LOW VISION NEWS Issue 5 International Society for Low-vision Research and Rehabilitation September 2003 President's Message Incredibly, it is now over a year since we last met at Vision 2002, and we are already over one-third the way until our next full confer-ence in London. Much has happened in our world in this past year, including a war in Iraq, fighting in Liberia, miserable weather with tragic results in parts of Europe, and os-cillations of hope and despair in the Middle East. There is some small consolation in the fact that that the fields of low vision research and rehabilitation cut across international boundaries and help to bring us all a bit closer to each other and to our humanity. Indeed, looking at our field over this past year, there are several exciting new develop-ments of which we, as an organization and as a field, can be proud. First, I am delighted to announce that our journal Visual Impairment Research is now fully up-to-date. Shortly, you should be receiving the remainder of vol-ume 3, and all three issues of volume 4, and possibly the first issue of volume 5 (assuming you were an ISLRR member during 2001, 2002, and 2003). Because we are now up-to-date, we will be able to apply for indexing, a critical milestone in the development of any academic journal. Second, a small but extremely successful conference on Func-tional Vision: Assessment and Outcome, took place in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. While this conference is unrelated to ISLRR, the organizer J. Vernon Odom has agreed to solicit manuscripts from the conference and serve as guest editor for the journal, so that ISLRR members may benefit And finally, I would like to draw your attention to a new international online resource for our field, which is a collaboration between many international partners, but which was initiated by my own organization, Lighthouse International. When you get a moment, please have a look at www.visionconnection.org. It is a web site that should prove to become a rich resource for researchers, professionals and visually-impaired persons throughout the world. Best wishes for the end of summer! Aries Arditi All the Facts About Vision 2005 By Deborah Beale, RNIB What is it? Vision 2005 is the ISLRR conference, which will be hosted by RNIB in 2005 and preparations are already well underway. When and where is it? April 4-8, 2005, in Westminster, London (primarily at the QEII Centre and the Westminster Campus). Preparations so far. It is a huge project, the conference is expected to attract 2000-3000 delegates and several groups have been set up to organize specific aspects. The main themes to be covered at the conference are: (a) Clinical Care and integrating Rehabilitation; (b) Epidemiology and World Blindness; (c) Visual Function Assessment and Visual Performance; (d) Education across the Lifespan; (e) Advances in Technology, Designing and Constructing for an inclusive environment; (f) Employment. Each of these has several subthemes, which broadens the scope for presentations. We are currently researching the market for exciting and innovative speakers and will be putting out the first `call for papers' in September 2003 and we will continue to accept submissions through to September 2004. As well as the larger presentations, there will also be the opportunity to take part in round table discussions, debates and poster presentations. Early booking is advised to take advantage of discounts available. Vision 2005 mousepads and e-business cards have been produced to promote this event - please contact RNIB Customer Services, Peterborough on 08457 023153 for stocks. Exhibition posters have been produced and we are trying out a number of merchandise ideas to sell at the conference. We have agreed the design of the visual identity for Vision 2005 and this will be finalized in time for the first big marketing campaign in July. Meanwhile, the sponsorship team is busily researching the market for potential sponsors and celebrity guests. What you can do to help. Any help you may be able to offer to promote this event would be welcome or, if you have international or national contacts who may be interested in promoting it on our behalf, or if you would like to suggest any exciting speakers' names for consideration, please email Vision2005@rnib.org.uk We have details of the conference on the RNIB website and we will be regularly updating this site so please visit www.rnib.org.uk/vision2005 for more details. VIR is in the Mail Visual Impairment Research Volumes 3 and 4 of 2002 are in the mail to those who were ISLRR members in 2002. In addition, VIR Vol. 5 has been mailed to all 2003 members. It will take several weeks to arrive in members' mailboxes. If you do not receive your copy in the next month, please alert Lorna Frazier-Lindsey (Lornafl@adelphia.net). WANTED: Manuscripts for Visual Impairment Research Have you ever considered submitting a manuscript for publication in Visual Impairment Research, ISLRR's official journal Guidelines for authors can be found on the journal's home page: http://www.szp.swets.nl/szp/journals/vi.htm