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Archive for the Guest Bloggers Category

Travel Tips for the Visually Impaired

Image of the Colosseum in RomeI’m a lifelong traveler who has retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, and I also run Mind’s Eye Travel, a travel agency for the visually impaired. In fact, I will be exhibiting at the Foundation’s annual conference, VISIONS 2013, this summer. So, if you’re affected by a retinal disease, I’d like to share several useful travel tips. And for those of you not affected, you may find at least a few of them useful as well.
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How an FDA-Approved Retinal Prosthesis Came To Be

Image of the Argus II ImplantThe Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System was recently granted market approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which marks a significant milestone in the development of a therapy that has spanned more than 20 years. It was at Johns Hopkins University, in the early 1990s, that I, along with Drs. de Juan, Humayun and Dagnelie, with some early support from FFB, carried out the very first short-term (one hour or so) experiments with human volunteers. We demonstrated that electrical stimulation of the retina could, indeed, produce spots of light perceived by blind patients.

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Exploring a New World

Michael Hingson sits outside with his guide dog.

Escaping a World Trade Center tower on Sept. 11, 2001, certainly wasn’t easy, but sometimes it seems to pale in comparison to influencing the way many view those of us who are blind. I say this because my Ground Zero ordeal — which I’ve shared in my book, Thunder Dog, and will cover in my session at the Foundation’s VISIONS 2013 conference in June — took place in just one day. Whereas changing attitudes has been a lifelong vocation.
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My Race to Cure Blindness

Michael Stone in a bike race Although a disease called cone-rod dystrophy has rendered me legally blind, I’m known, in certain circles, as a world-class triathlete. I swim as well as bike and run (often on mountain trails). I began competing before my vision deteriorated, and I’ve since learned to use my other senses. In fact, I like to think of my feet as my eyes. I take an awful lot of steps, and I don’t land heavily. If I’m on a trail and step on something that doesn’t feel right, I hop off, then move quickly forward. It’s usually on the run where I beat my competition.

But you know what? I can no longer shop for groceries.

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Please Join Us in the “Save Research” Campaign

Save Blindness ResearchWith the elections now behind us, the U.S. Congress needs to address an issue that could delay by years, perhaps even decades, the ability of those with serious diseases to access treatments that will at the very least change their lives for the better, if not save them. The looming “fiscal cliff” – Congress’ current means of tackling a substantial budget deficit – is a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that will kick in January 1, 2013, if no further legislative action is taken. And it’s a huge mistake.
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Save Your Vision Month is Underway

April at a Walmart vision centerThree weeks ago, in recounting my participation in Charity Day at Cantor Fitzgerald, I mentioned that FFB had established October as Save Your Vision Month (SYVM). Well, now it’s here, so I wanted to reiterate what SYVM is all about and how the Foundation has been preparing for it the past couple of weeks.
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New Brand, Same Mission

Video Included:
Tom BernardinNow that VISIONS 2012 is over, we’re sharing with the world what attendees witnessed at the conference’s awards dinner Saturday night – an unveiling of FFB’s new logo:
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Putting Myself to the Test

John Corneille at VISIONS 2012Yesterday, my last full day at VISIONS 2012, started off in what may seem an odd way, in that I prevented the hotel maid service from doing its job. I did so by hanging the “Do Not Disturb” tag outside my door, a trick I learned a couple years ago, not long after I began venturing out on trips like this on my own.
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Adventures in Mountain-Climbing and Research

Adventures in Mount-Climbing and ResearchBeing a blind person who climbs mountains – that’s like being a Jamaican bobsledder; the two just don’t seem to go together, Erik Weihenmayer acknowledges. But, in fact, the opposite is true.
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Why “Bad Days” Are Normal

I mentioned, in my first post, that I’ve attended a number of VISIONS conferences. And yesterday, like most of my experiences in years past, was a roller coaster of emotions.  There was the usual anxiety of just maneuvering around and through crowds, the exasperation from not being able to see the faces of the people I was talking to, much laughter and even a few tears.
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