Summer 2015 

Ohio Connection 

American Council of the Blind of Ohio 
3805 N. High St., Suite 305 
Columbus, OH 43214 
1-800-835-2226 

Connecting with ACBO Between Ohio Connections 

By Katie Frederick 

Are you aware of the ways to “be in 
the know about ACBO”? Public relations 
and information sharing are important 
to current and prospective 
members, and it is possible to be informed 
whether technology is a hindrance 
or a hobby to you. 

The National Federation of the Blind offers 
a service known as NFB-Newsline; 
individuals qualify if they have difficulty 
reading print, similar qualifications to 
the National Library Service Talking 
Book Program. After creating an account, 
there are numerous methods 
you may use to access NFB-Newsline, 
such as telephone, email, via the web, 
an iOS app as well as on adaptive players 
such as the Victor Reader Stream 
by Humanware. Many magazines, national 
and international newspapers 
and Ohio newspapers are available on 
NFB-Newsline; there are also informational 
portals, called channels, individuals 
may join. I am in the process of updating 
our ACB Ohio channel. Items 
that may be accessed include ACBO 
board of directors quarterly meeting 
minutes, issues of the Ohio Connection, 
and chapter meeting minutes from 

the Columbus chapter, Greater Cincinnati 
chapter, Stark County chapter, 
Friends ‘N Focus chapter, and Overcoming 
Blindness, formerly the Tuscarawas 
Valley chapter. To access this content 
via your telephone, dial one of the 
below local numbers: 

Akron: 330-247-1241 

Canton: 330-409-1900 

Cincinnati: 513-297-1521 

Cleveland:216-453-2090 

Columbus: 614-448-1673 

outside these access areas: 

888-882-1629 

The website www.nfbnewslineonline.org 
allows users to access publications 
online, manage favorite publications, 
and set other account preferences; however, 
if you want to keep things simple, 
the telephone interface provides many 
useful features, including the ability to 
email articles of interest and storing your 
“phone favorites” list. I hope you will 
take some time to explore the ACB-Ohio 

content available on our channel and 
contact me with your thoughts or if you 
believe there are items of interest missing. 

Social media is another way you can 
connect with ACBO; you may like us on 
Facebook by going to 
www.facebook.com/acbohio. If you are 
a Twitter user, why not follow 
@acbohio? (www.twitter.com/acbohio) 
If hearing the words social media sends 
shivers up your spine, consider asking 
to be added to our ACB-Ohio email 
listserv to keep up to date with state 
and national ACB information and issues; 
if you wish to receive email updates, 
please contact the office. 

A final resource I would like to highlight 
in this column is our website, 
www.acbohio.org. which, thanks to the 
dedication of the ACBO technology 
committee and webmaster, remains an 
accessible up-to-date source of information. 
Recently, ACB-Ohio has partnered 
with AI Squared to add more 
functionality to our site for those with 
low vision. SiteCues is a product distributed 
by AI Squared which allows for 
webpage content to be magnified and 
read aloud when activated by the user. 
We look forward to collaborating with AI 
Squared and using the SiteCues product 
to further enhance the accessibility 
of our website. Have you visited our 
site recently? If so, I would love to hear 
what you think about the addition of 
SiteCues; if it’s been a while since 

you’ve paid a visit, browse on over and 
have a look. 

I look forward to connecting with you 
through our various outreach tools until 
we next connect through this newsletter. 

Theresa Carroll 
Editor 

Michelle Spillan 
Assistant Editor 

Thanks to the contributors: Carolyn 
Burley, Mary Castor, Katie Frederick, 
Jenna McCartney, Vicky Prahin, 
Elizabeth Sammons and Linda 
Wyman. Send items for the next 
issue to Theresa Carroll 
(acbo.newsletter@gmail.com) by 
August 15. 

ACBO Community Shares 
Campaign Codes 

State of Ohio 19003 
City of Columbus 60240 
Franklin County 60240 
Ohio State University 60240 
Columbus State1061 

Looking Forward: The 2015 Conference &
Convention 

By Vicky Prahin 

The 2015 Conference and Convention 
this year will surprise, educate, and, we 
hope, delight you with both familiar activities 
and completely new ones. We 
have partnered with ACB of Indiana, 
and they bring expertise and ideas to 
build on. 

