Announcing the Sixteenth Annual Meeting

Low Vision Rehabilitation Study Group

(but the first and hopefully last virtual format)

Purpose: An informal gathering of clinicians/clinical researchers in low vision rehab

Discuss problem cases Share techniques Brainstorm ideas for new treatments or investigations Enjoy collegiality

Location: the easy chair at your house

Hosted by: Don Fletcher, Ron Cole, Gus Colenbrander, Tiffany Chan, and Annemarie Rossi Sponsored by: Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKERI) and CPMC Dept. of Ophthalmology

Dates: Feb 6 and Feb 12, 2021

Saturday Feb 6 from 9 AM to 12 noon Pacific Time Clinical focus zoom meeting Friday Feb 12 from 1 PM to 4 PM Pacific Time Research focus zoom meeting Who is Invited:

Anyone actively involved in vision rehabilitation NOT newcomers wanting to get started (sorry – get your feet wet then join us) Registration Fee: NONE (zero, no charge, $0.00 - what a deal!)

Contact Don Fletcher at floridafletch@msn.com to save a spot Attire: Something nice enough to turn the zoom camera on

Format: Informal

No invited speakers Bring a case or technique to discuss No set agenda – we will divide the time between all comers If time allows, we can discuss and solve all the problems facing the field

Promise: We won’t always agree but we’ll have a good time as a group that has a common interest/passion.

Donald C. Fletcher MD

Improving Zoom accessibility for people with hearing impairments People with hearing impairments often use lipreading and speechreading to improve speech comprehension. This approach is helpful but only works if the speaker’s face and mouth are clearly visible. For the benefit of people with hearing impairments on Zoom calls, please enable your device’s camera whenever you are speaking on Zoom, and face the camera while you speak. (Feel free to disable your camera when you aren’t speaking.)

Abstract - Conducting experimental research in the field of mobile accessibility and assistive technologies is difficult due to the low dimension of the representative population. To address this issue, a possible approach is remote collection and analysis of usage data through publicly available mobile applications. This method is useful for performing large scale experimental evaluations and acquiring knowledge of the target population and their behavior. The acquired knowledge can be used to advance future research and to improve the mobile applications themselves.

https://sites.google.com/view/sergiomascetti/home.

Improving Zoom accessibility for people with hearing impairments People with hearing impairments often use lipreading and speechreading to improve speech comprehension. This approach is helpful but only works if the speaker’s face and mouth are clearly visible. For the benefit of people with hearing impairments on Zoom calls, please enable your device’s camera whenever you are speaking on Zoom, and face the camera while you speak. (Feel free to disable your camera when you aren’t speaking.)

Announcing the Sixteenth Annual Meeting Low Vision Rehabilitation Study Group (but the first and hopefully last virtual format)

Purpose: An informal gathering of clinicians/clinical researchers in low vision rehab

Discuss problem cases Share techniques Brainstorm ideas for new treatments or investigations Enjoy collegiality

Location: the easy chair at your house

Hosted by: Don Fletcher, Ron Cole, Gus Colenbrander, Tiffany Chan, and Annemarie Rossi Sponsored by: Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKERI) and CPMC Dept. of Ophthalmology

Dates: Feb 6 and Feb 12, 2021

Saturday Feb 6 from 9 AM to 12 noon Pacific Time Clinical focus zoom meeting Friday Feb 12 from 1 PM to 4 PM Pacific Time Research focus zoom meeting Who is Invited:

Anyone actively involved in vision rehabilitation NOT newcomers wanting to get started (sorry – get your feet wet then join us) Registration Fee: NONE (zero, no charge, $0.00 - what a deal!)

Contact Don Fletcher at floridafletch@msn.com to save a spot Attire: Something nice enough to turn the zoom camera on

Format: Informal

No invited speakers Bring a case or technique to discuss No set agenda – we will divide the time between all comers If time allows, we can discuss and solve all the problems facing the field

Promise: We won’t always agree but we’ll have a good time as a group that has a common interest/passion. Donald C. Fletcher MD https://www.ski.org/users/don-fletcher

Improving Zoom accessibility for people with hearing impairments People with hearing impairments often use lipreading and speechreading to improve speech comprehension. This approach is helpful but only works if the speaker’s face and mouth are clearly visible. For the benefit of people with hearing impairments on Zoom calls, please enable your device’s camera whenever you are speaking on Zoom, and face the camera while you speak. (Feel free to disable your camera when you aren’t speaking.)

