Last week I discovered a new word, one that really resonated for me in these weird times we’re going through. The word is Qarrtsiluni, and it comes from the Inuit tribe of northern Alaska and Canada. It’s a verb, and it means to sit together in the darkness. With the days getting...
Giant lizard at Cincinnati Zoo undergoes double cataract surgery. The Cincinnati Zoo’s Komodo dragon, Hudo, had a successful double-cataract surgery to restore his eyesight last week, WLWT reports. On Nov. 19, a five-person team took Hudo to MedVet Cincinnati, where he underwent...
San Francisco’s Mozzeria will be missed. San Francisco’s first and only Deaf-owned-and-operated restaurant is the latest casualty of the pandemic, KQED Radio reports. The 49-seat pizza restaurant in the Mission closed November 12, almost nine years after Melody and Russ Stein opened the spot...
The next time you blink, it’ll be Thanksgiving. It’s coming. The next time you blink, it’ll be Thanksgiving. And after that, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, and the holiday season will be upon us. A few years back, though, we became part of a new tradition that (for me, at least)...
Access to treatment is shrinking, especially in developing countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a change in the provision and delivery of eye health services around the world, the World Economic Forum reports. Many vision programs have been temporarily suspended, including mobile...
This takes guts — and patience. We could all use a little inspiration these days. That’s why I wanted to share an amazing story I ran across this week. At 13, Dan Mancina was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease that leads to vision loss. He started losing...
Treating diabetic retinopathy early can reduce the risk of blindness by 95 percent. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in adults. The CDC’s National Diabetes Statistics Report for 2020 shows that 34.2...
“It has given my parents so much comfort in allowing me to grow independently knowing Alvin is there by my side to protect me.’’ A deaf equine degree student in the UK is thriving in her work, thanks to her “superhero” hearing dog, Horse & Hound magazine reports. Alvin the cocker...
Tips for employers The Center on Employment at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf is offering tips for employers who need to conduct virtual interviews with deaf and hard-of-hearing job candidates. “In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we recognize that the...
Melva Snyder went through five sets of hearing aids before she finally got the right ones. That meant more than 10 years of frustration. She still had to ask people to repeat themselves. When she was driving, she couldn’t hear if her blinker was on. If she was outside the house,...
“I’m a second-class citizen.” A projected 7 million Americans who are eligible to vote in the presidential election live with visual impairments, Kaiser Health News reports. For those who also deal with illnesses that place them at a higher risk from COVID-19, voting this year...