Macular Degeneration solutions, for Richard & others.

Macular Degeneration is a debilitating disease process, inwhich people lose their central visual field. It is progressive and can severely inhibit independence especially in areas such as: driving, reading, recognition of faces, money and medication management and instrumental activities of daily living.

In our case study this week we studied an interview with Richard who was experiencing the isolating effects of this disease. The primary limitations that concerned him, included 1) difficulty reading and 2) difficulty in social situations - primarily because he was unable to identify faces.

1) To begin to find solutions for the reading difficulties he was experiencing, I found this article about an Electronic Magnifier. In this article one of the solutions to enable reading with macular degeneration is discussed - that of magnification. It discusses the PRIMER, a more cost effective CCTV, electronic magnifier which can be used even in the late stages of macular degeneration, with upto 15 times the magnification. This could be used for people, such as Richard, as he is able to do some reading, but when he has to strain to read it exhausts him and makes the process less enjoyable.

The PRIMER, is able to magnify items that are three dimensional, such as medication bottles, cans of food, recipe books, newspapers and reading materials such as books, newspapers and magazines. This would be very beneficial to Richard as he is determined to remain as independent as possible and the magnification of these items would allow him to remain so.

The biggest drawback to this device, is that it is static and requires a TV or computer screen to plug it into. It would therefore not be useful in a grocery store for example. One benefit however is that it only costs $295.00.

Although this device would be useful to Richard, it still necessitates that he read, which he finds difficult. As an alternative to this, I found another device in a catalogue sent to me. It is Simon - The Affordable Reading Machine. This was not found on the Closing the Gap site but elsewhere on the web. Although it claims to be affordable I doubt that Richard would think that $2,295.00 was affordable, if his finances are anything like mine!

I would still bring this suggestion to him as an Assistive Technology provider however, as it sounds like the perfect fit to his problem. He could scan any written material and the content would be verbally spoken back to him. If this was a very important area for him he might find a way to afford him. I would not want to make the assumption that he wouldn't want/ couldn't pay for this device just because I would have a hard time doing so.

Both of these devices would enable Richard to become more independent in his reading, whether he chose to read the larger print or have the information read to him.

2) A device to enable him to see faces of people speaking to him would be glasses with behind the lens telescope. These would not draw too much attention to him, which is one of his personal concerns (within his cultural context), and yet he could see the faces of those speaking to him, which would enable him to attend social situations where there are crowds, such as church, and therefore not be so isolated.

Therefore through the use of these simple devices, Richard and others with macular degeneration could participate actively in their roles, routines and responsibilities more independently and feel that they are contributing members of our society.