The convention activities will take place 
at the Garfield Suites Hotel in downtown 
Cincinnati, November 6-8, 2015. 
This hotel offers suites instead of individual 
rooms. Each suite includes a living 
room, dining area, fully equipped 
kitchen, bath, and either one or two 
bedrooms. Those on the east side of 
the building include a balcony. 

On Friday afternoon, once you have 
settled in, you can visit the exhibit hall, 
beginning at 1:00. As always, we will 
have a variety of exhibits where you 
can find information and explore devices 
and equipment to make life easier 
or more fun. If you prefer to experience 
a bit of the city, ride in a horse-drawn 
carriage; contact Elegant Carriages at 
937-903-5156 to find out about pricing 
and tour information. 

We will have sessions Friday afternoon 
of special interest to rehabilitation 
counselors, although anyone is welcome 
to attend. These will focus on resources 
for braille and marketing strategies 
for helping to find employment. If 
you prefer, spend time having your 
questions about the Unified English 

Braille Code answered. Have dinner in 
the hotel restaurant or go to one of the 
local eateries near the hotel. Greg Daniel 
will give the keynote speech that 
evening. Greg gained recognition in the 
1970s for being the first blind person to 
become a member of The OSU marching 
band. He worked for over 35 years 
as a computer programmer and software 
tester at the Ohio Bureau of Employment 
Services, currently known as 
the Ohio Department of Job & Family 
Services, although music has continued 
to play a major role in his life. 

Top off the day with some evening entertainment 
before going upstairs to 
rest up for the remaining events of the 
weekend. On Saturday morning, learn 
things about the Americans With Disabilities 
Act that you didn’t know and attend 
the annual membership business 
meeting. Among other things, learn 
about possible updates to the constitution 
and bylaws and vote for 
whom would like to serve on the board 
for one or more terms. Following the 
business meeting, learn about audio 
description, bioptics, and how to produce 
digital files. 

Kathy Nimmer, selected as Indiana 
Teacher of the Year in September 
2014, will speak at the banquet on Saturday 
evening. If we are fortunate, she 
will also give a presentation on Sunday 
morning. Saturday will end with the annual 
auction. This year’s auction event 

promises some new and exciting surprises, 
so come to have fun and take 
away something special! 

On Sunday morning, Lori Woodall will 
again lead those who wish to join her in 
a non-denominational worship service. 
We will recognize deceased members 
and our veterans after breakfast. 
Whether you have attended many conventions 
before or this is your first one, 
we hope you will find something to 
bring you to Cincinnati in November. 

The BSVI Waiting List is Over 

Submitted by Elizabeth L. Sammons, Program Administrator, 
Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities Agency 

As of February 2015, Opportunities for 
Ohioans with Disabilities, including 
BSVI, is proud to announce that the 
waiting list for people applying for services 
has been eliminated. This is a 
huge accomplishment for our program 
and a wonderful opportunity for people 
with disabilities in Ohio. 

As a result, BSVI can now provide immediate 
service for these individuals 
once they are determined eligible. 
While blindness per se, does not guarantee 
eligibility, inherent limitations 
usually allow for services. 

Unfortunately, The American Community 
Survey shows that only one out of 
three working age Ohioans with disabil

ities is employed. We know that there 
are many more Ohioans with disabilities 
out there that are still in need of 
services. So we need your help! If you 
have a family member, a friend or acquaintance 
with any disability who desires 
a job, now is the time to act concerning 
Opportunities for Ohioans with 
Disabilities and what we can offer. 

If you are interested in applying for services 
to help you get or keep a job as 
well, please contact your local BSVI office 
or call the statewide number to 
connect to the office you need. We look 
forward to assisting you! This number 
is 800-282-4536. The agency website 
is www.ood.ohio.gov/. 

Fun in the Sun with ACBO! 

By Jenna McCartney, Recreation Committee Chair 

Well, these past few weeks have certainly 
been warming up! I have actually 
turned on my air-conditioning, and I 
only do that when absolutely necessary. 
Yes, all, summer is here! It is 
time to get outside and start enjoying 
it, and ACBO has great opportunities 
for you! 

