic disorder. It is most commonly inherited from mutations on the X chromosome but the mapping of the human genome has shown there are many causative mutationsmutations capable of causing color blindness originate from at least 19 different chromosomes and 56 different genes (as shown online at the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM)). Two of the most common inherited forms of color blindness are protanomaly (and, more rarely, protanopia the two together often known as "protans") and deuteranomaly (or, more rarely, deuteranopia the two together often referred to as "deutans").[12] Both "protans" and "deutans" (of which the deutans are by far the most common) are known as "redgreen color-blind" which is present in about 8 percent of human males and 0.6 percent of females of Northern European ancestry.[13]

Some of the inherited diseases known to cause color blindness are:

Inherited color blindness can be congenital (from birth), or it can commence in childhood or adulthood. Depending on the mutation, it can be stationary, that is, remain the same throughout a person's lifetime, or progressive. As progressive phenotypes involve deterioration of the retina and other parts of the eye, certain forms of color blindness can progress to legal blindness, i.e., an acuity of 6/60 (20/200) or worse, and often leave a person with complete blindness.

Color blindness always pertains to the cone photoreceptors in retinas, as the cones are capable of detecting the color frequencies of light.

About 8 percent of males, and 0.6 percent of females, are red-green color blind in some way or another, whether it is one color, a color combination, or another mutation.[14] The reason males are at a greater risk of inheriting an X linked mutation is that males only have one X chromosome (XY, with the Y chromosome carrying altogether different genes than the X chromosome), and females have two (XX); if a woman inherits a normal X chromosome in addition to the one that carries the mutation, she will not display the mutation. Men do not have a second X chromosome to override the chromosome that carries the mutation. If 8% of variants of a given gene are defective, the probability of a single copy being defective is 8%, but the probability that two copies are both defective is 0.08 0.08 = 0.0064, or just 0.64%.

Other causes of color blindness include brain or retinal damage caused by shaken baby syndrome, accidents and other trauma which produce swelling of the brain in the occipital lobe, and damage to the retina caused by exposure to ultraviolet light (10300nm). Damage often presents itself later on in life.

Color blindness may also present itself in the spectrum of degenerative diseases of the eye, such as age-related macular degeneration, and as part of the retinal damage caused by diabetes. Another factor that may affect color blindness includes a deficiency in Vitamin A.[15]

Some subtle forms of colorblindness may be associated with chronic solvent-induced encephalopathy (CSE), caused by longtime exposure to solvent vapors.[16]

Redgreen color blindness can be caused by ethambutol,[17] a drug used in the treatment of tuberculosis.

Based on clinical appearance, color blindness may be described as total or partial. Total color blindness is much less common than partial color blindness.[18] There are two major types of color blindness: those who have difficulty distinguishing between red and green, and who have difficulty distinguishing between blue and yellow.[19][20]

Immunofluorescent imaging is a way to determine redgreen color coding. Conventional color coding is difficult for individuals with redgreen color blindness (protanopia or deuteranopia) to discriminate. Replacing red with magenta or green with turquoise improves visibility for such individuals.[21]

The different kinds of inherited color blindness result from partial or complete loss of function of one or more of the different cone systems. When one cone system is compromised, dichromacy results. The most frequent forms of human color blindness result from problems with either the middle or long wavelength sensitive cone systems, and involve difficulties in discriminating reds, yellows, and greens from one another. They are collectively referred to as "redgreen color blindness", though the term is an over-simplification and is somewhat misleading. Other forms of color blindness are much more rare. They include problems in discriminating blues from greens and yellows from reds/pinks, and the rarest forms of all, complete color blindness or monochromacy, where one cannot distinguish any color from grey, as in a black-and-white movie or photograph.

Protanopes, deuteranopes, and tritanopes are dichromats; that is, they can match any color they see with some mixture of just two primary colors (whereas normally humans are trichromats and require three primary colors). These individuals normally know they have a color vision problem and it can affect their lives on a daily basis. Two percent of the male population exhibit severe difficulties distinguishing between red, orange, yellow, and green. A certain pair of colors, that seem very different to a normal viewer, appear to be the same color (or different shades of same color) for such a dichromat. The terms protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia come from Greek and literally mean "inability to see (anopia) with the first (prot-), second (deuter-), or third (trit-) [cone]", respectively.

Anomalous trichromacy is the least serious type of color deficiency.[22] People with protanomaly, deuteranomaly, or tritanomaly are trichromats, but the color matches they make differ from the normal. They are called anomalous trichromats. In order to match a given spectral yellow light, protanomalous observers need more red light in a red/green mixture than a normal observer, and deuteranomalous observers need more green. From a practical standpoint though, many protanomalous and deuteranomalous people have very little difficulty carrying out tasks that require normal color vision. Some may not even be aware that their color perception is in any way different from normal.

Protanomaly and deuteranomaly can be diagnosed using an instrument called an anomaloscope, which mixes spectral red and green lights in variable proportions, for comparison with a fixed spectral yellow. If this is done in front of a large audience of males, as the proportion of red is increased from a low value, first a small proportion of the audience will declare a match, while most will see the mixed light as greenish; these are the deuteranomalous observers. Next, as more red is added the majority will say that a match has been achieved. Finally, as yet more red is added, the remaining, protanomalous, observers will declare a match at a point where normal observers will see the mixed light as definitely reddish.[citation needed]

Protanopia, deuteranopia, protanomaly, and deuteranomaly are commonly inherited forms of redgreen color blindness which affect a substantial portion of the human population. Those affected have difficulty with discriminating red and green hues due to the absence or mutation of the red or green retinal photoreceptors.[12][23] It is sex-linked: genetic redgreen color blindness affects males much more often than females, because the genes for the red and green color receptors are located on the X chromosome, of which males have only one and females have two. Females (46, XX) are redgreen color blind only if both their X chromosomes are defective with a similar deficiency, whereas males (46, XY) are color blind if their single X chromosome is defective.[24]

The gene for redgreen color blindness is transmitted from a color blind male to all his daughters who are heterozygote carriers and are usually unaffected. In turn, a carrier woman has a fifty percent chance of passing on a mutated X chromosome region to each of her male offspring. The sons of an affected male will not inherit the trait from him, since they receive his Y chromosome and not his (defective) X chromosome. Should an affected male have children with a carrier or colorblind woman, their daughters may be colorblind by inheriting an affected X chromosome from each parent.[24]

Because one X chromosome is inactivated at random in each cell during a woman's development, deuteranomalous heterozygotes (i.e. female carriers of deuteranomaly) are potentially tetrachromats, because they will have the normal long wave (red) receptors, the normal medium wave (green) receptors, the abnormal medium wave (deuteranomalous) receptors and the normal autosomal short wave (blue) receptors in their retinas.[25][26][27] The same applies to the carriers of protanomaly (who have two types of short wave receptors, normal medium wave receptors, and normal autosomal short wave receptors in their retinas). If, by chance, a woman is heterozygous for both protanomaly and deuteranomaly she could be pentachromatic. This situation could arise if, for instance, she inherited the X chromosome with the abnormal long wave gene (but normal medium wave gene) from her mother who is a carrier of protanomaly, and her other X chromosome from a deuteranomalous father. Such a woman would have a normal and an abnormal long wave receptor, a normal and abnormal medium wave receptor, and a normal autosomal short wave receptor 5 different types of color receptors in all. The degree to which women who are carriers of either protanomaly or deuteranomaly are demonstrably tetrachromatic and require a mixture of four spectral lights to match an arbitrary light is very variable. In many cases it is almost unnoticeable, but in a minority the tetrachromacy is very pronounced.[25][26][27] However, Jameson et al.[28] have shown that with appropriate and sufficiently sensitive equipment all female carriers of red-green color blindness (i.e. heterozygous protanomaly, or heterozygous deuteranomaly) are tetrachromats to a greater or lesser extent.

Since deuteranomaly is by far the most common form of red-green blindness among men of northwestern European descent (with an incidence of 8%), then the carrier frequency (and of potential deuteranomalous tetrachromacy) among the females of that genetic stock is 14.7% (= [92% 8%] 2).[24]

Those with tritanopia and tritanomaly have difficulty discriminating between bluish and greenish hues, as well as yellowish and reddish hues.

Color blindness involving the inactivation of the short-wavelength sensitive cone system (whose absorption spectrum peaks in the bluish-violet) is called tritanopia or, loosely, blueyellow color blindness. The tritanope's neutral point occurs near a yellowish 570nm; green is perceived at shorter wavelengths and red at longer wavelengths.[31] Mutation of the short-wavelength sensitive cones is called tritanomaly. Tritanopia is equally distributed among males and females. Jeremy H. Nathans (with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute) demonstrated that the gene coding for the blue receptor lies on chromosome 7, which is shared equally by males and females. Therefore, it is not sex-linked. This gene does not have any neighbor whose DNA sequence is similar. Blue color blindness is caused by a simple mutation in this gene.

