This federal Project Grant award of $1,508,578 from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) supports a research project titled "Addressing Ableism Through Accommodations for Blindness and Low Vision to Achieve Equity (AAABLE) in Healthcare." The project aims to identify factors affecting healthcare accessibility for patients with blindness and low vision (PBLV), develop a patient navigation intervention to provide reasonable accommodations, and evaluate the...
The National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded a $559,871 Project Grant under CFDA 93.867 (Vision Research) to Newhaptics Corp to develop a refreshable Braille and tactile graphic device with multipoint touch sensing. The goal is to create a direct manipulation interface for blind and visually impaired computer users, equivalent to a graphical user interface for sighted users. The device will enable blind users to directly manipulate screen objects using drag-and-drop, drawing, and re-size functions...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) provides $2,367,661 to Texas Tech University System to conduct research on understanding how ableism contributes to physical and mental health inequities experienced by children who are blind or visually impaired (CBVI). The research aims to: 1) recruit a large, diverse sample of CBVI; 2) measure distal and proximal forms of ableism experienced by CBVI; 3) use advanced analytics to identify how...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the STEM Education (CFDA 47.076) program is funding the development and testing of software and hardware tools to enable faculty, staff, postdoctoral research fellows, and graduate students who are blind or have low vision to generate, identify, and manipulate digital data patterns and trends in the fields of chemistry, math, computer and information sciences. The $741,159 award to Newhaptics Corp and the...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 Vision Research) provides funding of $606,025 to William Marsh Rice University to conduct research on using large-scale, tissue-integrated, ultraflexible electrodes to interface with the lateral geniculus nucleus (LGN) for visual prostheses. The objective is to establish the feasibility and acquire key knowledge to build a lasting LGN visual prosthesis with unprecedented visual coverage to elicit pattern perception and...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) aims to develop an "Attentive Knowledge Device for Visual Assistance" that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision technologies to better assist persons with visual impairment. The $602,198 award, effective July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2027, will fund the University of Southern California to: 1) engage partners to select optimal machine vision algorithms for real-time...
The National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded a $240,000 Project Grant (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) to Baylor College of Medicine to conduct research focused on "Characterization of the Nascent Retinal Proteome Regulating Hippo Signaling During Damage." The project aims to use cell type-specific metabolic labeling and purification techniques to identify the immediate molecular regulators of the Hippo signaling pathway in muller glial cells of the damaged mouse retina. This information is...
This Project Grant award of $482,312.00 was provided by the National Eye Institute, under the federal Vision Research grant program (CFDA 93.867), to Trustees of Boston University. The project, titled "Testing a Dynamic Spatiotemporal Normalization Framework for Human Vision", will investigate how visual perception depends on both instantaneous input and temporal context, with a focus on understanding the role of normalization and temporal attention. The research will involve...
The National Eye Institute (NEI), under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, awarded a $568,367 Project Grant (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to develop a low-cost system for the real-time automatic conversion of visual diagrams into accessible dual vibrotactile and enhanced visual forms. This system will allow individuals who are blind or visually impaired to use touch, residual vision, or a combination of both to access graphical...
The National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded a $624,379 federal Project Grant (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) to The Johns Hopkins University to develop an objective tool for evaluating the visual accessibility of indoor spaces. The project aims to create a smartphone app that can 1) visualize an environment for a specified level of vision impairment, 2) identify hazardous features, and 3) generate visibility metrics to quantify object visibility. The tool will be developed and validated through...
This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) to Baylor University totals $2,229,504 and will be performed from September 1, 2024 to April 30, 2029. The project aims to create accessible tools and techniques to make experimental biochemistry research accessible to people with blindness and low vision. Key products and services to be delivered include:
Developing assistive technologies such as 3D printed devices, robotic tools, and haptic interfaces to enable autonomous hands-on use of common lab equipment and techniques (e.g. SDS-PAGE, protein purification, PCR) by researchers with blindness.
Converting graphical data (electropherograms, spectra, electron micrographs) into tactile and light-based readouts using lithophanes and haptic gloves.
Utilizing these accessible tools to test hypotheses on the structural and functional properties of proteins related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and mitochondrial redox enzymes, with participation from both sighted and blind researchers.
This project aims to increase inclusion and representation of individuals with blindness and low vision in the field of biomedical science through the development of universally designed research tools and methods.