Now that the snow has gone and we 
are able to get out more, I have been 
walking with my guide, Bilko. This past 
weekend I was riding four wheelers, 
(and driving with trusted eyeballs not 
my own, and sadly not Bilko’s), and 
canoeing. Many of our fellow ACBO 
members have been active as well 

During this year’s Flying Pig in Cincinnati, 
many ACBO members took part. 
Tammy smith participated in her first 
5K, and although she wasn’t the fastest 
runner, she may have been the 
runner with the most heart! Chris 
Schumacher and Dave Perry walked 
the Skyline Three way, (a 5K, 10K and 
half marathon); Mary Ann Donelan 
walked the half marathon. Mary Beth 
Donelan, Joyce Asher and several 
others also were involved. 

Now, what is going on for the rest of 
the summer? If you are looking for 
something fun to do this summer, consider 
joining us, August 14th through 
the 16th, for the Summer Sports Retreat! 
Held in the usual location outside 
of Athens, Ohio, we will have 
loads of summer activities to partici

pate in. Join us for swimming, boating, 
tandem biking, and jet skiing. You could 
also hang out at the bonfire, and there 
will, as is typical of ACBO retreats, be 
card games and good food. Blind participants 
pay $85 to attend, but sighted 
guides go for free! 

You can either sleep in the trailer available 
on site, or a tent. Come join us and 
have a great time! Information about this 
event is available at www.acbohio.org, 
email acbo-assist@gmail.com. 

Have a great summer and I hope to see 
you at the summer sports retreat! 

News from Chapters Around the State 

By Mary Castor & Carolyn Burley 

The Appleseed Chapter (Richland 
County) continues to meet monthly for 
our Loss of Vision support group and 
the ACB meeting the first Wednesday 
of the month at 3:00 at the Water-
ford Center in Mansfield. Steve 
Nemeth lead our March meeting during 
which we generated ideas to plan a trip 
later this summer. Our April speaker 
was Paula Williamson, Occupational 
Therapist of Kingston of Ashland who 
spoke about tips & strategies to stay 
safe and independent. Our May speaker 
was Jeff Hillis, District President of 
the Lions Club who informed the group 
about the Lion’s Club's vision services 
and eye research projects at the national 
and international level. Our 
group is looking forward to attending 
the Friends & Family day this July at 
the Library for the Blind & Physically 
Disabled in Cleveland. We decided to 
take a trip to Put-in-Bay in August. 
There we will enjoy the ferry ride and 

take an escorted train trip around the 
island to enjoy some special attractions. 

The Stark County Chapter of ACBO 
didn’t meet in January or February due 
to bad weather. In March we met but 
didn’t have a speaker. In April our 
speaker gave a talk on Hospice Care 
and Palliative Care. Katie Frederick 
came up and told our group about the 
activities of ACB on the national level 
and ACBO. We all thought that she 
was very informative. The chapter decided 
to donate $300.00 to the Philomatheon 
for the work they do for the 
blind. We also decided to donate 
$500.00 to the Cleveland Sight Center 
to their summer program at Camp Hy-
brook. In May we had a table at Senior 
Day and handed out information about 
our group and other information related 
to blindness. 

Tech Bytes 
The National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent federal agency 
that advises the President, Congress, and other federal agencies on disability 
policy, released a comprehensive assessment of surface transportation 
for people with disabilities titled, “Transportation Update: Where We’ve 
Gone and What We’ve Learned.” See the following website for the complete 
report: http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2015/05042015/ 

Meet Our Scholarship Winners 

By Linda Wyman & Katie Frederick 

Emily Pennington, winner of the David 
Newmeyer Scholarship, lives in 
Cincinnati, where she is a Junior at Xavier 
University majoring in accounting. 
Her educational goals include earning 
an M.B.A. and graduating law school 
with a concentration in tax law. She expects 
to use her accounting and legal 
expertise to assist members of the disability 
community. 

At Xavier, she has maintained a 3.9 
grade-point average, has made the 
Dean’s List for the last two years, and 
is a member of the Delta Sigma Pi honorary 
fraternity. She is a member of 
three choirs at Xavier, the Xavier Accounting 
Society, and the Cincinnati 
Association for the Blind. She serves 
as the fund-raising chair of the Ohio 
Association of Blind Students. In the 
summer of 2014 she was an intern at 
the Clovernook Center for the Blind. 
When she came to the 2014 ACBO 
Convention to receive her scholarship, 
she participated in many sessions and 
social events and she expects to remain 
active in ACB-Ohio. 

