[Ct-nfb] bionic eye

stanley torow setorow at optonline.net
Sun Apr 27 20:30:46 UTC 2014


Justin, some of us have adapted to no or low vision, but don't for a 
minute believe that if we could get sight, we would jump at the chance. 
since it's not  possible now, we use every thing we can do that is 
offered to us. we still live productive lives. and enjoy life..
eileen

ps just as hearing disability would like to get hearing. since i guess 
you have never had sight, you don't miss it., but for us that had sight, 
we do miss it, but we don't dwell on it. we get on with our lives & live 
it to the fullest
eileen
 
 
On Sun, Apr 27, 2014 at 03:21 PM, Justin Salisbury wrote:
 
 




Friends and Colleagues:

 

I have read the responses on this thread, and I see two distinct 
categories of responses, as well as two distinct categories of 
responders.  I will first define
  the categories of responders as follows.  Group 1 is those who have 
attended and graduated from structured discovery training centers.  
Group 2 is those who have not.  I understand the messages from the 
center graduates to address the incorrect, dramatic depiction
  of blindness as hopelessness, and I understand the messages from the 
others to yearningly describe the merits of eyesight.

 

To explain my discontent with the depiction of blindness as 
hopelessness, I will walk us through the article and point out where the 
authors are in error.

 
Title:
'Bionic eye' offers hope to those with vision loss

I interrupt immediately to ask what kind of hope I need and what 
miserable situation I am enduring in order to need such hope.  Back to 
the article…

 

A "bionic eye" may now help blind patients
regain at least a sense of vision 
<http://www.freep.com/article/20140423/FEATURES08/304230072/Bionic-eye-University-of-Michigan> 
.

Linda Schulte, the first patient with the implanted technology since it 
was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year, couldn't be 
more thrilled.

Not long ago, her new "eye" homed in on the stripe on her grandson's 
T-shirt while he was outside on the driveway at her Ottawa, Ohio, home.

There were flashes of light and movement and — combined with the bounce 
of a basketball on pavement — the 66-year-old Schulte said she could 
"see" her grandson for the first time.

"To me, it was seeing him," she said. "I know I'll never see his face, 
but I could judge how tall he is and everything. I knew where he was 
moving."

Analysis: The author has chosen a deeply emotional reaction of someone 
regaining some sight.  This reaction can only occur in someone who 
fixates on the lack of eyesight as a problem.  The person
  who fixates on the vision loss itself as a problem in life is in a 
really rough place, and I’m truly grateful that the National Federation 
of the Blind has helped me escape from that place.  If I were still 
there, I would be fighting the wrong enemy and make
  no progress toward the fulfillment I now pursue.  I understand that 
reporters want to strike up emotions and usually harness common 
misperceptions in society in order to do it, but it inherently 
reinforces those misperceptions. Back to the article…

The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, offered at the University of 
Michigan's Kellogg Eye Center, was surgically implanted in Schulte's 
left eye in January.

It uses a pair of glasses with a small video camera that wirelessly 
transmits signals to Schulte's implant, converting them into a series of 
small electrical pulses that stimulate her retina's remaining cells.

The result: Flashes of light that signal great contrast – the outline of 
a window or the edges of a white plate against a black tablecloth, for 
example.

It takes some practice, but "by using those flashing lights as a cue, 
(patients) can trace the plate," said Dr. Thiran Jayasundera, a retina 
surgeon at Kellogg.

I interrupt to ask how on earth this is useful beyond the tools we now 
have.  Can I not find my plate with my hands?  Back to the article…

He is scheduled to talk about the procedure during a meeting of the 
American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Friday in Boston.

The device is used for those who have retinitis pigmentosa, a 
degenerative disease in which patients experience a gradual loss of side 
vision and night vision, and later of central vision, which can result 
in near blindness.

Not all of the 100,000 or so people in the U.S. with retinitis 
pigmentosa can benefit from the bionic eye. An estimated 10,000 have 
vision low enough, said Dr. Brian Mech, an executive with Second Sight 
Medical Products Inc., the Sylmar,
  Calif.-based company that makes the device. Of those, about 7,500 are 
eligible for the surgery.

Schulte was 22 when sunlight began to hurt, she said. Over the next two 
decades, her visual world shrank. She began to lose peripheral vision. 
And at some point, her tunnel vision was so tight that, when she looked 
across the dinner table
  at her husband, she could see only one of his eyes at a time.

I interrupt to point out that this is exactly what I see when I look 
across the dinner table at my girlfriend.  While the author is hoping 
that this will pull at heartstrings again, I can assure
  you that I do not have any feelings of self-pity or frustration at the 
fact that I cannot see more of her at one time.  If I were to hold these 
thoughts, I would be stuck in quicksand and never be free to move on 
with my life.  Back to the article…

In earlier stages of the clinical trial with the prosthetic retina, many 
participants were able to locate lights and windows, follow lines in a 
crosswalk, and avoid running into things as they walked. About half were 
able to read letters
  that were about 9-inches high. Some could sort laundry or determine 
where other people were located in a room.

Roger Pontz, 55, received his new eye in January as well. He now moves 
around his Reed City, Mich., home without having to use his hands to 
avoid running into walls. He sees figures move in front of him. His wife 
asked whether he could see
  her empty oatmeal bowl the other day at a restaurant. He answered by 
immediately putting his fingers on it.

