From the President’s Desk
While the fall/winter season is evident with the daylight hours becoming shorter, and the weather changing, the Council welcomes its many Chapters and Members who are starting back with their social events including sports, recreational activity, and peer engagement. The CCB members are blessed with a wide range of activities available to them. Many groups are planning trips within close proximity to their locations to events. This includes visiting fall fairs and celebrating milestones within their own Communities, such as anniversaries and new leadership. A great reminder that accessible and travel friendly transit routes are so important to our members and help remove challenges to getting out an experiencing what your community has to offer.
It is important that we recognize and welcome those who have stepped up to take on leadership roles within their Chapters and communities. We also must remember to thank those who represented so many for so long, who have stepped back or moved on to support new leadership in all levels of the Organization. We encourage our members to take on new leadership roles, as there is always a huge need for volunteers, which allows growth within our Chapters and Groups. This growth is evident from the Chapter level to the important committee work, which continues to be an integral part of the CCB future growth, identifying those ever-changing needs of our members, whom we proudly represent.
We are fortunate to support and to continue to grow our committee work in advocacy, membership, and pharma all being advisory players to Organizational direction. Furthermore, the important programming and activity offered at our national level is a true testament to our commitment to our members. These programs include our Get Together with Technology (GTT), which helps people to learn and discover assistive technology. The CCB is also proud that its National Curling Bonspiel has returned, following a brief absence, reflecting the importance of curling throughout the Council.
The Council, through its committees, continues to engage in work important to our members, such as our ongoing work in advocacy, membership and membership growth, as well as the important work in Pharma and eye health. We are doing great work with our partners to support eye care and research to help eliminate preventable vision loss in Canada and around the world.
On behalf of the National Board of Directors, Staff, Partners and Sponsors, we wish All across Canada a Happy Thanksgiving with Family and Friends. Please remember the importance of getting your eyes checked regularly.
Jim Tokos
National President
Member Spotlight: We would like to introduce Karen Young from the St. John’s chapter in Newfoundland.
My name is Karen Young, and I have held the title of President of our local E. A. Baker St. John’s chapter since April 2022.
I am proud to say I work for rogers communications Inc, and I am currently in my 29th year as a Rogers employee. I have warn many different hats during my career but currently am a Performance Insights Data Analyst.
I feel my career at Rogers has equipped me with the skills to properly engage and support our local CCB membership.
My focus is to consistently stay engaged with our members and consider my audience when creating the proper sports and fund-raising events, and recreational programs. The main thing is to design those programs in which all members can take part in. Most of our CCB community are an aging population and a lot of times you need to adapt various activities to adhere to those needs. That is why I do believe it is important to listen to the community you support. The more you are engaged with the folks, the more successful you will be as a group.
One of my aspirations moving forward is to create a marketing plan to gain more awareness with the public and network with other organizations and schools to attract a younger generation of blind and visually impaired individuals in hopes to increase and grow our membership.
Announcements
Vision Health Conference 2024
Vision Health Conference 2024
This conference will present results from the newly-released Report Card Part 2, undertaken by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB) and Fighting Blindness Canada (FBC), which is a follow-up to the Report Card Part 1, released in October 2022.
The report provides an update on the current state of vision health in Canada and what we can anticipate as we move forward from the post-pandemic era. The report offers insights into the key issues affecting vision health and the community of people living with vision loss.
The conference will take place both online and in person at Epic Hall and Prologue venues at the Toronto Reference Library at 789 Yonge St., Toronto, Ont., M4W 2G8
Register to attend virtually: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bbKDk_mcQ22W-QY9OzuTyg#/registration
Register to attend in person: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdqA5qBGTtwvsnGZ2iLIy9UplVkDuHwKs4_b1Nlp7Wvpt6Qpw/viewform
CCB-Get Together with Technology (GTT) Program:
CCB’s GTT is highly active and has many types of meetings that you are welcome to join each month to learn about new assistive technology. Whether you are a beginner, or an advanced user, there’s always something new to learn!
