Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Diversity Week: Advocacy and Beyond

How would you define blindness?
Eye Opening Experience
Annual Fall Access Challenge

Sponsored by: Advocacy and Beyond Club, Sherlock Center and Disability Services Center

Visual impairment also known as vision loss, it is the decreased ability to see to a degree that causes issues that can not be solved by aids, such as glasses. Prior to this event, I did not know what being blind meant. I went to a conference geared to young people dealing with a disorder. I spoke with another delegate, who experienced visual problems. They said they see only what is right in front of them while everything else around them is unclear. Despite that explanation,
I was still confused.

My dance teacher suffers from astigmatism
What I learned today is that there are different levels of being blind. There are 4 levels of visual function. They are normal vision, moderate visual impairment, severe visual impairment and blindness according to the International Classification of Diseases.





What is so mind blogging is that the causes of visual impairment that is uncorrected refractive errors comprises 30% to 43%. An example of uncorrected refractive errors are myopia and astigmatism.  Myopia is when things that are close in sight are clear while things further away in distance are blurred. This occurs as the eyeball could be too long or the cornea may have an over abundance of curvature, the clear front cover of the eye. Another refractive error is astigmatism. It is a vision condition that creates blurred vision due to irregular shape of the cornea or the curvature of the lens inside the eye. This keeps the light from properly focusing on the retina that leads to blurred vision at all distances.

Looking at all of the technology that help people who lack some sort of vision put it into perspective. There are aids such as braille, walking canes, and verbal technology for computer use. For example, Kurzweil 1000, it is a software technology designated for people who are blind or visually impaired. register the text and read it aloud, take notes, summarizing the text. This brand is currently used within the Disability Center here at RIC, and I have been told such positive feedback about Kurzweil.
Imagine living in this world without a vision.
The system will

Of all of the assistive technology, I find braille as the most interesting. I learned that braille is formed within a unit of space called braille cells. The position of all of the dots are determined by the numbers, 1 through 6. To make a letter, you must type the right numbers on the braille applicator. To make a uppercase letter, a specific button must be pushed and then the corresponding numbers to the right letters. While watching braille letters formed by the expert, I was amazed because that is
how people with low vision communicate and
 do their work for school. It seemed like such a
process as a code that must
be decoded not a language.


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