Total color blindness is defined as the inability to see color. Although the term may refer to acquired disorders such as cerebral achromatopsia also known as color agnosia, it typically refers to congenital color vision disorders (i.e. more frequently rod monochromacy and less frequently cone monochromacy).[33][34]

In cerebral achromatopsia, a person cannot perceive colors even though the eyes are capable of distinguishing them. Some sources do not consider these to be true color blindness, because the failure is of perception, not of vision. They are forms of visual agnosia.[34]

Monochromacy is the condition of possessing only a single channel for conveying information about color. Monochromats possess a complete inability to distinguish any colors and perceive only variations in brightness. It occurs in two primary forms:

The typical human retina contains two kinds of light cells: the rod cells (active in low light) and the cone cells (active in normal daylight). Normally, there are three kinds of cone cells, each containing a different pigment, which are activated when the pigments absorb light. The spectral sensitivities of the cones differ; one is most sensitive to short wavelengths, one to medium wavelengths, and the third to medium-to-long wavelengths within the visible spectrum, with their peak sensitivities in the blue, green, and yellow-green regions of the spectrum, respectively. The absorption spectra of the three systems overlap, and combine to cover the visible spectrum. These receptors are known as short (S), medium (M), and long (L) wavelength cones, but are also often referred to as blue, green, and red cones, although this terminology is inaccurate.[36]

The receptors are each responsive to a wide range of wavelengths. For example, the long wavelength "red" receptor has its peak sensitivity in the yellow-green, some way from the red end (longest wavelength) of the visible spectrum. The sensitivity of normal color vision actually depends on the overlap between the absorption ranges of the three systems: different colors are recognized when the different types of cone are stimulated to different degrees. Red light, for example, stimulates the long wavelength cones much more than either of the others, and reducing the wavelength causes the other two cone systems to be increasingly stimulated, causing a gradual change in hue.

Many of the genes involved in color vision are on the X chromosome, making color blindness much more common in males than in females because males only have one X chromosome, while females have two. Because this is an X-linked trait, an estimated 23% of women have a 4th color cone[25] and can be considered tetrachromats. One such woman has been reported to be a true or functional tetrachromat, as she can discriminate colors most other people can't.[26][27]

The Ishihara color test, which consists of a series of pictures of colored spots, is the test most often used to diagnose redgreen color deficiencies.[37] A figure (usually one or more Arabic digits) is embedded in the picture as a number of spots in a slightly different color, and can be seen with normal color vision, but not with a particular color defect. The full set of tests has a variety of figure/background color combinations, and enable diagnosis of which particular visual defect is present. The anomaloscope, described above, is also used in diagnosing anomalous trichromacy.

Position yourself about 75cm from your monitor so that the colour test image you are looking at is at eye level, read the description of the image and see what you can see!! It is not necessary in all cases to use the entire set of images. In a large scale examination the test can be simplified to six tests; test, one of tests 2 or 3, one of tests 4, 5, 6, or 7, one of tests 8 or 9, one of tests 10, 11, 12, or 13 and one of tests 14 or 15.[this quote needs a citation]

Because the Ishihara color test contains only numerals, it may not be useful in diagnosing young children, who have not yet learned to use numbers. In the interest of identifying these problems early on in life, alternative color vision tests were developed using only symbols (square, circle, car).

Besides the Ishihara color test, the US Navy and US Army also allow testing with the Farnsworth Lantern Test. This test allows 30% of color deficient individuals, whose deficiency is not too severe, to pass.

Another test used by clinicians to measure chromatic discrimination is the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test. The patient is asked to arrange a set of colored caps or chips to form a gradual transition of color between two anchor caps.[38]

The HRR color test (developed by Hardy, Rand, and Rittler) is a redgreen color test that, unlike the Ishihara, also has plates for the detection of the tritan defects.[39]

Most clinical tests are designed to be fast, simple, and effective at identifying broad categories of color blindness. In academic studies of color blindness, on the other hand, there is more interest in developing flexible tests to collect thorough datasets, identify copunctal points, and measure just noticeable differences.[40]

There is generally no treatment to cure color deficiencies. The American Optometric Association reports a contact lens on one eye can increase the ability to differentiate between colors, though nothing can make you truly see the deficient color.[41]

Optometrists can supply colored spectacle lenses or a single red-tint contact lens to wear on the non-dominant eye, but although this may improve discrimination of some colors, it can make other colors more difficult to distinguish. A 1981 review of various studies to evaluate the effect of the X-chrom contact lens concluded that, while the lens may allow the wearer to achieve a better score on certain color vision tests, it did not correct color vision in the natural environment.[42] A case history using the X-Chrom lens for a rod monochromat is reported[43] and an X-Chrom manual is online.[44]

Lenses that filter certain wavelengths of light can allow people with a cone anomaly, but not dichromacy, to see better separation of colors, especially those with classic "red/green" color blindness. They work by notching out wavelengths that strongly stimulate both red and green cones in a deuter- or protanomalous person, improving the distinction between the two cones' signals. As of 2013, sunglasses that notch out color wavelengths are available commercially.[45]

Many applications for iPhone and iPad have been developed to help colorblind people to view the colors in a better way. Many applications launch a sort of simulation of colorblind vision to make normal-view people understand how the color-blinds see the world. Others allow a correction of the image grabbed from the camera with a special "daltonizer" algorithm.

The GNOME desktop environment provides colorblind accessibility using the gnome-mag and the libcolorblind software. Using a gnome applet, the user may switch a color filter on and off, choosing from a set of possible color transformations that will displace the colors in order to disambiguate them. The software enables, for instance, a colorblind person to see the numbers in the Ishihara test.

Color blindness affects a large number of individuals, with protanopia and deuteranopia being the most common types.[12] In individuals with Northern European ancestry, as many as 8 percent of men and 0.4 percent of women experience congenital color deficiency.[47]

The number affected varies among groups. Isolated communities with a restricted gene pool sometimes produce high proportions of color blindness, including the less usual types. Examples include rural Finland, Hungary, and some of the Scottish islands.[citation needed] In the United States, about 7 percent of the male populationor about 10.5 million menand 0.4 percent of the female population either cannot distinguish red from green, or see red and green differently from how others do (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2006[clarification needed]). More than 95 percent of all variations in human color vision involve the red and green receptors in male eyes. It is very rare for males or females to be "blind" to the blue end of the spectrum.[48]

The first scientific paper on the subject of color blindness, Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours, was published by the English chemist John Dalton in 1798[50] after the realization of his own color blindness. Because of Dalton's work, the general condition has been called daltonism, although in English this term is now used only for deuteranopia.

Color codes present particular problems for those with color deficiencies as they are often difficult or impossible for them to perceive.

Good graphic design avoids using color coding or using color contrasts alone to express information;[51] this not only helps color blind people, but also aids understanding by normally sighted people by providing them with multiple reinforcing cues.[citation needed]

Designers need to take into account that color-blindness is highly sensitive to differences in material. For example, a redgreen colorblind person who is incapable of distinguishing colors on a map printed on paper may have no such difficulty when viewing the map on a computer screen or television. In addition, some color blind people find it easier to distinguish problem colors on artificial materials, such as plastic or in acrylic paints, than on natural materials, such as paper or wood. Third, for some color blind people, color can only be distinguished if there is a sufficient "mass" of color: thin lines might appear black, while a thicker line of the same color can be perceived as having color.[citation needed]

Designers should also note that redblue and yellowblue color combinations are generally safe. So instead of the ever-popular "red means bad and green means good" system, using these combinations can lead to a much higher ability to use color coding effectively. This will still cause problems for those with monochromatic color blindness, but it is still something worth considering.[52]

When the need to process visual information as rapidly as possible arises, for example in an emergency situation, the visual system may operate only in shades of gray, with the extra information load in adding color being dropped.[citation needed] This is an important possibility to consider when designing, for example, emergency brake handles or emergency phones.

