Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- Could a blind person drive a car? Researchers are trying to make that far-flung notion a reality. The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech plan to demonstrate a prototype vehicle next year equipped with technology that helps a blind person drive a car independently.

ELMO, Mo. | When Charlie Wilks went turkey hunting Saturday, he didn’t get to see the big gobbler that strutted across a field and put on a show in front of him. Wilks, 14, has been blind since age 6, when a brain tumor took away his sight. But that didn’t keep him from shooting a trophy bird on his first turkey hunt. Against all odds — and with a lot of help from a couple of mentors who went to great lengths to organize the special hunt — he accomplished the seemingly impossible. “Even though I’m blind, I don’t...

A pornographic magazine for the blind has been launched - complete with explicit text and raised pictures of naked men and women.The book, the brainchild of Lisa Murphy and called Tactile Minds, is designed to be 'enjoyed' by the blind and visually impaired - and is on sale for £150. Among the 17 raised images include a naked woman in a 'disco pose', a woman with 'perfect breasts' and a 'male love robot'. Canadian Lisa says that she made the book to fill a gap in the market, adding: "There are no books of tactile pictures of nudes for adults....

He has no legs and no eyesight, but Marine Cpl. Matthew Bradford has four more years of military service ahead of him after becoming the first blind double-amputee to re-enlist. The rifleman was injured in January 2007 in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded right under him, the San Antonio Express-News reported. But after years at the Center for the Intrepid, a privately funded, cutting-edge rehabilitation center, Bradford, 23, has learned to walk with prosthetic limbs and navigate without his vision, and he only regrets that he can’t return to combat duty in Iraq, the paper reported. Instead the Kentucky...

Mike Hanson plans to hike the 2,174-mile Appalachian Trail end to end, without ever seeing the ground under his feet. On Monday in Georgia, the St. Louis Park man -- who lost his sight at birth -- will start his seven-month trek to Maine, navigating by GPS. He has mastered its use by cell phone and trusts global positioning technology to steer his every step. "It gives me everything I would need to know about the trail but the view," Hanson said. "I will be able to hear and smell what is going on." If he makes it, he'll be...

West Point, N.Y., Feb. 2, 2010 – Soldier, infantryman, Airborne Ranger, combat diver, mountain climber, skier, tri-athlete, surfer, husband and father are just a few words to describe Army Capt. Scott M. Smiley. Army Capt. Scott M. Smiley salutes 1st Sgt. Deon E. Dabrio after returning the guidon during the U.S. Army Warrior Transition Unit change of command ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., Feb. 1, 2010. Smiley is the first blind officer and second wounded warrior to hold a position of command. U.S. Army photo by Tommy Gilligan  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Yesterday, the...

Just an observation. Watching it just now the "blind Ralphie" scene was cut. The movie (at least the 2 AM showing) is missing the scene after Melinda Dillon tastes the soap when it should have cut to Ralphie. Offensive to the sight-impaired I guess, not that they'd have seen it. I told you not to use "Lifebuoy." Major Award destruction. Household accident or domestic violence by proxy?

FORT BENNING, Ga., Dec. 24, 2009 – The first blind student to attend the Maneuver Captain's Career Course here graduated with his class Dec. 15 in a ceremony attended by family and friends. Army Lt. Col. Fredrick Dummar, commander of the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., congratulates Army Capt. Ivan Castro on graduating from the Maneuver Captain's Career Course at Fort Benning, Ga., Dec. 15, 2009. Castro, who will be assigned to the recruiting battalion, is the first blind student to attend the course. U.S. Army photo by Kristin Molinaro   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

FRESNO, Calif. -- An experimental device that uses the tongue instead of the eyes to "see" could be on the market next year, and a blind Fresno, Calif., teen hopes to be among the first to take one home. Researchers say their BrainPort device does not replace the sense of sight, but lets the blind perceive images, making it easier for them to navigate their surroundings. One group they foresee benefiting: Troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who are blind because of brain injuries. BrainPort consists of a tiny digital camera mounted on sunglasses. The camera is attached by a...

Surror Yousif Nasar, president of the Basrah Blind Association, recently demonstrated talking software to a member of his association. With this technology, BBA members can now email and surf the Internet. The U. S. State Department's Basrah Provincial Reconstruction Team provided the software after hearing of the association’s needs. Photo courtesy of Multi-National Division – South. BASRAH — Under the former regime, many elements of civil society were neglected here, including the handicapped. Upon hearing of the needs of the Basrah Blind Association, the U.S. State Department's Provincial Reconstruction Team asked how it might help. "It's an honor to meet...

