From 1917 to 2017: NB magazine's 100 years of eye health and sight loss

1917

   ​1918

1920

Blind Persons Act – a landmark in legislation for blind people – makes it a duty of local authorities to provide for the welfare of the blind, and extends the old age pension to blind people at the age of 50 instead of 70.

1921

Bristol photographer James Biggs, who has been blinded in an accident, paints his walking stick white so that motorists can see him more clearly.

1921

Chorleywood College for Girls opens. It is the first college for girls with visual impairment. Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen was first set up in 1866.

1925

Bannow House home for blind convalescent veterans and holiday-makers opens at St Leonards-On-Sea. Today is it a retirement home.

1930

The Beacon becomes ‘New’ Beacon, with a new approach. ‘The thirties must be different’ says the editor

1931

Muriel Crooke and Rosamund Bond set up the Guide Dog Committee (which is now, after several changes of name, known as Guide Dogs).
The four people in their first trial class are extremely pleased with their new dogs

1931

Guilly d’Herbemont launches a scheme for a national white stick movement for blind people in France.  Rotary Clubs sponsor a similar scheme in the UK, and BBC Radio broadcasts programmes suggesting that all blind people are provided with one

1932

The Scottish Association of Occupational Therapists (SAOT) is founded

1944

1948

The National Health Service is established. Initially it provides free glasses

1949

Ophthalmic surgeon, Harold Ridley, implants the world’s first intraocular lens at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, in a breakthrough for cataract treatment. The operation is internally televised – another first – so that other surgeons in the hospital can watch it, as long as they promise to keep it secret.

1950

Harold Ridley leaves the first artificial lens permanently implanted in an eye. This is widely disparaged as far too dangerous and is viewed with considerable scepticism for some years but it opens the door for ocular implants of all kinds. By the end of the 1980s it has become a common technique for cataracts in the US, and is now standard in the UK. (At the end of the 1980s Ridley has his own lenses replaced and points out that he is the only man to have invented his own operation.)

RNIB Northern Ireland established in Belfast

1951

Training college for blind telephonists and typists opens at Pembridge Place, London

1953

UK’s first ophthalmic pathologist, Professor Norman Ashton, discovers that the excessive oxygen given to compensate for breathing problems associated with premature birth can cause blindness. As a result, oxygen is delivered with much greater care and fewer babies develop retinopathy of prematurity

1955

A braille edition of New Beacon is introduced

1962

RNIB establishes the National Eye Donor Scheme, encouraging people 
to donate their eyes after death for corneal grafting and other therapeutic purposes

1965

Norman Ashton sets up the research funding organisation Fight For
Sight, which provides funding for some of the major breakthroughs including Professor Robin Ali’s work in 2007 and genetic research into congenital cataract and keratoconus

1967

Dr Charles Kelman introduces phacoemuilsification surgery – using ultrasonic waves to remove cataracts without a large incision – which revolutionises the procedure

1974

The British Association of Occupational Therapists (BAOT) is formed from a merger of The Association of Occupational Therapists and The Scottish Association of Occupational Therapists

1983

Professor Alan Wright of the University of Edinburgh identifies the first gene in retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which becomes one of the main subjects for genetics research

UK Corneal Transplant Service established

1986

Professor Roy Taylor of Newcastle University starts his mobile eye screening programme for people with diabetes from the back of a second-hand ambulance. Over the next two decades the programme is taken up across the UK. Today, the NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme, introduced by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) in 2003, invites approximately 2.5 million people for screening every year and is a major reason why diabetic eye disease is no longer the leading cause of blindness in adults of working age

1991

London Association for the Blind (first founded in 1857) changes its name to Action for Blind People

1995

The Disability Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of their disability, and compels employers and others to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled people

1996

The Broadcasting Act 1996 legislates for a percentage of TV programming to provide audio description for viewers with visual impairments.

1997

RNIB launches The Helpline telephone service. Today it encompasses departments including eye health, counselling, bursaries and benefits, and a talk and support service

1999

2001

2005

2007 

2010

2014

Professor MacLaren and his colleagues announce significant improvements in the first patients on their clinical trial

2015