Over the course of four years and more than 240 hours of footage, British filmmaker, Ian McDonald has put together the first feature length documentary on Blind Chess, titled Algorithms.

The film documents the little know world of Blind Chess in India, following a group of talented young chess players from different parts of India through competitive tournaments, exploring their lives and what the game means to them. One player in particular, Charudatta Jadhav, is a pioneer in Blind Chess, as he hopes to situate India in the top five countries for competitive Blind Chess.

The film premiered at the International Film Festival of India in 2012, but, in order to format the film for big-screen projectors and further distribute it to festivals around the world, the filmmakers have turned to Kickstarter for help. They are hoping to raise £10,000, and, as of the time of this post, they have already received £2,970 with 24 days to go in their campaign.

If you want to help this film succeed, click here, or visit the film’s official website to learn more about it.

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As mobile devices and the apps that go with them become more and more sophisticated, smartphones and tablets have quickly been adopted as valuable tools for the blind. We’ve written before about apps for the visually impaired, but here are a couple more recent ones you may not have heard of yet:

AccessNote, launched in late January by the American Foundation for the Blind, is the first note taking app engineered for people with vision loss, designed to serve as a “low cost alternative to traditional note takers.” Where blind students and professionals previously had to bring their note taker to classes or meetings, AccessNote allows them to easily take notes with just their iOS device.

Traditional note takers can cost hundreds of dollars, while AccessNote is available in the App Store for $19.99, complete with search features, cursor tracking, and other handy tools.

An app developer called the Sendero Group is also trying its hand at an assistance app for the blind with a People Finder app. While still in the prototype stage, the app aims to help the visually impaired find people around them through sound and vibration.

If a visually impaired person wants to find a friend in a crowded place, the app uses Bluetooth technology to find that friend (both parties need to have the app installed). When the two friends are within 50 feet of each other, the app lets users know if they are “near” or “cold.” The Sendero Group is currently testing the app and seeking further funding, but this is definitely something to look out for in the future.

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Joshua Goldenberg of Simi Valley, California was born blind with a rare condition called Bilateral Microphthalmia. Despite his visual impairment, Joshua has become an independent, inquisitive 8-year-old. He’s accomplished a lot for such a young age–he’s been on TV more than once, he’s met the Dallas Cowboys, and, most importantly, he’s doing big things to help empower others like him. 

In 2011, while grocery shopping with his mother, Christie, he asked her a question that she didn’t quite know how to answer—“Why isn’t there Braille on the shelves so I can go shopping too?” 

In most grocery stores, employee assistance is the only resource available to the visually impaired. Given the fact that her son refuses to let his visual impairment stop him from doing much of anything, Christie thought about Joshua’s question and decided to do something about it.

The Goldenbergs approached the management staff at their local Trader Joe’s to see if they were willing to let them place Braille labels on select items. Trader Joe’s approved the idea, so Joshua got busy printing labels on his Braille typewriter. This was a momentary success, even receiving some coverage on the local news, but Trader Joe’s would later remove the labels for undisclosed reasons. 

The Goldenbergs tried the same approach with the Whole Foods in Thousand Oaks, which not only allowed the labels, but also helped the family raise awareness about the project, which eventually gained the attention of the National Braille Press (NBP) in Boston.

The NBP invited Joshua and his family out to Boston where they honored him with the “Hands On Award.” The NBP also teamed up with the Whole Foods in Newtonville to implement the same Braille labeling initiative. Three months later, Whole Foods Santa Barbara adopted the initiative, while other Whole Foods locations are currently preparing to add the Braille labeling system in their stores.

The Goldenbergs have now recruited the help of family and friends to form their own non-profit foundation, The Joshua Project. They hope to further empower the visually impaired by spreading Braille labeling as well audible scanners to grocery stores across the country.   

If you want to help The Joshua Project, you can donate, volunteer, or raise awareness by simply printing out this flyer and handing it to the manager at your local grocery store.

16 years ago, when ballet student Fernanda Bianchini was just 15 years old, she received an invitation from one of the nuns at Padre Chico Institute for the Blind in São Paulo, Brazil to teach a group of visually impaired girls how to dance ballet. Since ballet is such a technical dance form that has a lot to do with line of sight, Bianchini’s own instructors did not think it would be possible to teach the art form to the blind.