Abstract - Digital maps from Google, ESRI, and other places have always been made completely visual. This means blind, low vision, and other nonvisual users have no access to nonvisual digital maps. The legally compliant method is to write a text description, but the text does not give critical spatial information, which is why maps are visual graphics in the first place. Introducing Audiom. Utilizing interface conventions employed in audio games, games that can be played completely entirely in audio, audiom is being co-designed and built with blind users. The eventual goal of Audiom is to be a cross-sensory component with a complete visual version, along with a full auditory version, that can be embedded into any website or application, similar to Google Maps. This presentation will take you on a journey through the study and co-design, through problems and challenges that have needed to be overcome, and into the future. https://www.ski.org/users/brandon-biggs

Improving Zoom accessibility for people with hearing impairments People with hearing impairments often use lipreading and speechreading to improve speech comprehension. This approach is helpful but only works if the speaker’s face and mouth are clearly visible. For the benefit of people with hearing impairments on Zoom calls, please enable your device’s camera whenever you are speaking on Zoom, and face the camera while you speak. (Feel free to disable your camera when you aren’t speaking.)

Abstract - The brain is the most incredible computational machine imaginable, with trillions of synaptic connections. How are connections wired up in development? Wiring happens sequentially first by forming a basic scaffold of connectivity according to genetic blueprints that define strict molecular guidance cues. Then the exact details of each circuit emerge by pruning and sculpting synapses from the immature pattern of connections. The decision-making process that determines which synaptic connections remain and which are pruned is also genetically specified and requires neural function. Even before birth, the brain generates its own internal neural activity to jump-start the sculpting process. After birth sensory systems mature and experience of the external world takes over to influence brain wiring during developmental critical periods. Neural activity and sensory experience regulate expression of sets of genes including several previously thought to act only in the immune system. These activity-regulated genes- including Major Histocompatibility Class I family members and Paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B- are required in neurons for pruning and sculpting synapses during development. Unexpectedly PirB signaling may also contribute to excessive synapse pruning in Alzheimer’s disease and PirB blockade can restore visual function in a mouse model of Amblyopia. Thus, the baby's brain is not a miniature version of the adult, but rather is a dynamically changing structure in which neural activity and experience ultimately select and stabilize essential details of neural circuitry that make each of us different from one another. https://profiles.stanford.edu/carla-shatz

Improving Zoom accessibility for people with hearing impairments

People with hearing impairments often use lipreading and speechreading to improve speech comprehension. This approach is helpful but only works if the speaker’s face and mouth are clearly visible. For the benefit of people with hearing impairments on Zoom calls, please enable your device’s camera whenever you are speaking on Zoom, and face the camera while you speak. (Feel free to disable your camera when you aren’t speaking.)

Abstract: The human visual system evolved in an environment with many statistical regularities. Binocular vision is adapted to these regularities such that depth perception and binocular eye movements are more precise, faster, and performed with more comfort in environments that are consistent with the regularities. We measured the statistics of eye movements and binocular disparities in natural and VR-gaming environments and found that they are quite different from one another. Fixation direction and distance are more restricted in VR. In addition, fixation distance is farther in VR. The pattern of binocular disparity across the visual field is less regular in VR and does not conform to a prominent property of naturally occurring disparities. The disparity pattern makes it more likely to experience double vision in VR-gaming environments. We determined from our fixation statistics the optimal screen distance to minimize discomfort due to the vergence-accommodation conflict.

https://vision.berkeley.edu/people/avigael-aizenman/

Improving Zoom accessibility for people with hearing impairments People with hearing impairments often use lipreading and speechreading to improve speech comprehension. This approach is helpful but only works if the speaker’s face and mouth are clearly visible. For the benefit of people with hearing impairments on Zoom calls, please enable your device’s camera whenever you are speaking on Zoom, and face the camera while you speak. (Feel free to disable your camera when you aren’t speaking.)