Newsletter No. 363

Through their latest grant round, Fight For Sight is investing £1.5 million across the UK to research a range of sight loss conditions, including diabetic eye disease and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The Fight for Sight Project Grant awards a maximum of £250,000 for up to three years, supporting the development of research ideas that could lead to a breakthrough in the understanding, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of vision conditions.

Read the full story here: https://www.fightforsight.org.uk/who-we-are/charity-news/research-blog/breakthrough-vision-research-fight-for-sight-awards-15m-in-new-project-grants-to-tackle-glaucoma-amd-and-more

The Department for Education (DfE) has provided £1.7 million funding to allow children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to trial innovative assistive technologies.

Up to 4,000 schools will be able to pilot assistive technologies in classrooms to support thousands of children with SEND to achieve and thrive. So-called “lending libraries” will be set up in up to 32 local authorities and will enable schools in the area to borrow and trial a range of devices to suit their pupils’ needs.

The lending libraries will be stocked with a range of tools, including reading pens to scan text and read it aloud, dictation tools which convert spoken word into text, and tablets which

leverage images to help non-verbal pupils communicate. The aim is to support children with

a wide range of needs, including dyslexia, autism, and ADHD, and increase their independence.

Local authorities participating in the pilot will be confirmed over the summer, DfE states, with pupils set to benefit from the start of the new school year. The delivery partner, CENMAC, will work closely with the DfE and participating local authorities to bring the lending library model to life.

Read more here: https://attoday.co.uk/1-7m-government-funding-for-4000-schools-will-help-children-with-send-trial-assistive-tech/

Tech companies, researchers and governments should do more to remove barriers and engage disabled people in the design of digital assistive tools and services, to maximise the transformative benefits they can bring, a Royal Society report has said.

The Disability technology report, from the UK’s national academy of sciences, identifies digital Assistive Technologies (Digital AT), from screen readers to smartphone navigation apps, as critical tools for the 1.3bn disabled people worldwide to live fulfilled, independent lives. Its findings have been developed by a committee of international researchers and technology experts, many of whom have lived experience of disability, and draws on focus groups, surveys and research with disabled people and leading technology figures. The report emphasises disabled people should be included at the earliest stages of policy and technology design, and that more should be done to make digital AT accessible through training, funding and infrastructure.

Read the full story here: https://royalsociety.org/news/2025/06/disability-technology/

As most cards have moved to flat designs without embossed numbers or names, Mastercard came up with a means for visually impaired people to easily identify the type of card they are using – credit, debit, or prepaid. The company’s new products are part of their inclusivity strategy that could reach up to 2.2 billion people around the world with sight problems or blindness, according to company estimates. Thanks to Mastercard’s tactile solution, clients can correctly orient the card to know which type of payment card they are using. The new Touch Card prepaid cards come with a triangular notch, while the credit card ones are designed with a round notch.

Read the full piece here: https://thepaypers.com/payments/news/mastercard-to-introduce-special-cards-for-the-visually-impaired-people

Blindsight, which received FDA breakthrough device designation in September of last year, is an implant that aims to restore vision in individuals who are blind. Musk says the implant will initially provide blind individuals with low-resolution sight with the potential for superhuman vision in the future.

During a town hall in Wisconsin streamed live on YouTube in April, Elon Musk announced that his brain-computer interface implant startup Neuralink will perform its first human implant of Blindsight, aimed at restoring vision in individuals who are blind, by the end of 2025. Musk was asked by an audience member when he envisaged ‘solving blindness and bringing that to the masses.’ – “Neuralink has had in monkeys a working device we call Blindsight,” Musk said. “It has been working well, and the monkeys have been healthy for a few years now.’

Read the full article here: https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/elon-musk-announces-neuralink-s-first-human-implant-blindsight-coming-year

A woman who is registered blind is to embark on a charity challenge with her husband, crossing five counties in five days using just her disability bus pass and walking.

Becky Harrison and husband Uan said the challenge, which starts on 26th August, was inspired by the BBC programme Race Across the World, where people travel within a strict budget. They are raising money for Swindon Bats, a charity which helps visually impaired people in the town access sport and social events.

Read the full story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg63yrkz5lo