February 20, 2008
BVA headquarters has been actively trying to get information out to the media about the large numbers of blinded veterans who utilize VA Blind Services, and of course the large percentage of returning blinded and combat eye injured from Iraq and Afghanistan. We have been successful in getting included in some articles in USA TODAY, and Army Times, as well as this story but if any regional group is approached by a local newspaper reporter wanting to do a story, a television reporter, or radio program, BVA headquarters, would like to offer them some specific statistics for anyone doing a story either on the large population of aging veterans with eye disease causing blindness, or the new generation of combat blinded returning service members.
BVA efforts recently lead congress to enact in the National Defense Authorization Act, for Department of Defense FY 2008 a section devoted to having DOD create a Military Eye Trauma Center of Excellence and Military Eye Trauma Registry, and we worked to ensure that this Eye Trauma Center works with Secretary of Veterans Affairs on sharing of clinical information on the eye wounded, research, best clinical practices, new technology testing, and adaptive technology applications for low vision and blinded service members. If congressional members, there legislative assistants, senators, and there staff read these local news articles, it vastly improves the chances of them making sure we obtain further research and rehabilitative funding for the future!
BVA has taken leadership on Capitol Hill with congressional members on education about the specific issue of Traumatic Brain Injured with visual dysfunction screening, treatment, and research. But more needs to be done to ensure individuals with TBI get the testing, treatment, and benefits they and family members deserve.
FYI - May
be of interest.
Technology changing lives of blinded veterans by HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, AP
Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Corby Coover lost his vision a decade ago when a piece of shrapnel from an artillery round struck him in the head during an Army training accident at Fort Polk, La.
Like many veterans rebuilding their lives after injuries or age-related conditions rob their sight, Coover finds himself turning to high-tech gadgets to help him navigate his darkened world.
The 37-year-old retired staff sergeant learned enough braille to help him complete simple tasks like reading the floor numbers in elevators - something he rarely encounters in the small southwest Missouri town of Bolivar where he lives. But he couldn't be persuaded to learn enough of the system of raised bumps to make it possible to read books.
"Well, I'm not going to read a book in braille. They're all on tape," he recalled telling a rehabilitation specialist. Eventually, he said the specialist responded, "Well there's a lot of technology now."
Instead of braille, Coover has a talking watch, a computer that can rattle off what he types and a scanner that can read his mail. And he's planning to receive more training and a guide dog in the coming months before returning to school to pursue a business degree.
Veterans hospitals say troops from past wars who've lost their sight later in life sometimes struggle to learn braille because conditions like diabetes have compromised their sense of touch. And younger veterans like Coover as well as those who have lost their site because of the IEDs exploding in Iraq and Afghanistan are more comfortable with the new technology.
Jim Burns, who coordinates services for the legally blind at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Kansas City, where Coover receives treatment, said he has seen braille decrease in popularity since he became a blind rehabilitation specialist in 1995.
"Today's veterans, the newer generations are more tech savvy, and they're expecting their rehabilitation options and help to incorporate that technology a lot more so than the veterans from the Vietnam and World War II eras," he said. "It's not intimidating to them at all."
Rehabilitation specialists still encourage those with little to no remaining sight to learn braille. But it can be a tough sell.
Although there are no numbers to show how many veterans learn the skill, the VA does track the gadgets it provides veterans. In 2006, the VA provided 623 braille devices and books, compared to 12,180 items of speech output technology, said Gale Watson, acting director for Blind Rehabilitation Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Technology is pervasive in our lives," she said. "You pick up a tape recorder or one of the memo recorders. It's easy to use. It's very quick. It's very intuitive. And so that's a fast and simple solution to many of the things that people might have formerly used braille for."
The speech output technology includes GPS devices that can help the blind plan their routes and tell them if they get off course. Bar code scanners allow the visually impaired to identify the contents of the cans in their cupboards. The VA even has pill bottles that recite the name of the drug inside and dosage instructions.
And for the vast majority of the legally blinded veterans who have some remaining site, there's a host of high-powered magnification devices. There's also sophisticated techniques to diagnose problems and match veterans with the best adaptive devices, said Joe Maino, the chief of optometry at the VA hospital in Kansas City.
Currently, the VA is serving 44,100 legally blind veterans - a number that is expected to grow as older veterans lose sight to age-related complications and more wounded troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The fighting in the Middle East has left about 1,200 troops with direct injuries to their eyes, with about 100 of them legally blind, according to the Blinded Veterans Association, a Washington-based advocacy group.
There also is a growing concern about vision problems related to traumatic brain injuries. Of the 4,471 victims of traumatic brain injuries, an estimated 63 percent have reported some type of visual disfunction, the association said.
The director of government relations for the group, Thomas Zampieri, said he can relate to the recently wounded, tech-savvy troops he routinely visits in military hospitals after going through the VA's rehabilitation program himself four years ago.
Already familiar with computers from his years as a physician assistant, he said he bypassed braille instruction in favor of learning the speech output computer programs he went on to use when he returned to graduate school. He lost most of his sight to retinal problems.
Maino said the older vets, especially those who used computers before retiring, also take to the new technology. But those without any computer or keyboarding experience face a steep learning curve before they can begin to learn some of the speech output software.
The move away from braille, not just among veterans but among public school children, worries some.
Melanie Brunson, executive director of the Washington-based American Council for the Blind, touts studies showing unemployment rates are lower among blind people who can use braille.
"I think that while those technologies go a long way, they certainly don't replace braille," said Brunson, herself blind and a braille user. "Even if you can't learn all of it, if you can learn enough for it to be useful to you for giving you another means to providing yourself with ways to be independent, that's all that really matters."
--
FAIR USE NOTICE
This email may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material
available in an effort to advance the understanding of visually impaired
veterans to issues concerning the veterans' community. We believe this
constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in
section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section
107, the material in this email is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed an interest in receiving the included information for educational
purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for purposes
of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
Thomas Zampieri
Director Government Relations
Blinded Veterans Association
Washington, DC
202-371-8880 ext 3305
End of Document