Glaucoma is the sneak thief of sight, affecting the eyesight of more than 50 million people worldwide. It remains the biggest preventable cause of blindness today.
The pathway from eye to brain begins in the retina, where light is converted into neuronal signals.
nina/Flickr
Chris Tailby, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Light arriving from the right visual field is processed in the brain’s left hemisphere. So damage to the left part of the primary visual cortex will result in blindness in the right visual field.
Cataracts are one of the leading causes of visual impairment globally.
Rakesh Ahuja, MD/Wikimedia Commons
Trachoma easily spreads from one child to another through infected eye and nose secretions. A person may have up to 40 episodes of reinfection during childhood.
In some people AMD progresses so slowly that people do not notice the change in their vision.
Ken Wu/Unsplash
Macular degeneration affects the part of the eye that allows you to see fine detail. Age-related macular degeneration is the main cause of blindness in Australia.
Scientists have discovered that the high pressure in the eye that occurs with most common forms of glaucoma can trigger two genes that work together to cause vision loss, which may help pave the way for new glaucoma drugs.
Off to the office.
Guide dog and blind man via Jeroen van den Broek/www.shutterstock.com
With the emergence of online technologies, the visually impaired can no longer depend on braille alone for their learning needs. App developers are stepping up to the challenge.
We live in a visual world and build environments that rely heavily on visual perception. Want to find somewhere? You look on a map or read a road sign. Perhaps the GPS on your touch screen smartphone can…
Scientists have proposed a way to monitor glaucoma using a tiny device implanted in the eye. Readings from the device could be monitored by a smartphone. The technology could help prevent some people from…
An adult black fly with the parasite Onchocerca volvulus coming out of the insect’s antenna.
United States Department of Agriculture
In sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America, there is a parasitic worm that infects about 25m people, causing serious skin diseases, epilepsy and blindness. Known as Onchocerca volvulus, it can live…
Australia has not yet signed the Marrakesh Treaty and time is running out.
China's Nanjing Blind School. EPA/Jerry Lu
An estimated 285 million people worldwide are visually impaired. Some 90% of those live in developing nations, where less than 1% of the world’s books are available in a form they can read. In developed…
Learning braille is liberating so it’s time to modernise.
Dave Halberstadt
Even in a world of digital devices, braille continues to be a vital part of life for blind people. For nearly 200 years, this versatile writing system has allowed them to learn, work and live in a more…
Melbourne Laureate Professor, Harold Mitchell Chair of Indigenous Eye Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne