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Vision
Webletters
July 2002 Vision
Webletter
a potpourri
of items of interest to everyone, so feel free to
share it with your colleagues, or forward it to a
friend who can subscribe easily. See the
Distribution Note below for details.
In This
Issue
- Disability
Awareness Through Puppetry
- Nominate
Your Favorite New York Librarian
- Regional
Training From GW Micro
- How
Do I Get Work Experience?
- CVS:
A New Eye Ailment
- An
Offer From Exceptional Parent
Library
- Modern
Bread May Cause Myopia
- Shop
and Help Vision World Wide, Inc.
- Talking
Typing Teacher
- Access
Technology Training Course Begins August
9
- Visions
2002: A Conference You Won't Want To
Miss
- New
Hope for AMD
- "Let
There Be Light" They Said
- Did
You Know?
- Medical
Insurance Empowerment Program
- Braille
Edition of Guidepost
Discontinued!
- Check
& Signature Guides
- Distribution
Notes
***************************************
1.
Disability
Awareness Through Puppetry
The PACER Center, a
Minnesota-based nonprofit training and information
center for families of children and youth with all
disabilities: physical, cognitive, learning, and
emotional, offers many projects that provide
publications, workshops and other resources to help
families make decisions about education, vocational
training, employment, and other services for their
child or young adult with disabilities.
One of their
popular programs is the Count Me In and Let's
Prevent Abuse puppet series.
PACER puppets are
unique, handcrafted works of art. These hand and
rod puppets are three feet tall and represent
various racial and ethnic groups. Basic packages
include puppets, a custom-built bright red
wheelchair, other props, scripts, and resource
books. Scripts may be used with PACER puppets only.
The Count Me In
disability awareness program is for children in
preschool through fourth grade, who learn what is
possible for children with disabilities and that
all children want to be included. The Let's Prevent
Abuse, a child abuse prevention program, is
appropriate for children in grades one through
four. Children and adults learn about physical and
sexual abuse, personal safety skills, and the
important fact that abuse is never the child's
fault.
Training may be
arranged for groups purchasing puppet packages.
Disability awareness and/or abuse issues, and
puppetry techniques will be taught.
The training
packages may be purchased by communities wishing to
develop their own or replicate awareness programs.
The training packages include an overview of the
issues presented in the program, a demonstration of
puppetry techniques as well as scripts for the
PACER Puppets.
To request a copy
of the sales catalog and price list or to learn
more about the training courses, call PACER Center
at 952.838.9000 or visit their website at
http://www.pacer.org/puppets/index.htm.
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2.
Nominate Your Favorite New York Librarian
Now!
If you reside in
New York City and surrounding counties (see list
below), you now have an opportunity to nominate
your favorite librarian for an award to be given by
the New York Times. The deadline for your
submission is September 6, 2002.
Here are the
facts:
The New York Times
Company Librarian Awards are designed to honor the
community service of librarians working in public
libraries in New York City and selected counties
throughout the tri-state area. Winners will each
receive $2,500 from the Times in recognition of his
or her achievements.
Eligible nominees
include librarians currently working in public
libraries in any Borough of New York City or in the
following counties: Fairfield County, Connecticut;
Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, and Union counties,
New Jersey; and Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, and
Westchester counties in New York. One award will be
given to a librarian from each Borough of New York
City and from each of the selected
counties.
Nominations are
invited from the general public. Nomination forms
are available in public libraries in participating
areas or from the New York Times Web site at
http://www.nytco.com/community.html.
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3.
Regional Training From GW
Micro
To address a very
real concern among visually impaired computer
users, GW Micro has developed a personal training
curriculum that will be taught by GW Micro staff
and will be available throughout the country.
Students may sign up for either the one-day course
for beginners or the one-day course for
intermediate users of Window-Eyes or both. A text
version and an MP3 version of the training course
will be given to each student on a CD. Cost: $200
per day.
For more details,
watch their web site at http://www.gwmicro.com
or call 260.489.3671.
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4. How Do
I Get Work Experience?
(Excerpt from
eSight Careers NetWork News)
"It seems like I
can't win. I need work experience to get a job, but
I have to get a job to get work experience!" How
often have you heard this lament or said it
yourself? It can be doubly frustrating if you're a
disabled job seeker for two reasons. First, that
work experience may be the only thing that can
convince a recruiter you can work at all. Second,
disabled people generally have a more difficult
time finding the work opportunities that are
commonly part of a college student's experience.
