Ординатура / Офтальмология / Английские материалы / The Encyclopedia of Blindness and Vision Impairment_Sardegna, Shelly, Shelly, Steidl_2002

Sight is one of human beingsÕ most precious and yet most taken-for-granted gifts. Most of us routinely go about our daily business, relying on our sight to get

around, complete our work, recognize friends and family, read, and generally make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Too often, only when we develop problems with our eyes or eyesight do we appreciate what a miracle the sense of sight isÑor was.

The Encyclopedia of Blindness and Vision Impairment, Second Edition, is an AÐZ compendium on the subject of blindness and issues and topics that relate to blindness. It addresses topics as far-rang- ing as the mechanics of the eye to traditional biases and prejudices against blind people. It seeks to help readers achieve a better understanding of how the eyes work and of the problems that can occur with the eyes and with vision. It also addresses laws affecting blind or visually impaired individuals, procedures and medicines used to treat vision problems, and diseases and disorders that can affect the eyes and their sight.

The encyclopedia is designed to be a functional tool for a consumer or patient looking for information relating to the eyes, as well as for the professional who is looking for information outside of his or her area of expertise. While the book is not intended to be used as a diagnostic tool, it should be useful in providing readers with information that can be used to make informed decisions in conjunction with their doctors.

A great deal has changed regarding blindness and vision problems since the publication of the previous edition more than 10 years ago. This new edition features many new entries, as well as many

that have been signiÞcantly revised and updated. Among the new topics covered are increasingly common technologies and treatments such as keratotomy, LASIK surgery, and progressive addition lenses; newly recognized potential causes of vision damage, such as automobile air bags and shaken baby syndrome; and new options for the blind, such as Braille music, the Employment Assistance Referral Network, and guide horses. Also included are such recent milestones as the World Blind Sailing Championship and the Mount Everest expedition of Eric Weihenmayer, who became the Þrst blind person to climb the legendary peak.

More than 100 entries have been updated to reßect new developments and information, particularly medical breakthroughs and current research, improvements and advances in existing devices and technology to aid the blind and visionimpaired, and changes to laws and government programs. Eleven appendixes have been completely redone to provide accurate information about various schools, organizations, associations, and publications of interest to the blind and vision impaired. All information included in this book is as current as possible. However, with rapidly occurring medical advances and constantly changing statistics, some of the information may be outdated, and minor errors may have inadvertently been included in this work.

ÑSusan Shelly

Shillington, Pennsylvania

ÑAllan Rutzen, M.D., and Scott Steidl, M.D. University of Maryland School of Medicine

abacus The abacus is used to teach mathematics skills to blind and visually impaired students. The Cranmer abacus is an adaptive device that has a backing behind the beads to prevent accidental movement or sliding.

It is used to add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers and decimals. Calculations can be done faster on a talking computer or a calculator, but the Cranmer abacus is considered to be faster and easier to use than a BRAILLE WRITER, TAYLOR SLATE, or PEGBOARD. Schools for blind students offer courses in the use of the Cranmer abacus.

ABLEDATA A database that lists and describes products for people with disabilities. It is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education.

As the nationÕs largest information source on disability-related products, it contains over 17,000 commercially available products for use in personal care, transportation, communication, independent living, and recreation. Each product entry lists the generic name, brand name, manufacturer, availability, cost, and product description. Products are listed from over 2,000 companies. The database is updated continuously.

Individuals may request a custom search of ABLEDATA by telephone or written request. Searches of eight or fewer pages are free of charge. Single copies of fact sheets containing detailed information about speciÞc products are available free of charge. An ABLEDATA thesaurus is available for a fee and includes the listing of categories and product names.

Individuals may access the database for independent searching on the Internet at www.abledata. com.

A

Contact:

ABLEDATA

8401 Colesville Road, Suite 200 Silver Spring, MD 20910 800-227-0216 (ph) 301-608-8958 (fax)

Access-Able Travel Source An online service that provides access information about travel to disabled persons, including those who are blind or visually impaired. Access-Able provides information about cruise lines, various hotels and destinations, and tips for travelers with special needs. It also has links to other travel and disability sites, information about travel magazines and travel agents, and real-life travel stories from disabled people who have used Access-Able.

Contact:

Access-Able Travel Source

www.access-able.com

accessibility The ability to enter and navigate through a building or environment and to use all its facilities or services. To ensure integration of disabled persons into all aspects of society, Congress has issued laws and regulations that prohibit those who accept federal funds from discriminating against disabled persons by limiting accessibility.

Federal accessibility standards are outlined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in the document ÒThe American National Standard SpeciÞcations for Making Buildings and Facilities Accessible to, and Usable by, the Physically Handicapped.Ó Compliance with the standards is monitored by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, an organization within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Although ANSI works with architects, public ofÞcials, organizations that serve the disabled, and disabled individuals, the federal requirements may not be the complete solution to accessibility. The standards represent only minimum levels of accessibility and do not encourage efforts to exceed these levels. Federal regulations do not solve problems that result from the conßicting needs of two or more types of disabilities; for example, street crossing curb cuts that serve wheelchair users may be hazardous for visually impaired persons.

Accessibility requirements for visually impaired persons may be inadequate as well. The standards are generally misunderstood and underdeveloped because blind people and those working professionally in services for the visually impaired have been unable to reach a consensus on accessibility needs. Excellent methods of orientation and mobility have been developed to enable visually impaired persons to successfully compensate for their sight loss. As a result, the visually impaired segment of the disabled community may lack the urgency felt by other members who cannot compensate for physical barriers.

Groups representing blind and visually impaired persons are in place and working to improve accessibility. The World Wide Web Consortium is in the process of finalizing accessibility guidelines to assure that all people have equal access to the Internet. These efforts are a collaboration of industry, disability, and research organizations, as well as various governments from around the world.

