RetGen

Blind people who have used the device do not report lasting effects. But they are amazed by what they can see. Mr. Weihenmayer said the device at first felt like candy pop rocks on his tongue. But that sensation quickly gave way to perceptions of size, movement and recognition.
'New Tools to Help Patients Reclaim Damaged Senses' (The New York Times, 23 November 2004).

To test whether the mice with transplanted stem cells could see better, the team then placed them and the control mice (without the transplants or with non-stem cell transplants) in dark cages and flashed a series of increasingly lower level lights at both groups over a period of time. Mice are photophobic and stop their normal activity when they detect light. The researchers took advantage of this natural response and found that the mice with the transplanted tissue continued to respond to the light as it reached the lowest levels. The control mice did not.
'Study shows stem cells can preserve vision,' Schepens Eye Research Insitute public relations release at EurekAlert, 18 November 2004.

Ray had given up the guitar for 15 years, too busy earning a living. In 1993, he took up the instrument again. "I picked it up during the O.J. trial because I was so frustrated with the way it was going," Ray said. "I couldn't watch it anymore."

So he found his "dream guitar," a Kohno, and began learning classical guitar through talking books and tapes. Now he listens to classical guitar CDs and knows about 50 songs by heart.
'Volunteer plays notes of comfort' The Greeley Tribune, 1 November 2004.

"I don't think of myself as more special than anyone else who is deaf and blind," Riley explained through the help of his wife and interpreter, Donna. "This is who I am, and making toys is what I do."

Riley, 62, acknowledged that he has never heard the excited hum of one of his four table saws as he gets ready to create yet another of his more than 25 wooden designs.
'Man conquers vision loss to create wooden models', The Detroit News, 17 October 2004.

The disease [RP] is caused when genetic defects lead the cells in the retina to die prematurely. Mr. Korneluk and his coworkers, who are conducting research on XIAP, the X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (cell death), believe that XIAP therapy can make the retina's photoreceptor cells more resistant to dying, and therefore preserve sight.
'Researcher touts 'potent' gene therapy', The Ottawa Citizen, 7 November 2004.

To test the potential of the stem cells in a living organism, the researchers transplanted them into the eyes of mouse pups. Four weeks after transplantation, most of the human stem cells had appropriately migrated, differentiated and integrated at the right developmental times.
'Stem Cells Make Eye Contact,' Betterhumans, 25 October 2004.

Three years ago Elisabeth Bryant believed she would be blind for the rest of her life. "I couldn't see anything," she says. Now, although her vision is not perfect, she can see well enough to read, play computer games and check emails. Bryant has retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that has blinded four generations of her family. What has saved the sight in one of her eyes is a transplant of a sheet of retinal cells. The vision in this eye has improved from 20:800 to 20:84 in the two-and-a-half years since the transplant- a remarkable transformation. So far, six patients with either advanced retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration have had similar transplants.
'Fetal tissue restores lost sight' (New Scientist via EurekAlert 30 October 2004).

"I'm no architectural expert," she cautioned me as we began our tour of the
building's exterior. I assured her that it didn't matter. On the Web, with
the help of my screen reader program, I'd pored over articles describing the
hall's idiosyncratic asymmetries, its billowing curves, I imagined, making
it look something like an extraterrestrial Spanish galleon about to sail over
Bunker Hill. All I needed was for her to help me make sense of the place.
'Music of the Mind,' Los Angeles Times Magazine, 17 October 2004.