Vision: Impossible

On September 19th and 20th 2025 Retina UK hosted their annual conference in London. For most this was a very inspiring occasion, with Retina UK celebrating their 50th anniversary. This was my first time attending a conference by Retina UK.   19th September  This was a day designated for professionals to discuss and hear about developments in within the understanding of inherited retinal dystrophies There were talks about; developments in inherited retinal disease research, learning from lived experience, technology advancements and other things.  20th September  This conference was mostly attended by those who live with inherited retinal diseases and their families.  In the morning there were many professionals discussing advances in trials for many different genes which cause inherited retinal dystrophies. Research like using stem cells to regenerate the light sensitive layer in the eye were particularly interesting, even if learning about it meant bein...

Screen readers are the main reason that becoming blind or partially sighted doesn’t mean becoming isolated from technology. In fact, with the built-in accessibility tools available as standard on many devices, the opposite is often true. Once the right features are enabled, visually impaired users often navigate their devices easier and more efficiently than sighted users. What is VoiceOver? VoiceOver is an inbuilt screen reader on all iOS devices, that is designed to read information that is found on the screen, including main text, notifications and buttons. It allows the person using the device to navigate using gestures and audio feedback. VoiceOver is easily accessible from the settings menu of the devices, it can even be used when setting up a new device.  How turn VoiceOver on and off? There are several ways to enable VoiceOver Option 1 - Settings Go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver and toggle VoiceOver ON Option 2 - Using Siri  Say “Hey Siri, tur...