The joy of receiving assistive equipment spreads to family members and caregivers! The daughter of a recent grant recipients expresses the critical need for hardware/software packages that have extended or expanded her mother’s remaining vision.

Dear Eye-Link Board,
I am writing to thank you for the use of the LyriQ text to speech reader for my mother. She loves it, and has given her so much freedom. She can now read mail, daily devotions, and other literature without help. Our vision counselor Gena helped us set up the machine, and it is now a permanent fixture on Mom’s side table.

We sincerely appreciate your generosity and compassion.

Sincerely,
Sue T.

Putting assistive equipment into the hands of visually impaired people is Eye-Link’s daily mission, sharing the joy our recipients feel is our reward.

Be My Eyes is an app that pairs a blind or low-vision user with a sighted volunteer based on language and timezone. The first volunteer to answer the request is connected to that specific user and receives live video feed from the rear-facing camera of the user's smartphone.

I recently signed up as a volunteer on the Be My Eyes app - https://www.bemyeyes.com/ and here is what I want you to know:
    •    Downloading the app and signing up is extremely easy.
    •    Currently, there are 492,555 blind/visually impaired users on the app.
    •    There are 6.5 million volunteers.

I encourage you to reach out to anyone you know struggling with vision loss to sign up for the Be My Eyes app. Within a few days of signing up, I received my first call and spoke with a gentleman named “David”. David was completely blind and needed help pairing his iPad to his Bluetooth speakers. While Siri was helpful, David was dealing with some frustrations of not knowing whether his iPad was on, loading, or if

With some simple instructions, we were able to get his speakers paired and working. It was great to hear how excited he was to have the problem solved. David said he had been a long time user of the Be My Eyes app, and that it had become invaluable in helping him navigate certain technologies.
 
Whether you are blind and need help or you want to volunteer, I would encourage everyone to take a deeper look into the Be My Eyes app.  My call with David was a brief 10 minutes out of my day, but the joy of having assisted will last much longer.

Jodie Kalla

Excerpts from a recent letter about how Eye-Link is helping individuals meet the challenges of eroding sight.

Recently, I worked with Eye-Link Minnesota to get a Ruby 7 for my client Linda R. Linda continues to be very independent despite her remaining vision decreasing. Linda and I met in early 2023 and discussed her needs for her changing vision. We determined that a Ruby 7 would be perfect for her to integrate into her everyday life and continue to increase her independence. I contacted Eye-Link through the online application and within days,  I heard back from Jeff Thompson that Linda was approved for a Ruby 7.
 
I sent it to Linda and heard from her almost immediately. She had tears in her eyes because of how amazing the product was AND how lucky she felt that she was approved. She said that this will not only help her, but also impact the lives around her because she won’t have to rely on them as much. She was and is so appreciative, she couldn’t express her thanks enough. As a counselor, that makes me incredibly happy and the state of Minnesota is so fortunate to have Eye-Link Minnesota “in our back pocket” in the instances that SSB cannot provide these life-changing devices.
 
Thank you again on behalf of not only myself, but also Linda R.

Lauren Eliason | Blind Rehabilitation Specialist
State Services for the Blind

Be a part of the only CISCO Academy customized for individuals who are blind in the United States! This innovative training opportunity connects talented individuals who are blind and interested in an IT career with the opportunity to receive not only the training but support in getting that employment opportunity with some of the leading industries in the country.

The NSITE Cisco Academy, adapted to the learning styles of people who are blind or visually impaired, provides foundational knowledge of a broad range of IT fundamentals, preparing participants to pass the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) exam and take their IT careers in any direction they wish.
Key Components of the NSITE Cisco Academy

Training- Receive customized instructor-led virtual training from leading IT trainers in the industry.
Professional Certification- Participants who complete the NSITE Cisco Academy become Cisco Certified Network Associates, a certification recognized throughout the IT industry. NSITE facilitates scheduling and taking the CCNA certification exam.
Workplace Preparation- Students attending the NSITE Cisco Academy participate in training and one-on-one consultations on topics from resume writing and mock interviews to professional networking and workplace etiquette. 
Employment- After earning their Cisco Certified Network Associate certification, NSITE works to assist participants in obtaining employment in the field by leveraging partnerships within the IT community and NSITE Connect.  

