Find Help for
Low Vision
For people with low vision, everyday activities can be a
challenge. People with low vision don’t see well even with
standard glasses, contact lenses, surgery, or medicine. They
may have trouble reading traffic signs or recognizing faces.
It can be challenging to match clothes of different colors.
The lighting in a room may often seem too dim.
Low vision can be caused by an eye injury or a disease
such as glaucoma. Glaucoma damages the nerves that
carry visual signals from the eye to the brain. Millions of
Americans have low vision. Most are over age 65.
If you have a problem with your vision, you should see
a doctor right away. The sooner an eye problem is
detected and treated, the greater your chance of keeping
your remaining vision.
Some eye doctors specialize in helping people with low vision. These specialists can help you cope with vision
loss. They can teach you new ways to do everyday tasks. They can also offer training and devices to help with
reading, cooking, shopping, and other activities.
“A vision rehabilitation plan helps people reach their true visual potential when nothing more can be done
from a medical or surgical standpoint,” says Dr. Mark Wilkinson, a low vision specialist at the University of
Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
The National Institute of Health offers many resources to help people with low vision. A 20-page booklet,
Living With Low Vision:What you should know and companion video feature inspiring stories of people living with
low vision.You can find these and other resources at www.nei.nih.gov/lowvision.
Reprinted from the National Institutes of Health’s NIH News in Health. For more information, visit: www.newsinhealth.nih.gov
Inside
This
Issue:
Find Help for Low Vision ...........................................................................................................................................................1
HVA Supports Healthy Vision Around the World.............................................................................................................2-3
1 Touch; Guiding Eyes for the Blind; DGCkids
My Association Saving Benefits Perks Program.....................................................................................................................4
Health Notes ................................................................................................................................................................................5
Recovery Time for Sports Concussions; Scleroderma Affects Skin and More
HVA Supports Healthy Vision Around the World
Every year, Healthy Vision Association sponsors a variety of organizations that
promote healthy vision. We'd like to highlight the following organizations,
which HVA partnered with in 2017.
“I am a woman who is hearing impaired and going blind.
Since taking 1Touch training, I have become more confident,
and more aware of my environment in a positive way. 1Touch
has given me tools that I can use to defend myself should
the need arise. A friend noticed the difference, noting the
way I carried myself and speak with confidence. This can
literally change you for the better – it did for me.Thank you!”
1Touch
The 1Touch Project is a non-profit organization serving
thousands of people with disabilities on a national level.
The 1Touch works with people of ages 4 and up, as well
as working
extensively with
the Veterans
Administration.
The 1Touch
provides adapted
self-defense
courses which
have had positive
impacts in terms
of increasing
confidence,
awareness, and
state of general
physical and mental wellbeing. Serving over 2,800 people in
2015 alone, the 1Touch is expanding exponentially, with 53
active coaches and over 70 trainee coaches all over the U.S.
The 1Touch Project addresses issues faced by the blind
community as well as of those with mobility impairments.
These include things such as safety while travelling and
addressing conflict situations appropriately. Although the
main principal of the 1Touch is non-violence, and to avoid
violence at all possible costs, the program provides vital
information which can be utilized by any individual, if
absolutely necessary.
“Living with vision loss is hard enough; fearing for my
safety makes it even more challenging. The 1Touch
program has taken away that fear and allows me to live
my life with confidence”!
If you would like to find out more about the 1Touch
Project, please visit our website www.1touchproject.com
or email [email protected]
Guiding Eyes for the Blind
Guiding Eyes for the Blind is a not-for-profit guide dog
training school headquartered in Yorktown Heights, NY.
We make a profound and immediate difference in peoples’
lives by creating and supporting life-changing connections
between people who are blind or visually impaired and
exceptional dogs.
By making the strongest connections possible, Guiding Eyes
for the Blind helps people find new confidence to tackle all
life’s adventures, no matter how big or how small.
