Vision 2005
Conference highlights - Vision 2005
Summary: Overview of Vision 2005, its highlights and key messages.
Experts from 69 countries gathered for the world's premier event on sight loss.
Delegates learnt about improved surgical and clinical care and the best practice models of rehabilitation and emotional support that are in action around the world. They gained a greater understanding of how to influence the development of a more inclusive approach to education and employment.
Other presentations covered new ways of maximising residual vision, accessing information and the latest technical developments. Knowledge was also shared about the treatment of particular eye diseases and the restoration of sight.
David Blunkett who attended the conference said that it had been an important event as it had drawn attention to issues such as epidemiology, long term health issues and technology. He added that through the extensive media coverage and wide range of influential participants it had also helped to change and challenge attitudes.
Lesley-Anne Alexander, CEO of RNIB, summed up Vision 2005's achievements as illustrating the "importance of getting our knowledge in one place and showing the very real and overdue benefits of the sector working well together".
A CD-Rom of the conference proceedings will be available to buy later in the year.
Here are just a few of the highlights from Vision 2005.
Monday 4 April
A rousing trumpet fanfare from the Grenadier Guards heralded the opening of Vision 2005.
In the opening ceremony Miles Hilton-Barber gave an inspirational speech saying that 'the only limits in your life are those you accept yourself'. His key message was not to save our dreams for the night but dream dangerously in the day to reach our potential.
Peter White, BBC correspondent for disability threw down the gauntlet to delegates with the maxim 'nothing about us without us' and called for a more patient-centred approach to services.
Renditions of Elvis and the Beatles helped Dr Krister Inde to illustrate his philosophy of “Low Vision Rehabilitation”. His ten personal commandments ensure low vision professionals keep people with sight problems at the heart of their work.
Rosie Winterton, UK Government Minister for Health, announced an extension to the Eye Care Pathway Programme pilots for low vision.
Tuesday 5 April
The day began with the global sight loss time bomb. Professor Hugh Taylor explained how eliminating avoidable sight loss was a question of economics especially as people are living longer in the West.
Professor Anne Corn’s lively presentation on children with sight problems advocated that 'more people are blinded by definition than lack of sight' and called on agencies to consider terminology and labelling.
Aries Arditi, President of ISLRR, reported on the Oslo 2004 conference workshop 'Toward a reduction in the global impact of low vision' which proposed a framework for low vision service delivery, an agenda for research and vital calls to action.
Dr Fred Reid expressed his anger that 75 per cent of people with sight problems are unemployed and strongly challenged Government’s welfare to work philosophy.
Wednesday 6 April
For a few lucky delegates Vision 2005 meant the chance to visit the world-famous ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital, which had flown into London especially for the conference. Delegates described the experience as amazing - they boarded a plane, but stepped into a modern, cutting-edge hospital. The ORBIS plane is fully self-sufficient and run by an international crew of volunteers, performing operations and acting as an invaluable teaching hospital.
Adrian Mole and John Keats, helped RNIB’s Stephen King illustrate how DAISY technology is transforming the audio-reading experience.
Gregg Vanderheiden gave a stimulating presentation on the startling advances in technology for people with sight problems. He said its not about applying new science to aid people with disabilities, rather 'driving science forward by tackling problems faced by people with disabilities'.
Blind spots and back-seat driving took on new meaning in the Driving session by Ian Bailey, Bart Melis-Dankers and Eli Peli. The speakers probed the 'social dilemma' of whether people with sight problems should be allowed to drive. The use of bi-optic telescopes is allowed in the majority of US states, but is illegal throughout Europe.
Thursday 7 April 2005
Bert Massie, Chairman of Disability Rights Commission (UK) discussed the law and how it can be applied to fight for equality for disabled people, stating that 'discrimination is part of the life package for disabled people'. He was adamant that access to employment was key to improving lives. He reminded the audience of the shocking statistic that three out of four people with sight problems of working age are unemployed in the UK. He stated that the new Disability Discrimination Act amendment is one more step towards empowering disabled people to control their own lives and to remove the barriers which limit their lives.
The special symposium for the AMD Read project brought the latest research and developments in age-related macular degeneration.
Professor Gordon Legge discussed wayfinding in buildings. He concluded that people can 'learn the layout of a building based on verbal descriptions and local geometry' and shared his prototype device which transmits a digital map based on the wearer's location.
RNIB’s Chief Scientist, Dr John Gill, described a future in which the design of mainstream products and services makes them accessible to as many people as possible in a wide variety of situations. He said that disabled consumers need to apply pressure to product developers to ensure this happens. He stressed that it is important for all those with influence, including the designers of telecommunications and services, to think more widely about the needs of all people and to design with innovation and insight.
Entrepreneur and inventor Dr Raymond Kurzweil teleported himself from his New York office to Vision 2005. He appeared as a life size hologram achieving eye contact with conference delegates. His presentation looked at the future of blindness and disabilities in an age of accelerating technologies. He began by explaining the origins of his text to speech synthesiser. He described how a blind passenger on a flight had inspired him to solve the difficulty of accessing standard printed material. He went on to talk about futuristic developments including tiny electronics embedded into our environment, clothing and spectacles which "write" images directly onto our retinas. These would not only read print but describe all visual information working like a personal assistant.
The closing ceremony included a speech from Right Honourable David Blunkett MP who called on those present to help change attitudes, to spread information about blindness and to communicate that losing sight isn't a disaster but a challenge like any other. He talked of making equality a reality not just a slogan. He argued that it was everyone's responsibility to include disabled people in normal planning processes to help bring about a more automatic equality. He said that world attitudes change as people learn from each other and that Vision 2005 had helped this happen.
Best paper / poster awards
The ISLRR best paper award was given to Angela Rees’s 'Does peripheral visual acuity and contrast sensitivity influence preferred retinal locus location in age-related macular degeneration?' Andre Messias won the ISLRR best poster award for 'Fixation pattern in Stargardt’s disease. A longitudinal study.'
Content author: vision2005@rnib.org.uk
Last updated: 20/11/2008 11:13
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