The leading cause of blindness in America is Cataract followed by Glaucoma. I was born with Cataract and Glaucoma followed shortly thereafter. When the doctors told my parents I had Cataract they quickly asked the doctors to operate on me and it was successfully removed. However, that wasn’t the end of my problems, about a couple months later I was going in for a routine checkup when my ophthalmologist noticed a high pressure in my right eye. After some tests they diagnosed me with Glaucoma. I didn’t know about this condition until I was much older and I realized I didn't have sight in my right eye. The only way you would know I have Glaucoma is from the color of my right eye. I’m supposed to have dark brown eyes. My entire family and relatives …show more content…
Sure, my vision is pretty much non-existent in my right eye but, my disability hasn’t prevented me from doing anything that I ever wanted to do, in fact Glculoma has open my eyes to the vast world of technology. My parents didn’t want me to play sports considering the risk of injury and so I was at home a lot. At school we were learning about how to use Scratch and one of the projects in the class was building a maze game. It was extremely exciting and I loved how we could use blocks of code to enable our character to move along the maze. I was curious about how this “magic” really worked. This was honestly what inspired me to start learning programming. Without this experience I might have not discovered programming so early. There was one part about having Glaucoma that used to bother me, of course it shouldn't have because there are people in this world that have far worse conditions than I do and I shouldn't even …show more content…
Seeing as I'm not anywhere even close to their age; they’re thinking "What is he doing here?” When the doctor comes out and calls my name they look at me in total shock and whisper “What? He's the patient; he's too young to be the patient!” And I'm thinking "I know right". What I want to say is that having glaucoma is not as awful as you may think. Even though I was born with this condition I have found that having a positive outlook has helped me cope with this. As time passed it’s also been easier getting used to the comments I receive from people. People in school used to ask me about my eye and I would feel so ashamed that I was different and not “normal”. Now I’ve finally accepted that I'm not like everyone else and when I am approached by people with questions about my eye I find it easier to say “Yes, my eyes are different”. My condition is tough but, having gone through everything I have, has made it easier for me to deal with unexpected situations. I really hate having glaucoma; sometimes I wish I could be
I realize that it is ironic that I, of all people, am taking classes in American Sign Language and am a CSD major. Devoting my future to working with people who have communication and hearing disorders is more than likely going to present a unique challenge to myself due to my low vision, but I have
Optometrists have accepted vision therapy, which is a medical treatment for optical muscle disabilities, as a feasible treatment used for eye related problems; claiming the treatment can strengthen vision and give the patient the opportunity to understand visuals quicker and clearer (Press). Vision therapy originated in the 1950s and over the past 25 years, has gained popularity, mainly because of new technological innovations in the field of treatment. Generally, vision therapy is prescribed as a measure mainly for people between the ages of 3 and 18. With the results from a comprehensive series of eye tests, the optometrist can work with the patient using special instruments—prisms, filters, occluders, and eye lenses—and strengthen the eye muscles, thus improving sight. According to optometrists in favor of vision therapy, these methods of treatment using these instruments function as safer routes to repair eye disabilities. Although vision therapy can yield favorable results, the practice as a treatment for innate eye disabilities has been in hot debate lately; as it can exceed $8000 and insurance companies do not cover the treatment. For decades, insurance companies have refused to accept vision therapy as a legitimate method for repairing eyesight (Boink). Concomitant with lack of insurance, the cost for a full treatment can exceed $8000, and doctors cannot guarantee a successful outcome. Recently, parents of children with eye related disabilities, such as amblyopia (lazy eye) and strabismus (cross-eye), and doctors have attempted to cooperate with public schools to allow families access to school-funded doctors to practice vision therapy. With a tight budget, most schools cannot afford to supply vision therapy, and a...
During my childhood I was diagnosed as having poor eyesight and was prescribed glasses to assist with my vision correction. I realize how blessed I am to have had that as an option. I was always in awe of the environment and creatures who inhabited the various areas of nature. The sense of vision is very important and without the ability to see an individual would be missing out on many colorful life experiences. Blindness, which is the lack of the ability to see is a very dark and challenging disability. Without one’s eyes, everyday activities such a walking, reading, eating and identifying people can be a struggle. It has been proven that the brain will adapt to the loss by giving itself a makeover. If one sense is lost,
My father made a successful recovery and I became inspired. I realized that having the gift of sight is something people take for granted. Therefore, when I embarked on my undergraduate journey, I partook in several activities to help foster my thirst for knowledge about optometry. For instance, I became the treasurer of the pre-optometry club at the University of Florida. As an executive board member, I opened doors for others to find their passion for optometry through managing our budget and finances to sponsor trips and activities. Meanwhile, I also worked as a secretary and shadowed at the Eye Associates of Orlando, where I gained practical knowledge. I also volunteered for the KidSight Vision Screening Program where I entered data of visio...
The recent history of the visually impaired is riddled with illiteracy and inconvenient methods of writing that put sighted students at a huge advantage over their visually impaired classmates. Take the story of Gerard Guarniero, for example – he spent eighth grade using a metal device that, while it enabled him to write in Braille, took him “three to four hours times as long to write the same paper as his sighted classmates.” However, Mr. Guarniero has not been in eighth grade for more than 40 years; since then, technology for Braille students has changed dramatically, and for the better.