It takes nearly two years to prepare and train a guide dog.
With highly personalized instruction, the student and the
dog learn how to navigate specific situations and gain
confidence. Guiding Eyes is the first guide dog school to
train guide dogs to guide at both a walking and running pace.
1Touch is used by both professionals and people with
disabilities. Here is what some of them have to say:
“Along with proper rehabilitation training, this program has
the potential to make an important difference in the lives of
blind people, by helping them to develop both the sense of
confidence and security that will allow them to truly
achieve independence.”
Our special needs program is one of the only programs in
the country that provides guide dogs to students with
disabilities in addition to blindness such as cerebral palsy,
balance problems, and hearing impairments, including
individuals who are deaf-blind and communicate by
American Sign Language.
“For years now, students have been asking me if I know of
any self-defense courses appropriate to blind people. I finally
have a program to recommend to them! The instruction
was excellent, and I couldn’t be happier with the
learning experience.”
Guiding Eyes provides outreach to potential students
nationwide to make them aware of our services. Students
live on campus and receive instruction during their
21-day stay at our Training Center, or through the
continued on page 3
Home Training Program.
2
HVA Supports Healthy Vision Around the World, continued
"DGCkids helped shape not only Jackson's life, but ours as
well.With their help, we were able to provide Jackson the
support he needed to excel.You never know how much vision
you use to get through a day until you have to be someone
else's eyes, and because of DGCkids, I can be the eyes Jackson
needs.We are and will be forever grateful for the love and
support they showed our family at the time when we needed
it the most,” said Amanda Piazza, mother of five year old
Jackson. Jackson has been receiving services from DGCkids
since he was diagnosed at six months with bilateral optic
nerve hypoplasia.
There are 1,000 Guiding Eyes teams actively working in the
United States and abroad.
It costs nearly $50,000 to raise and train each dog and all
guide dog services are provided at no cost, which is why
donations are crucial.
To find out more about Guiding Eyes for the Blind please
visit www.GuidingEyes.org.
With approximately 85% of learning occurring naturally
through observation of people, places and action around us,
vision plays an important role in a child’s development.We
don’t think about it, but sight is the sense that gives us the
most access to our world. Children who are blind or visually
impaired from birth, or shortly thereafter, have unique learning
needs. Teachers of the visually impaired teach parents how to
help their children use their limited vision to their maximum
potential and how to develop compensatory skills by using all
of their senses. DGCkids provides innovative programs and
life-changing experiences for children and their families
through a comprehensive system of specialized services,
support and life-enhancing activities including tandem-cycling,
hiking, climbing, music, dramatic arts, community outings
and more. For more information about DGCkids
visit www.dgckids.org.
DGCkids
Healthy Vision Association teams up with DGCkids (Delta
Gamma Center for Children with Visual Impairments) in
support of children who are blind or visually impaired. HVA is
honored to be the presenting sponsor at the 25th Annual Run
for Sight, coming up this May 7th at Ballpark Village St. Louis.
HVA continues to support these
great organizations:
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Since 1951, DGCkids has served with the mission of helping
children who are blind or visually impaired reach their full
potential through family-centered, specialized services, and
community support. DGCkids provides comprehensive
programs for children, birth through high school graduation.
•
Services provided to its youngest clients (birth-age 3) are
focused on education and developmental support for both
children and their parents. These services include home based
education, therapy, and low vision evaluations for infants and
toddlers. Group and individual family support services offer
information and education, short term counseling, family
activities and parent to parent connections. Services for
school age children, ages three years through high school
graduation, focus on social development and independence.
Children and youth with visual impairments participate in a
wide array of recreational and community activities that lead
to greater independence and enhanced social skills.