Emily Molchan received the Max 
Edelman Scholarship. She is a junior at 
the University of Dayton. Emily is majoring 
in foreign language education; 
she holds a TESL Certificate and a mi-

Emily Pennington (left), winner of 
the David Newmeyer Scholarship, 
and Emily Molchan (right), winner of 
the Max Edelman Scholarship 

nor in Russian. While attending the 
University of Dayton, Emily has traveled 
to Ecuador to work with students, 
to New Orleans to help rebuild schools 
following Hurricane Katrina, and is involved 
in her local UD community tutoring 
Hispanic children. Emily shared 
how important helping students further 
their education is to her, as well as giving 
back to her community; she was 
honored to receive the scholarship and 
looks forward to helping students improve 
their education. 

High School Student Develops App for the VI 
Community 

Shalin Shah, a high schooler, designed 
an iPhone app for people who are blind 
or visually impaired. Help encourage 
him by testing his app and give him 
feedback. On his own initiative, and 
without teacher input, Shalin, created 
an app which will: 

..assist a user to take a picture of a 
page containing text, and it will: 

..tell the user if the focus is correct 

..adjust for brightness 

..adjust for a picture of text on a 
curve such as a can label 

..take the actual picture when auto 
settings are acceptable 

..run optical character recognition on 
the picture 

..read the resulting text using text-tospeech 
software 

Here is the link to the app: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/voicetake-
picture-have-it/id903772588 

The app begins explaining the app and 
how it works. It then lets the user know 
if the camera has the picture properly 
aligned and, if so, announces that it 
has located all four corners of the text. 
With voiceover on, the user is told 

when the picture is taken; when the 
OCR is processing it; and finally uses a 
text-to-speech engine to read it to the 
user. The speed of the reading is adjustable 
All this is accomplished in a 
brief time and is done automatically 
without requiring user input in the process. 
Because the OCR relies on an 
online application, the time required is 
slightly dependent on the quality of the 
Internet connection. The app is called 
Voice and is available from the iTunes 
online store. 

Here is the link: 
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/voicetake-
picture-have-it/id903772588 

Shalin is eager to receive evaluations 
and any tips for improvements and 
modifications. His email address is: 
shalinvs@gmail.com. Please take a 
moment to review the app, or at the 
very least send an e-mail to this young 
man thanking him for his initiative. 

Netflix Begins Audio Description for the Visually 
Impaired 

By Tracy Wright 

At Netflix, we work hard to continually 
improve the experience for our members 
when viewing movies and shows 
on our service, including providing accessibility 
across devices. Now we’re 
expanding our accessibility options by 
adding audio description on select titles, 
beginning today with our new critically 
acclaimed series, Marvel’s Daredevil. 

Audio description is a narration track 
that describes what is happening on-
screen, including physical actions, facial 
expressions, costumes, settings and 
scene changes. Customers can 
choose audio narration just like choosing 
the soundtrack in a different language. 

In coming weeks, we'll add more titles, 
including current and previous seasons 
of the Golden Globe and Emmy award-
winning political thriller House of 
Cards, Emmy award-winning comedy-

drama series Orange is the New Black, 
as well as Tina Fey’s Unbreakable Kimmy 
Schmidt and the epic adventure series 
Marco Polo. 

Netflix is actively committed to increasing 
the number of audio-visual translations 
for movies and shows in our English-
language catalogues. We are also 
exploring adding audio description into 
other languages in the future. 

Over time, we expect audio description 
to be available for major Netflix original 
series, as well as select other shows 
and movies. We are working with studios 
and other content owners to increase 
the amount of audio description 
across a range of devices including 
smart TVs, tablets and smartphones. 
Stay tuned. 

Tracy Wright is the Director of Content 
Operations at Netflix. 

Participants Sought for Pedestrian Study 

You are invited to participate in a study 
that will explore your perspectives as a 
person with adult-onset visual impairment 
as it pertains to pedestrian and 
independent travel. 

If you are interested in participating, 
please contact Kimberly Avila at kavila@
masonlive.gmu.edu or by phone at 
703-993-5625. 

You do not have to be a current or active 
pedestrian to participate. Participants 
must have a visual impairment 
that occurred after age 18. This in

cludes, but is not limited to, persons 
with macular degeneration, cataracts, 
glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, vision 
impairment from an accident or injury 
or any other circumstance resulting in 
visual impairment or blindness. 