For a complete list of meetings and/or contact information please visit the GTT blog at gttprogram.blog
Accessible gaming:
Get Back Into the Game is all about accessible gaming. My name is Markus McCracken, and as an advocate slash consultant, I have created Get Back Into the Game, a gaming for everyone page, where I will discuss games that are accessible, technology that is accessible, or could use some improvements. You can also find me discussing accessible gaming on AMI-tv with Kelly and Ramya.
Are you living with a disability? Looking for a new hobby? Used to be a gamer or looking to get back into gaming but just unsure how to do that, or even if you can do that? No problem. Get Back Into the Game is here to help you with that. There is something for everyone!
You can hear Markus McCracken on the Kelly and Ramya AMI TV Blog, Episode 1491, discussing accessibility in video games. On this episode, they have a discussion with Markus on how games are continually being improved for accessibility and inclusion, for gamers with disabilities.
Follow Marcus on
Twitter @MarkusMcCracken
@GBTTGame
Or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Get-back-into-the-Game/100082678994380/?locale=hi_IN&_rdr
Are you blind and love cooking?:
Greetings from Golden Eye Chef 2024, the International Cooking Contest for the Blind! To join the contest, simply create a cooking video and email it to us at goldeneyechef@antardrishti.org by October 7, 2024.
The theme for this year’s contest is: “Cook anyone, easy, affordable, and delicious dish to boost health.”
The competition will be held in two categories: one for totally blind participants and another for partially blind participants.
You are free to use any language in your video. However, if it’s not in English or Hindi, please include an English text translation of the voiceover.
Here are some links to explore Golden Eye Chef 2024 Contest.
1. Contest Website: https://2024.goldeneyechef.com/
2. All You Need to Know About Golden Eye Chef 2024 – https://youtu.be/XKM9gfGPdK8
If you encounter any issues, feel free to reach out. We’re here to assist and ensure your submission goes smoothly.
Please share this message to help us to promote Golden Eye Chef in promoting the culinary talents of blind individuals. Your support is vital to making this event a success and helping create a positive impact on society.
Golden Eye Chef 2024
email: info@goldeneyechef.com
Elections Canada is hiring!:
Are you available to work as a returning officer in your community? If so, apply now at www.elections.ca/jobs
Returning officers are responsible for planning elections, managing budgets and resources, and communicating with the public and stakeholders.
Elections Canada offers:
a competitive salary
paid training
a unique work experience
the opportunity to get involved in your community and meet new people.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-800-463-6868 if you have any questions.
Expansion of BALANCE Services Ontario-Wide:
As a part of our ongoing commitment to provide an open world for persons who are blind or living with sight loss, BALANCE for Blind Adults is thrilled to announce significant expansions in our services as we seek to broaden our impact throughout Ontario.
We are expanding our remote Assistive Technology Training and Mental Health Support Programs to better serve communities across the province.
Up until this year, BALANCE service has been focused almost entirely within the City of Toronto. All of our programs in these two areas will now be open to persons with visual disabilities (who meet our eligibility criteria) residing in any part of the province and will no longer be restricted to the Toronto area (as long as they can connect to the program).
For the past 4 years, BALANCE has been successfully providing services remotely (via Zoom or phone) in both these service areas, in City of Toronto and the GTA, with some group events and workshops open nationwide. We have successfully built our capacity so we can now offer these two specific services to people with visual disabilities who live in your region, as long as they reside in the Province of Ontario. Our goal is to both broaden our reach, and deepen our impact, ensuring that individuals across Ontario have the necessary support and tools to succeed.
Please feel free to access our Ontario-Wide Virtual Services web page, or contact the office at info@balancefba.org or 416-236-1796 ext.0 with any questions or to learn more about our expanded services, and how your peers may benefit. To learn more about all of our programs, visit www.balancefba.org.
www.balancefba.org
Submitted by Deborah Gold, Chief Executive Officer
BALANCE for Blind Adults
In the News
Blind Musicians and Teachers Communicate Through Vibration Using Canadian-Made Device:
A PhD student in Ottawa has developed a device that allows blind and low-vision students to feel music cues, replacing the need to see them.
