Category: Useful Information

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 Useful Information

Blind Barbie doll is here

Posted on by One Vision
Long Brown haired doll wearing pink top and lilac rara skirt. Has a long white cane and sunglasses placed on her head
PICTURE DESCRIPTION Long Brown haired doll wearing pink top and lilac rara. With long white cane and sunglasses placed on her head

MATTEL have made the first ever visually impaired doll or as the newspapers are putting it, ‘Blind Barbie’ doll.

This doll is the newest member of the Barbie family and will help  girls and boys with sightloss feel included and seen with a doll that now represents their world.

It also brings with it a whole sense of spreading awareness about blindness that we, as bloggers & vloggers, try to get across with our posts. That blind people, as a community, are striving for inclusivity within a sighted world. For people to learn about us so we aren’t this mystery or people to be pitied. We’re just like everyone else.

The doll is available to buy now.

It’s the latest of their line which includes the first Barbie with Down’s syndrome and aims to increase representation across its range of toys.

Mattel partnered with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) in the US, and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK to design the new doll.

Barbie’s design contains lots of features that will not only make her more accurately reflect a blind person, but also will be interesting for children who are blind or who have low vision to play with someone who is just like them.

For a child that’s just been diagnosed with sightloss, I think this doll would give the perfect opportunity to open up the conversation about what is happening to them by their parents or caregiver to help children understand and hopefully feel positively and not so fearful about sightloss.

This Barbie doll comes come with a long cane and dark glasses, and features textured clothing so children who are blind, or have low vision, can feel the outfits she’s wearing.

On the box she comes in, Barbie is spelled in Braille, which is language made of raised dots that blind people can feel to read things.

I think this is what should have been made years ago. It’s not before time.

Well done Mattel for bringing much needed inclusivity in their Barbie’s ranges. Hopefully to continue.

#Mattel
#MattelBarbie
#BlindBarbie
#Inclusivity
#Barbie
#SightlossToys