Watch above: Technology helps visually impaired see again
SASKATOON – CNIB has been giving visually impaired people the chance to see again for years with the help of technology. Wednesday people with low vision had an opportunity to try out the latest advances.
“When you’ve been so active in your life and all of a sudden it’s been taken away from you, you’d like to be able to get back in the swing of things,” said Lorene McLeod.
“To be able to give them back that hope of independence, to have them go like Lorene has done from 22 -80 down to 20- 40, the possibilities for that individual are enormous,” said Carolyn Bradley, eSight Eyewear client relations manager.
Perfect vision is 20/20; for the fourth year, CNIB invited people in Saskatoon with vision loss to test out the latest advances in technology to help with home, work and school.
“They want to know what’s out there, maybe there’s something else that will help them they didn’t see the last time,” said Monique Lalonde, CNIB assistive technology specialist.
The devices can read items aloud or blow them up so individuals can see it for themselves.
Since 1989, Diane Cooper has been declared legally blind. The retired nurse has lost a lot of her sight in the past year; the latest gadgets are helping the avid cook adjust to having only two percent of her vision left.
“It just opens your whole world, you can read letters that you can’t read, read your recipes, prescriptions, medicine bottles, everything,” said Cooper.
While vision loss can take away a person’s independence, devices like these help to regain it.
The devices at the vision loss assistive technology open house ranged from $300 to $15,000.
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