Instead of having to follow a conductor’s baton, or a teacher’s hand gestures during a lesson, music learners can receive instruction through a vibration in their right leg sent by the Tap-Tap device.
Leon Lu, the information technology PhD student at Carleton University behind the idea, says the wearable device is easy to use and cheap to make.
“Imagine, kind of like a Morse code, but vibration,” Lu told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. “What’s really cool about that is that you can get real-time communication happening through discreet methods.”
“The student can continue playing and they don’t have to stop and actually discuss [the instruction], but they can still be in that moment and in flow.”
A violin teacher can tap her heels together to send a real-time message to her student about rhythm and tempo. The device they’re using, called the tap-tap, was created by Carleton PhD student Leon Lu in an effort to transform the learning experience for blind and low-vision musicians.
The Tap-Tap device doesn’t come with a set communication code or language. That language is set by the participants, which Lu says is both a limitation and advantage of the device.
Piano teacher Nora Bartosik echoes that.
Bartosik is a faculty member at Manhattan’s Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School, a school for blind and low-vision students, which teamed up with Lu to test the prototype and provide his team with weekly feedback about the device.
She used the Tap-Tap device with one of her piano students for about two months earlier this year and says there was a learning curve.
“It kind of feels like a phone buzz,” said Bartosik. “Actually, a little bit stronger.”
“[My student and I] decided to focus on the things that I’ve been saying a lot in lessons…. We decided we would use the buzz to indicate that I wanted him to play quieter in certain sections.”
As they got used to the device, they added more signals.
“Two buzzes might mean like get louder, you know, do a crescendo,” she explained. “One long buzz would mean this, or one short buzz would mean that. We kind of expanded the vocabulary as we went along.”
Chase Crispin, a blind musician and teacher in Lincoln, Nebraska, who consulted on the Tap-Tap project, said in a written statement from Carleton University, that “many people don’t realize how much a musician is managing at once: posture, notes, rhythms, dynamics — the list goes on. For blind music learners, who memorize most of this, it adds even more layers.”
Crispin said getting involved with the study was a way to “blend my own interest in technology with the needs I had as a blind musician.”
Lu, who sings, plays guitar and is learning violin, said his passion for music and desire to be creative was part of the reason he took up this project.
He’s surprised that a device similar to the Tap-Tap isn’t already integrated into commercially-available devices, such as a smartwatch, and hopes that might be a possibility in the future.
By Katie Geleff, CBC News
Head in the Game, Blind soccer players help develop new aids for the visually impaired:
Researchers from the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences at the University of Tsukuba studied the way blind players and sighted non-athletes tracked an incoming noise-making ball. They found that blind players employed a larger downward head rotation when trapping the rolling ball, compared with blindfolded
sighted volunteers. This work may help explain the methods visually impaired people utilize to complete daily tasks, as well as assist in the creation of new smart-assistant devices.
Blind soccer is a sport that can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of visual ability. Except for the goalkeepers, players are blindfolded during the game, and can follow the location of the ball using the sounds it emits. To better understand the way visually impaired players are able to receive and control the ball, scientists at the University of Tsukuba recruited both experienced blind soccer players as well as sighted nonathlete volunteers. A system of
ten cameras were used to keep track of the three-dimensional position of the reflective markers attached to the body of each test subject. The task for each participant was to trap an incoming rolling ball with his right foot while blindfolded.
The seasoned blind footballers showed a larger downward.
Head rotation angle, as well as better overall performance, compared with the sighted non-athletes. However, no significant differences were found in the horizontal
head or trunk rotation. This indicates that blind footballers can more closely match the motion of their head with the movement of the approaching ball.
“Our study suggests that blind footballers are better at keeping the ball in a consistent egocentric direction relative to the head throughout the trapping process,” Senior author Professor Masahiro Kokubu says.
It is known that blind individuals can have superior hearing compared with sighted individuals, especially for sound localization. “Our results are consistent with previous findings that practice improves the ability to track sounds even in blind individuals who already do better than sighted people on this task,” explains Professor Kokubu.