Irish ophthamologists are warning of a wave of blindness affecting religious pilgrims who are being encouraged to stare at the sun. The incidents are taking place at the Knock shrine in County Mayo in western Ireland. For the past 130 years, pilgrims have visited the holy site, hoping to see visions of the Virgin Mary. In recent months, a new series of visions has drawn thousands of visitors to the shrine on days prescribed by a clairvoyant named Joe Coleman Ten thousand gathered in early November when Coleman told them: "The Rosary is to be said at 3 p.m. and...

Gene Therapy Transforms Eyesight Of 12 People With Rare Visual Defect A single injection in a patient's eye brings 'astounding' results. The findings may offer hope for those with macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Thomas H. Maugh II October 24, 2009 Pennsylvania researchers using gene therapy have made significant improvements in vision in 12 patients with a rare inherited visual defect, a finding that suggests it may be possible to produce similar improvements in a much larger number of patients with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. The team last year reported success with three adult patients, an achievement that was...

CHICAGO -- If you're looking for somebody to cheer for during Sunday's marathon, Steve Baskis is your man. The 23-year-old Iraq veteran lost his sight last year when a roadside bomb exploded next to the vehicle he was driving. One of his best friends, Victor Cota, was just a few feet away from him at the time and lost his life. Instead of falling apart, though, Baskis did exactly the opposite. He needed an outlet for competitiveness and he wanted to show people that life doesn't end just because you lose your vision. After numerous surgeries to repair his injuries,...

Blindness first began creeping up on Barbara Campbell when she was a teenager, and by her late 30s, her eye disease had stolen what was left of her sight. Reliant on a talking computer for reading and a cane for navigating New York City, where she lives and works, Ms. Campbell, now 56, would have been thrilled to see something. Anything. Now, as part of a striking experiment, she can. So far, she can detect burners on her stove when making a grilled cheese, her mirror frame, and whether her computer monitor is on. She is beginning an intensive three-year...

A legally blind woman has bagged a bear in the Upper Peninsula.Villa tells WLUC-TV her "limited sight" only allows her to "see the difference between light and dark" and "silhouettes of people."

WASHINGTON – If you think your kids spend a little too much time on their laptops, take heart: Michelle Obama has the same problem. The first lady made the rueful revelation as she feted the nation's top innovators and designers in fields as diverse as architecture, technology, fashion, and communications — winners of the annual National Design awards — at an East Room luncheon Friday. "What would we do without our laptops?" asked Mrs. Obama, addressing one of the winners, Bill Moggridge, who designed the world's first laptop. "My kids would die," she said to laughter. "They'd be — they...

A driver told a blind cancer sufferer to get off his bus when a woman and her children became hysterical at the sight of his guide dog. George Herridge, 71, told how the mum flew into a rage and shouted at him in a foreign language. A passenger explained she wanted him to get off the bus during the incident on May 20. Mr Herridge, from Tern Close, Tilehurst, said: “Her child was kicking and screaming and someone off the bus told me her child was frightened of my dog. The driver said, ‘Look mate, can’t you get off?’ “I...

Blind photography: the very concept sounds like an oxymoron. But an intriguing and often striking exhibition of photographs in Riverside, California, argues that it emanates from the core of contemporary art. The show "Sight Unseen," at the California Museum of Photography until Aug. 29, features everything from underwater scenes off Catalina Island, transvestites in New Orleans and Braille-enhanced black-and-whites as well as portraits, nudes, landscapes, travel shots, abstracts, collages, and everything else you might expect from a "sighted" photographer. Except the subtext and context is blindness: the photographers are legally blind, some born without sight or with limited vision, and...

A BLIND INTERNATIONAL interpreter who says he was dragged off a Belgium-bound flight, arrested and held in custody in Philadelphia for hours without food or water faces an arraignment Thursday. His crime: He questioned why his U.S. Airways flight was delayed nearly two hours. Nicola Cantisani, 61, of Brussels, Belgium, a professional translator who has been blind since birth, was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, police said. "This is taking airplane security to a new and ridiculous level," said his attorney, A. Charles Peruto Jr. "It's pretty crazy." Cantisani and his wife, Paola, were returning to Brussels April...

FENTON, Mo. - A legally blind man was credited with saving a woman after authorities said a 45-year-old man broke into her apartment on Saturday night. Authorities said the man, a convicted rapist, was waiting for the woman to return home from work. A neighbor who asked to be identified only as Jerry heard noises coming from the apartment. Jerry is blind in his left eye and has about 25 percent vision in his right eye. Jerry told KTVI-TV that he went to the apartment and kicked open the door, surprising the would-be attacker, who locked the door. The woman...