Visually impaired receive assistive vision devices at Institute for Deaf and Blind in Decatur

Feb. 28—Thanks to modern assistive vision technology, some visually impaired individuals at the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind Decatur Regional Center will be able to read text and see images more clearly.

On Tuesday, 10 individuals with ailments ranging from low vision to complete blindness received free training on vision magnifiers and text-to-speech devices from Sight Savers America. After the training, they were able to take the devices home with them for free.

Sight Savers America is a Pelham-based nonprofit that provides sight-saving treatment and high-tech vision aids for the visually impaired.

The 10 individuals receiving devices ranged in age from 5 to 97. Trainers from Sight Savers took devices to the home of the 97-year old, who is homebound.

Dawn DeCarlo, chief executive officer of Sight Savers, said school-age children with visual impairment can use a vision magnifier to help them see images and shapes more efficiently. The magnifier can enhance contrast and magnify objects up to 118 times.

"They have a screen in front of them and an HD camera is mounted on top of the screen," DeCarlo said. "Anything you put on that table in front of that screen is magnified. They can keep enlarging the image to see its features with that camera."

DeCarlo, who is also an optometrist in Birmingham, said there are images that children with impaired vision have never seen clearly and the vision magnifier allows them to focus until they see every detail.

Peyton Steele was with her 11-year-old daughter EmmaLynn and watched her use the vision magnifier to draw shapes, letters and numbers. Steele said EmmaLynn uses similar technology in her school at Danville-Neel Elementary and said it has been a useful tool in teaching her how to read.

"If they are doing work on the (whiteboard), she can see the lesson that's on the board on her screen so she can follow along with her class," Steele said.

Steele said while she was pregnant with EmmaLynn, her daughter had a stroke in utero and she was born with impaired vision. She is transitioning EmmaLynn into a home-school environment this school year and she said having the same assistive vision technology at home will provide a better learning environment for her daughter.

"Just looking at a blank piece of paper, she can't see letters," Steele said. "This will help her learn how to read and maybe color within the lines."

Sight Savers also trained individuals on OrCam devices, which use artificial intelligence to decipher text.

Andrew Planchard, area sales manager for OrCam, brought OrCam Read and the OrCam My Eye devices. Both devices are about the size of a flashlight, and when held next to a body of text, can scan them and read it back to the user.

"These devices operate without Wi-Fi and both have a feature called smart reading where you can give it a command like 'Find the headline in this article,' and it will read the headline to you," Planchard said. "Because these devices don't use Wi-Fi, the user can carry these devices anywhere they choose. It also recognizes dollar amounts and barcodes."

DeCarlo said Sight Savers conducted a study of over 1,000 children for six to 12 months after they received a vision magnifier to monitor their progress. According to their data, children made progress in identifying letters and reading and also had an increase in their independence, confidence and self-esteem.

"We continue to follow the child until they are 19 years old with additional telephone follow-up calls so that we can troubleshoot any problems the child may be having with their device and to be sure they have the high-tech vision tools they need for success," DeCarlo said.

DeCarlo said visual assistive technology typically costs thousands of dollars and is not covered by medical insurance. Funding for the devices was made possible by the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama, the Quarterbacking Children's Health Foundation, OrCam Technologies, and Vispero.

— wes.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442.