Dr Frank Eperjesi. UK
Duane R. Geruschat, Ph.D. USA
Aries Arditi, PhD. USA
Krister Inde, BA, Low Vision Therapist. Sweden
Dr Michael Crossland PhD MCOptom FAAO. UK
Eli Peli. MSc, OD. USA
Robert W. Massof, PhD. USA
Sven Erik G. Nilsson, M.D., Ph.D. Sweden
Dr. Bruce Rosenthal OD FAOO. USA
Ian Bailey OD, MSc, FCOptom, DSc(hc) USA
Dr. Mary Lou Jackson, MD. USA
Jan Lovie-Kitchin, Ph.D. Australia
Lea Hyvärinen, MD, PhD, FAAD


Dr Eperjesi BSc (Hons) PhD MCOptom FAAO Dip Orth PGCertHE FHEA
Dr Eperjesi graduated in Optometry at Aston University and completed his pre-registration period at the Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital followed by a further five years in the NHS at The Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Heartlands Hospital and the Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital specialising in paediatrics and low vision. He then split his practice work between the Institute of Child Welfare in Birmingham, Focus on Blindness and the Institute of Optometry in London along with sessions for all the major optometry multiples. At this time Dr Eperjesi also worked towards a PhD at Aston University which he successfully completed in 2000 when he became a lecturer on the Optometry Programme. Following positions as first, second and final year tutor and success in a post graduate teaching certificate he became a Senior Lecturer and Programme Director in 2005 with responsibility for the day-to-day co-ordination of the Optometry programme and more recently Director of the Graduate Diploma in Optometry. He is leader for the final year module Binocular Vision and the Binocular Vision/Learning Difficulties Clinic. His research revolves around the relationship between diet and long term eye health with particular interest in the investigation and manipulation of macular pigment optical density and nutritional affects on the tear film. Dr Eperjesi is a Visiting Lecturer on the Occupational Health MSc programme at Birmingham University and on the Optometry Programme at Al Shifa Eye Trust, Rawalpindi, Pakistan as well as being on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Optometry and the British Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness. He successfully completed a Masters in Business Administration at Aston University earlier this year.




Duane R. Geruschat, Ph.D.
Research Associate of Ophthalmology, JHU School of Medicine Wilmer Eye Institute, Lions Vision Center Research Interest: Orientation and mobility





Aries Arditi, PhD
Aries Arditi, Ph.D. is senior fellow in vision science at Lighthouse International. The author of nearly 100 scientific publications, his research interests span a broad range, include visual accessibility of the built environment, computers and internet, text legibility; color and low vision, reading and low vision; assessment of vision function; wayfinding; binocular vision; functional perimetry, and prosthetic vision.
His contributions include seminal work in the analysis of visual field defects in binocular visual space (volume perimetry); the first published studies of the independent impact of font parameters on legibility, and numerous studies on the psychophysics of reading and of functional assessment of vision. He is the creator of the Mars Letter Contrast Sensitivity Test; and of LowBrowse™, a unique, open source add-on to the Mozilla Firefox browser that makes it easier for visually impaired people to access the web.
Dr. Arditi is Immediate Past President of the International Society of Low Vision Research and Rehabilitation, and for 10 years was Editor-in-Chief of the Informa Healthcare journal Visual Impairment Research. He is a Diplomate (low vision research) and Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a Fellow of the American Psychological Society.





Krister Inde, BA, Low Vision Therapist. Sweden
Krister Inde started low vision development in a team with an ophthalmologist and an optometrist in 1971. After this low vision services developed with eye care and is today an organisation with 34 low vision clinics and 343 professionals. He has written books like Low Vision Training 1975 and See Bad Feel Good 2003, now translated to nine languages. In his role as an expert patient and entrepreneur he has coordinated projects for children SEE MORE in close cooperation with dr Ann Carn and dr Jörgen Gustafsson, and for the elderly SEEnior in recent years. He claims that low vision is an emotional and personal problem to be solved before you can use methods like eccentric viewing (described in 1978) and Nystagmus training, two important low vision training issues. To avoid shame, bitterness and guilt is the first step of low vision rehabilitation, according to Krister Inde. He has worked as a private consultant since many years involving himself in projects lie the one in Jordan in recent years where low vision clinics are to be started within a near future. He sees his role as a interpreter between research and daily rehabilitation giving tools that are understandable to patients and professionals in a good balanced relation. He also claims that rock and roll should be a part of the process making it more attractive to more interested researchers and alert patients.