Color blindness may make it difficult or impossible for a person to engage in certain occupations. Persons with color blindness may be legally or practically barred from occupations in which color perception is an essential part of the job (e.g., mixing paint colors), or in which color perception is important for safety (e.g., operating vehicles in response to color-coded signals). This occupational safety principle originates from the Lagerlunda train crash of 1875 in Sweden. Following the crash, Professor Alarik Frithiof Holmgren, a physiologist, investigated and concluded that the color blindness of the engineer (who had died) had caused the crash. Professor Holmgren then created the first test using different-colored skeins to exclude people from jobs in the transportation industry on the basis of color blindness.[53] However, there is a claim that there is no firm evidence that color deficiency did cause the collision, or that it might have not been the sole cause.[54]

Color vision is important for occupations using telephone or computer networking cabling, as the individual wires inside the cables are color-coded using green, orange, brown, blue and white colors.[55] Electronic wiring, transformers, resistors, and capacitors are color-coded as well, using black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray, white, silver, gold.[56]

Some countries have refused to grant driving licenses to individuals with color blindness. In Romania, there is an ongoing campaign to remove the legal restrictions that prohibit colorblind citizens from getting drivers' licenses.[57]

The usual justification for such restrictions is that drivers of motor vehicles must be able to recognize color-coded signals, such as traffic lights or warning lights.[52]

While many aspects of aviation depend on color coding, only a few of them are critical enough to be interfered with by some milder types of color blindness. Some examples include color-gun signaling of aircraft that have lost radio communication, color-coded glide-path indications on runways, and the like. Some jurisdictions restrict the issuance of pilot credentials to persons who suffer from color blindness for this reason. Restrictions may be partial, allowing color-blind persons to obtain certification but with restrictions, or total, in which case color-blind persons are not permitted to obtain piloting credentials at all.[citation needed]

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration requires that pilots be tested for normal color vision as part of their medical clearance in order to obtain the required medical certificate, a prerequisite to obtaining a pilot's certification. If testing reveals color blindness, the applicant may be issued a license with restrictions, such as no night flying and no flying by color signalssuch a restriction effectively prevents a pilot from holding certain flying occupations, such as that of an airline pilot, although commercial pilot certification is still possible, and there are a few flying occupations that do not require night flight and thus are still available to those with restrictions due to color blindness (e.g., agricultural aviation). The government allows several types of tests, including medical standard tests (e.g., the Ishihara, Dvorine, and others) and specialized tests oriented specifically to the needs of aviation. If an applicant fails the standard tests, they will receive a restriction on their medical certificate that states: "Not valid for night flying or by color signal control". They may apply to the FAA to take a specialized test, administered by the FAA. Typically, this test is the "color vision light gun test". For this test an FAA inspector will meet the pilot at an airport with an operating control tower. The color signal light gun will be shone at the pilot from the tower, and they must identify the color. If they pass they may be issued a waiver, which states that the color vision test is no longer required during medical examinations. They will then receive a new medical certificate with the restriction removed. This was once a Statement of Demonstrated Ability (SODA), but the SODA was dropped, and converted to a simple waiver (letter) early in the 2000s.[58]

Research published in 2009 carried out by the City University of London's Applied Vision Research Centre, sponsored by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority and the US Federal Aviation Administration, has established a more accurate assessment of color deficiencies in pilot applicants' redgreen and yellowblue color range which could lead to a 35% reduction in the number of prospective pilots who fail to meet the minimum medical threshold.[59]

Inability to distinguish color does not necessarily preclude the ability to become a celebrated artist. The 20th century expressionist painter Clifton Pugh, three-time winner of Australia's Archibald Prize, on biographical, gene inheritance and other grounds has been identified as a protanope.[60] 19th century French artist Charles Mryon became successful by concentrating on etching rather than painting after he was diagnosed as having a redgreen deficiency.[61]

A Brazilian court ruled that people with color blindness are protected by the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Person with Disabilities.[62][63][64]

At trial, it was decided that the carriers of color blindness have a right of access to wider knowledge, or the full enjoyment of their human condition.

In the United States, under federal anti-discrimination laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, color vision deficiencies have not been found to constitute a disability that triggers protection from workplace discrimination.[65]

A famous traffic light on Tipperary Hill in Syracuse, New York, is upside-down due to the sentiments of its Irish American community,[66] but has been criticized due to the potential hazard it poses for color-blind persons.[67]

Some tentative evidence finds that color blind people are better at penetrating certain color camouflages. Such findings may give an evolutionary reason for the high rate of redgreen color blindness.[4] There is also a study suggesting that people with some types of color blindness can distinguish colors that people with normal color vision are not able to distinguish.[68] In World War II, color blind observers were used to penetrate camouflage.[69]

In September 2009, the journal Nature reported that researchers at the University of Washington and University of Florida were able to give trichromatic vision to squirrel monkeys, which normally have only dichromatic vision, using gene therapy.[70]

In 2003, a cybernetic device called eyeborg was developed to allow the wearer to hear sounds representing different colors.[71] Achromatopsic artist Neil Harbisson was the first to use such a device in early 2004; the eyeborg allowed him to start painting in color by memorizing the sound corresponding to each color. In 2012, at a TED Conference, Harbisson explained how he could now perceive colors outside the ability of human vision.[72]

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Color blindness - Wikipedia

Blindness Causes

The causes of loss of vision are extremely varied and range from conditions affecting the eyes to conditions affecting the visual processing centers in the brain. mpaired vision becomes more common with age. Common causes of vision loss in the elderly include diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and cataracts.

What is blindness?

Blindness is defined as the state of being sightless. A blind individual is unable to see. In a strict sense the word "blindness" denotes the inability of a person to distinguish darkness from bright light in either eye. The terms blind and blindness have been modified in our society to include a wide range of visual impairment. Blindness is frequently used today to describe severe visual decline in one or both eyes with maintenance of some residual vision.

Vision impairment, or low vision, means that even with eyeglasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery, someone doesn't see well. Vision impairment can range from mild to severe. Worldwide, between 300 million-400 million people are visually impaired due to various causes. Of this group, approximately 50 million people are totally blind. Approximately 80% of blindness occurs in people over 50 years of age.

When is one considered legally blind?

Legal blindness is not a medical term. It is defined by lawmakers in nations or states in order to either limit allowable activities, such as driving, by individuals who are "legally blind" or to provide preferential governmental benefits to those people in the form of educational services or monetary assistance. Under the Aid to the Blind program in the Social Security Act passed in 1935, the United States Congress defined legal blindness as either central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with corrective glasses or central visual acuity of more than 20/200 if there is a visual field defect in which the peripheral field is contracted to such an extent that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees in the better eye. Blindness in one eye is never defined as legal blindness if the other eye is normal or near-normal.

It is estimated that more than 1 million people in the United States meet the legal definition of blindness.

What are the different types of blindness?

Color blindness is the inability to perceive differences in various shades of colors, particularly green and red, that others can distinguish. It is most often inherited (genetic) and affects about 8% of males and under 1% of women. People who are color blind usually have normal vision otherwise and can function well visually. This is actually not true blindness.

Night blindness is a difficulty in seeing under situations of decreased illumination. It can be genetic or acquired. The majority of people who have night vision difficulties function well under normal lighting conditions; this is not a state of sightlessness.

Snow blindness is loss of vision after exposure of the eyes to large amounts of ultraviolet light. Snow blindness is usually temporary and is due to swelling of cells of the corneal surface. Even in the most severe of cases of snow blindness, the individual is still able to see shapes and movement.

People often say, "I am 'blind as a bat' without my glasses." All bat species have eyes, and most have excellent vision at night but not in daylight. More importantly, the term blindness means the inability to see despite wearing glasses. Anyone who has access to glasses and sees well with the glasses cannot be termed blind.

What causes blindness?

The many causes of blindness differ according to the socioeconomic condition of the nation being studied. In developed nations, the leading causes of blindness include ocular complications of diabetes, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and traumatic injuries. In third-world nations where 90% of the world's visually impaired population lives, the principal causes are infections, cataracts, glaucoma, injury, and inability to obtain any glasses. In developed nations, the term blindness is not used to describe those people whose vision is correctable with glasses.

Infectious causes in underdeveloped areas of the world include trachoma, onchocerciasis (river blindness), and leprosy. The most common infectious cause of blindness in developed nations is herpes simplex. Other causes of blindness include vitamin A deficiency, retinopathy of prematurity, blood vessel diseases involving the retina or optic nerve including stroke, infectious diseases of the cornea or retina, ocular inflammatory disease, retinitis pigmentosa, primary or secondary malignancies of the eye, congenital abnormalities, hereditary diseases of the eye, and chemical poisoning from toxic agents such as methanol.

What are risk factors for blindness?

A principal risk factor for blindness is living in a third-world nation without ready access to modern medical care. Other risk factors include poor prenatal care, premature birth, advancing age, poor nutrition, failing to wear safety glasses when indicated, poor hygiene, smoking, a family history of blindness, the presence of various ocular diseases and the existence of medical conditions including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, and cardiovascular disease.

What are signs and symptoms of blindness?

All people who are blind or have visual impairment have the common symptom of difficulty seeing. People with similar levels of visual loss may have very different responses to that symptom. If one is born blind, there is much less adjustment to a non-seeing world than there is for people who lose their vision late in life, where there may be limited ability to cope with that visual loss. Support systems available to individuals and their psychological makeup will also modify the symptom of lack of sight. People who lose their vision suddenly, rather than over a period of years, also can have more difficulty adjusting to their visual loss.

Associated symptoms, such a discomfort in the eyes, awareness of the eyes, foreign body sensation, and pain in the eyes or discharge from the eyes may be present or absent, depending on the underlying cause of the blindness.

A blind person may have no visible signs of any abnormalities when sitting in a chair and resting. However, when blindness is a result of infection of the cornea (the dome in front of the eye), the normally transparent cornea may become white or gray, making it difficult to view the colored part of the eye. In blindness from cataract, the normally black pupil may appear white. Depending on the degree of blindness, the affected individual will exhibit signs of visual loss when attempting to ambulate. Some blind people have learned to look directly at the person they are speaking with, so it is not obvious they are blind.