The good news is
that the lament leaves out one key concept. It is
work experience you must have --- and not
necessarily paid work experience. Even though you
may have a devil of a time finding summer work at
the mall, you can still build a respectable resume
by finding less traditional work.
Being aware that
these alternative strategies have special utility
for its members, eSight Careers NetworkTM is
building a growing knowledge base about
internships, volunteering, contingent work and
self-employment. Each has its ins and outs, so be
sure to take a look at all the listed articles on
eSight as you manage your career -- and keep an eye
out for new material on eSight in the future about
alternatives for gaining work experience.
Log in to eSight
Careers NetworkTM at http://www.esight.org
and select "Featured Topic" under the Community
Center heading to find these articles about how to
gain the experience you need before you can get a
job.
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Page
5. CVS: A
New Eye Ailment
Common symptoms of
a relatively new eye ailment becoming increasingly
prevalent among PC users who play fastpaced video
games or chat over the Internet for hours includes
eye strain or fatigue, dry or burning eyes,
sensitivity to light, blurred vision, headaches and
pain in the shoulder, neck or back. It is called
CVS - Computer Vision Syndrome.
Doctors say the
number of computer users affected by this syndrome
has gone up by almost 300 per cent in the last two
years, and more than 40 per cent of all eye
complaints arise from excessive computer
usage.
Computer images are
created from thousands of tiny dots and so there is
no distinct image for the eyes to focus on. One has
to focus and re-focus to keep the images sharp.
After two hours or so, the computer user ends up
with a kind of repetitive stress in the eye
muscles. Although this will not cause permanent
damage, it is literally a "pain." The problem
generally starts with dry, red, irritated eyes,
followed by headaches, back and neck pain. No
reports of blindness due to CVS have been reported
thus far but the physiological discomfort
individuals have to undergo is immense.
Today people stare
endlessly at a monitor which is a light source less
than two feet away. That is not good because the
more we concentrate the less we blink. This causes
the tear film that protects our eyes with a lining
tends to dry up.
Lieutenant Colonel
A. P. Kamath, an eye-surgeon from the Armed Forces
Medical College says, "Our eyes have been primarily
designed to see afar, to feel comfortable with
reflected light, to view objects that are neither
too much to the left nor to the right of our body
and importantly, are required to blink at least 20
to 25 times a minute."
Editor's Note:
According to the Indian Opthalmological Society
(IOS), 60 million people globally suffer from eye
problems due to computer work, and the number is
rising by a million every year.
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6. An Offer from
Exceptional Parent Library
Have you seen the
special announcement in the Exceptional Parent
Magazine? A number of interesting benefits are
being offered to those who become charter members
in the new EP Preferred Buyer Club,
including:
1. A Personalized
EP Membership Card
2. 10% Discount On
all books
3. 10% Discount On
all videos
4. 20% Discount On
all EP Special Reports
5. $7.50 Discount
on an annual subscription to EP Magazine or
renewal
6. One FREE ticket
to World Congress Exposition on
Disabilities
7. A Gift
Certificate for FREE SHIPPING on your next
order
Cost: $24.95 per
year.
Contact:
EP
Magazine
65 Route 4 East
River Edge, NJ 07661
E-Mail: eplibrary@aol.com
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7. Modern Bread May
Cause Myopia
As an epidemic of
myopia (short-sightedness) is unfolding in
developed and emerging countries, there is a strong
suspicion that modern diets that are high in
refined starches are a factor.
Processed breads
and processed cereals are the main culprits because
they are rich in refined starches that are swiftly
digested, which prompts the pancreas to churn out
high levels of insulin. This insulin triggers a
fall in a key growth factor called protein-3 which
coordinates growth in the eyeball during childhood.
Myopia occurs when the eyeball is too long. This
causes the image focused by the lens on the front
of the eye to fall short of the light-catching
cells, the retina.
Insulin has
previously been implicated in myopia, but only
statistically rather than clinically. People are
numerically more likely to develop myopia if they
are obese or have adult-onset diabetes, both of
which entail high levels of insulin.
A team led by Loren
Cordain, an evolutionary biologist at Colorado
State University, and Jennie Brand Miller, a
nutrition scientist at the University of Sydney,
believes that during growth spurts, disruption of
protein-3 means that the eyeball grows too long and
is unmatched by a coordinated growth in the lens.
Their theories are published in the April issue of
a Danish-based publication for eye doctors, Acta
Ophthalmologica Scandinavica. The British
weekly science magazine New Scientist also
reported on it.
