Raised in a poverty lifestyle, as a five-year-old boy, I was traumatized due to a life-changing accident. I was later confined to a hospital bed at St. Anthony's Hospital in Amarillo, Texas. I lost half of my eyesight, but that was only the beginning of my challenging experiences. Growing up was a living nightmare as I discovered how lonely life could be. Kids made fun of my appearance. The jokes continued throughout grade school, junior high, and even high school. I had doubts about a lot of things in life until God surprised me with yet another talent, or another person in my life. God put opportunities in front of me. God gave me gifts in the world of sports, which became my counseling during my youth. As a young adult, I faced yet another nightmare. I lost my wife to brain cancer and became a single dad instantly. This was one of the toughest challenges I dealt with. When things happened to me, sometimes it was because of human error, or evil in this world. And yes, sometimes God allowed certain things to happen for His reasons. God was always there to help me overcome and rise above my darkest hours. When I actually started getting to know Jesus Christ, my faith grew and things started turning around for me.

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The purpose of this experiment was to compare the interactions of visual and nonvisual information during the perception of the visual horizontal in twelve normal and seven partially blind observers during exposure to centripetal force. Both the normal and the partially blind observers had normal vestibular functions. The observers set a collimated, luminous line to the horizon in darkness while they sat in a cockpit 20 feet from the center of rotation. Settings were made with the device stationary and during rotation at three velocities. The results show negligible differences between the normals and the partially blind for all conditions. Both groups showed minimal errors during the static series both before and after rotation and during rotation the settings were very close to the resultant horizontal. It was concluded that interaction between visual and nonvisual information is possible with extremely limited central vision. (Author).

The blind photographer cannot see a butterfly perched perfectly still on a flower, a bowl of sweet-smelling fruit, or a child's rattle on a darkened floor, but the mind's eye is sharply focused. How then, do blind or partially sighted people capture such extraordinary images? The photographs in this revelatory book suggest a deeper truth: that blindness is itself a kind of seeing, and that those who can see are often blind to the strangeness and beauty of the world around them. As the blind photographer Evgen Bavcar writes, "Photography must belong to the blind, who in their daily existence have learned to become the masters of camera obscura." Through the photographs of more than fifty blind or partially sighted people from around the world, this exhilarating book—the first to explore this phenomenon in all its vibrancy and diversity—will make you see differently.

A tumultuous childhood of unthinkable curve balls couldn't stop him. Through going blind, abuse, abandonment, homelessness and more, Mario Bonds never lost his hope and vision for a better life. Would you have? Take a walk through his journey and be inspired by this powerful tale of a driven, passionate young man of perseverance. See how he, against all odds, triumphed over adversity and reached his dreams.

The incredible bestselling book from the author of No Barriers and The Adversity Advantage Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoscheses, a degenerative eye disorder that would leave him blind by the age of thirteen. But Erik was determined to rise above this devastating disability and lead a fulfilling and exciting life. In this poignant and inspiring memoir, he shares his struggle to push past the limits imposed on him by his visual impairment-and by a seeing world. He speaks movingly of the role his family played in his battle to break through the barriers of blindness: the mother who prayed for the miracle that would restore her son's sight and the father who encouraged him to strive for that distant mountaintop. And he tells the story of his dream to climb the world's Seven Summits, and how he is turning that dream into astonishing reality (something fewer than a hundred mountaineers have done). From the snow-capped summit of McKinley to the towering peaks of Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro to the ultimate challenge, Mount Everest, this is a story about daring to dream in the face of impossible odds. It is about finding the courage to reach for that ultimate summit, and transforming your life into something truly miraculous. "An inspiration to other blind people and plenty of us folks who can see just fine."—Jon Krakauer, New York Times bestselling author of Into Thin Air

Guiding Emily back jacket copySometimes the perfect partner has four paws?Emily Main had it all: a high-powered career with a leading technology giant and a handsome fiancé bounding up the corporate ladder. Their island wedding and honeymoon were idyllic-until a tragic accident causes her retinas to detach. Her well-ordered life is shattered as all treatments are unsuccessful and she slips into blindness. How will those around her cope with her tragedy? Can she rebuild her life in this most unwelcome, new normal?Meanwhile, a black lab puppy named Garth fulfills his destiny to become that most esteemed of all creatures: a guide dog.Guiding Emily is a heartwarming tale of love, loss, and courage as Garth and Emily make their way to each other.

Mike May spent his life crashing through. Blinded at age three, he defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for vision. Then, in 1999, a chance encounter brought startling news: a revolutionary stem cell transplant surgery could restore May’s vision. It would allow him to drive, to read, to see his children’s faces. But the procedure was filled with gambles, some of them deadly, others beyond May’s wildest dreams. Beautifully written and thrillingly told, Crashing Through is a journey of suspense, daring, romance, and insight into the mysteries of vision and the brain. Robert Kurson gives us a fascinating account of one man’s choice to explore what it means to see–and to truly live. Praise for the National Bestseller Crashing Through: “An incredible human story [told] in gripping fashion . . . a great read.” –Chicago Sun-Times “Inspiring.” –USA Today “[An] astonishing story . . . memorably told . . . May is remarkable. . . . Don’t be surprised if your own vision mists over now and then.” –Chicago Tribune “[A] moving account [of] an extraordinary character.” –People “Terrific . . . [a] genuinely fascinating account of the nature of human vision.” –The Washington Post “Kurson is a man with natural curiosity and one who can feel the excitement life has to offer. One of his great gifts is he makes you feel it, too.” –The Kansas City Star “Propulsive . . . a gripping adventure story.” –Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" whose victims are confined to a vacant mental hospital, while a single eyewitness to the nightmare guides seven oddly assorted strangers through the barren urban landscape

Dr. Gary Spindel is struggling. Desperate for change, he signs up with a consulting group promoting the management teachings of prophetess Claire Winfield Kelly. Garys practice thrives. He is seduced into Claires mystery cult. Ecstasy by ecstasy, conscious-ness soars. But at what cost? The Anatomy of Blindness offers a profound exploration of skepticism, spirituality, and the high price of eternity.