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Woman nearly loses sight because of rare disorder

Last updated Wednesday, May 9, 2012 - 1:30pm

BALTIMORE -- When Tamika Morgan developed red irritated eyes in the fall of 2010, she wasted no time heading to an optometrist at a local retail store who gave her drops for pink eye.

Her eyes got worse over the next few days so she went to a local hospital to see an ophthalmologist, but a specialist wasn't available. A weekend passed and she landed in the office of a retina expert at another hospital, and by then she couldn't read the big E on the vision chart.

She was legally blind.

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Program teaches tennis to blind California students

Rob Dennis The Argus (Fremont, Calif.)

Last updated Sunday, April 15, 2012 - 7:14am

FREMONT, Calif. -- The foam ball sailed over the net, rattling as it bounced. Robin Patche quickly adjusted her feet and returned it with a smooth backhand, drawing praise from the sidelines.

"Robin, nice turnaround," called out Mary Alice Ross, an adapted physical education teacher at the California School for the Blind, then adding to a bystander, "She got really good really quickly."

Patche, 21, and about seven other students gather Tuesday afternoons in the gym at the Fremont school to take part in a nationwide program that may be the first of its kind -- teaching groups of blind and visually impaired students to play tennis.

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Google's self-driving car takes blind man on errands

Salvador Rodriguez Los Angeles Times

Last updated Thursday, March 29, 2012 - 5:18pm

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A self-driving car being developed by Google Inc. took a blind man for a ride this week, driving him to a Taco Bell and then to a dry cleaner in San Jose, Calif.

On Thursday, Google posted a video of a modified Toyota Prius driving Steve Mahan, who is legally blind, saying it shows one of the possibilities and benefits that could come from the technology.

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Garrison Clark competes at the Utah Regional Braille Competition in Salt Lake City on Friday. Forty students from around the state, including 14 from the Top of Utah, gathered Friday at the Utah State Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired for the annual event.(NICHOLAS DRANEY/Standard-Examiner)

Visually impaired students use right touch at braille competition

Dana Rimington Standard-Examiner

Last updated Saturday, March 3, 2012 - 7:48am

SALT LAKE CITY — Sixteen-year-old Ellie Price, of Logan, can take a reading test with her eyes closed, and she’s not the only one.

Forty students from around the state, including 14 from the Top of Utah, gathered Friday at the Utah State Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired for the annual Utah Regional Braille Competition.

Education, Blind, Blind students, Braille, Children, Communications, Competition, Event, reading, Sky View High School, Teens, Utah, Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Youths, Featured Read more Comments

Teacher Shelly Moss guides a “blind” Naftali Sanchez,16, through the Ben Lomond High School cafeteria on Thursday. Sanchez is wearing blacked-out goggles that block her sight so she can learn the challenges blind people face daily. (MATTHEW ARDEN HATFIELD/Standard-Examiner)

Ben Lomond High peer counselors 'disabled' for a day

Nancy Van Valkenburg Standard-Examiner

Last updated Monday, February 27, 2012 - 12:08am

OGDEN -- Neftali Sanchez waited in silence on a bench inside Ben Lomond High School, helpless to see the way to the school cafeteria.

"I'll be back for you," teacher Shelly Moss called to the 16-year-old, hurrying toward the lunch line to help Neftali's classmate, Jasmine Ayala, 15, who was struggling to move forward in her wheelchair.

Education, Ben Lomond High School, Blind, Blind students, Disabilities, Disability, Disabled, Family, Handicapped, mentoring, Paraplegia, Parenting, Teaching, Teens, Utah, Featured Read more Comments

Human library “book” Jose Castillo, a Utah State University philosophy student, talks to his “readers” Tuesday about his specialty topic: making the most of life’s second chances. (NANCY VAN VALKENBURG/Standard-Examiner)

Public checks out human library books at Utah State

Nancy Van Valkenburg Standard-Examiner

Last updated Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 7:27am

LOGAN -- Christian Orr waited, with neatly combed hair and a dapper outfit with a sweater vest, hoping someone would check him out.

Education, Bagpipes, Blind, Cancer, Careers, Eating disorders, Gaming, Hobbies, Library, Religion, Severe weather, Utah, Utah State University, Volunteers, Ethnicity, Featured Read more Comments

(Erin Hooley/Standard-Examiner)
Barbie Elliott sings and plays the piano her grandfather gave her when she was 3 years old. Elliott, shown at her home in Layton, has been blind since birth and taught herself to sing and play the piano.

Blindness doesn’t hold Layton mother back

April Hale Standard-Examiner

Last updated Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 7:26am

LAYTON — Barbie Elliott, 42, has never seen the keys on a piano, words on a page, or the smile on a child’s face.

Despite these visual limitations, Elliott plays the piano expertly — by ear.

She has a bachelor’s degree in music composition, is a leader in the blind community, and a stay-at-home mom of four children, all with their sight.

“Everything I’ve wanted to do, I’ve found a way to accomplish it,” said Elliott, who was born blind.

