More than 40 million people infected with H.I.V./AIDS worldwide. Loss of vision and ocular complications are among the most common complication of infection, affecting 50 to 75 per cent of all AIDS patients.
India, with 5.3 million H.I.V.-affected people, faces a potential epidemic of blindness.
Cytomegalovirus Retinitis (C.M.V.), from the herpes virus group, is by far the most common disease affecting vision in people with AIDS.
Keshav Chandra Pal, a 57-year-old sculptor of repute from Jamshedpur, refused to give up his family tradition of making idols despite losing his eyesight. He learnt the art of idol-making from his father and, except for a break of two years, has been working independently since the death of his father ten years ago.
“In 1996, I lost my eyesight and stopped working. After two years, my brother asked me to give it a try and I agreed. With full faith in God, I started work and now, even though I cannot see, I can make idols,” said Pal.
Despite rain and strong winds that whipped up high waves along the Outer Banks, a record amount of fish was caught during the 2005-North Carolina, Lions ‘V.I.P. Fishing Tournament’.
The tournament is an annual event for the visually impaired persons in the U.S. This year marked the 21st year that it was being held in the Outer Banks. Over 520 people representing 76 North Carolina counties participated in the event.
One volunteer was assigned to each three participants, placing the worm on the hook and removing the fish once caught.
At a 10-day camp for disabled people held in Ballabgarh, the Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has announced a substantial hike in unemployment allowance for blind people of the state.
The event was organised by the District Red Cross Society, Faridabad, Lions Club International and Bhagwan Mahavira Sahayta Samiti, Jaipur.
Legally blind chef Ken Lexer of Boynton Beach, Florida, U.S.A, displayed his culinary skills in the television show ‘Cooking Without Looking’. The cookery show, which is aimed at blind and visually impaired people, gives cooking tips and kitchen safety measures.
Koichiro Kobayashi started climbing at the age of 16. He used to organise tours for people to enjoy outdoor sports. At the age of 28, he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. But his diminishing eyesight did not deter him from continuing with adventure sports.
In September this year, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, with a group of disabled climbers from across the world. “I want people to know they can enjoy sports, despite their disabilities,” says rock-climber Kobayashi.
The Fonix Speech Group, an operating division of Fonix(R) Corporation (OTCBB: FNIX), announced Fonix DECtalk(R) text-to-speech (T.T.S) on screen reading software by Code Factory, a major producer of assistive software for handheld devices in the European and Asian markets.
SouthernLINC Wireless, an Atlanta, U.S.A. based company announced that it is offering ‘Enhancements for the Visually Impaired’ (E.V.I) software for Motorola's i355 phone.
The software includes Text-to-Speech (T.T.S) output. As the user scrolls through the handset's phone book playback of names, numbers and contact types occur. It also plays back the word "calling" as the user makes a call and reads off information such as signal strength, battery level, date and time.
Visually impaired Jannu Nagababu from Vuyyuru village in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, has created history. He is all set to pursue a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) Course. However, this youth from a poor family did not get a B.Tech. seat straight away. He waged a legal battle against the institutions which denied him his right on grounds that he was visually impaired.
The world's first portable electronic Braille display is small enough to fit in a pocket and can even be rolled up like a newspaper. The display consists of a sheet of tiny plastic paddles that bend in response to a voltage. It is designed to connect to a cell phone or laptop, and could also replace the liquid crystal screen of an ordinary personal digital assistant (P.D.A.).
Soon, blind and visually impaired people will have the opportunity to learn science just like anyone else. Quantum Simulations, has developed tutoring and assessment software based on artificial intelligence (A.I.). This has been the result of a six-month, 100,000 research project, funded by the National Eye Institute, a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Business leader and philanthropist John J. Moores has contributed 4 million to the Scripps Research Institute, world’s largest independent and non-profit biomedical research organisation based at La Jolla California, U.S.A.
The donation will be used to establish the ‘Worm Institute for Research and Medicine’ (W.I.R.M.), within the Scripps Institute that will combat parasitic worms, which cause river blindness and many other diseases around the world.
Salesboom.com, a leading provider of hosted Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M.) software solutions has announced a new user interface option for visually impaired users. Describing it as a breakthrough for the C.R.M. industry, Troy Muise, C.E.O. and co-founder, of the company said, “[It] gives accessibility to our end-users across the board with no limitations.”
The new interface, which has been completely remodelled, is the first of its kind in the hosted C.R.M. software industry, and is set to pave the way for better accessibility options in the future.
Chandrasekhar Sankurathri is working to erase blindness among the poor and rural communities of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. "Many are unnecessarily blind,” he said.
A biologist turned philanthropist, Sankurathri, 61, strongly believes that most cases of blindness can be cured with proper treatment. He relocated from Ottawa in Canada to Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh in 1989, after he lost his wife, daughter and son in the Air India bomb attack 20 years ago. Since then, he has dedicated his life to social activism through his community outreach programmes.
At the Manipur Civil Services Combined Competitive (M.P.S.C.) Examination 2005 (preliminary), visually impaired Sapam Jashobanta was disallowed from appearing, even though he was issued the admission card.
The 29-year-old candidate was given the examination centre: the L.M.S. Law College, Imphal. Sapam said: he was forced out from the examination hall as M.P.S.C. authorities could not provide him answer sheets in Braille, which authorities conducting the examination are supposed to provide for blind candidates.
The Helene digital library enables visually impaired people to read books available in digital format via a dedicated computer, which translates book files in Braille or audio format.
BrailleNet, a French organisation that promotes the use of the internet to assist in the education and professional integration of visually impaired persons has created this library with assistance from French telecommunication company Alcatel and other partners.
The library which opened in January 2006, initially includes books for young people. The collection will grow in the coming months.
The four one-day match series for Umer Rashid Memorial Trophy started on May 27 in England and ended on 31 May 2006. England was looking to regain the trophy, which Pakistan claimed with a 3-1 series win in 2002.
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