What specialists treat blindness?

Ophthalmology is the specialty of medicine that deals with diagnosis and medical and surgical treatment of eye disease. Therefore, ophthalmologists are the specialists who have the knowledge and tools to diagnose the cause of blindness and to provide treatment, if possible.

How do health care professionals diagnose blindness?

Blindness is diagnosed by testing each eye individually and by measuring the visual acuity and the visual field, or peripheral vision. People may have blindness in one (unilateral blindness) or both eyes (bilateral blindness). Historical information regarding the blindness can be helpful in diagnosing the cause of blindness. Poor vision that is sudden in onset differs in potential causes than blindness that is progressive or chronic. Temporary blindness differs in cause from permanent blindness. The cause of blindness is made by a thorough examination by an ophthalmologist.

What are treatments for blindness?

The treatment of visual impairment or blindness depends on the cause. In third-world nations where many people have poor vision as a result of a refractive error, merely prescribing and giving glasses will alleviate the problem. Nutritional causes of blindness can be addressed by dietary changes. There are millions of people in the world who are blind from cataracts. In these patients, cataract surgery would, in most cases, restore their sight. Inflammatory and infectious causes of blindness can be treated with medication in the form of drops or pills. Corneal transplantation may help people whose vision is absent as a result of corneal scarring.

What is the prognosis for blindness?

The prognosis for blindness is dependent on its cause. In patients with blindness due to optic-nerve damage or a completed stroke, visual acuity can usually not be restored. Patients with long-standing retinal detachment in general cannot be improved with surgical repair of their detachment. Patients who have corneal scarring or cataract usually have a good prognosis if they are able to access surgical care of their condition.

Is blindness preventable?

Blindness is preventable through a combination of education and access to good medical care. Most traumatic causes of blindness can be prevented through eye protection. Nutritional causes of blindness are preventable through proper diet. Most cases of blindness from glaucoma are preventable through early detection and appropriate treatment. Visual impairment and blindness caused by infectious diseases have been greatly reduced through international public-health measures.

The majority of blindness from diabetic retinopathy is preventable through careful control of blood-sugar levels, exercise, avoidance of obesity and smoking, and emphasis on eating foods that do not increase the sugar load (complex, rather than simple carbohydrates). There has been an increase in the number of people who are blind or visually impaired from conditions that are a result of living longer. As the world's population achieves greater longevity, there will also be more blindness from diseases such as macular degeneration. However, these diseases are so common that research and treatment are constantly evolving. Regular eye examinations may often uncover a potentially blinding illness that can then be treated before there is any visual loss.

There is ongoing research regarding gene therapy for certain patients with inheritable diseases such as Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA) and retinitis pigmentosa. Improvements in diagnosis and prevention of retinopathy of prematurity, a potentially blinding illness seen in premature babies, have made it an avoidable cause of blindness today.

Patients who have untreatable blindness need tools and help to reorganize their habits and the way in which they perform their everyday tasks. Organizations, such as the Braille Institute, offer helpful resources and support for people with blindness and for their families. Visual aids, text-reading software, and Braille books are available, together with many simple and complex technologies to assist people with severely compromised vision in functioning more effectively. In the United States and most other developed nations, financial assistance through various agencies can pay for the training and support necessary to allow a blind person to function.

John Milton and Helen Keller are well known for their accomplishments in life despite being blind. There are countless other unnamed individuals with blindness, however, who, despite significant visual handicaps, have had full lives and enriched the lives of those who have interacted with them.

Medically Reviewed on 11/14/2017

References

American Academy of Ophthalmology. "Eye Health Statistics at a Glance." <http://www.aao.org/newsroom/upload/Eye-Health-Statistics-April-2011.pdf>.

Switzerland. World Health Organization. "Visual Impairment and Blindness." Oct. 2017. <http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/>.

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Blindness Symptoms, Treatment & Types

Bryan Christie

Injected anti-VEGF agents can help reverse eye damage and stabilize vision.

Wet macular degeneration occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow under the retina, often leaking fluid or blood into the macula and damaging central vision. Although far less common than the dry form, in which deposits destroy the macula, wet AMD is much more destructive, leading to more rapid and profound vision loss. Fortunately, a new class of drugs called anti-VEGF agents, now widely available, can halt and sometimes even reverse the damage. Injected into the eye, the medications block VEGF proteins, which normally help blood vessels form. "Before anti-VEGF agents, we had nothing to stop wet macular degeneration," says Jeffrey Heier, M.D., chair of research and therapeutics for the American Society of Retina Specialists and director of the Vitreoretinal Service at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston. "Now, in a majority of patients, we can stabilize vision and, in some patients, even restore some vision."

The shots have one big drawback: They have to be administered as often as monthly. To eliminate repeated injections, researchers are developing innovative ways to deliver medication to the eye. One approach under investigation is to implant a small reservoir that steadily releases medication over time, says Heier. Another, more dramatic possibility: using gene therapy to reprogram cells in the eye to produce their own anti-VEGF agents.

The holy grail of research to treat macular degeneration, though, is finding ways to regenerate healthy cells to replace those damaged by disease. That may not be far off. In 2014, a team at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, reported early success growing retinal cells in the lab and injecting them into the eyes of patients with several different forms of AMD. The scientists began with pluripotent stem cells, which have the ability to become any cell. "Over a period of months, the cells are coaxed into becoming retinal pigment epithelial cells, which support the photoreceptor cells in the retina," explains Eddy Anglade, M.D., chief medical officer for Ocata Therapeutics, the Massachusetts-based company that is developing the procedure. Early results show significant improvements in vision in some patients, and clinical trials are under way to refine the procedure.

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Treating Blindness and Vision Loss - Restoring Eyesight

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A young racing enthusiast battling blindness is making the most of his eyesight before his driving dreams are ended.

Ethan Tailor, nine, suffers from Stargardt disease, a rare degenerative condition that could blind him and has already left him relying on a magnifier to read at Goffs Oak Primary School.

Mum Bhavna, from Goffs Oak, was heartbroken when her son turned to her a year after he was diagnosed in January 2016 and said 'mummy, I am never going to be able to drive am I?'

But after featuring in a BBC news report, the mother of two-time world champion go-karter Matt Luff, 16, was compelled to reach out and offer a one-to-one session last Tuesday (August 29) at Brentwood Kartway.

Ethan described the experience as 'the best day ever'.

"This really made his year, he loved it and it was such a kind-hearted thing to do," said Bhavna.

"Matt has also invited him to watch him race at Silverstone. He has never been there so he is really excited for it. He said go-karting with Matt was the best day ever."

READ MORE: Hertford boy, 10, with rare genetic disorder fronts national Jeans for Genes campaign

With no cure or current treatment available for the disease, Ethan's family does not know when he could lose his sight completely.

Ethan was registered as sight-impaired in January 2016 and cannot even recognise his friends in the playground.

As the disease is hereditary, there is a 25 per cent chance of Ethan's four-year-old sister, Elise, inheriting the disease.

But Bhavna is determined to help her son make the most of his sight and raise awareness of the disease.

READ MORE: Middleton School in Ware receives new minibus after fundraising by 15-year-old

She said: "As a mother, I feel a little helpless but we will still fight his corner and do all we can to give him the best.

"The hardest part is not knowing how long it will take [for his sight to go]. He can only read two lines off the sight chart now."

Ethan has remained upbeat and last year delivered a school assembly to explain the disease to his classmates.

His message was that he can overcome the physical problem, and he pointed to the example set by Paralympic sprinter and gold medallist Libby Clegg, who also has Stargardt.

Mrs Tailor sets time aside for the family to capture visual memories, which have included a VIP trip to Universal Studios in California, a visit to Yosemite and fishing trips.

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Cheshunt boy facing blindness, 9, races with world champion - Hertfordshire Mercury

India currently has the highest number of visually impaired and blind people and according to experts majority of cases is because of cataract. It is the sole largest factor for blindness in India and accounts for nearly 63 per cent of the total vision impairment in the country.

Ramanjit Singh Sihota, Professor of Ophthalmology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said after cataract (62.7 per cent), in descending order of prevalence, the causes of blindness were uncorrected refractive error (19.7 per cent), glaucoma (5.8) per cent, posterior segment disorder (4.7 per cent) and corneal blindness (1 per cent). In this backdrop, aiming to understand the real burden of visual impairment and blindness in children of north India over the last one decade, the AIIMS is conducting nation's first large-scale community-based study in Delhi where 20,000 children will be screened.

The study, results of which are expected in a year's time, is currently underway in small clusters of east Delhi's Trilokpuri. According to the doctors, the clusters have been divided and from every cluster 500 children are being examined. Once the results are out, the study will also be carried out in other parts of India.

