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People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

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Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#91
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think about the recent "People with blindness" obsession, as evidenced in the title? I am not blind nor deaf etc., but I am frankly fed up with it. In my case, should I call myself "a person with programming, Czechness and fortysomething years"? Nope, I am a middle-aged Czech programmer. Yes, that does not reflect my entire personality and humanity. So what. Better than this sort of language abuse.

I’d argue that a plain-English reading is actually the other way around. A “person with a car” is a normal descriptor, a “car person” is somebody for whom cars are a major life fixture. So accordingly I feel that “blind person” makes it more… conclusive? all encompassing? than “person with blindness”.

You make a completely false equvilance.

A car person would be some kind of car person hybrid if you read it literally. Car person is acting as a short hand for "Car obsessed person." Car is a noun, blind is an adjective, etc...

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#92
post #25

A bit of a tengent, but... For those worrying about their eyesight when getting older... If you are into FLOSS, one last defense against your eyes failing when you get older is actually to contribute to accessibility before you (hopefully never) end up needing it. Disclaimer: I am blind myself.

Just out of curiosity, do you have thoughts on what some of the most useful projects are to those in your position, that one could contribute to?

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#93

For the sake of the patients, I hope there's a better long-term service plan than Second Sight Medical Products had: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_retinal_prosthesis

The only "almost messed up" thing I could find about the service, was this: > Second Sight merged with Nano Precision Medical in August 2023 with a commitment to provide technical support for the Argus II Maybe you're alluding to something more than is mentioned in that article, did they not fulfill their commitment to provide the technical support in the end?

Three years later and after multiple people had re-lost their sight. It’s also an ongoing situation if I’m reading it correctly, not a solved one.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#94

For the sake of the patients, I hope there's a better long-term service plan than Second Sight Medical Products had: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_retinal_prosthesis

The way I would solve that is by requiring that any software / documentation required for the operation, maintenance and repair of medical implants must be stored with some appropriate government body. If the company becomes unwilling or unable to service the product the information is made public.

Unfortunately, documentation simply isn't sufficient. In addition to parts or components not being manufactured anymore, you also would have the likely bigger issue of clinicians being hesitant or unwilling to work with the hardware, and / or insurance not covering the doctor's time or procedures. I believe such things already happened with the Second Sight fiasco.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#95
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes. Capitalism is why the product could even be developed in the first place, and also why it ended the way it did.

It's not the only imaginable way, but it is the society we (in the vast majority of the world) live in, and I agree it doesn't really make sense to bash something not continuing to exist unprofitably when it was developed for profit. It's annoying when software support ends for anything, phones, Nest Protect, (any Google product!), but I think best to bear it in mind in buying anything that it's a possibility, who ar…

This isn’t a smartphone it’s someone’s sight dude. Surely the conversation should be slightly different?

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#96
post #45
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was prescribed vit a palmitate, lutein, and DHA. The vit prescribed was a high dose, like 10k iu per day. I cut back on that dose, I'm going blind but I also need to consider my general health. I have ushers syndrome, not md, but it's a retinal disease (retinitis pigmentosa). To be clear, this is prescribed as a "we can't do anything else for you" thing, since there is no cure for RP. This may or may not actually h…

Sorry to hear that. Given that it's genetic only something like Crispr could perhaps one day help.

They're also working on mRNA treatments, there is the LUNA study currently underway. Unfortunately I have a rare variant that isn't covered by this treatment. I'm hopeful but alas I live my life like treatment isn't coming because it's probably not.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#97
One of my relative got blinded in a production process, a hard bolt crashed into his eyeball, unfortunately, another eye also can't see things due to drinking too much alcohol, I think the pro term is retinal detachment If I am right.

So now he is in pure blindness, I can feel the pain. He comes from China.

I hope there will be a process can help him to see things again!

If anyone knows sth, please tell me!

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think about the recent "People with blindness" obsession, as evidenced in the title? I am not blind nor deaf etc., but I am frankly fed up with it. In my case, should I call myself "a person with programming, Czechness and fortysomething years"? Nope, I am a middle-aged Czech programmer. Yes, that does not reflect my entire personality and humanity. So what. Better than this sort of language abuse.

It's a remnant of the woke era, and I expect and hope it will go the way of Latinx. The (foolish) idea was that the word "blind" has a negative charge, so if we replace it with another word the stigma will go away, and blind people can feel better. But of course, any stigma comes from the blindness itself. Any replacement term will get the same stigma, and will then need to be replaced. Stephen Pinker called it "The…

The idea of replacing "blind people" with "people with blindness" has absolutely nothing to do with the idea that "blind" is negative - if it did, I suspect proponents would, you know, not use the word blind!

The actual reasoning is putting the people first, not their disability.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People-first_language

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#99

For the sake of the patients, I hope there's a better long-term service plan than Second Sight Medical Products had: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_retinal_prosthesis

I actually asked them about it https://bsky.app/profile/benetou.fr/post/3m3orbh5h7s2n and basically :

- devices are not OSHW (and didn't comment on the new OSHWA open healtware initiative) - implants don't actually have firmware or even battery - devices connected to implants rely on their protocol Synapse https://github.com/sciencecorp/synapse-api

So... arguably they haven't taken a positive stance on the topic IMHO but assuming the situation is as they describe (kind of an advanced mirror in the body connected to smarter stuff outside but that one could replace) it's not as terrible as others mentioned e.g. in the IEEE Spectrum article.

Re: People with blindness can read again after retinal implant and special glasses

#100
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a remnant of the woke era, and I expect and hope it will go the way of Latinx. The (foolish) idea was that the word "blind" has a negative charge, so if we replace it with another word the stigma will go away, and blind people can feel better. But of course, any stigma comes from the blindness itself. Any replacement term will get the same stigma, and will then need to be replaced. Stephen Pinker called it "The…

The idea of replacing "blind people" with "people with blindness" has absolutely nothing to do with the idea that "blind" is negative - if it did, I suspect proponents would, you know, not use the word blind! The actual reasoning is putting the people first, not their disability. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People-first_language

It still seems to be rooted in the same social engineering principle, based on Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
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