These results also suggest that the strategy of blind footballers to accurately localize a ball.
is similar to the way high-level baseball batters rotate their heads. The results of this project may lead to improved smart devices that take advantage of these same techniques to assist visually impaired individuals.
by University of Tsukuba
Blind Halifax Woman Nearly Hit at Intersection Raises Questions About Construction Accessibility:
Advocate says after risking her life crossing the street, she has had enough.
But after she was nearly struck by a vehicle this summer while struggling to cross an intersection being reconfigured to accommodate bike lanes, she says the city needs to step up its game to improve accessibility in construction zones.
“Construction and navigation in the city in general has been down the drain in the past three years,” said Khazanavicius, who is blind.
Khazanavicius’s close call happened on the evening of August 14 after she got off a bus near the corner of Windsor and Almon streets and found a barricade blocking her way forward.
She backtracked and tried to cross at another part of the intersection, with Hope guiding her around some of the gravelled areas and obstructions in the work zone. But she said she could not hear the usual accessible pedestrian signals; cars began honking at her and one came close to striking her.
She said another pedestrian intervened at that point and helped get her across the street, leading her around construction pylons and another barricade.
A spokesperson for Halifax Regional Municipality said after receiving complaints about the intersection, it instructed the contractor the following day to take action to “ensure the area was accessible for all road users.”
The city recognizes “these issues can be more difficult for people who are blind or partially sighted,” it said in a statement responding to questions about accessibility in construction areas.
The city said it reopened one of the quadrants in the intersection, but Khazanavicius said that wasn’t sufficient enough to enable accessible use of the street.
She pointed out a sign warning of a work zone ahead was obstructing a sidewalk and could be imperceptible for a person walking with a cane, creating a potential injury hazard.
She said constant changes such as the relocation or addition of pylons, barricades and signs makes it even harder to navigate the area because it makes her route inconsistent and impossible to memorize.
CBC News returned to the intersection at Windsor and Almon on August 16 and found barricades had been moved again and the accessible pedestrian signals were not operating.
The barricades would make it nearly impossible for Khazanavicius to get from her usual bus stop to her nearby house without crossing the street at a non-designated area with no traffic lights or crosswalks.
Asked once again about the situation, the city spokesperson said staff frequented zones to ensure they are user-friendly and accessible.
“We continuously strive to improve the accessibility of our construction projects,” the statement said.
For Khazanavicius, it’s not the first time she’s spoken out about what she calls a dangerous intersection.
In a letter sent to Halifax Regional Municipality on July 9, she and other advocates raised concerns about the proposed design of the cycling lane along Almon Street.
The group wrote that while they recognize the necessity of creating bike lanes, “the deployment of cycling infrastructure and its impact on vulnerable pedestrians remains poorly understood.”
CNIB had warned that this specific construction project would affect people who are blind or visually impaired as its office is located nearby. But Khazanavicius, who has been advocating for the rights of people with disabilities for seven years, feels none of her complaints were heard at the time.
“I can attest that I’ve had conversations off record with people who are in charge and there have been mistakes made here already that [have] been identified,” she said.
In February, a city staff report said municipal staffers had consulted community advocates, including people with vision loss and Walk ‘n Roll Halifax, road builders, engineers and developers to look into improving accessibility rules around construction sites.
The city said the CNIB letter had only addressed design aspects and not construction concerns, but they “engaged with the CNIB before construction” and maintained ongoing discussions.
By Giuliana Grillo de Lambarri, CBC News
Arkansas Man Receives the World’s First Whole Eye Transplant, Plus a New Face:
Surgeons have performed the world’s first transplant of an entire human eye, an extraordinary addition to a face transplant — although it’s far too soon to know if the man will ever see through his new left eye.
An accident with high-voltage power lines had destroyed most of Aaron James’ face and one eye. His right eye still works. But surgeons at NYU Langone Health hoped replacing the missing one would yield better cosmetic results for his new face, by supporting the transplanted eye socket and lid.
The NYU team announced that so far, it’s doing just that. James is recovering well from the dual transplant last May and the donated eye looks remarkably healthy.
“It feels good. I still don’t have any movement in it yet. My eyelid, I can’t blink yet. But I’m getting sensation now,” James told The Associated Press as doctors examined his progress recently.