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Prevent Blindness – http://www.preventblindness.org
Optometry Giving Sight – http://www.givingsight.org
America's VetDogs – http://www.vetdogs.org
Himalayan Cataract Project – http://www.cureblindness.org
The Seeing Eye – http://www.seeingeye.org
United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) –
http://www.usaba.org
Eye Care Charity of Mid-America (ECCOMA) –
http://www.eccoma.org
Macula Vision Research Foundation – http://www.mvrf.org
Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI) –
http://www.ccvi.org
Guiding Eyes for the Blind – http://www.guidingeyes.org
Team Activities for Special Kids (TASK) – http://www.tasksports.org
Mercy Ships – http://www.mercyships.org
Delta Gamma Center for Children with Visual Impairments –
http://www.dgckids.org
1Touch Project – http://www.1touchproject.com
ARCHS FBO Kids Vision for Life – http://www.kidsvisionforlifestlouis.com
Unite for Sight – http://www.uniteforsight.org
Folsom Project for the Visually Impaired
UMSL College of Optometry Curators of the University of Missouri
MUOT Tiger OT Low Vision Program
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4
Health Notes
Scleroderma Affects
Skin and More
Recovery
Time for
Sports
Concussions
Scleroderma is a group of diseases that affect the
body’s connective tissue, which supports the skin
and internal organs. Skin, blood vessels, or other
tissues may become hard or thick. Swelling or pain
may arise in muscles and joints.
Scleroderma can occur in people of all ages, races,
and ethnic groups. For unknown reasons, it’s more
common in women than men.
A brain injury-related protein
may one day help doctors
know when they can safely
send young athletes with
concussions back into the game.
Millions of sports-related mild brain injuries, or concussions, happen
in the U.S. each year. Returning to play before you’re fully recovered
can be dangerous. It raises the risk for long-term symptoms like
headaches, dizziness, and problems with mental function after
future concussions.
After a severe brain injury, the brain makes more of a protein called
tau. An NIH-led research team looked at changes in blood levels
of tau after sports-related concussions to see if tau levels relate to
recovery times.
The scientists measured both tau levels and mental performance in 632
college athletes before their seasons began. Athletes played a range of
sports, including soccer, football, basketball, hockey, or lacrosse.
Concussed athletes who needed more than 10 days before returning
to play had higher tau levels on average than athletes who were able
to return in 10 days or less. This was true for both male and female
athletes, and across the different sports studied.
The findings suggest that changes in tau levels after a concussion
may signal when young athletes can safely return to play. Scientists
continue to study this and other ways to track concussion recovery.
Keeping athletes safer from long-term consequences of concussions
is important to players, coaches, parents, and fans,” says Dr. Patricia
A. Grady, director of NIH’s National Institute of Nursing Research.
“In the future, this research may help to develop a reliable and fast
clinical lab test that can identify athletes at higher risk for chronic
post-concussion symptoms.”
References: Acute plasma tau relates to prolonged return to play after concussion. Gill J,
Merchant-Borna K, Jeromin A, Livingston W, Bazarian J. Neurology. 2017 Feb 7;88(6):
595-602. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000003587. PMID: 28062722.
5
Scleroderma symptoms vary widely and are similar
to other diseases. This can make the condition hard
to diagnose. There are 2 main types: localized
and systemic.
Localized scleroderma usually affects only the
skin, which becomes hard and tight. It may improve
without treatment. But severe cases can leave
skin damaged.
Systemic scleroderma is often more serious. It
can affect the skin, tissues under it, blood vessels, and
major organs, such as the heart, lungs, and kidneys.
Scientists are not yet certain what causes
scleroderma. It sometimes runs in families. But it
also occurs in people without a family history of the
disease. Scleroderma isn’t contagious, so you can’t
“catch” the disorder from someone who has it.
NIH-funded scientists are actively working to find
related genes and test potential therapies and
diagnostics.You can learn more about scleroderma
at www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Scleroderma.
Articles in the Health Notes section reprinted from the
National Institutes of Health’s NIH News in Health.
For more information, visit: www.newsinhealth.nih.gov