blindness

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Blind Actors Blast Breslin Pick for Keller

Advocates complain that blind, deaf had no chance to audition

(Newser) - Advocates for blind and deaf actors complain that they were never given a chance to audition for the role of Helen Keller in an upcoming revival of The Miracle Worker. The part has instead been given to Abigail Breslin, best known for playing Olive in Little Miss Sunshine. The Broadway...

Japanese Mull Noisier Hybrids to Protect Blind

Survey finds blind people are unnerved by silent vehicles

(Newser) - Japanese automakers are looking into ways to make their super-quiet hybrid cars a lot louder after more than half of blind people surveyed said they were terrified of the vehicles, AP reports. The automakers are considering equipping the vehicles with radar to sense pedestrians and make sounds like engine noises...

Ancient Rite Fades in Japan: Communing With the Dead

(Newser) - Far from Japan's hypermodern cities, a few old, blind women are among the last of a centuries-old tradition—they are mediums, or the "itako," calling forth the spirits of the dead for paying visitors. In medieval times, Japan was full of women communing with spirits, but now so...

'Beep Ball' Gets Blind in the Game

(Newser) - Baseball isn’t the national pastime only for those lucky stiffs who can see the ball. The blind have their own version of baseball, the Wall Street Journal reports, played with a beeping softball. Players use that beeping to time their swings and dive for balls. Some aspects are simplified—...

Conductor Downes, Wife End Lives in Swiss Suicide Clinic

Couple faced failing health

(Newser) - British conductor Edward Downes and his wife, Joan, have died at a Swiss suicide clinic, ending their lives “under circumstances of their own choosing,” the couple’s children said today. Downes, 85, was largely blind and Joan, 74, had cancer, the Times of London reports, which their children...

Muslim Woman Leans on Guide Horse

(Newser) - Muslims consider canines unclean, which was a problem for a blind Muslim woman who wanted a guide dog. So she got a guide horse. Mona Ramouni of suburban Detroit is getting used to 3-year-old miniature horse Cali—“this is a really awesome little horse,” she told the AP—...

Braille Read by Less Than 10% of Blind Americans

(Newser) - Less than 10% of blind Americans know how to read Braille, and just 10% of blind children are being taught the printed language, the AP reports. A study by the National Federation of the Blind also pegs Braille illiteracy to unemployment. While the blind population faces 70% unemployment overall, that...

Lost Contact Lens Delays Brown Speech

British PM, already blind in one eye, may be losing sight in other

(Newser) - Gordon Brown was forced to delay a speech to a Labour Party conference last week after he accidentally washed a contact lens down the sink, reports the Times of London. The British PM had no extra pair, and a staff worker had to detach the pipe beneath the sink to...

Smiling, Frowning Is Hardwired Into Genes: Study

Blind, sighted athletes adopted similar expressions in victory and defeat

(Newser) - Facial expressions from smiling to sneering are dictated by human genes that all of us share, a new study suggests. Researchers examined the facial expressions on thousands of photographs of blind and sighted athletes at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games and the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. They discovered that no...

Blind Man Walks Obstacle Course Using 'Blindsight'

(Newser) - A blind man has surprised scientists by walking an obstacle course with the strange power of "blindsight," the Times of London reports. The man, blinded by brain-damaging strokes, cleanly walked the course without using a cane. He had already baffled experts by reacting to people's facial expressions. “...

Blind Comic Artist Battles On, Like Daredevil

Andre Campbell, visually-impaired since birth, is still chasing his dream

(Newser) - Life as an independent comic artist is never easy. It's even harder when you’re legally blind, the Washington Post reports. Baltimore's Andre Campbell, vision-impaired since birth with a retinal-degeneration condition, has only sold about 100 copies of his company’s comics since the mid-'90s. But the artist, who idolizes...

Blinded Pilot Lands After Mid-Flight Stroke

Pilot recovering sight, but still in serious condition

(Newser) - An amateur pilot who suffered a stroke and went blind as he flew over North England landed his plane without a scratch, the Independent reports. Jim O’Neill, 65, was initially unable to follow instructions from civilian traffic controllers, but was guided to safety by British military planes. He remains...

Korea Backs Monopoly for Blind Masseurs

Profession will remain reserved for the blind in South Korea

(Newser) - A South Korean court has upheld a law allowing only blind people to work as masseurs, the AP reports. The profession has been reserved for the blind for almost a century, but a legal battle had raged for years over the constitutionality of the rule. The perceived threat to their...

Brown's Failing Eyesight Raises Concerns

PM's damaged vision may be getting worse, friends worry

(Newser) - If Gordon Brown promises not to turn a blind eye to the financial crisis, he could mean that literally—the British prime minister lost the sight in one of his eyes in a rugby accident as a teenager. But now advisers are worried that Brown could lose the already-diminishing sight...

Blind to Protest Blindness Flick

Activists claim it portrays blind as incapable

(Newser) - Blind people quarantined in a mental asylum, attacking each other, soiling themselves, and trading sex for food. Such a scenario, as shown in the movie Blindness, is not a clever allegory for a breakdown in society, says the president of the National Federation of the Blind. It plans to protest...

The Perils of Positive Thinking
 The Perils of Positive Thinking 
OPINION
Sep 24, 2008 11:39 AM CDT

The Perils of Positive Thinking

Not just greed, but optimism and can-do led to Wall Street's downfall

(Newser) - “Positive thinking,” the philosophy of self-help books and corporate retreats, has had some negative effects on Wall Street, Barbara Ehrenreich writes in the New York Times. It's popular to blame greed of executives and traders for the current meltdown in the financial markets, but the unbridled optimism and...

Stunt Could Leave Magician Blind, Doc Says

60-hours upside-down could endanger Blaine's sight

(Newser) - When David Blaine hangs upside-down above New York's Central Park for 60 hours next week, he'll run the risk of going blind, says a vascular surgeon advising the celebrity magician on the stunt. Lengthy inversion increases blood pressure in the head, especially in the eyes, which can result in blindness,...

S. Korea's Blind Masseurs Protest Threat to Livelihood

Government opens profession to sighted

(Newser) - Blind masseurs in South Korea are protesting what they see as the end of a way of life—and their livelihood, CNN reports. Police arrested 26 yesterday who gathered on a bridge and threatened to jump because the government is for the first time allowing sighted people to become licensed...

First Braille Coin Unveiled
 First Braille Coin Unveiled 
Jul 3, 2008 4:41 PM CDT

First Braille Coin Unveiled

Silver dollar celebrates 200th birthday of creator of blind alphabet

(Newser) - The US Mint unveiled the first coin bearing readable Braille letters yesterday. The silver dollar features the letters "Brl," code for Braille, and honors the 200th birthday of the eponymous creator of the alphabet for the blind, the AP reports. "This is going to put Braille in...

US Money Discriminates Against Blind, Court Rules

Treasury must make changes in paper currency, appellate body says

(Newser) - A federal appellate court agreed today with a lower court’s ruling that the US must change its paper money to accommodate the blind, who are unable to tell the current, single-size bills apart, the Washington Post reports. The court ruled that the bills violate the Federal Rehabilitation Act, rejecting...

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