National Eye Health Week runs from the 18th - 24th September. It’s mission is to educate people about the importance of eye health and help prevent avoidable sight loss. One in five people will live with sight loss in their lifetime and the importance of regularly having an eye test cannot be overemphasised. This can be the first step to saving your sight and hence, charities, organisations and health professionals working in the sight loss sector are joining together to rais

Connor, Nick, Sarah and Carina are like most teenagers navigating the growing pains of high school, but unlike their peers these four teens face another challenge – they’re blind. Do You Dream in Color? is an enlightening, poignant and award winning coming of age documentary by filmmakers Abi Fuller and Sarah Ivy that brilliantly captures the inspired journeys of four courageous US teenagers as they strive to achieve their goals: to be a sponsored skateboarder, to travel the

July 6th will be remembered as a massive day in the lives of the visually impaired community with the EU (and many other nations) ratification of the 2013 Marrakesh Treaty or to give it it’s full title, The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled (MVT) It is the latest addition to the body of international copyright treaties administered by WIPO-The World Intellectual Property Organisat

Summer is well and truly here, and nothing says Summer more than Ice Cream and of course that essential summer accessory, sunglasses! Not on

This May, the RNIB held its annual “Wear Dots, Raise Lots” campaign, highlighting the enormous impact of braille and helping them to support the hundreds of people in the UK that start to lose their sight every day. Right across the UK, thousands of people have taken part in fundraising events that have involved wearing dots, baking and selling dotty cakes and generally educating the wider community. Here at Conspexit we couldn’t resist hosting a cake sale in the foyers of Wo

We’re challenging our fellow entrepreneurs to lead the way with inclusive hiring. It’s something CEO’s often talk about but when it comes to actually committing and offering a disabled person a job within their company, they all too often find a convenient excuse. In all honesty, it’s not an unnatural response. When you’re dealing with tight budgets and short timelines, and striving to start or grow a company, then the additional ‘hurdles’ can seem insurmountable. But if you

Have you checked the Google homepage today? Today’s “Google Doodle” celebrates the 181st birthday of French ophthalmologist, Ferdinand Monoyer. Who’s he then??? www.google.com Monoyer, who was born in France in 1836, pioneered the way we measure eye sight. He grew up in Lyon before moving to the University of Strasbourg in 1871. He eventually returned to Lyon, where he died aged 76 in 1912. He is best known for creating the Monoyer chart, as well as introducing the dioptre as

We’ve gone dotty here at Conspexit! This May, the RNIB launches its annual “Wear Dots, Raise Lots” campaign, highlighting the impact of braille and helping them to support the hundreds of people in the UK that start to lose their sight every day. Right across the UK, thousands of people are getting involved with fundraising events, wearing dots, baking and selling dotty cakes and educating the wider community. You too can get involved by applying for your own Wear Dots Fundra

Seriously. Who doesn’t love a Guide Dog? Guide dogs are amongst the most phenomenal animals on the planet, and the difference they make to the lives of those with sight loss cannot be overstated. It is impossible to feel anything but pure love and awe when you witness just how dedicated guide dogs are and how precious the relationship between dog and owner becomes. From birth to retirement, a guide dog costs in the region of £50,000 but the impact on an individual’s life is p

Back in 2015, The RNIB published My Voice, a ground breaking project that provides a unique insight into the realities of life as a blind or partially sighted person. Authored by John Slade and Rose Edwards, it’s the only survey of this detail available globally. The findings are based on telephone interviews with over 1,200 participants from across the UK. Many people find that losing their sight is not a one-off event, it happens gradually and over time they can experience

Every day, millions of people across the world encounter a secret language literally under their feet; Tactile Paving. First launched in 1965 in Okayama, Japan Tactile paving is a system of textured ground surface indicators found most commonly on footpaths, stairs and train station platforms to assist Visually Impaired Individuals (VII). Tactile warnings provide a distinctive surface pattern of truncated domes, cones or bars detectable by long cane or underfoot which are use

This week marked World Glaucoma Week but what exactly is Glaucoma? It’s defined as a group of eye diseases that cause progressive damage of the optic nerve at the point where it leaves the eye to carry visual information to the brain. If left untreated, most types of glaucoma (without any warning or obvious symptoms to the patient) will result in visual damage and in some cases blindness. Once visual damage has occurred, it is often irreversible. Glaucoma is the second most c

"What a great quote from Mark Twain", Eirik Moseng shouts eagerly. Eirik is Conspexit founder and he serves Conspexit both as CEO & CTO. Leading and guiding is a valuable and appreciated piece of everyday common kindness that can be offered to the visually impaired. Yet there can be an awkwardness regarding the process. When, how or should I help, and actually do they need my help in the first place? There are a few “do’s and don’ts” to follow, which generally begin with poli

John Hull, a professor of religious education at Birmingham University, went blind in 1983. He spent much of that decade compiling detailed thoughts on the experience of sight loss – a condition he grieved at first, before discovering a philosophical value in his experience. He created a vast audio-cassette journal that mapped out the strange new world confronting him. Those same recordings, a treasure trove of frontier thought on the subject of blindness, formed the basis fo

What’s it like to be visually impaired? The vast majority of people are fortunate enough to take for granted their good vision and go about their daily activities with confidence. They don’t think about obstacles that block their path, especially those such as new roadworks, “A” signs, scaffolding, etc that pop up and obstruct a normal and regular route. They simply observe and avoid them, carrying on regardless. So what happens when that sight is taken away, albeit temporari

Conspexit, a technology company that is currently focused on developing an intelligent assistant for the visually impaired, today announced the appointment of Mr. Charles P. Garcia to its board. As founder and CEO of Sterling Financial Group, Charles Garcia scaled a privately held financial services firm from three people to sixty offices in seven countries and over $2 billion in assets prior to selling it in 2005. The company was named by Inc. magazine as the #8 fastest gro

The RNIB’s flagship publication, NB Online, turned 100 in January, which is an amazing achievement. You can find out more from the RNIB’s website here: https://www.rnib.org.uk/nb-online/happy-100th-birthday-nb The highlights that resonated with us here at CONSPEXIT were the reminder about how much the world has changed in the last 100 years. The first edition was published when Britain and France were fighting Germany in WWI, revolution had broken out in Russia and technolog

©Cylonphoto/Shutterstock Our assumptions are not always right and often they need challenging. When you see a person carrying a white cane or accompanied by a guide dog, do you automatically assume they are blind? For many people, it can be a huge surprise that someone who has the outward appearance of being blind is able to make out words, signs, shapes or specific objects. It’s an easy trap to fall into but did you know it’s estimated that less than 10% of registered blind

‘Does not being able to see mean you have superhero powers?’ It’s not a question we here at Conspexit thought up, it’s a genuine question many blind people get asked. The only logical answer of course is, ‘I wish’ but that just goes to prove that people with sight loss are the same as everyone else; who wouldn’t want superhero powers! Jokes aside, it can often be difficult for even well intentioned people to know what to say to someone who is blind, but that doesn’t mean we s

We rely on our eyes to keep us safe but if you’re blind or partially sighted, then you’re at a distinct disadvantage in today’s modern citie