"In India, there are nearly 0.8 crore blind and 5.4 crore visually impaired. Nearly 80-90 per cent blindness is avoidable and more than 90 per cent of it is seen in people aged 50 years and above," said Praveen Vashist, head of Community Ophthalmology at AIIMS. "It is an epidemiological study on childhood blindness. The age group being examined is 0-15 years. This is a pilot study and will be implemented in other parts of the country," said Atul Kumar, Chief of Rajendra Prasad Eye (RP) Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at AIIMS.

Stating that patients were ignorant about various causes which damaged optic nerves, Jeevan S. Titiyal, Professor of Ophthalmology at AIIMS, said that tobacco, betel nut and lime also caused damage to eyes, without the patients having any idea. On being asked if steroids were also a reason behind blindness, Titiyal said: "This is becoming common and nearly 20 per cent of children with blindness is because of the steroids. However, with the advancement in age, chances of people going blind due to steroids become less."

The RP Centre is also conducting a "National Blindness Survey 2015-18" with a sample size of 90,000 people, using Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB)-6 method. Blindness surveys have been completed in 23 districts to date and is scheduled to be completed in all 30 districts by June 2018. Doctors said that the survey would provide the most reliable representative current estimates of blindness and visual impairment among those aged 50 and above. It will also generate, for the first time, the burden of diabetic retinopathy and sight threatening diabetic retinopathy in a representative community sample.

Lens is usually made of water and protein but while ageing protein may start covering lens making it difficult for the person to see. Cataract which leads to blur vision and faded colour is most common in adults.

(With IANS inputs)

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63% blindness cases in India is caused by cataract, say experts - India TV

Since 2014, Dialogue in the Dark Ace Take 1 has trained 4,100 PwDs and created 3,000 job opportunities for the differently-abled across 18 sectors.

Most people come up with a feeling of sympathy when they meet us. But I/we dont need sympathy. I can do every normal thing, like everyone else, all by my own. I am used to working in the darkness, says 25-year-old Faizal, when asked about the challenges faced by a visually-impaired person. And like Faizal, many others with visual impairment or physical disabilities, believe that they dont need sympathy or help from the society; rather, a mutual feeling of equality is what they stake a claim for.

But this natural outburst of sorry feeling mixed with sympathy towards people with disabilities (PwDs) is the norm. It leads to discrimination and largely hinders the availability of economically empowering opportunities for them across the country. While many consider physical disability as a weakness cursed upon them, people like Faizal want to subvert this notion. And as more progressive social groups join hands to build up a mutually inclusive society for all, the view, that the so-called disabled are not disabled but differently-abled, should prevail.

Dialogue in the Dark ACE Take 1 came to the fore with an aim to bring about a mindset change in the corporates of India for creating employment opportunities for PwDs. With the conviction that experiences and encounters are powerfully effective pedological tools, Dialogue in the Dark provides an empathy experience for its visitors by putting them through daily life situations, in complete darkness.

With a mission to facilitate social inclusion of the disabled community on a global basis, Dialogue in the Dark was founded by Andreas Heinecke at Hamburg, Germany, in 1988. With the goal to change the mindset of people towards disability and diversity, and consequently boost employment creation for PwDs, in the past 27 years, Dialogue in the Dark has been presented in more than 41 countries. Today, it is available in across 21 countries and 29 cities worldwide. Its exhibitions and workshops, where people undergo day-to-day activities in complete darkness, have witnessed more than 9 million visitors.

Introduced to the Indian audience by SV Krishnan and Sudha Krishnan, Dialogue in the Dark has received 8,000 pledges till date, through its sensitisation mission. According to SV Krishnan, in 2009, while waiting for a delayed flight in Atlanta, he came upon an exhibit of DID. He was deeply enthralled by its powerful message and the innovative way of showing how ordinary events like walking in the park, shopping, taking a boat ride in complete darkness were empowering. This encounter inspired him to begin thinking about the pedagogical power of such experiences and employing entertainment as a medium to convey socially relevant messages.

Visitors are assisted by tour guides through the exhibition, but the fact the guides are visually-impaired is not revealed to the visitors. At the end of the experience, the visitors are led out of the exhibition into the light by the guide. This role reversal brings about a transformation in the mindset of the visitors, thereby leaving them with the understanding that the disabled need empowering opportunities and not sympathy, says SV Krishnan.

With the determination to bring the concept to India, Krishnan established DID in Hyderabad in 2011. It has now expanded to other cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, and Raipur. DID has also been set up across 15 cities on a temporary basis for conducting corporate sensitisation workshops on the abilities of PwDs.

The wide acceptance and success of Dialogue in the Dark led to the establishment of ACE Take 1. It aims to create employment opportunities for PwDs through skill development trainings and by bridging the gap between the market requirement and PwD skill levels through vocational skill training.

Through its ACE Take 1 skill development training, DID has trained 4,100 PwDs, created 3,000 job opportunities for them across 18 sectors of the country.

According to Krishnan, Through DID, corporates are sensitised towards hiring PwDs as they get to experience their abilities without even knowing that they are hosted and taken care of by a visually-impaired.

While Dialogue in the Dark changes the views of several visitors by providing an empathy experience, the differently-abled connected to it consider it a blessing in disguise.

Rohit Gowlikar, who is currently working as Probationary Assistant Manager in Syndicate Bank, says, Ignorance of the society about what a PwD like me can do resulted in me not getting a job for three years till Dialogue in the Dark hired me. Working at Dialogue in the Dark has immensely boosted my self-confidence.

Another PwD guide at DID, Nasir Hashmi, has over the last four years interacted with more than 10,000 guests and conducted over 100 workshops across India, spreading the message of diversity and social inclusion.

Meanwhile, Dialogue in the Dark plans to expand to other Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru by 2018. Furthermore, it aims to provide employment enhancing vocational skills training for 5,000 PwDs, annually, across India till 2020.

Enter the SocialStory Photography contest and show us how people are changing the world! Win prize money worth Rs 1 lakh and more.Click here for details!

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Sensitising 90 lakh people worldwide about blindness, Dialogue in the Dark shows the way - YourStory.com

During presentations she was giving to elementary school children about blindness, Juliet Cody was stunned to learn about their misperceptions surrounding blindness. She also found those misperceptions with the general public and became committed to teaching people about what it really meant to be without her vision. So, she started writing a series of books to educate readers about guide dogs, their handlers and the roles they play in each others lives.

The purpose is to spread the message that blindness is not a tragedy. Instead, it can be positive and life is what we make it, she says.

Cody, 50, lives in Escondido and is a motivational speaker and the author of the series Marvelous Adventures with Marly & Aerie. She says shes always had low vision, but became completely blind in 2000 as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder that causes damage to the cells of the retina, the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye.

Cody still has perception of light but has otherwise lost her vision.

Over the years, shes served as a state board member for the National Federation of the Blind; the Disabilities Issues Advisory Committee of California State University, San Marcos; and is chapter president of the Surf Dogs chapter for the North County Guide Dogs for the Blind.

She took some time to talk about her book series, her advocacy work and her message to others about what she and others who are blind are capable of.

Q: Tell us about your book series, Marvelous Adventures with Marly & Aerie.

A: All of the books are narrated by the guide dogs, Marly and Aerie. Book one takes place on the beaches of San Diego. We demonstrate how blind people can have fun with their guide dogs by body surfing, finding the perfect stick in the surf, digging for clams, catching other peoples Frisbees, getting our dogs mixed up, and more. Throughout all of this, we are supposed to be exhibiting our well-behaved dogs.

The second book takes place in the Big Apple (New York City), where we are annoyed by a Chihuahua in the subway. We find ourselves leading a parade up Broadway, and wind up with balcony seats for a Broadway show. This, and more, as we are trying to demonstrate guide dog etiquette in the city.

In book three, we take our readers to Washington, D.C., and we visit the monuments, museums and the Tidal Basin. Plus, Marly gets lost in an elevator in the hotel and as her blind handler tries to find her, we run into the big, mean security guard. Smiling, but stressed, we are educating our capital and their members about how guide dogs provide independence to their handlers.

The books each contain a teaching manual pertaining to its stories. My books bring awareness to enlighten the general public. If I can bring education early into elementary schools, we can remove the many stumbling blocks and start learning about the capability of blind people and guide dogs.

Q: Where did the idea to write your series come from?

A: I went back to school and got a guide dog, Marly. Being blind at the university with Marly led me to experiences that were compelling and humorous, so I started writing about them for class assignments. My professors loved them and my classmates thought they were captivating. I used my stories for my creative writing thesis and my committee recommended that I publish.

Q: Why was this series one you felt compelled to write?

A: I felt compelled when I discovered the misperception the general public has about blindness. I became fully committed when I started doing presentations about blindness in elementary schools, and I was stunned by what the children thought, which was that blindness meant being incapable, scary and that the people were ugly.

In north Escondido, I love the smell of the orange blossoms, the sound of the mockingbirds in the morning, and horses trotting throughout the day. And the crickets saying good night to me at night.

Q: Marly was your dog?

