Two misconceptions about the mechanism of image formation in the human eye are common among students and even in textbooks and other teaching materials. The first attributes all refraction to the eye lens; the second treats the eye as a pinhole camera. To reduce these persistent conceptions of students, a series of simple experiments is presented…

To best support students with low vision in the general education classroom, special education teachers can facilitate use of several adaptations including: (a) attention to curriculum access (e.g. text magnifiers), (b) mechanisms for promoting social connectedness, (c) managing physical space, and (d) effective instructional techniques. This…

This brief report describes the growth and expansion of the Art"Access" program at Queens Museum in New York, NY, that is shaped and operated by art therapists and teaching artists. Art"Access" was first piloted in 1983 as Please Touch for individuals who are blind or have low vision. The authors conducted oral history research…

Data from the 2014 National Center on Deaf-Blindness Count show that fewer than 100 infants and toddlers are currently identified with deafblindness across the United States and that identification rates for this population vary greatly from state to state. The author presents a key rationale for timely and accurate identification of early-onset…

A vision care-based community service subject is offered to general university students for fulfillment of a service-learning compulsory credit requirement. Here, a professional health subject is taught in a way that caters to generalist learners. Students gain basic skills they can apply to provide vision screenings for the needy population. All…

Neural engineering is an emerging field of high relevance to students, teachers, and the general public. This feature presents online resources that educators and scientists can use to introduce students to neural engineering and to integrate core ideas from the life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, computer science, and engineering…

The human eye is often discussed as optically equivalent to a photographic camera. The iris is compared with the shutter, the pupil to the aperture, and the retina to the film, and both have lens systems to focus rays of light. Although many similarities exist, a major difference between the two systems is the mechanism involved in focusing an…

Telehealth clinical applications, which allow medical professionals to use telecommunications technologies to provide services to individuals remotely, continue to expand in areas such as low vision rehabilitation, where evaluations are provided to patients who live in rural areas. As with face-to-face low vision rehabilitation, the goal of…

While visual art appeals to the sense of sight, both recent art and popular visual culture appeal to the whole sensorium, the sum total of the ways we experience the world. Common assumptions about the senses regarding their number, their relative importance, and their relation to one another are problematized in light of recent psychological and…

This article presents a model for understanding the development of visual perception from a dynamic systems theory perspective. It contrasts to a hierarchical or reductionist model that is often found in the occupational therapy literature. In this proposed model vision and ocular motor abilities are not foundational to perception, they are seen…

This paper presents some results of research carried out with a group of blind and partially sighted youths who are enrolled in a school for people with visual disabilities in Brazil. This research aims to promote different articulations between the body and cognition. Based on actor-network theory, it considers that having a body means learning…

Seeing the reflection, refraction, dispersion, absorption, polarization, and scattering or diffraction of light within your own eye makes these properties of light truly personal. There are practical aspects of these within the eye phenomena, such as eye tracking for computer interfaces. They also offer some intriguing diversions, for example,…

This article presents the story of Wesley Brooks, a freshman at Middlesex County College and someone who will not let his disability impede him from what he sets out to achieve in life. Brooks was born 24 weeks early and weighed just under one pound. This resulted in him having cerebral palsy, which impacts his motor movement. He also had to…

Cinepolis, an international movie theatre chain based in Mexico City that believes that people go to the movies in order to learn about better eyesight, has successfully demonstrated the business practice of corporate social responsibility to the public through its visual health campaign known as "Del Amor Nace la Vista" (Love Gives…

Despite their lack of vision, congenitally blind subjects are able to build and manipulate cognitive maps for spatial navigation. It is assumed that they thereby rely more heavily on echolocation, proprioceptive signals and environmental cues such as ambient temperature and audition to compensate for their lack of vision. Little is known, however,…