Features, Blind, Piano, Utah, Weber Plus, Davis Plus, Featured Read more Comments

Andy Enriquez looks at Marlene Nord, who is blind and is the senior proofreader of Braille textbooks at the Alternate Text Production Center. Nord is reading back to him what he just finished. (SHNS photo by Juan Carlo / The Ventura County Star) (RS)

Prison inmates create Braille materials for students

Cindy Von Quednow Ventura County Star

Last updated Thursday, January 19, 2012 - 6:00pm

BLYTHE, Calif. -- Rolando Rodriguez, an inmate at Ironwood State Prison, got the best birthday present he could ask for three days before he turned 36. His 16-year-old daughter called to say she was proud of him.

Rodriguez credits his daughter, who was 7 when he was incarcerated for assault with a deadly weapon against a police officer, as the reason he joined a training program at Ironwood to become a certified Braille transcriber.

Features, Blind, Blind students, Braille, Inmates, Prison Read more Comments

Blind man visualizes chemistry in Ph.D. program

Ed Fletcher The Sacramento Bee

Last updated Thursday, September 15, 2011 - 6:12am

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Even the most adept chemistry student will spend an evening hopelessly staring at models of double helixes, polypeptides and ribonucleic acids.

Not Henry Wedler.

Blind from birth, Wedler sees these complex structures in his mind and occasionally with his hands. He concentrates on them while working toward his doctorate in organic chemistry at the University of California, Davis.

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State to relocate schools for the deaf and blind superintendent

Nancy Van Valkenburg Standard-Examiner

Last updated Monday, August 8, 2011 - 10:57pm

OGDEN -- A state task force set up to investigate the effectiveness of the Ogden-based Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind has recommended the USDB superintendent be relocated from his Weber County office to the Salt Lake City offices of the Utah State Board of Education, where state officials can keep a closer eye on USDB decisions and how funds are spent.

Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind Superintendent Steve Noyce said Monday that whatever the motivation for task force decisions may have been, he is happy with the recommendations and the state board's immediate vote to move him.

Such a move would give him greater access to the people in a position to help the USDB, Noyce said.

Blind, Deaf, News, State government, Utah, Utah Legislature, Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind Read more Comments

(ERIN HOOLEY/Standard-Examiner) Mandy Kay poses with Braille and large-print books ready for shipping at the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind in Ogden on Friday.

Books for the blind get a new life in Bangladesh

Scott Schwebke Standard-Examiner staff

Last updated Saturday, May 21, 2011 - 6:04am

OGDEN -- Mandy Kay can almost relax now that the end is in sight for her five-week ordeal of trying to ship 575 boxes of Braille and large-print books from the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind to a library in Bangladesh.

But last week, just a few hours before the U.S. Postal Service picked up the boxes, Kay, a library technician at the school, worried the triple trouble she had encountered in trying to mail them would continue.

"Three times is a charm or three strikes and you're out," Kay said as she mustered a cautious smile while waiting for a postal truck to arrive.

Blind, Books, Deaf, News, reading, Utah, Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Featured Read more Comments

(ANTHONY SOUFFLE/Standard-Examiner) Garrison Clark, 11, a student at the Utah Schools For the Deaf and the Blind in Ogden, reads Braille in the annual Utah Regional Braille Challenge in Salt Lake City on Friday.

Students give Braille a workout in competition

Jamie Lampros Standard-Examiner correspondent

Last updated Saturday, March 5, 2011 - 12:26am

SALT LAKE CITY -- Colt Riley was hoping to win second place at the Utah Regional Braille Challenge on Friday.

Education, Blind, Disabilities, Disability, Employment, Jobs, Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, Featured Read more Comments

USDB removed from state budget-cut list

The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, February 11, 2011 - 11:37pm

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind appears to be safe from state budget cuts.

Last week the State Board of Education drafted a list of potential programs that could be cut should the state budgets be tightened this year.

Education, Schools, Blind, Budget, Budgeting, Deaf, Disabilities, Disability, Utah, Utah Legislature, Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind Read more Comments

Blind teen holds own on Huntley basketball team

The Billings Gazette

Last updated Saturday, January 29, 2011 - 6:04pm

HUNTLEY, Mont. -- As one of only two students attending Molt School, there wasn't much for Seri Brammer to do as far as organized sports go.

Her only real option, besides kicking a soccer ball around, was shooting hoops. Once she sunk her first shot, she was hooked.

After transferring to Huntley Project High School, her first order of business was getting a spot on the girls' basketball team. Convincing them she would be able to play was her first obstacle.

Prep Sports, Blind, Disabilities, Disability, Sports, Teens, Basketball Read more Comments

Blind trust: Vision-impaired gain mobilitywith guide dogs

Nandini Jayakrishna, St. Petersburg Times

Last updated Wednesday, November 3, 2010 - 3:59pm

RIVERVIEW, Fla. -- Picture yourself venturing out at night, down an unknown street, blindfolded. An occasional car flies by, the intermittent pockets of deathly silence offering no support.

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