You will be asked to take part in two 
separate 30 to 45 minute interviews. 
Both interviews can be done by phone. 
Participants will receive a $10 gift card 
for being part of this study and will help 
contribute to research in the field of orientation 
and mobility and pedestrian 
safety. 

The Ohio Connection is a quarterly 
publication of the American Council 
of the Blind of Ohio. Please submit 
your material in print or through email. 
The next deadline is August 
15, 2015. Please include your 
name, address, and phone number 
and send to: Theresa Carroll at 
acbo.newsletter@gmail.com. 

FCC Updates List of Non broadcast NetworksSubject to Video Description 

On March 6, 2015, the FCC’s Media 
Bureau took the following actions in an 
Order and Public Notice: 

(1)Announced that, beginning July 1, 
2015, the top five non broadcast 
networks that will be subject to the 
FCC’s video description requirements 
are the Disney Channel, History, 
TBS, TNT, and USA; 
(2)Granted a request by ESPN to be 
excluded from the list of networks 
that must provide video description 
because ESPN does not air of prime 
time programming that is not live or 
near-live (recorded less than 24 
hours before its first airing) per calendar 
quarter; and 
(3) Reminded broadcast stations affiliated 
with ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC 
that the obligation to provide 50 hours 
of video description per calendar quarter 
expands from the top 25 television 
markets to the top 60 television markets 
on July 1, 2015. 
Background: 

The FCC’s rules require multichannel 
video programming distributor (MVPD) 

systems (such as cable and satellite 
providers) that serve 50,000 or more 
subscribers to provide 50 hours of video 
description per calendar quarter 
(about four hours per week) during 
prime time or children’s programming 
on each of the top five non-broadcast 
networks. 

The top five non-broadcast networks 
that have been subject to the video Disney 
Channel, Nickelodeon, TBS, TNT 
and USA. The FCC updates the list of 
top five non-broadcast networks that 
are subject to the video description requirements 
since July 1, 2012 are the 
description requirements every three 
years to account for changes in ratings. 
The new list of networks reflects changes 
in such ratings. 

Links to the Order and Public Notice 
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/ 
attachmatch/DA-15-295A1.doc 
For further information, contact Maria 
Mullarkey at (202) 418-2120 or 
Maria.Mullarkey@fcc.gov 

NIH Launches Research to Gaze Deeply intoYour Eyes 

The National Eye Institute (NEI) announced 
the awards as part of its Audacious 
Goals Initiative. NEI has committed 
$3.8 million to the projects in 
2015 and up to $17.9 million over the 
next five years, pending the availability 
of funds. NEI is part of the National Institutes 
of Health. 

The NEI Audacious Goals Initiative is a 
coordinated effort to spur new therapies 
for blinding diseases. The central 
audacious goal is to restore vision by 
regenerating neurons and neural connections 
in the eye and visual system. 
Special emphasis is devoted to cells of 
the retina, including the light-sensitive 
rod and cone photoreceptors, and the 
retinal ganglion cells, which connect 
photoreceptors to the brain via the optic 
nerve. "These ambitious projects 
will give us a window into the visual 
system," said NEI Director Paul A. 
Sieving, M.D., Ph.D. "Tools developed 
will enhance the study of functional 
changes in the retina and optic nerve, 
in real-time and at the cellular level, 
and will be indispensable when evaluating 
new regenerative therapies for 
eye diseases." Many causes of incurable 
blindness affect retinal neurons. 
Among the hundreds of rare inherited 
disorders that damage the retina are 
retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease. 
Common causes include age-
related macular degeneration and 
glaucoma. "We have entered the research 
phase of the Audacious Goals 
Initiative. Projects in this first round of 

AGI funding will bridge gaps in current 
technology, enabling later phases of 
the initiative," said Dr. Sieving, who is 
making a detailed announcement of the 
grants at the 2015 Association for Research 
in Vision and Ophthalmology 
(ARVO) annual meeting. 

THE FIVE PROJECTS INCLUDE: 

-- Interferometric Optophysiology of 
the Human Retina (U01 EY025501) 
Principal investigator: Austin Roorda, 
Ph.D., University of California, 
Berkeley 

Dr. Roorda and colleagues are designing 
a system to map the interaction of 
cells in the retina. The system will enable 
scientists to stimulate individual 
neurons and observe other cells as 
they become active in response. Mapping 
these intricate signaling patterns 
will help explain how the retina processes 
visual information before it is 
sent to the brain, and will be an important 
tool for monitoring function in 
regenerated cells. The systems will incorporate 
eye tracking components and 
adaptive optics, a technology that corrects 
for distortion imposed by the cornea 
and lens. 

