Retinal Implants?

My dad nearly got selected as a research candidate for this but just missed out, we aren't sure why. :(
 
shouldn't the blind people be against this because of the blind culture? Only way to be part of the blind culture is to be blind? /sarcasm

I hope this will someday become so developed that they can see almost as much as a normal eye... or even better like x-raying like superman!
 
bbaseballboy123 said:
shouldn't the blind people be against this because of the blind culture? Only way to be part of the blind culture is to be blind? /sarcasm

I hope this will someday become so developed that they can see almost as much as a normal eye... or even better like x-raying like superman!
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As a blind person, I have to tell you that blind people don't actually have a separate culture.

And as my blindness is due to a syndrome involving the retina, I agree it will be great if this works.
 
Bottesini said:
As a blind person, I have to tell you that blind people don't actually have a separate culture.

And as my blindness is due to a syndrome involving the retina, I agree it will be great if this works.
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Botti, can I ask you something? Can you see enough to see other people when they sign or to read their lips when they speak? I don't know how much or how little you can or can't see.
 
JanatheShort said:
Botti, can I ask you something? Can you see enough to see other people when they sign or to read their lips when they speak? I don't know how much or how little you can or can't see.
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Yes, if they are close and if I look at the correct angle. I have a lot of peripheral vision.
 
I have wondered for a while how you were able to see what others were saying... Thanks for explaining it to me!
 
Bottesini said:
As a blind person, I have to tell you that blind people don't actually have a separate culture.

And as my blindness is due to a syndrome involving the retina, I agree it will be great if this works.
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Botte, not even as part of disabilty culture? But yeah, they don't have it in the way Deaf people have culture.
I thought that RP was one of those conditions where you start out as sighted and then lose your sight. In other words, its one of those late blind conditions. Which is good...restoring sight to those who have been formally blinded.
 
bbaseballboy123 said:
shouldn't the blind people be against this because of the blind culture? Only way to be part of the blind culture is to be blind? /sarcasm

I hope this will someday become so developed that they can see almost as much as a normal eye... or even better like x-raying like superman!
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FYI, most blindness is the result of age. They also haven't had much luck in making congeitially/early blinded folks be sighted.
 
deafdyke said:
Botte, not even as part of disabilty culture? But yeah, they don't have it in the way Deaf people have culture.
I thought that RP was one of those conditions where you start out as sighted and then lose your sight. In other words, its one of those late blind conditions. Which is good...restoring sight to those who have been formally blinded.
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That's true, about RP.

But Deaf/Blind people stay a part of Deaf culture if they can.

Purely blind people are able to integrate fairly easily into mainstream culture without the communication barrier.
 
I think its interesting that we always refer to a hearing world ( which is true from our cultural perspective) but from a disability perspective the world is much more visual than it is auditory don't you think?
 
deafdyke said:
I thought that RP was one of those conditions where you start out as sighted and then lose your sight. In other words, its one of those late blind conditions.
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It is usually a late blinded condition, but it can have early onset. My father was born with very poor sight, deteriorated to what would be termed in the US "legally blind" by age 7 and was blind but for the odd shadow and light source by age 12. This was through RP. It's more common for it to be a late onset condition, but it can happen in early years. He met the outline criteria for the clinical trial but maybe they felt he'd been blind too long for early trials and they'd rather have a recently blind person.
 
Purely blind people are able to integrate fairly easily into mainstream culture without the communication barrier
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Yes, there's no communication/language barrier,but there's also the barrier of not being able to drive (especially in an area with little to no public transportation) and other barriers, aren't there? Also a blind/low vision student's educational experiance seems eerierly (sp?) simlair to that of a dhh students experiance too.
 
deafdyke said:
Yes, there's no communication/language barrier,but there's also the barrier of not being able to drive (especially in an area with little to no public transportation) and other barriers, aren't there? Also a blind/low vision student's educational experiance seems eerierly (sp?) simlair to that of a dhh students experiance too.
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I think the idea is that if you became sighted then there would be more of a sense of what you have gained over what is lost. You don't have to learn a new language the way that Deaf people need to learn to speak English and hear English instead of ASL. Learning to drive is a relatively quick process over learning a language. There is not a huge cultural shift to move from blind world to sighted world, except in terms of events, reunions, clubs and societies, sports, etc.
 
RoseRodent said:
I think the idea is that if you became sighted then there would be more of a sense of what you have gained over what is lost. You don't have to learn a new language the way that Deaf people need to learn to speak English and hear English instead of ASL. Learning to drive is a relatively quick process over learning a language. There is not a huge cultural shift to move from blind world to sighted world, except in terms of events, reunions, clubs and societies, sports, etc.
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On the other hand, Oliver Sacks doesn't see it that way. If a congetially/early blinded person gained sight, would they be able to interpret sight, the way a sighted person does?
 
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