What is the schedule for the current program?
The 40-week instructor-led training program is conducted using a virtual classroom two days per week, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. ET. Student's study and complete lab assignments on their own time.

Is there a cost to the program?
Yes, there is a training fee for CISCO Academy. NSITE will work with you to find funding resources for the program either with your Vocational Rehabilitation offices or various grant opportunities established with the program. 

Who is eligible for the NSITE Cisco Academy?

• The NSITE Cisco Academy is exclusively for people who are blind or visually impaired.
• Documentation of legal blindness is required.
• A four-year college degree with a focus in Computer Science is preferred but not required.
• Work experience in the IT field building mainframes or computers in a lab, or teaching computer security, or as certified IT employees such as A+, Security +, or Network+ .
• Must have intermediate to advanced skills using assistive technology.
• Applicants must be able to commit to an intensive 40-week training program.

Read Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

To apply, please complete the application form below. You will need to upload your resume and if you have a vocational rehabilitation counselor you will need to provide us with their contact information to complete the application.

DEADLINE to Apply: March 1st, 2022

Click here to access the application.

Questions? Please contact Rikki Howie at [email protected].

Imagine living with a genetic disease that could cause blindness in your 40s—and your doctor tells you there are no treatment options. It's for patients like these that Johnson & Johnson is harnessing cutting-edge technology in the hope of finding real solutions.

By Hallie Levine    October 11, 2021

It can be devastating to watch someone slowly lose their vision.

Just ask James List, M.D., Ph.D., Global Therapeutic Area Head of Cardiovascular, Metabolism and Retina at Janssen Research & Development, part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Before he joined the company in 2014, the Harvard endocrinologist spent his days counseling patients with diabetes. “Many people don’t realize that diabetes can cause irreversible damage to multiple organs, including the eyes,” he says.

READ MORE

Aimee Volk, MS, OTR/L, Vision and Independent Living Services Administrator for North Dakota Vocational Rehabilitation Human Services has been elected as a Director for Eye-Link North Dakota.

Aimee has a true desire for helping individuals coping with substantial sight loss regain and maintain their independence. Aimee began her career in Occupational Therapy in 2010 working in various settings of the hospital including ICU, rehabilitation, and acute care. Aimee soon realized her passion was with vision. In 2017, Aimee began a new journey as the Vision and Independent Living Services Administrator for the North Dakota Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Aimee’s educational background includes a Bachelor’s of University Studies, a Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy (2009) from the University of Mary in Bismarck, ND, and a Graduate Certificate in Low Vision (2020) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Aimee currently resides in Bismarck, ND with her husband Troy, daughters Paighton and Mallana, and three dogs.

Eye-Link welcomes the leadership and experience Aimee brings to the North Dakota Board.

Microsoft’s  Seeing AI is an app that lets blind and limited-vision folks convert visual data into audio feedback, and it just got a useful new feature. Users can now use touch to explore the objects and people in photos.
It’s powered by machine learning, of course, specifically object and scene recognition. All you need to do is take a photo or open one up in the viewer and tap anywhere on it.
“This new feature enables users to tap their finger to an image on a touch-screen to hear a description of objects within an image and the spatial relationship between them,” wrote Seeing AI lead Saqib Shaikh in a blog post. “The app can even describe the physical appearance of people and predict their mood.”
Because there’s facial recognition built in as well, you could very well take a picture of your friends and hear who’s doing what and where, and whether there’s a dog in the picture (important) and so on. This was possible on an image-wide scale already, as you can see in this image:
But the app now lets users tap around to find where objects are — obviously important to understanding the picture or recognizing it from before. Other details that may not have made it into the overall description may also appear on closer inspection, such as flowers in the foreground or a movie poster in the background.
In addition to this, the app now natively supports the iPad, which is certainly going to be nice for the many people who use Apple’s tablets as their primary interface for media and interactions. Lastly, there are a few improvements to the interface so users can order things in the app to their preference.
Seeing AI is free — you can download it for iOS devices here.