Myopia has spread
like wildfire since the Industrial Revolution, and
now affects 30 percent of people of European
descent. Among cultures that are suddenly exposed
to western influences, such as Canadian Inuit
Indians and South Pacific islanders, the rate is as
high as 50 percent. The reasons for this are widely
debated.
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8. Shop
& Help Vision World Wide, Inc.
Thanks to
wellspent.org, you can support Vision World Wide,
Inc. simply by shopping. Wellspent.org is an online
store where every purchase generates a donation for
the non-profit cause of the buyer's choice. Next
time you feel the urge to go shopping, act on it!
You'll be helping Vision World Wide, Inc. in the
process.
You can paste the
URL below into your browser and go directly to our
page on wellspent.org:
http://www.wellspent.org/Causes/CauseInfo?c=114
Thanks!
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9. Talking Typing
Teacher
The new Talking
Typing Teacher (TTT), ideal for home or classroom,
features human speech in every part of the program.
With the exception of having Text-To-Speech read
your name and play back text you type into
Workbook, every typing lesson or practice session
is read aloud with clear, concise pre-recorded
dialog. This avoids the necessity of struggling to
understand what is being said.
TTT also makes it
possible to choose type of font, text size,
heaviness of the print, as well as color of
background and text for optimum contrast selection.
Manuals are available in large print, braille, and
on cassette. Cost: $99.95
Contact:
MarvelSoft
Enterprises, Inc.
Tel: 800.987.1231 Ext. 3066
Fax: 800.695.8271
International: +1.250.753.3093
E-Mail: craig@marvelsoft.com
Web: http://www.marvelsoft.com.
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10. Access
Technology Training Begins August 9
The next session of
the Access Technology Training course offered by
Access Technology Institute will begin August 9,
2002. This class will meet in a live, voice chat,
classroom on the ATI server and meet twice a week
on Wednesday/Friday from 4:00 - 6:00 PM
Pacific.
This course is a
comprehensive 7-month exploration of Windows,
Access Technology, Screen Reading, the Internet,
email, and the skills necessary to teach the
technology and software to others.
This course
includes comprehensive exploration of the
following:
Windows
98/Millennium/XP
Window-Eyes
Jaws for Windows
ZoomText
The Internet
Eudora
Four Independent
study courses are included with the course as well
as subscription to a mailing list and on-going
support as students embark on a career as an access
technology trainer.
References
available upon request.
Cost: $400.00 per
month which may be paid on a monthly basis.
Payments are accepted via credit card, on-line
shopping cart, check, or money order. Corporate and
Department of Rehabilitation authorizations or
vouchers are also accepted.
For more
information, please visit
http://www.accesstechnologyinstitute.com/CAM/classes/training.html
or call
916.922.3794.
Cathy Anne
Murtha
On-line Access Technology Specialist
E-Mail: cat-@accesstechnologyinstitute.com
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of Page
11.
Visions 2002: A Conference You Won't Want To Miss
The Foundation
Fighting Blindness will hold its national
conference August 22-24, 2002 at the Marriott
Chicago Downtown in Chicago, Illinois. During this
event you will hear pioneering researchers in the
fields of genetics, gene and pharmaceutical
therapies, prosthetics, stem cells and nutrition.
Opportunities will be provided to talk with leading
ophthalmologists, participate in coping and
networking sessions, view the many exhibits and
learn about new low-vision products and
services.
Reservations can be
made online at http://www.blindness.org
or by calling 800.683.5555.
12. New
Hope for AMD Patients
Experimental new
medicines being used to treat early onset wet-type
macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy
are proving highly effective in not only halting
the disease but in some cases actually restoring
vision back to near normal. One 76-year old legally
blind patient after four injections into the
eyeball experienced sight restoration to perfect
vision of 20-25.
Some 70 U.S.
patients with wet macular degeneration have been
treated with this same drug, Genentech's rhuFab.
About half were treated by Dr. Jeffrey Heier of
Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston, MA. He has been
quoted as saying that he can honestly say he has
never seen anything as exciting as this.
Dr. Steven
Schwartz, chief of the retina division at UCLA's
Jules Stein Eye Institute, reported that his
patient actor Dabney Coleman, who in a week on
rhuFab went from 20-400 to 20-40 vision in his left
eye and returned to playing tennis.
Several competing
medicines are in development, all based on similar
principles. Experts caution, however, that most
results from studies on this and similar drugs
won't be known for at least a year or two. And for
now, treatments are available only to study
volunteers.