A: Marly was born in 2001 and died in 2011. She was my first guide and she was half Golden Retriever and half yellow Labrador, and intelligent. She went through school with me, and accompanied me to accept 28 scholarships. She also traveled across the country with me to the White House to meet First Lady Laura Bush.

Marly remembered routes well and would take me around the university wherever I needed to go. I would give her a command, and she would take me there. She never missed stopping at a curve or walked me through puddles. She was so wonderful that when I wore my high heels, she was extra careful and would slow down. In the airports or malls, we would hop on escalators and many times I was wearing my back pack and pulling my suitcase.

Q: How would you describe guide dog culture?

A: The guide dog is always maintained desirable by grooming them every day, including their teeth and ears. Theres strict discipline, so misbehaviors such as barking, jumping on guests coming into the house or distractions where they lose focus is not allowed. Also, when out, guide dogs should not be petted by anyone. A good handler will keep these behaviors in check. It is important to respect the team relationship between the guide dog and handler. It is vital that the guide dog is not distracted by other human interactions because the result could be dangerous to the handler.

Q: What is the National Federation of the Blind?

A: The NFB is an organization that advocates for the rights of the blind at local, state and federal levels. They advocate for the blind to receive Braille literacy and access to digital technology through primary, secondary, and post-secondary school, which includes opening doors to employment. We advocate for security, opportunity and equality. I joined the NFB when I was almost blind, in 1994 and served on the state board for five years. I chaired state-wide fundraisers, coordinated Braille symposiums, held a seminar on blindness for senior citizens, started a Parents with Blind Children group, was a counselor for the Colorado Center for the Blind for blind adolescents, and Ive participated several times in the NFBs legislative agenda presentation to Congress where we discussed issues concerning the blind.

Q: What has the transition from having your vision to not having it, been like for you?

A: It has not been a tragedy. I just have to be organized and use alternative methods. I went to the San Diego Center for the Blind and learned living skills. I just pretend as if I have my eyes closed and do everything the same way in my mind. My imagery vision kicks in, and I can see again.

Q: When you have speaking engagements to bring awareness about the abilities of the blind, what do you say?

A: I express that being blind is not stumbling block. Instead, it is a caution sign that alerts your senses and mind to focus and reach for your goals. Its a positive opportunity to have faith and believe in yourself. Focus on challenges and make them a learning experience, and let the people who want to help you, help. I convey that the only way to fail is not to take the challenge that could turn into triumph. Giving up is failing.

Q: What is it about societys views of the blind that you want to change?

A: The view of the public that the blind are incapable of handling life independently.

Q: Whats been challenging about your work advocating for others who are also blind?

A: The hardest is working with a newly blind person who is afraid of the dark. Many are afraid to walk. They will shuffle their feet because they think if they lift their feet, theyll step in a hole or off a curb and fall. At times, when blindness is new, some people are afraid of pouring a glass of milk. It takes a lot of assurance and reinforcing from the men tour to get them to do it over and over.

Q: Whats been rewarding about it?

A: When the student walks to the bus stop alone for the first time. When a student pours the first glass of milk alone and he feels like he won a gold medal.

Q: What has it taught you about yourself?

A: That Im confident and comfortable with blindness. Ive revived hidden skills, such as professional and creative writing, public speaking, leadership skills, and mentoring and helping developing confidence and blindness skills in adolescents.

Q: What is the best advice youve ever received?

A: Always trust in God and everything will work out.

Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?

A: That Im Latina, I sing, I surf, and my age.

Q: Describe your ideal San Diego weekend.

A: Staying at the Carlsbad Inn, sitting in chairs on the sand early on the beach and having coffee. Then, taking a long walk with our guide dogs to Oceanside Pier, having lunch at Rubys, then walking back and resting on the sand building sandcastles, digging holes and surfing with our dogs for the rest of the day.

Email: lisa.deaderick@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @lisadeaderick

Continued here:
Showing others that blindness is not a tragedy - The San Diego Union-Tribune

1

Cataracts considered to be the most common cause of blindness in India

2

They can only be treated by surgery

3

National Blindness Survey completed in 23 districts: AIIMS doctor

In a bid to eliminate blindness from India, the Union health ministry conducted a National Blindness Survey (2015-2018) in collaboration with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

But what came out in the survey is striking and alarming as nearly "62 to 65 per cent of those surveyed randomly were found to be having cataract".

According to a senior AIIMS doctor, initial findings of the survey has revealed about 62 per cent to 65 percent cases of cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the population and percent of glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy would also be revealed.

Cataracts are considered to be the most common cause of blindness in India, and can only be treated by surgery.

RAAB METHOD

This is the first ever survey done on a sample of 90,000 using the Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB)-6 methodology.

RAAB is a scientific and rapid population-based survey of visual impairment and eye care services among people aged 50 years and above, to estimate the prevalence and causes of avoidable blindness and visual impairment in the population.

Speaking to MAIL TODAY, Dr Atul Kumar, chief and professor of opthalmology at AIIMS's RP eye centre said: "The National Blindness Survey (2015-2018) is being conducted by our dedicated team and it has been completed in 23 districts till date. This survey is scheduled to be completed in all 30 districts by June 2018."

"This survey will provide the most reliable representative current estimates of blindness and visuals impairment among aged 50 years and above population in India. The survey will also generate for the first time, the burden of DR and sight threatening DR in the population," said Dr Kumar.

Prof JS Titiyal, an ophthalmologist and a leading cataract surgeon at AIIMS, said as many as 65 lakh cataract surgeries were performed in India every year, but the number of cases was still so high.

"Nearly 65 per cent of NPCB budget is used only for cataract programmes. When we did a surgery in 1986- 89, the disease was about 80 per cent and in 2001 survey it reduced to 62 per cent."

Prof Dr Praveen Vashist, head of community ophthalmology at RP eye centre told MAIL TODAY, "As of now, in India, the evidence for the burden of visual impairment is nearly about 5.4 crore and blindness is about 50 lakhs, which is 20 per cent of the global economic burden."

ALSO READ

Global blind population set to 'triple by 2050': Study

Tobacco may cause irreversible blindness: AIIMS docs

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National Blindness Survey: 62 to 65 per cent of those surveyed ... - India Today

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A Holland man who claimed an eye injury had kept him from working or driving has been ordered to pay back nearly $15,000 in benefits he collected from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation after he was caught on video parking cars and directing traffic at the downtown Toledo parking lot he owns.

Tim Tokles, 60, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft Thursday inFranklin County Court of Common Pleas. In addition to remitting the $14,689 he had collected, he must also serve five years of probation.

The case stretches back to 2012.

Mr. Tokles claimed he was permanently disabled from working due to an eye injury he suffered on the job, but our surveillance shows him working and performing multiple tasks that were inconsistent with his injury claim, Jim Wernecke, director of the special investigation department at theOhio Bureau of Workers Compensation, said in a statement.

In a separate fraud case, a 44-year-old Toledo man was ordered to repay the Bureau of Workers Compensation$18,501 after investigators found him doing maintenancework at various apartment complexes in the Toledo area while collecting BWC benefits.

Alfred Bowlson pleaded guilty to a fifth-degree felony count of workers compensation fraud on Wednesday in Franklin County. He was also sentenced to five years of probation.

Contact Tyrel Linkhorn at tlinkhorn@theblade.com,419-724-6134or on Twitter @BladeAutoWriter.

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Man receiving workers' comp for blindness caught driving, parking ... - Toledo Blade

Its a well-known fact that smoking even mild or light cigarettes puts you at greater risk of lung cancer, and that smokers are at higher risk of developing mental illnesses. Despite knowing the ill effects, a survey found that 9 in 10 Indians smokers try to quit but fail. The doctors at AIIMS now provide an additional reason to quit smoking. They said that tobacco not only causes cancer, its prolonged consumption also may also lead to blindness, and often such cases are irreversible. They also said studies have shown that those who smoke tobacco, significantly increase their risk of developing cataract compared to non-smokers. Smoking or chewing tobacco over five to 10 years affects the optic nerve which may lead to visual loss, the doctors said.

Often such cases of blindness are irreversible. People know that smoking and chewing of tobacco causes heart disease and cancer, but vision loss and other eye problems due to tobacco are not widely known, said Dr Atul Kumar, Chief of Dr R P Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences in AIIMS. He said of the total number of blindness cases reported at the centre annually, around 5% of those are due to tobacco consumption.

Diabetic retinopathy can get worse in smokers due to decrease of oxyhaemoglobin. The only remedy is stopping tobacco consumption, Dr Kumar said. He also said long-term indiscriminate use of steroidal eyedrops, commonly applied in case of eye allergies, can result in glaucoma and lead to irreversible blindness. Dr Kumar said the AIIMS, in collaboration with the Union Health Ministry, is conducting a National Blindness survey to collect data about visual impairment and blindness in the country.