Dr Michael Crossland PhD MCOptom FAAO UCL Institute of Ophthalmology
Dr Michael Crossland is a Research Fellow in Visual Neuroscience at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and a Specialist Optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK. He received his PhD from the University of London in 2004, for work performed with Professor Gary Rubin on the visual performance of people with macular disease. His major research interest is in the psychophysics of visual impairment with particular reference to reading, fixation behaviour and detection of macular disease. His major clinical interest is low vision rehabilitation of people with visual field loss from macular disease or neurological scotomas. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a Member of the College of Optometrists, UK. London





Dr. Peli is Senior Scientist and the Moakley Scholar in Aging Eye Research at The Schepens Eye Research Institute, and Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. He also serves on the faculties of the New England College of Optometry (Adjunct Professor of Optometry and Visual Sciences), Tufts University School of Medicine (Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology), and University of York, UK (Honorary Visiting Professor in the Department of Electronics). Since 1983 he has been caring for visually impaired patients as the director of the Vision Rehabilitation Service at the New England Medical Center Hospitals in Boston. Dr. Peli is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, a Fellow of the SID (Society for Information Display), and a Fellow of the SPIE (The International Society of Optical Engineering). He was presented the 2001 Glenn A. Fry Lecture Award and the 2009 William Feinbloom Award by the American Academy of Optometry, the 2004 Alfred W. Bressler Prize in Vision Science (shared with Dr. R. Massof) by the Jewish Guild for the Blind, the 2006 Pisart Vision Award by the Lighthouse International, and the 2009 Alcon Research Institute award (shared with Dr. R. Massof). He was awarded a Honorary Degree of Master in Medicine by Harvard Medical School in 2002 and a Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) in 2006. Dr. Peli's principal research interests are image processing in relation to visual function and clinical psychophysics in low vision rehabilitation, image understanding and evaluation of display-vision interaction. He also maintains an interest in oculomotor control and binocular vision. Dr. Peli is a consultant to many companies in the ophthalmic instrumentation area and to manufacturers of head mounted displays (HMD). He serves as a consultant on many national committees, advising the National Institutes of Health and NASA AOS (Aviation Operations Systems) advisory committee. Dr. Peli has published more than 140 scientific papers and has been awarded 8 US Patents. He also edited a book entitled Visual Models for Target Detection with special emphasis on military applications and coauthored a book entitled Driving with Confidence: A Practical Guide to Driving with Low Vision (coauthored with Doron Peli).





Robert W. Massof, PhD

Awards
Fellow, Optical Society of America, 1984
Manpower Award, Research to Prevent Blindness, 1989
Award of Excellence in Technology Transfer, NASA Technology Utilization Foundation, 1992
National Design and Engineering Award, Popular Mechanics Magazine, 1994
Discover Award for Technological Innovation Finalist, Discover Magazine, 1994
Golden Quill Award, EyeCare Technology Magazine, 1994
Richard E. Hoover Service Award for Professional Excellence in Low Vision, 1995
Life-Time Achievement Award, EyeCare Technology Magazine, 1995
Education
B.A. Hamiline University, St. Paul, MN 1970
Ph.D. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 1975
Post Doctoral Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 1976
Appointments
Professor of Ophthalmology
Professor of Neuroscience
Lecturer Department of Computer Science (School of Engineering)