“You got to start somewhere, there’s got to be a first person somewhere,” added James, 46, of Hot Springs, Arkansas. “Maybe you’ll learn something from it that will help the next person.”
Today, transplants of the cornea — the clear tissue in front of the eye — are common to treat certain types of vision loss. But transplanting the whole eye — the eyeball, its blood supply and the critical optic nerve that must connect it to the brain — is considered a moonshot in the quest to cure blindness.
Whatever happens next, James’ surgery offers scientists an unprecedented window into how the human eye tries to heal.
“We’re not claiming that we are going to restore sight,” said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, NYU’s plastic surgery chief, who led the transplant. “But there’s no doubt in my mind we are one step closer.”
Some specialists had feared the eye would quickly shrivel like a raisin. Instead, when Rodriguez propped open James’ left eyelid last month, the donated hazel-colored eye was as plump and full of fluid as his own blue eye. Doctors see good blood flow and no sign of rejection.
Now researchers have begun analyzing scans of James’ brain that detected some puzzling signals from that all-important but injured optic nerve.
One scientist who has long studied how to make eye transplants a reality called the surgery exciting.
“It’s an amazing validation” of animal experiments that have kept transplanted eyes alive, said Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg, chair of ophthalmology at Stanford University.
The hurdle is how to regrow the optic nerve, although animal studies are making strides, Goldberg added. He praised the NYU team’s “audacity” in even aiming for optic nerve repair and hopes the transplant will spur more research.
“We’re really on the precipice of being able to do this,” Goldberg said.
James was working for a power line company in June 2021 when he was shocked by a live wire. He nearly died. Ultimately, he lost his left arm, requiring a prosthetic. His damaged left eye was so painful it had to be removed. Multiple reconstructive surgeries couldn’t repair extensive facial injuries including his missing nose and lips.
James pushed through physical therapy until he was strong enough to escort his daughter Allie to a high school homecoming ceremony, wearing a face mask and eye patch. Still, he required breathing and feeding tubes, and longed to smell, taste and eat solid food again.
“In his mind and his heart, it’s him — so I didn’t care that, you know, he didn’t have a nose. But I did care that it bothered him,” said his wife, Meagan James.
Face transplants remain rare and risky. James’ is only the 19th in the U.S., the fifth Rodriguez has performed. The eye experiment added even more complexity. But James figured he’d be no worse off if the donated eye failed.
Three months after James was placed on the national transplant waiting list, a matching donor was found. Kidneys, a liver and pancreas from the donor, a man in his 30s, saved three other people.
During James’ 21-hour operation, surgeons added another experimental twist: When they spliced together the donated optic nerve to what remained of James’ original, they injected special stem cells from the donor in hopes of spurring its repair.
Last month, tingles heralded healing facial nerves. James can’t yet open the eyelid and wears a patch to protect it. But as Rodriguez pushed on the closed eye, James felt sensation — although on his nose rather than his eyelid, presumably until slow-growing nerves get reoriented. The surgeon also detected subtle movements beginning in muscles around the eye.
Then came a closer look. NYU ophthalmologist Dr. Vaidehi Dedania ran a battery of tests. She found expected damage in the light-sensing retina in the back of the eye. But she said it appears to have enough special cells called photoreceptors to do the job of converting light to electrical signals, one step in creating vision.
Normally, the optic nerve then would send those signals to the brain to be interpreted. James’ optic nerve clearly hasn’t healed. Yet when light was flashed into the donated eye during an MRI, the scan recorded some sort of brain signaling.
That both excited and baffled researchers, although it wasn’t the right type for vision and may simply be a fluke, cautioned Dr. Steven Galetta, NYU’s neurology chair. Only time and more study may tell.
Still, the surgery marks “a technical tour de force,” said Dr. David Klassen, chief medical officer of the United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the nation’s transplant system. “You can learn a tremendous amount from a single transplant” that could propel the field.
As for James, “we’re just taking it one day at a time,” he said.
By The Associated Press
www.ccbnational.net 1-877-304-0968