According Professor Praveen Vashist, the in-charge of community ophthalmology, out of 30 districts selected for the survey, data collection has been completed in 19 districts across 17 states. The survey is expected to be completed by June next year, he said, adding, As of now, cataract has been found to be main cause of blindness. According to the World Health Organisations (WHO) 2010 data, India accounts for 20 per cent of the global blindness burden.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more

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Not just cancer and heart problems, tobacco may cause blindness ... - Hindustan Times

An Indianapolis-based startup believes its device could be groundbreaking in the world of ophthalmologyand life-changing for patients with glaucoma. The disease is the second-leading cause of blindness, but Purdue-affiliated startup Bionode says its noninvasive technologyenveloped in off-the-shelf contact lenses and glassesreverses the physical cause of glaucoma. Driven by the vision of researchers at Purdue, the technology could be on the market in a matter of months.

Glaucoma is caused by fluid buildup in the front part of the eye; the extra fluid increases the pressure in the eye, damaging the optic nerve and ultimately causing blindness. Bionodes technology involves adding a gold trace to an off-the-shelf contact lens, which then works hand-in-hand with specially-equipped glasses.

The glasses generate a magnetic field, the contact picks it up, turns it into a current and drives the current into the structures of the eye, says Bionode Chief Technology Officer Dr. Pedro Irazoqui, who is also an electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering professor at Purdue.

By electrically stimulating the muscles around the canal where fluid leaves the eye, pressure on the optic nerve is relieved, preventing vision loss. Irazoqui likens the fluid-filled interior chamber of the eye to a clogged sink, and says Bionode does some expert plumbing.

Think of it as a sink filled with water, and the drain is closed. You open it up so the water can now flow around that clog, says Irazoqui. If you look at the pressure in the eye, its actually going down a lot faster than we would expect just from that opening of the drain.

Even more important than relieving the clog, says Irazoqui, is that Bionodes technology also turns down the faucet while opening the draina double whammy that relieves pressure in the eye.

Its interesting to think that using these electrical currents, we can actually get much more specific control down to whether we [manipulate] the drain, the faucet or both, says Irazoqui, and to what extent we [manipulate] themand we can really dial it in.

Because most glaucoma patients are over 40, when the eyes naturally produce less tearsand contacts exacerbate dry eyesBionode has improved the technology in recent months to produce the same effect with glasses only.

The new design works as well as the old design, but it has no contact lens, says Irazoqui. We can still use the contact lens to give the patient an even bigger kick, but I think most patients wont need the contact lens. And now, we have a deeper understanding of how it all works.

Bionode believes the result is a therapy thats far superior to existing glaucoma treatments; medicated eye drops eventually stop working and have low patient compliance, laser eye surgery can only be performed a limited number of times, and a blood procedure that allows liquid to leak out of an open wound in the eye carries a high risk of infection.

Bionode says the device relieves eye pressure in a matter of minutes, but an upcoming clinical trial will answer a looming question: how long will the effect last? In the coming weeks, Bionode will begin a human clinical trial involving 30 patients in Canada to evaluate how long the therapy is effective and generate data that could eliminate the need for additional trials in the U.S.

[The FDA] is going to ask some very specific questions, so we will structure this study [in Canada] in such a way that it answers the questions the FDA is going to ask, says Irazoqui. Were partnering with the right people who have the experience in putting together these clinical trials in ophthalmology for devices that have been approved by the FDA.

Irazoqui says commercializing the device by late summer 2018 is optimistic, but not crazy. Bionodes funding includes $100,000 from the Elevate Purdue Foundry Fund and $1 million from an anonymous investor.

The goal is to build medical devices that are clinically relevantthats what gets me out of bed in the morning. I want a device that we invented at Purdue to make it all the way to the clinic and change peoples lives, says Irazoqui. [Glaucoma] is the second leading cause of blindness, so the impact is huge. Thats a lot to be excited about.

Continue reading here:
Purdue Visionaries Build Device to Prevent Blindness - Inside INdiana Business

Tree death, like tree sex, can reveal deeper truths. You may have seen bare trunks with branches that fork over and over in perfect symmetry (that opposite branching again). These are ash trees, victims of the deadly emerald ash borer, which is thought to have arrived in shipping pallets from Asia. Beyond the aesthetic and ecological loss, and just plain tragedy, the ash carnage costs society a huge amount of money, as parks departments and homeowners must either treat ash trees or have them cut down.

The borer is a consequence of global trade, and its only the latest iteration of this sad story; chestnuts, hemlocks and elms have already taken major hits from foreign pests.

Luckily, not everything in tree world is so dismal. The trees around us can uncover forgotten history. Sometimes a huge oak rises in a yard or in the midst of a much younger woods. These witness trees once marked the edges of farm fields. An oddly straight line of junipers or locusts likely signals an old fence row. Neighborhoods built in the 1960s might be lined with once-loved, now-hated Bradford pears; older ones may feature towering willow oaks with roots bulging out of undersized tree boxes. Parts of Paris, New York and, appropriately, London, are practically monocultures of London plane trees, once favored because they could survive these cities fetid air.

Trees can also tell us how well were managing our environment today. Many eastern forests, including Rock Creek Park, the wild green vein running down Washingtons center, have an understory dominated by American beech. Beeches are slow to get going, but theyre almost unmatched at growing in shade and being unappetizing to deer, which are wildly overpopulated in much of the country. Unless we find a way to manage our woods, using predators and periodic fires, were probably on our way to species-poor forests dominated by beeches. As much as I love the trees smooth, elephant-skin bark and brittle leaves shivering on their branches through the winter, I dont think an all-beech future is one I want to see.

Some may want more practical reasons for learning trees. If so, I offer that knowing your trees opens up an abundant and entirely free food source. Those in the know can gorge on juicy native mulberries and serviceberries in the spring, and persimmons and pawpaws in late summer. Thats to say nothing of tree nuts, which carpet the forest floor in fall. Pecans, walnuts, hickory nuts, beech nuts; with proper preparation, theyre all edible. For Native Americans living in California before European contact, acorns were a staple more important than corn. Yet today theyre a specialty item, largely limited to the occasional D.I.Y. foraging workshop.

Were so used to eating domesticated plants that the idea of eating wild tree parts seems strange, primitive and possibly dangerous. As a result, were letting billions of dollars worth of free, high-quality food go to waste. This, reader, is madness! Ill admit, however, that Im among the mad. Roadside tree fruit is just an occasional supplement to my diet, and I havent yet found the patience to leach the bitter tannins out of acorns. For me, learning about trees is more about seeing, and knowing. Its about not being a stranger in my own country.

And its about not letting the built environment make me too tame. When you engage with a tree, you momentarily leave the human-created world. Look at an American elm in winter, its limbs waving like Medusas snaky hair. The elm may grow along streets and sidewalks, but there is nothing tame about that tree. In cities, where animals feast on human gardens or garbage and most landscape plants are domesticated cultivars, native trees are the last truly wild beings.

Yes, people may look curiously if you stop to study a tree. But so what? Let yourself go a little wild.

Read the rest here:
Cure Yourself of Tree Blindness - New York Times

What Barrita Sue "Susie" Holverson lacks in sight, she makes up for in admiration from those who know her.

Holverson has been blind almost her whole life. That's also about the amount of time she's been attending Anoka United Methodist Church, where she serves as pianist. Parishioners there praise Holverson for her musical talent, sharp memory and wit, pleasant personality and positive attitude in the face of her inability to see.

In her Kokomo home, with her cane leaning against a wall and her piano standing in the living room, Holverson recalled having to be given oxygen after being born premature. Getting too much oxygen is likely what led to her blindness, she said.

"But that was what kept me alive," she added.

She went on to remember how it wasn't uncommon for people to sue hospitals for such sight-robbing treatments, but said her own experience doesn't leave her bitter.

"I thought, well, you know what? There could've been worse things," she said. "I have a relatively good mind."

"I'm no genius," she added with a laugh. "Compared to what could've been, I'm fine."

Holverson said she could see early on in life, but not really well. Before reaching age 3, her vision was reduced to just being able to sense light and dark before that ability went away too, she continued.

"I've just grown up with it, so to me it was no big deal," she said.

Holverson said she attended the Indiana School for the Blind in Indianapolis, where she learned how to read Braille and Braille music and took piano and voice lessons.

She said she went on to work in medical transcription for St. Vincent Hospital in Kokomo for about 20 years.

"I cook, I clean, I do just about the same things that everybody else does," she said. "The only thing I guess I don't do, and everybody should thank God that I don't, I don't drive," she added with a laugh.

Her music lessons started before she went off to school, she said, and she currently plays the piano for services at Anoka United Methodist Church.

"It's my way of serving," she said.

Holverson said her mother, who was an avid pianist too, got her interested in music. She recalled how they used to play together at Anoka United Methodist Church, which she grew up down the street from. Her grandmother helped start the church in 1913, Holverson said.

"It's just always been a part of my life, the church," she said. "There are friends and family there and I don't know how else to put it. It's a special place to be."

