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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

#61

Post by epmaybe »

It’s not often that an ophthalmology study makes it into the New England journal of medicine. This is pretty neat technology, but subretinal surgery is a skill mostly forgotten by retina surgeons. It will be interesting to see who will end up offering this kind of surgery.

They didn’t really demonstrate that patients without the implant had worse vision. You could argue that with the magnifying glasses themselves that patients could improve their vision without surgery. So it will be up to a future study to determine this.

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

#62

Post by jzb »

lynx97 wrote: post #51
inglor_cz wrote: post #31

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.

Since you ask... I am find as long as blind is actually used. I dont particular care about the order of words. However, what I absolutely despise and truely hate is this "visually challenged" nonesense from the leftist language police.

Isn’t “visually challenged” (or similar) a useful term for people who have visual impairments, but aren’t technically blind?

Do you have the same objection to, say, “visually impaired” if a person is trying to talk about all people with various vision problems, up to being fully blind?

If those are unacceptable, what would you use in that case?

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

#63

Post by worldsayshi »

pikuseru wrote: post #30
lta wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free software is more important than ever

Free healthcare as well

As a citizen of a country with free healthcare, Sweden, I wonder how we deal with these issues. We dont exactly have a stellar record when it comes to software procurement in the health sector.

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

#64

Post by marky1991 »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #60
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia is dead wrong. I have never, ever, even in the most obscure context, heard it used as a slur.

Neither have I – but Wikipedia also cites the OED (paywalled, so I can't confirm this). If the OED really says that deaf-mute is used as a slur, then I believe it. Again, if you have positive evidence that deaf-mute is not used as a slur, then please correct the Wikipedia article.

As a us person, I don't even know what deaf-mute means? (Is it deaf and mute? Like Helen Keller?) I've literally never heard the word used in my life.

But I'm sure basically any word has been used as an insult in some context, that doesn't mean it's useful to consider all such usage as such.

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

#65

Post by lynx97 »

jzb wrote: post #62
lynx97 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you ask... I am find as long as blind is actually used. I dont particular care about the order of words. However, what I absolutely despise and truely hate is this "visually challenged" nonesense from the leftist language police.

Isn’t “visually challenged” (or similar) a useful term for people who have visual impairments, but aren’t technically blind? Do you have the same objection to, say, “visually impaired” if a person is trying to talk about all people with various vision problems, up to being fully blind? If those are unacceptable, what would you use in that case?

It's an attempt to whitewash the issues, and not use words which imply real problems. I prefer visually impared, however, in the US, legally blind basically says the same thing.

My gf (blind herself) recently met a teacher on a train, who told her she is working with her class to find a new word to replace "disabled". IMO, just so that she doesn't have to deal with reality. And, mind you, no disabled person around... It is just sad what some people are doing on "behalf of us", just so they don't have to grapple with the fact that some people have a harsh life.

It is hard to explain the sadness, as I also have a language barrier, english being my second language. However, believe me, I virtually know no disabled person who likes these language games. If we are amongst each other, we all agree this patronising is sad and should stop.

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

#66

Post by wizzwizz4 »

marky1991 wrote: post #64
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither have I – but Wikipedia also cites the OED (paywalled, so I can't confirm this). If the OED really says that deaf-mute is used as a slur, then I believe it. Again, if you have positive evidence that deaf-mute is not used as a slur, then please correct the Wikipedia article.

As a us person, I don't even know what deaf-mute means? (Is it deaf and mute? Like Helen Keller?) I've literally never heard the word used in my life. But I'm sure basically any word has been used as an insult in some context, that doesn't mean it's useful to consider all such usage as such.

Helen Keller was deaf-blind but not mute: she gave many of the speeches she wrote, although she never got her speech as clear as she would've liked. (See e.g. https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=8ch_H8pt9M8&t=124) Despite what the National Association of the Deaf's Community and Culture FAQ claims, deaf people can learn to speak: it's just a lot harder, since they have to approach it as an applied articulatory phonetics exercise. (Helen Keller used the Tadoma method to get information that a sighted deaf person might get visually: https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=GzlriQv16gg)

If you're neither a bigot nor a member of a minority group, you're unlikely to be familiar with the slurs used against members of that group. And, of course, different cultures have different slurs. The fact we've never observed these words being used as slurs doesn't mean they aren't predominately used that way, in certain cultures.

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

#67

Post by CaptainOfCoit »

RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #11

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?

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

#68

Post by jeroenhd »

pxc wrote: post #59
devinprater wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accessibility of free software is more important than ever.

The freedom of users of accessibility software is more important than ever. Blind people in my family rely on proprietary software for dealing with visual impairments. It's painful and offensive how exploitative these tools often are. The thought of installing something by a similar company into one's body is frankly dystopian.

The problem right now is that there's a financial incentive for software to remain proprietary. As a user, you get to pick between "no help" or "proprietary help".

I would gladly pay big money for proprietary tools if it means regaining some of my sight until libre options exist. Looking at the rather sorry state of accessibility on libre software, I'll be dead and buried before the first digital eyeball with free software comes out.

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

#70

Post by noir_lord »

worldsayshi wrote: post #63
pikuseru wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free healthcare as well

As a citizen of a country with free healthcare, Sweden, I wonder how we deal with these issues. We dont exactly have a stellar record when it comes to software procurement in the health sector.

Neither do we in the UK.

The most expensive IT failure in our governments history was healthcare related.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Connecting_for_Health

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