Author: One Vision

An honest, warts & all sightloss blog about living with a rare genetic eye condition, Macular Dystrophy, Stargardt's Disease. To track how this progresses in myself. Hopefully help others & bring awareness. Let's see what happens next...
Posted in Useful Information

Be My Eyes and Rayban  

Posted on by One Vision

Meta and Be My Eyes have teamed up together and this looks to be going towards adding  glasses as an aid to help the blind and Visually impaired community.

This will enable to be ‘hands free’ especially significant if you have a Guide Dog or Cane with you, so your hands will be most likely full.

This will be enabled by Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. AI and live  feed on a one way camera, to aid the utterly brilliant Be My Eyes volunteer’s to help the person using the application.

You will be able to call hands free by saying “Hey Meta, Call a Volunteer on Be My Eyes”

Be My Eyes is a useful tool I’ve written about before. It’s available as an app and connects people all over the world in many different languages. Whether you’re in the supermarket looking for a specific product and can’t see the writing or image, someone will describe and help you. I know I’ve bought that many orange looking too light, too dark, make up Foundations that I can count. So it would help me too. I would certainly look into these as my condition progressed. Especially good if it’s all too busy. Busy people, busy colours and too much that you can’t fathom what you’re seeing, if at all you can see anything.

Wanting help reading a letter, a pill packet, dropped items, describing a scene in front of  you. Anything you have difficulty with.

If you’d like to volunteer to help us poorly peeper people, please look onto the Be My Eyes website and sign up. It really is a valuable and rewarding experience for everyone involved.

I so hope these aren’t going to be staggeringly expensive like alot of the items with the word ‘Blind’ infront of it appear to be.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed, because after all we aren’t wearing or choosing them to be fashionable, we need tech to help us live a life that’s easier, less stressful and more inclusive than the past.

All on the same playing field. Not much to ask is it?

Below is a video and video description of someone using the Rayban Meta glasses.

VIDEO DESCRIPTION Woman with dark brown hair and red floral strapless dress places an album on a record player then goes to sit at a dressing table. In front of her is a large mirror and a jewellery box with lots of jewellery inside it.
As she speaks she holds up each earring. At the end she leaves her house and shuts the door.

If you have Facebook, click link below for the video if the announcement

Facebook link to announcement on Be My Eyes page

Posted in Useful Information

World Sight Day 2024

Posted on by One Vision

Today is World Sight Day and to celebrate this I have to be boring and ask you all to look after and don’t take your eyesight, for granted.

Make sure you have your eyes tested regularly and if you have any worries at all don’t just dismiss them as it could be serious and/or correctable.

There are eye centres or clinics in most hospitals (Especially in the UK) If you mention any worries to an optometrist at an opticians or to a doctor, they can both refer you to a specialist eye clinic. This happened to me by going for an eye exam at an opticians. They referred me then found put I have Macular Dystrophy.

Use sunglasses with built in protection even when the sun isn’t shining if that makes your eyes more comfortable.  This will protect you from the harmful UV sun and UVB radiation exposure that can increase the risk of cataracts, other eye diseases and damages to the eye itself.

Wear protective eyewear that you need for your job or doing tasks around the house. You don’t need an unnecessary injury when this could be prevented.

Quit smoking. Smoking can increase your risk of age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, and optic nerve damage. Cigarettes and vapes. I stopped a few years ago now.

Make sure you exercise and eat healthily. A good walk, fruit and veg is good for me although I’m not spot on I try my best. If you have any of the  Macular Dystrophies. Stargardt’s Disease included, please watch your Vitamin A intake. We can have our suggested intake for our overall health, please don’t cut it out altogether. But DON’T start getting excessively giddy with the foods full of Vit A or extra  supplements full of it. This is the stuff our eyes can’t process properly and causes our vision loss. Just enough for your daily recommendation. Please don’t cut it out altogether.

If you haven’t got my condition above. Eat plenty of leafy greens, carrots, tomatoes, peppers. Anything rich in Vitamin A to help your eyesight be 20/20

Make sure your prescription is upto date. Don’t use glasses that aren’t helping you as they should anymore.

Please don’t use glasses from the poundshop.

They haven’t got the right corrections for your eyes and just have the same lenses for each eye. Everybody’s eyes are different.  We need extra magnification on one, maybe less on the other. There are cheap glasses available that will do the job with correct lenses for you from a high street Opticians (I managed to get some for £20) If you receive some benefits (In the UK) you can even get money towards some or free ones. It’s really not worth messing about with your sight with these.

I used to take my vision for granted and didn’t even think about being blind or have vision loss. I took my peepers for granted.

So do yourself a favour and book yourself an appointment with the opticians today. They can also see other conditions and diseases that may need looking at, so it’s not just your eyesight you maybe saving. It’s just better for your general overall health.

Woman with long blonde hair holding a green and white megaphone shouting into it World Sight Day. The words appear in front of a picture of Earth.
PICTURE DESCRIPTION Woman with long blonde hair holding a green and white megaphone shouting into it World Sight Day.  The words appear in front of a picture of Earth.


 

Posted in No category yet

Good day Sunshine

Posted on by One Vision

As much as I don’t really like the style of these sunglasses and so wish I could wear my funky blue, tortoishell mirrored ones that I’ve kept but are pretty redundant as eye protection for me now.

On a sunny autumn day on the bus with the glare shining through the window, my eyes are at least comfortable and protected in these.

I don’t have to worry if the sun is shining in. The glare shining off cars, metal things, signs or suddenly the brightness around a corner suddenly hitting you in the eye and temporarily blinding you for a few minutes while you panic and try to adjust. No more of that for me.

They have handy blocked out sides to them so the edges of your eyes are protected too.

Everyone, not just myself, should protect their own eyes from the harmful rays. You don’t really want to be joining the groups I attend ☺ 

I was on the bus attending another Sightloss group social evening that my friends have set up in another part of the city where I live.

It took an hour to get there, on a bus that I only knew the destination. I didn’t know where I was half the time.

At this point I’m very confident on buses after stopping driving years ago.

It just shows you that if you suddenly cannot drive for any reason, you CAN adapt and get about. I really enjoy it now. It wasn’t easy. I was used to driving for 29 years, but it’s like a little adventure everytime.

Hopefully the group will become as popular as the one in my home town.

People with sightloss, meeting up to meet a new social group, make new friends and have a support system available to them. A natter, with a cuppa or a cocktail to drink while your at it.

Woman with long blonde curly hair and red lipstick sits by a bus window with the sun glare shining through. I am wearing dark sunglasses and have headphones on my head.
PICTURE DESCRIPTION Woman with long blonde curly hair and red lipstick sits by a bus window with the sun glare shining through.  I am wearing dark sunglasses and have headphones on my head.