Stardate 20010720.1407 (On Screen): Paging Steve Austin... I used to know
a man who suffered from Retinitis Pigmentosa, and he could just barely tell when he entered a room whether the light was on. When he was a kid his vision was normal, but starting about age 12 it began to go away and by the time he was twenty he had essentially no vision at all. (He inherited it from his mom, who also was blind.) He uses both a dog and a cane at various times, and he works with computers and uses a program in his PC which reads the screen to him at machine-gun speed. It was strange to talk to him on the phone when he was using his computer. But my best memory of him is when we went to a medieval faire and he ended up at the axe-throwing booth and threw three axes at a target, and hit it all three times. The guy working the booth was fantastic; he never missed a beat (or dropped out of character) and spent the time with Joe that was required, which backed up the line a bit. I get the impression it wasn't the first time it had happened. I didn't notice anyone in the line being impatient since it was a fun thing to watch. Joe coped, but there was never question that he suffered from a severe handicap.
Retinitis Pigmentosa is one of those terrible genetic diseases which terribly harms a small number of people and leaves nearly everyone alone. But it's still worth working on, and now we've entered the realm of science fiction. The future is now. They've developed an artificial retina out of silicon and they're actually implanting it in the eyes of people to test it. The device is powered by the light which strikes it so it doesn't need batteries or any other power source. I think this is fantastic, and I hope it works. It would completely change the lives of people like Joe. He wouldn't be able to drive if he had one of these, but he might be able to walk and to read, and to actually see his wife Cindy for the first time. (discuss)
Update: Speaking of the blind, they're one group who are really hampered by pop-up and pop-behind advertising, because it means a new window and focus change which they may not be expecting. It's hard to figure out which window you're supposed to be in when you can't see them.