SVEN ERIK G. NILSSON, M.D., Ph.D.
M.D. 1961; Ph.D. 1964, The Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Assistant Professor, Dept of Cell Biology,Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1962-64.
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, 1969-71.
Professor of Ophthalmology and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology,
Linkoping University, Sweden,1972-96;Professor of Ophthalmology 1997-.
Associate Dean and Dean, School of Medicine, Linkoping University, 1974-77.
Selected Scientific Awards
The Axel Hirsch Award, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, 1972.
The Medical Students' Award for Outstanding Teaching, Linkoping Univ. 1975.
The Order of His Majesty, the King of Sweden, for outstanding scientific and teaching achievements in the field of Ophthalmology, 1999.
The Science Award from Halland’s Academy for an outstanding career in ophthalmic science, 2001.
The Acta Ophthalmologica Award and Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to Nordic ophthalmology; awarded by the Nordic Ophthalmological Societies, 2006.
Scientific Societies: officer
President, Swedish Ophthalmological Soc., 1973-75. Honorary member from 1997.
President of the Internatl Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision 1983-1991.
Honorary member from 1996.
President, Internatl Soc. for Low-vision Research and Rehabilitation 1999-2002.
Scientific Advisory Board Member, Retina International, 1990-2001.
Scientific Advisor, Swedish Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, 1990-2001;
Honorary member from 2001.
Bibliography
About 3000 scientific publications, including abstracts, mainly on retinal and pigment epithelial electrophysiology and ultrastructure, on age-related macular degeneration, on low vision rehabilitation and on contact lens research.







Dr. Bruce Rosenthal OD FAOO
Lighthouse International
New York City

Dr. Bruce P. Rosenthal is the Chief of the Low Vision Clinical Practice at Lighthouse International in New York City. He is also a Professor and Chief of Low Vision Service at the Mt. Sinai Faculty Practice Plan and Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York. He currently serves on the Executive Board of the AMD Alliance International as well as being the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. He is the Chair of the Low Vision Section of the American Optometric Association, a Diplomate in low vision of the American Academy Optometry as well as being a past-chair of both the Low Vision Section Low Vision Diplomate programs.

Dr. Rosenthal has received many prestigious awards for his work in low vision at home and around the world including the Bietti Award from the IAPB (Italian branch of the International Association for the Blind) and the highest award given by the American Academy of Optometry, the William Feinbloom award. His lecturing has taken him around the world including China, Dubai, Singapore, and South Africa. He has, as well, been involved in the publication of many scientific publications as well as being the Editor or Co-editor of eight books on low vision including The Lighthouse Oxford Press Handbook on Vision Impairment and Vision Rehabilitation.








Clinical Tests of Vision for Severe Visual Impairment

Ian L Bailey O.D., M.Sc. D.Sc.(hc), F.C.Optom., F.A.A.O.
A. Jonathan Jackson, Ph.D., M.C.Optom., F.A.A.O.
Hasan Minto, FAAO.

Most of our common clinical tests of vision are designed for testing and monitoring patients with only moderate vision loss. Many of the tests of letter chart acuity, reading acuity, contrast sensitivity and visual fields are not suitable for testing patients with more sever vision loss.
This presentation will review the common clinical tests and identify their limitations. New clinical tests have been developed to enable more systematic testing of severely reduced vision. They have been designed to be simple, low-tech, readily portable, efficient and appropriate for use in all environments.
The new Berkeley Rudimentary Vision Test has 12 simple test cards that are used to measure visual acuities in the range LogMAR = 1.4 to 2.9 (20/500 to 20/16000) with measurements made at 1 meter and 25 cm.
The new Berkeley Discs contrast sensitivity test measures CS in steps of 0.15 log units over the range 0.0 to 1.95 Log Units (Weber contrast). Patients are asked to identify the location of 3 solid grey circles printed on 20 x 29cm cards. Contrast threshold determinations require presentation of only 3 cards from a set of 6.
Central Visual Fields can be measured efficiently with a simple tangent screen at 50 cm. Peripheral Visual Fields are being measured using a new hand-held perimeter with a self-luminous target.
Our experiences with these tests will be described. Their purposes, limitations, advantages and reliabilities will be discussed.







Dr. Mary Lou Jackson is a vision rehabilitation specialist at the Harvard School of Medicine affiliate Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. Dr. Jackson also is chairperson of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Vision Rehabilitation Committee.

Her areas of special research interest include contrast sensitivity and visual hallucinations associated with vision impairment.

Dr. Jackson attended medical school at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and completed her residency in ophthalmology at University of Toronto in Ontario.








Jan Lovie-Kitchin, PhD, MSc Optom, Grad Dip Rehab Stud, FAAO. Adjunct Professor, School of Optometry. Queensland University of Technology, Australia.