For more information about federal accessibility standards and ANSI, contact:

American National Standards Institute 1819 L Street, NW, Suite 600 Washington, DC 20036 212-642-4900

www.ansi.org

accommodation The adjustment the lens of the eye makes in order to focus on close or distant objects. Our ability for accommodation begins to diminish at around age 10, but the decline is not normally noticed until about age 40. Accommodation also refers to the method of bringing an object closer to the eye in order to see it better. This

method, also known as the approach system, is used by people with low vision.

Act to Promote the Education of the Blind

Passed by Congress in 1879, this act mandates that the AMERICAN PRINTING HOUSE FOR THE BLIND, a nonprofit agency, produce and distribute specially designed and adapted educational materials to blind students in public schools in America.

Such materials are necessary so that blind students have equal access to public education, and include textbooks in Braille and large type, tangible teaching devices, educational tests, and special instructional aids, tools, and materials adapted for students who are legally blind. The American Printing House for the Blind received federal funding to produce and distribute materials.

activities of daily living See DAILY LIVING SKILLS.

acyclovir Acyclovir, also known as ACV or Zovirax, is an ANTIVIRAL DRUG used to treat ocular herpes. The drug suppresses the enzyme thymidine kinase, which is vital to the virus. Acyclovir is distinctive in that, unlike other antiviral medications, it attacks the viral cells only and disregards normal cells.

Acyclovir is available in pill, cream, injection, or ointment form. It is commonly used to treat HERPES SIMPLEX type 1 and type 2 of the skin, mouth, eyes, brain, genitals and lungs and in newborn infants. It has also been proven effective against the HERPES ZOSTER virus associated with shingles and chicken pox. There are no signiÞcant side effects associated with this drug.

Acyclovir is not a cure. The drug can attack the virus only when it is active. It inhibits the virus from reproducing, but the virus retreats to the ganglion and remains latent. The virus may become reactive at any time, because the drug is ineffective against herpes during periods of latency.

Acyclovir is available through prescription only. Cream or ointment forms of this drug should never be placed in the eye directly.

adaptive aids Adaptive aids (or daily-living aids, independent-living aids) are devices and tools that

have been adapted or invented to enable visually impaired persons to perform sight-related tasks independently. Often, an unadapted tool or utensil is marked with raised dots, braille, or large print to become an adaptive aid. Other aids are equipped with voice simulators.

Adaptive aids may require prescription by an OPHTHALMOLOGIST or low-vision specialist and may require special training for use. Adaptive aids are available through adaptive-aids catalogs or are constructed or adapted by the users themselves.

Health aids are instruments that can be used by visually impaired persons to monitor their health or administer medicine. Devices for monitoring temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and glucose are marked in braille or announce the measurement in a synthesized voice. Pill splitters divide pills into even halves, and guides are available for measuring liquid medications. Diabetes-related devices measure insulin to preset levels and serve as needle guides. Many syringes are marked in large print.

Household aids include cooking devices, such as a liquid level indicator (which hooks over the lip of a cup and beeps or vibrates as the liquid nears the top of the cup), one-cup beverage makers (which heat liquids for soup, coffee, etc.), electromagnetic stoves (which heat food without ßames or heating elements), elbow-length oven mitts, and knife slicing guides.

Other aids for the home include self-threading needles, sewing-machine magnifiers, magnetic padlocks (which require no combination and open with a magnetic sensor), raised large-print telephone dials, one-button automatic telephone-dial- ing systems, and brailled clothing tags.

Magnification aids, or MAGNIFIERS, include handheld devices such as a bar magniÞer, which enlarges one line of print, and hand-held aspheric magniÞers, which magniÞes three to 10 times the normal size. MagniÞers may lie on the page as a sheet magniÞer, may be held by stands at a precise distance from the page or object, or may be attached to spectacles and swung down into place when needed. MagniÞers may be telescopic and enable the user to see street signs or other distant objects.

Electronic magnifiers or visual aids include

CLOSED-CIRCUIT TELEVISION (CCTV), which employs a camera and a zoom lens to magnify a page of print

60 times normal size. Portable models are available and constantly improving.

NONOPTICAL or environmental aids improve vision but do not use lens magniÞcation. These factors improve the environment rather than the device or object of regard. They include illumination, light transmission, reßection control, and contrast.

Illumination is improved through use of brighter or dimmer room lighting, as needed according to the cause of disability. Light transmission is improved through lenses, Þlters, and absorptive lenses, which reduce glare and highlight contrast.

Reßection is controlled by visors, sideshields, specially treated lenses, and typoscopes. Contrast is enhanced by using highly contrasting colors near one another, such as black ink on white paper or ßuorescent strips on stair risers.

TALKING AIDS, or auditory aids, allow the user to access information by the sense of hearing. They are devices that play or read the text, message, measurement, or degree according to a preset interval of time or on activation of the voice.

Tape recorders are used to play and/or record communications and recorded materials such as TALKING BOOKS. Some models are available with stop/start foot pedals to allow for typing while listening. Many tape recorders and players contain variable speed adjustments to reduce the time spent listening.

Speech compressors are machines that control the speed of the audio of a tape by deleting portions of the pauses between words or by shortening vowel sounds. The material is rerecorded in the shorter version, and the sound of the speech is not affected.

Accelerated speech is text that is recorded at normal speed but reproduced and played at an accelerated speed. Highly accelerated speech may produce a distortion in the sound of the voice, although some models contain pitch-controlling options.

Talking books and other recorded texts are available through talking-book programs or the Library of Congress. Books on cassette tape are also available through commercial publishers.

Synthetic speech is the computerized production of sounds into words and is used in the voice output of reading machines and computers. The Kurzweil