With the help of the speech software on her computer, Holverson said she does a lot of emailing for the church's prayer chain. She said she also likes to listen to audio books and relies on Siri, the voiced personal assistant developed by Apple Inc., to use her iPhone.

"Sometimes I'd like to smack her," she admitted with a laugh.

Ruth Mayhill, organist for Anoka United Methodist Church, has known Holverson since she was born. She, like several others at the church, is in awe of Holverson's ability to recall hymns by their numbers across multiple hymnals.

Mayhill said she's also fond of Holverson's ability to play the piano.

"She can sit down and play a song and it just blows us away," she said. "She is amazing."

Holverson's friendly personality is another one of her qualities, Mayhill said.

"She is fun to be around," Mayhill said. "They torment and tease her and she takes it and dishes it right back."

Mayhill said she also admires Holverson's ability to live alone and take care of herself despite not being able to see.

"It's amazing," Mayhill said. "I know they are taught that in the blind school, all the blind people are taught how to take care of themselves, but to witness it, she has been eye-opening for all of us around here."

Joyce Propes, who sings in the church's choir, said one of her favorite stories about Holverson is when she was picked up one summer to perform at the church's vacation Bible school. A song was played in the car and Holverson was asked about playing it at vacation Bible school, Propes continued.

"And Susie would listen to it on the way from Kokomo and be able to play it for the kids when she got here," Propes said. "Just that fast she can pick up and play."

Holverson reacts to the praise with humility.

"I just do what I can and to me I don't do anymore than anybody else, the only difference is that I can't look at what I'm doing," she said.

She said her faith, family and friends are the source of her positive attitude.

"I guess I don't see myself the way other people see me," she said. "I'm just plain me and that's all I really am."

Reach Mitchell Kirk at mitchell.kirk@pharostribune.com or 574-732-5130

Link:
Out of sight: Area woman doesn't let blindness darken her spirit - pharostribune.com

Scientists are still a long way from creating a visual prosthesis that works as well as a real human eye. But, engineers are making steady progress in what was once the realm of science fiction.

One of their promising new devices, a bionic vision system based on photovoltaic implants, is awaiting approval for human clinical trials in Europe. A second system, based on in vitro studies of the retina, could be ready for animal testing within four or five years. Both inventions have the same goal: to give back some measure of sight to people with progressive diseases of the retinaespecially retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration.

The new device doesnt require the implantation of a bulky electronics case and antenna, or a cable coming out of the eye.

According to the National Institutes of Health, retinitis pigmentosa is the leading cause of inherited blindness, affecting 1 in about 4,000 people in the United States. The disease usually begins with a loss of night vision in childhood, and progresses to involve peripheral and then central vision, gradually robbing young people of the ability to read, drive, recognize faces, and do routine daily tasks.

Macular degeneration, in contrast, is one of the leading causes of vision loss in Americans 60 and older. By 2020, the NIH estimates that as many as 3 million people in the United States may be living with various stages of the disease, which gradually destroys the densely packed light-sensitive cells, called photoreceptors, in the retinas center, or macula.

Many of these folks are going to be losing their central vision, says Chip Goehring, president of the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, so it is absolutely vital that we have options for the restoration of sight, including biological and mechanical approachesstem cell therapies for photoreceptor replacement, gene therapies to restore dysfunctional retinal tissues, and prosthetic retinas that can serve an even wider population of people with vision loss.

Normal retinal tissue consists of photoreceptors: light-sensitive cells resembling rods and cones at the base of the eye, topped by interconnected layers of neurons. The signal travels from the rods and cones, through bipolar cells to ganglion cells, then via the optic nerve to several brain areas, including the visual cortex. Scientists still arent exactly sure why the rods and cones break down in patients with retinal diseases, nor have they figured out ways to prevent, slow, or reverse the process.

There is one silver lining: Retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration tend to spare some of the bipolar and ganglion cells. This means that the neurons in these patients retinas can be stimulated artificially, with micro-electrodes, bypassing the damaged rods and cones altogether.

Daniel Palanker, a professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University, has developed and patented numerous devices over the years to diagnose and treat eye diseases. Among them are a neurostimulator for enhancement of tear secretion in patients with dry eye syndrome, a femtosecond laser for cataract surgery, and a patterned laser scanning photocoagulator that surgeons use to treat multiple retinal disorders, including diabetic retinopathy, without excessive damage to the delicate tissues around the treatment spots.

Palankers new prosthetic device, called PRIMA, features a tiny video camera mounted atop futuristic-looking augmented reality goggles, connected to a video processor about the size of a cell phone. It doesnt require the implantation of a bulky electronics case and antenna, or a cable coming out of the eye, like a German system that has been used successfully by a handful of patients in Europe.

Instead it relies on multiple arrays of photodiodes, each about a millimeter in diameter and containing hundreds of pixels, which work like the solar panels on a rooftop. Surgeons can lay down these tiny chips, like tiles, replacing the missing light-sensitive rods and cones in the central retina.

When PRIMAs camera captures an image of, say, a flower, the video processor transmits that picture to a microdisplay mounted inside the goggles. Powerful pulses of near-infrared light illuminate this display and are projected from the goggles into the eye, like the invisible rays of a TV remote control.

The implanted photodiodes pick up these signals and convert them into tiny pulses of electrical current, which stimulate the bipolar cells directly above them. The signals propagate to the ganglion cells and then to the brain, which perceives them as patterns of light: a flower!

To test the system, researchers implanted PRIMA chips in laboratory rodents and exposed them to flashes of light, or to flickering patterns on a computer screen. By recording the resulting electrical activity in the animals visual cortices, the scientists measured their visual acuity.

It turned out that the prosthetic acuity exactly matched the 70-micron resolution of the implant, which is half the acuity of the rats natural vision, Palanker says. Since the stimulation thresholds were much lower than the safety limits, we decided to develop even smaller pixels to enable better vision. More recent behavioral tests, conducted by the French collaborators in primates, have confirmed our results with rodents.

Of course, until the implants are done in human patients, we wont know for sure.

But when human clinical trials do start later this year in Europe, they hope to achieve resolution corresponding to 20/250 vision with 70-micron pixels. That still is worse than the standard for legal blindness, 20/200, but it may be enough for a user to read very large print, or to see the face of a newborn grandchild.

In the next generation of the device, Palanker says, We should be able to put more than 12,000 pixels within 15 degrees of the visual field, taking the system to 20/150 or even better.

And while PRIMA cant reproduce color vision yetonly various shades of grayWe are working on single-cell selectivity in retinal stimulation, which might enable color perception, he says. With more experience, surgeons also might be able to expand the visual field to about 20 degrees.

Scientists ultimate dream is to build a visual prosthesis so small and powerful that it can stimulate specific neurons inside the retina, rather than sundry patches of them. Thats the goal of E.J. Chichilnisky, a Stanford professor of neurosurgery and of ophthalmology.

Think of the retina as an orchestra, Chichilnisky says. When you try to make music, you need the violins to play one score, the oboes to play a different score, and so on. Likewise, the retinas 1 million or so ganglion cells are composed of about 20 distinct types. Each plays a slightly different role in transmitting the perception of shape, color, depth, motion, and other visual features to the brain.

Since the mid-1990s, Chichilnisky has worked with a variety of physicists and engineers to develop small but powerful electrode arrays capable of measuring neural activity at the cellular level.

To better understand the patterns of electrical activity in the retina, Chichilnisky and colleagues use eye tissue taken from primates that have been euthanized for other medical studies. By placing small pieces of retinal tissue atop the microchip arrays, then exposing those samples to various patterns of light, theyve been able to record and study the distinctive electrical responses of five different types of retinal ganglion cells, which together account for 75 percent of the visual signal sent to the brain.

Theyve also developed techniques to replicate those electrical patterns, artificially stimulating the ganglion cells with high precision, comparable to the natural signals elicited by the rods and cones.

By learning how to replicate these complex signals, researchers are one step closer to their ultimate goal: a high-acuity visual prosthesis that behaves like an orchestra conductor, signaling the retinas myriad neurons to fire in precisely the right ways, at precisely the right times. Im not saying weve got it nailed, he says, but we certainly now have proof of concept for how to make a better device in the future.

The next challenge will be to fit the computing power onto an implantable electrode array that can do its job safely inside the eye, without overheating surrounding tissues, and autonomously, without any graduate students or postdocs running it, he says, laughing. If all goes well, a prototype of the implant could be ready for testing in lab animals in four to five years.

Chichilnisky and Palanker have the sense that they are pushing scientific boundariesand that their work someday may help more than blind people. Electro-neural interfaces already are being used to assist in the control of several vital organs, including the heart, bladder, and limbs. Before long, they even may be hooked up to different parts of the brain, helping people with memory loss, for example or, incredible as it sounds, even enabling telepathic communication.

We live in an era when we are starting to overcome the limitations imposed on us by our biological nature, Palanker says. This is how evolution goes.

Source:Theresa Johnston for Stanford University

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Scientists aim to ease blindness with video goggles - Futurity: Research News