And manuscripts can be sent to either of the journal's editors-in-chief: Aart C. Kooijman Laboratory of Experimental Ophthalmology Groningen Graduate School for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences Groningen, The Netherlands a.c.kooijman@ohk.azg.nl Aries Arditi Lighthouse International 111 East 59th Street New York, NY 10022 USA aarditi@lighthouse.org ISLRR Web Site Update Have you visited the ISLRR web site recently? As part of the Society's goal to reach as many people interested in low vision research and rehabilitation as possible, the site is now available to be viewed in Spanish. Visitors to the site who have the "es" suffix on their e-mail address will automatically view the Spanish version with an option to change to the English version. All other visitors will view the English version with an option to go to the Spanish version. Be sure to stop by for a visit.www.islrr.org. Upcoming Events December 4-8, 2003, Academy 2003, sponsored by American Academy of Optometry. Conference is being held at the Dallas Convention Center, Dallas, Texas, USA. For more information visit the web site www.aaopt.org. December 19, 2003, UK Multidisciplinary Lowvision Rehabilitation and Research Conference, held in the Vision Sciences Building at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. For queries or further information about the conference, please contact: Mrs Julie Martin e-mail: j. martin@aston. ac. uk Tel.: 0121 359 3611 ext. 5180. See page 4 for additional details. June 18-20, 2004, (new date was announced 11/4/03) The International BiOptic Driving Conference, in association with BiOptic Driving Network, held at Mark Masons' Hall, 86 St. James's Street, United Kingdom. Special note: ISLRR members receive a 10% reduction on registration fees. April 4-8, 2005, Vision 2005, ISLRR's conference, presented with the Royal National Institute of the Blind, in Westminster, London (primarily at the QEII Centre and the Westminster Campus). For additional details, visit www.rnib.org.uk/vision2005 Conference Announcement UK Multidisciplinary Lowvision Rehabilitation and Research Conference Call for papers The conference will be held on 19th December 2003, 10.30am-4.30pm in the Vision Sciences Building at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. Oral (15 minute) and poster presentations are invited to showcase the work of low vision rehabilitation and research conducted in the UK. Abstract deadline: 6th October 2003 Abstracts (maximum 300 words) together with a short biographical sketch (maximum 150 words) should be submitted by e-mail to: James Wolffsohn (j.s.w.wolffsohn@aston.ac.uk), indicating preference for talk or poster. MS Word format is preferred. A special "low vision" issue of Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics is planned, based on presentations at the conference. If you wish to submit a paper to this special issue, please provide an article on your presentation (up to 10 A4 pages of double-spaced type and a couple of figures and tables) at the conference. Registration for the conference is œ45 (œ35 for students) including refreshments and lunch. Car parking is available on site. Places are limited and prior registration is advised. To register, please send a cheque payable to "Aston University" to: Julie Martin, Vision Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7ET. For queries or further information about the conference, please contact: Mrs Julie Martin e-mail: j.martin@aston.ac.uk; Tel.: 0121 359 3611 ext. 5180 Low Vision - The Reference A Bibliographic Database about Low Vision Now on www.visionconnection.org By Gregory Goodrich, Ph.D. Low Vision - The Reference is an interdisciplinary database of publications about low vision that I have been maintaining for many years, which I now co-edit with Aries Arditi, and which is now available for free, on the web, courtesy of visionconnection.org, a new web portal about vision impairment. With it, you can search for publications about low vision by author, year, title, and keyword. Best of all, it is free. Here's how to find Low Vision - The Reference: 1. Go to: VisionConnection.org 2. Register (if you haven't already) - It's Free 3. Click on the "Research" link 4. Scroll down and click on "Vision Science" link 5. Scroll down and click on Book, Periodicals and Databases" link 6. Click on "Low Vision: The Reference" Link 7. This takes you to the search page where you can perform bibliographic searches. If you happen to use Endnote, the bibliographic reference manager, you can also download the entire database in Endnote format. 8. Be sure to bookmark this location if you think you may use this resource often. Send letters to: Low Vision News, c/o Lorna Frazier-Lindsey, 109 Scarsdale Drive, Stafford, VA 22554 USA Please send short (500 word or less), informal reports of research results, queries on research methodology or equipment, innovative solutions to problems encoun-tered. Copyright c by the International Society for Low-vision Research and Rehabilitation. Printed in the USA. Low Vision News is provided to members of the Society.