-- Accelerating Vision Restoration 
with In-vivo Cellular Imaging of Retinal 
Function (U01 EY025497) 
Principal investigator: David Williams, 
Ph.D., University of Rochester 
Center for Visual Science, New York 

NEI scientist prepares a human eye for research 

Dr. Williams' team is designing 
an optical system to 
image responses to light of 
large numbers of individual 
cells in the retina. The system 
uses two main components: 
a fluorescent marker 
that can detect cellular calcium 
fluxes, and two-
photon microscopy-which 
uses infrared light to detect 
the fluorescent signals 
without damaging living tissue. 
The team plans to test 
their system in collaboration 
with investigators who 

are exploring three different 
approaches to vision restoration: preserving 
photoreceptors with gene therapy, 
replacing lost photoreceptors using 
stem cells, and genetically re-
engineering cells other than photoreceptors 
to respond to light. 

-- A Two-photon Ophthalmoscope for 
Human Retinal Imaging and Functional 
Testing (U01 EY025451) 
Principal investigator: Krzysztof 
Palczewski, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve 
University, Cleveland 

Dr. Palczewski and colleagues are pursuing 
a tool to visually monitor vitamin 
A derivatives in the retina. Vitamin A derivatives 
help power the light-sensitive 
machinery inside hotoreceptors. Many 
inherited diseases of the retina involve 
mutations that affect the retina's ability 
to utilize or recycle vitamin A. Dr. 
Palczewski's team will develop a two-
photon microscope capable of measuring 
the metabolism and distribution of 
vitamin A derivatives within photoreceptors, 
at baseline in various retinal dis

eases and in response to potential therapies. 

-- Imaging Optic Nerve Function and 
Pathology (U01 EY025500) 
Principal investigators: Sheng-Kwei 
Song, Ph.D., and Yong Wang, Ph.D., 
Washington University, St. Louis 

Drs. Song and Wang are adapting two 
technologies-diffusion basis spectrum 
imaging and diffusion functional magnetic 
resonance imaging-to noninvasively 
visualize the optic nerve. Although 
this bundle of fibers originates in 
the retina, most of the optic nerve resides 
deep within the brain, out of 
reach of most devices used to see into 
the eye. Optic nerve damage, a consequence 
of glaucoma and other optic 
neuropathies, is currently irreversible. 

This system could be used to monitor 
how a patient's optic nerve responds to 
a potential new therapy throughout the 

(Continued on page 15) 

Prosthetic Compass Wired Into Brain Substitutes 
for Sight 

By Ashley Yeager 

SENSE OF DIRECTION Blind rats 
have learned to successfully navigate 
complex mazes with the help of a prosthetic 
compass and microchip wired into 
their brains. Yuji Ikegayaand Hiroaki 
Norimoto/University of Tokyo Magazine 
issue: Vol. 187 No. 9, May 2, 2015 

With a compass-microchip prosthetic 
wired into their brains, blind rats can 
learn to navigate complex mazes to 
find food. What's more, they can do it 
nearly as well as rats that still have 
their sight, researchers from Japan report 
April 20 in Current Biology. Success 
using the prosthetic demonstrates 
the flexibility of the brain to comprehend 
a completely new sense, they 
say. The result may lead to improved 
therapies for human blindness and to 
the enhancement of human senses beyond 
the standard five. "These rats are 
learning and really learning fast," says 
neurophysiologist Peter König of Osnabrück 
University in Germany. He adds 
that it's pretty cool that the animals can 
learn to use the signals from the geomagnetic 
device in a meaningful way. 
Study coauthor Yuji Ikegaya of the University 
of Tokyo says the rats may not 
perceive the meaning of direction as 
humans do. But, he says, the results do 
suggest that the animals can develop 
an internal map from a sense that isn't 
inherent. In previous studies, scientists 
manipulated ferrets' senses so they 
could interpret visual cues with brain 

