If you're the owner of a service or therapy dog, you can get a free eye exam for your pooch, if you sign up with the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists National Service Dog Eye Exam Program. The American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists is sponsoring the third annual National Service Dog Eye Exam. More than 170 veterinary...

Among persons with low vision, degree of vision impairment was not associated with risk of falling, but those who regularly participate in physical activity have a lower risk of experiencing a fall than those who are physically inactive, according to a new study. Falls are an alarming health problem and a major cause of injury among the...

A recent study suggested that updated spectacles could increase fall rate in frail older people. Researchers have confirmed that changes in spectacle lenses increased the difficulty that older adults had negotiating stair steps, and may increase the risk of falls. The most common causes of visual impairment in older adults in developed...

Binocular visual field loss is a risk factor for fractures in older women, according to a new study. Using data from the Study for Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) for 1997 to 2008, researchers examined the associations between visual field loss and non-spine fractures in 4773 community-dwelling white and African-American women. All were at least 65...

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a remote-controlled robot that is able to simulate the "visual" experience of a blind person who has been implanted with a visual prosthesis, such as an artificial retina. An artificial retina consists of a silicon chip studded with a varying number of electrodes that...

The most common fear for family members when an elderly relative falls is broken bones. But eye injuries can be just as serious and debilitating. Home is the where most eye injuries occur, and slips and falls are among the most common type of home injuries. Slippery stairs, loose railings, or sharp edges on furniture can lead to painful falls and...

A new study confirms earlier reports that visual impairment increased all-cause mortality in older persons. Visual impairment has consistently been associated with a higher risk of dying. Visual impairment is also reportedly associated with many factors also linked to increased mortality. These include unintentional injury, depression,...

A prospective study of the cost of caregivers for people with impaired vision finds that the amount of care used was not associated with the degree of vision impairment or with any other sociodemographic variables. Methods and Results Adults with impaired vision, defined as visual acuity worse than 20/40, were recruited from clinics, vision...

Video from portable cameras is analysed to calculate the distance of obstacles and predict the movements of people and cars. This information is then transformed and relayed to a blind person as a three-dimensional 'picture' of sound. The concept is apparently simple and two prototypes have been successfully tested. Laser and digital video...

A team of researchers from Spain has shown that human beings can develop echolocation, the system of acoustic signals used by dolphins and bats to explore their surroundings. Producing certain kinds of tongue clicks helps people to identify objects around them without needing to see them, something which would be especially useful for the blind....