The difficulty with glaucoma is that everyone is susceptible to it, and that the effects of glaucoma are not felt until vision loss occurs. This inability to diagnose glaucoma makes it difficult for patients to get the proper attention that they need. Currently there are no cures for glaucoma or its effects, only to try and stop it from causing further damage. The main step that patients should take with glaucoma is early diagnosis, but with many of glaucoma's effects being unnoticed, many victims will not get treatment until their vision has already been seriously damaged. With such effects as loss of peripheral vision or blurred vision, a patient then would proceed to get treated through the use of eye drops, medications, or surgery to reduce the pressure in the patient's eyes. This reduction in pressure is only temporary, and if treatment is stopped, the pressure would build up after a short period of time. This reduction of pressure can be costly and has no effect on the vision already lost. To treat this disease people are going to have to look to the future of
1. a) Three crucial things a business must manage is to have a common set of goals, then establish a market opportunity, and be ready to recover from a financial crisis.
The Optic cranial nerve is located in the eye. Its function is to provide us with vision. This particular cranial nerve is a sensory nerve. The hypoglossal cranial nerve supplies the muscles of the tongue and allows movements of the tongue to form things like speech and swallowing. This is a motor cranial nerve because it provides our tongue to move. The facial cranial nerve is mixed. Its sensory fibers are concerned with taste via taste buds in the front of the tongue. It also has motor fibers that control tears via the lacrimal glands around our eyes. These nerves also allow for muscles in our face to move and we can have facial expressions. The vagus cranial nerve is also mixed. Its sensory fibers allow for monitoring blood pressure and
Retinal detachment is a separation of the retina from the choroid usual. The retina is a thin layer of tissue that lines the back of the orbital socket near the optic nerve. The normal functions of the retina are to process light through a layer of photoreceptor cells. These cells are light-sensitive and detect color and light intensity. The information gathered from these cells send information to the brain through the optic nerve to create a visual image (Davis 1797).
He was a healthy baby, until a month later his right pupil glazed over white. His mother took him immediately to the doctor, they told her he had Bilateral Retinoblastoma, which meant that he had cancer in both of his eyes. His right eye had to be removed after two months of chemo, and continued chemo another eight months, in order to try and save his left eye from being consumed by cancer. The chemo treatments failed, and he had to get his left eye removed, when he woke up from surgery he told his mother he could see nothing. In return, she responded with some of the most powerful words of wisdom a child could ever hear. “ Ben you can see! You can see me with your hands. You can smell me with your nose. You can hear me with your ears. You can’t use your eyes anymore, but you have your hands, your nose, your ears.” It was a slow recovery, but using his other four senses Ben started seeing again through the use of echolocation. Echolocation is when a person clicks their tongue at objects, and hears the echo bounce off of it, therefore letting them know what the object is, and if it is in their path. He is now 23 years old, and he can play video games, ride bikes, skate, climb trees, and do thing that ordinary people can do. Ben Underwood has applied to and been accepted to a college in Japan, and has completed his first science fiction novel. In conclusion, only two people are known to have mastered
As a result of my research I have found that assistive technology is very helpful to blind or visually impaired people when used appropriately. Technology has set new standards and goals for the visually disabled and blind that were never within reach without these new break throughs. The main issues that still need to be dealt with is making sure the new technology is taught correctly to the people who need to use it, and that access to the latest technology is easily attainable.
After i was getting trained in how to deal with my disabilities and learned to live with them i began to see that i was actually very smart. In fact before Anne came into my life i had learned how to make over 60 signals to communicate with my family and nurses. My first and only instructor that i ever
Have computers positively impacted society of the physically challenged? The answer to that question is yes. Computers have helped physically challenged people to become more independent and have better and fuller lives. The Internet has been a useful tool for these people because they can buy, sell, or read objects on the web pages. They can buy their groceries and read the newspaper on-line. Without the Internet and computers the physically challenged would have to depend on other people to help them do their shopping or reading. This paper will discuss speech and language impairments, hearing impairments, visual impairments, and mobility impairments and how computers have positively impacted each of these groups of people.
Bowser and Reed [1995] as cited by Bryant et al [1998] argue that as a child progresses through the Education System, their requirements change and this may necessitate a need for different devices. This is not limited to those children with a physical disability but is relevant to all children with SEN as they progress and the Education System places additional burdens upon them. For children with a visual impairment ICT can provide support in various ways; tools to support communication, to improve access to information and as a means of producing learning materials in alternative. There is a wide range of devices and software, which can
A year later, we ended up going to an eye doctor and they sent us to the University of Iowa because they could not see the back of my eye. I found out I have an eye disorder called Uveitis, which causes swelling in the back of the eye, and can eventually cause glaucoma. Uveitis is caused by an autoimmune disorder. Because of this, the eye doctors sent me over to the rheumatologist to have different tests taken such as Tuberculosis, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and others, to see if they may be the cause of my Uveitis. However, all the tests came back negative.