pathways originally wired for sound. 
Researchers have also developed a 
brain prosthetic that helps rats detect 
infrared light, which is usually invisible. 
In the new study, Ikegaya and Hiroaki 
Norimoto, also of the University of Tokyo, 
tested whether their prosthetic 
brain compass could help blind rats 
regain their ability to recognize the position 
of their bodies within mazes. 
Food was the incentive. To prevent the 
rats from using their sense of smell to 
find food, the scientists sprayed the 
odor of the food pellets all over the 
walls of the mazes. The scientists then 
put the rats through 20 trial runs a day 
in a T-shaped maze. Relying on their 
vision, normal rats learned where food 
was hidden and how to consistently 
get back to it within a week. The normal 
rats had similar success in a five-
armed maze. Blind rats did not have 
such success unless they had a prosthetic 
brain compass. Story continues 
after the image The prosthetic is made 
of a digital compass, microchip and 
tiny electrodes. Ikegaya and Norimoto 
first implanted the electrodes into the 
brain region responsible for vision. 
When the digital compass sensed a 
blind rat's head pointed north, the microchip 
transferred data to the right 
electrode and it pulsed. When the rat's 
head pointed south, the left electrode 
pulsed. With the stimulation, the blind 
rats learned to navigate the maze and 
find food in roughly the same number 

of trials as rats with intact vision. Even 
after the compass was turned off when 
the blind rats entered the maze, they 
could still orient themselves and find 
the food. Blind rats that had the electrodes 
implanted in the region of the 
brain responsible for touch performed 
equally well. König says the result supports 
the idea that senses are not innate. 
The brain learns how to handle 
the senses, and it can do it with information 
that is not limited to sight, 
sound, taste, touch and smell. This 
adaptability of the brain is how the 
whole idea of substituting and enhancing 
the senses got started, König says. 
He notes that the new prosthetic directly 
augments the rats' senses, an 
advance that may offer a better look at 
how the brain changes at the cellular 
level when given new sensory information. 
Ikegaya says the results could 
be used in an immediate and practical 
way to advance the development of 
the canes that blind people use when 
walking. One idea is to incorporate the 
compass into the cane. When the person 
pushes a button on the top of the 
cane, it could signal the direction of 
north through vibrations. "This is very 
simple," Ikegaya says, "but it would 
greatly help the blind to walk. He notes 
that scientists might also be able to 
use the information to give humans super-
sensing abilities. "Sensing ultraviolet 
light may be important for reducing 
skin cancer," Ikegaya says. "Sensing 
ultrasonic and radio waves may enable 
a next-generation form of human-
to-human communication. 

Citations H. Norimoto and Y. Ikegaya. 
Visual Cortical Prosthesis with a Geomagnetic 
Compass Restores Spatial 

Navigation in Blind Rats . Current Biology 
. Vol. 25, April 20, 2015 

(Contributed by Bill Reif) 

(NIH Research, continued) 

course of treatment and without the 
need for biopsy. 

-- Platform Technologies for Microscopic 
Retinal Imaging: Development 
and Translation (U01 
EY025477) 
Principal investigators: Alfredo Du-
bra, Ph.D., and Joseph Carroll, 
Ph.D., Medical College of Wisconsin, 
Milwaukee 

With collaborators at several research 
institutions, Drs. Dubra and Carroll will 
develop a suite of core technologies 
that will advance and increase the usability 
of next-generation retinal cameras. 
The suite will include real-time eye 
motion stabilization, image resolution 
doubling, a tunable lens to improve the 
focusing of all colors of light and high-
throughput methods for testing the 
function of individual cells. 

For more information about these projects 
and the NEI Audacious Goals Initiative, 
visit 
http://www.nei.nih.gov/audacious. 
NEI leads the federal government's research 
on the visual system and eye 
diseases. NEI supports basic and clinical 
science programs that result in the 
development of sight-saving treatments. 

American Council of the Blind of Ohio 
3805 N. High St., Suite 305 
Columbus, Ohio 43214 

ACB-OHIO DATEBOOK 

JULY 3-11 

ACB ANNUAL CONVENTION 
SHERATON DALLAS HOTEL 
DALLAS, TX 

JULY 24 (AND JULY 25 IF NEEDED) 

ACBO BOARD MEETING 
VIA CONFERENCE CALL 

AUGUST 14-16 

ACBO SUMMER SPORTS RETREAT 

NOVEMBER 6-8 

ACBO CONVENTION 
GARFIELD SUITES HOTEL 
CINCINNATI, OH 

FREE MATTER 
FOR THE BLIND