Top
of Page
13. "Let There Be
Light" They Said
At last! No
fumbling looking for those elusive light switches
or dimmers. Just use simple voice commands to turn
lights on or off or even dim them with the new
Voice Operated Light Switch/Dimmer available now
from Maxi-Aids at just $44.95 - Code
309809.
The switch provides
a convenient touch control operation. It can be
used with up to 500 Watts light fixtures, operates
on 120V AC. It conserves energy with use of dimmer
option. This switch simply replaces your standard
wall switch that can be quickly and easily
installed, requiring only a screwdriver.
Contact:
Maxi-Aids
Web: http://www.MaxiAids.com
Tel: 800.522.6294
TTY: 631.752.0738
Fax: 631.752.0689
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14. Did
You Know?
by Ethel D. Briggs,
Executive Director National Council on
Disability
- Did you know
that the number of people with disabilities
(53,907,000) is greater than the population of
California (33,145,121)?
- Did you know
that the number of African-Americans with
disabilities (7,219,000) is greater than the
population of Virginia (6,872,912)?
- Did you know
that the number of Hispanic-Americans with
disabilities (4,417,000) is greater than the
population of South Carolina (3,885,736)?
- Did you know
that the number of Native and Asian-Pacific
Americans with disabilities (1,446,000) is
greater than the population of Maine
(1,253,040)?
- Did you know
that the number of children and youth with
disabilities (8,473,000) is greater than the
population of Georgia (7,788,240)?
- Did you know
that the number of African-American children and
youth with disabilities (1,390,000) is greater
than the population of New Hampshire
(1,201,134)?
- Did you know
the number of Hispanic American children and
youth with disabilities (868,000) is greater
than the population of Delaware
(753,538))?
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15.
Medical Insurance Empowerment Program
In January 2002,
Special Needs Advocate for Parents (SNAP) began
helping parents who called with problems getting
medical insurance companies to authorize or
reimburse for therapies, medical equipment or other
items not seen as "medically necessary". At this
point the program is for parents with private
medical insurance not Medicaid. Parents can contact
SNAP via its website, at http://www.snapinfo.org,
by email at infoC&snapinfo.org,
or by calling its toll-free hotline
1-888-310-9889.
SNAP will speak to
them one-on-one and have them forward copies of all
relevant documents, including such items as the
medical insurance benefit summary plan, the medical
insurance contract, any reports from the doctors
and all explanation of benefit forms. After SNAP's
review, the staff and the parents talk again and
creatively problem-solve ways to approach the
issue, with the goal to reach a positive result
with a minimum of stress.
SNAP has also
designed a seminar to deliver at national
conferences that focuses on parents as advocates
for their children in the medical insurance arena.
SNAP's website will also be expanded to include a
glossary of medical insurance terms, links to other
resources in the medical insurance arena, and
eventually streaming its seminar over the
web.
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16.
Braille Edition of Guidepost
Discontinued!
What a surprise it
was to braille readers of the popular Guidepost
magazine to receive a notice that it will no longer
be available in Braille. Why? Cost of production
was one of the stated reasons.
Many Guidepost
readers are deaf-blind and/or hearing impaired and
cannot use other alternative formats. Consequently,
they are now cutoff from reading a publication they
have enjoyed for years. In addition, many blind and
visually impaired individuals much prefer the
Braille edition to any other format. Therefore, it
is strongly suggested that everyone call Guidepost
at 800 431-2344 and encourage them to reconsider
and reverse this discriminatory decision.
17. Check
& Signature Guides
Rev. George Gray
recently announced the availability of two
inexpensive but very useful items:
1. A sturdy black
check guide that accommodates standard 2 ¾" by
6 ½" bank checks. The guide holds the check
firmly in place while it is being written. There
are cutouts for date, payee, numeric amount and
written amount, memo field, and signature. Cost: $5
each.
2. The sturdy
pocket signature guide fits in credit card slot in
wallet and should last a lifetime. This template
matches the signature line on standard bank checks.
Cost: $2 each.
If purchasing both
guides, the cost is just $6.
Send check
to:
Rev.
George Gray
5028 S. Duck Creek Rd.
Cleveland, TX 77328-6521
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18.
Distribution Note
You are encouraged
to share this Webletter with anyone on your mailing
list that you think would find it useful. It is
free. Readers wishing to receive their own
Webletter should just send an e-mail message
to:
VisionENews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
or subscribe
directly at http://www.visionww.org/journal.htm.
As this is just
a mini sampling of the information contained in
our quarterly journal,
Vision
Enhancement,,
you are invited to become a subscriber. More
information and prior issues are available at
http://www.visionww.org/journal.htm.
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