I interrupt a final time to ask how these tasks cannot be performed by a 
blind person, with the only exception being the reading of 9-inch 
letters, a skill of nominal practical use.  Is it really
  that widely believed that blind people inherently run into things as 
we walk?  Are there no other ways to find crosswalks?  Do totally blind 
people need someone else to sort laundry for them?  Are we really at 
risk of running into walls in our own home, and
  is using our hands or a cane inferior techniques?  It is obvious that 
this author believes that nonvisual techniques are indeed inferior to 
visual ones.  Let us finish the article…

Pontz, a dishwasher at a bowling alley, said he is convinced that his 
training exercises will continue to grow his visual abilities.

"But if it doesn't, I'm happy with what I've got so far," he said.

Excellent.  We conclude with a happy blind person who can smile despite 
all of the horrors to which blindness inherently subjects him.  He 
clearly has seen
  his life improve by acquiring just a little bit of sight.  Let us all 
feel like there is a glimmer of hope for the otherwise hopeless blind.

 

Does anyone really benefit from what little sight this product currently 
offers?  It encourages people to use visual techniques for tasks that 
are still completely
  possible nonvisually.  It encourages people to focus on regaining 
vision instead of acquiring the proper training for confidence and 
independence as a blind person.  This training will really free them.  
Someone who functions visually with this small amount
  of vision is not going to have the fulfilling life of a center 
graduate.  This article goes back to the status quo where blind people 
are patients instead of people.  Patients have something wrong with them 
and must be cured.  We know that the real problem
  of blindness is not the lack of eyesight; it is the lack of 
understanding and misperceptions which exist in society.  This lies at 
the core of our movement, and it is vital that the leaders at the core 
of our movement understand this and not endorse these
  depictions.

 

Finally, I want to address the argument about seeing children’s faces.  
We need to understand each other in order to work together.  I do not 
have children,
  but I do have basic human ability to reason.  If we cannot see our 
loved ones’ faces and no medical cure for our medical conditions causing 
blindness currently exist, it is not productive to wish that we will.  
My Granddad died in 2003, and I would love to
  see him again, but I do not fixate on missing him.  I cherish the 
memories of him teaching me about old farm equipment and starting 
blueberry-throwing fights with all of my cousins, and my grandmother 
gave me his wallet when I graduated from college, still
  including his Blockbuster card and all.  I do not long to see him 
again, at least on this side, because doing so will not improve my 
quality of life.  There is a matter of closure in how some of us deal 
with blindness.  It is most unfortunate, but some of
  the low-end rehabilitation programs, such as the Carroll Center for 
the Blind, actually preach a loss model, where losing vision is a dying. 
 Before the Federation found me, I attended the Carroll Center, and I 
was taught to mourn my blindness.  Those of us
  who have fallen victim to these misperceptions suffer because they 
mourn blindness; they do not suffer from the blindness itself.  I 
remember the days when I mourned blindness and hope that we can all work 
toward the day when nobody does.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Justin Salisbury





From: Ct-nfb [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Blindhands at aol.com

Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2014 1:16 PM

To: ct-nfb at nfbnet.org

Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] bionic eye





 



You want me to put a price on seing my Grand children that I have never 
seen?  or my children that I haven't seen in almost 17 years?  You can  
not put a price
  on that, but it would be worth it for me.





 





I can live without sight and manage well enough.  I have traveled near 
and far[all the way to India], but to see my family once again, well 
maybe you don't have
  children or Grandchildren and can't understand.





 





Joyce Kane

www.KraftersKorner.org <http://www.krafterskorner.org/>

Blindhands at AOL.com <mailto:Blindhands at AOL.com>



 







In a message dated 4/25/2014 10:54:17 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
tattenberg at gmail.com <mailto:tattenberg at gmail.com>  writes:






What if they really hurt and were expensive?

T

 

 





From: Ct-nfb
  [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org <mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org> ]
On Behalf Of Hamit Campos

Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 7:51 PM

To: 'NFB of Connecticut Mailing List'

Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] bionic eye





 

Yeah. Sure being blind isn’t the end of rthe world, but hell if I had a 
future chance at new retnas
  you best believe I’d take it Why not?

 





From: Ct-nfb
  [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org <mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org> ]
On Behalf Of Blindhands at aol.com <mailto:Blindhands at aol.com>

Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 10:45 PM

To: ct-nfb at nfbnet.org <mailto:ct-nfb at nfbnet.org>

Subject: Re: [Ct-nfb] bionic eye





 



    WowI have nothing wrong with my eyes and I have nothing wrong with 
my brain.  It is the optic nerve,
  so I need a new cable wire to connect to the eye and brain.  I would 
do anything almost to see my Grand children, kids and Mom.  It is too 
late to see John, but when I pass over that bridge I will see him and 
all my doxies and Seeing Eye dog, Corey.





 





Joyce Kane

www.KraftersKorner.org <http://www.krafterskorner.org/>

Blindhands at AOL.com <mailto:Blindhands at AOL.com>




 







In a message dated 4/25/2014 6:52:07 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
hamitcampos at gmail.com <mailto:hamitcampos at gmail.com>  writes:






I’d say epic man, but it’s out lines again. Sigh. Oh well, at least they 
are trying. Man I need need new retnas man. Lol. No but seriously, if 
they could
  do that for some one like me who’s retnas are essentially walls, but 
for the parts that do work cause I can see lights, that would be just so 
epic man.

 





From: Ct-nfb
  [mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org <mailto:ct-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org> ]
On Behalf Of Elizabeth Rival

Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 10:28 AM

To: 'NFB of Connecticut Mailing List';
info at crisradio.org <mailto:info at crisradio.org>

Subject: [Ct-nfb] bionic eye





 

 

Subject: 'Bionic eye' offers hope to those with vision loss

 

Check out this article from USA TODAY:

 

'Bionic eye' offers hope to those with vision loss

 

http://usat.ly/1igAgoi <http://usat.ly/1igAgoi>

 

 

Sent from my iPad

 






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