Despite these doubts, Bianchini has been able to develop her own teaching techniques for the blind based on touch and body perception. She has now founded her own program, The Fernanda Bianchini Association for the Blind.

After reading about Bianchini’s program five years ago, USC film student and Brazilian native, Alexandre Peralta was fascinated by the students’ ability and determination—he knew he had to film their story.

Four years later, he got the chance to take a film crew down to São Paulo to document the girls as they prepare for the school’s largest production to date, Sleeping Beauty at the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo. The film examines the students and teachers inside and outside of the school. The film “is not only about the beauty of dance; it is also about the beauty of perseverance.”    

However, the film, titled Looking at the Stars, is not yet finished and the filmmakers are asking for your help in order to complete it. They are seeking $16,000 through Kickstarter, which will fund the crew’s travel expenses, equipment rentals, transportation, music rights, and other production expenses. If you want to help this project reach completion, click here. 

This infographic, created by Sugarland Eye and Laser Center in Houston, illustrates some fun and interesting facts about our eyes. Click on the image to see a larger version.

For those of us unfamiliar with surfing, Pipeline is a surfing spot on Oahu’s North Shore known for its beautiful blue-green waves that provide surfers with the perfect barrel. It’s also one of the most dangerous surfing reefs, having claimed more lives than any other surfing area on the planet—even seasoned surfers are wary of Pipeline’s waves.

Despite these dangers, blind surfer Derek Rabelo has made it his goal to ride the waves at Pipeline. Derek’s father named his son after legendary Pipeline surfer, Derek Ho, with the dream that he would someday be a world-famous surfer. When Derek was born blind, that dream was all but lost.

Despite his visual impairment, Derek was determined to conquer Pipeline, and, with the help of family, friends, and his surfing coach, Derek trained for three years to reach his goal. When Derek finally surfed Pipeline, a short Youtube video of his feat was published, inspiring surfers worldwide.

Bryan Jennings of Walking on Water Films was so inspired by the Youtube clip that he decided to make a feature-length documentary on Derek and his incredible determination to beat the odds. The film, titled Beyond Sight, tells the story of Derek’s life and how he has inspired so many people on the road to accomplish his goal.

The film, however, is not yet completed—the filmmakers are asking for your help on Kickstarter to fund the costs of filming, editing, music rights, and other production expenses. Check out the movie’s trailer below and click here if you want to help fund Beyond Sight.

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In Western culture, bats are often thought of as evil, scary, disgusting creatures. In movies and books they’re associated with demons and vampires and you’re likely to see some spooky bat-related decorations this Halloween. In Emma Teeling’s recent presentation at TEDx Dublin, however, she aims to counter this perception with her findings on the insights into our own DNA that bats can provide.

Teeling, Director of the Center for Irish Bat Research, explains the importance of bats in relation to the ecosystem as well as our own bodies. She believes we can study the DNA of bats to gain insight into the genetic mutations that cause blindness and deafness in humans. Bats also have an abnormally long lifespan for their size—nine times longer than expected. With enough research into how bats are able to pull this off, we may just be able to find the “secret to eternal youth.”

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Last week a new version of the iPhone app for the blind and visually impaired, Fleksy, hit the App Store. As the blind and visually impaired have become one of the fastest growing segments of smartphone users worldwide, a number of companies have developed mobile apps specifically for this market. Based on early reviews, however, Fleksy just might become the most popular one.

Originally created as a conceptual app under the name BlindType, which was sold to Google, Fleksy improves on the previous app, making it a popular mobile keyboard for the sighted as well. Created by the San Francisco-based startup, Syntellia, the app uses a standard QWERTY keyboard with a pretty amazing prediction engine

To type, all you have to do is tap in the general area of the keyboard where the letters in the word you want to spell are located. For example, to spell the word “the,” just tap in the middle area of the top row of the keyboard, then tap in the middle area of the middle row, and then tap on the left side of the top row. When you’re done typing a word, right swipe across the screen for a space and somehow Fleksy knows exactly what you were trying to spell.

Right now, the app is available for free on iOS, but Syntellia plans to release it for all mobile platforms in the future. If all goes well for the developers, Fleksy could revolutionize mobile typing not just for the blind, but for all smartphone and tablet users.

Throughout African American history there has been a plethora of talented and influential blind musicians. Author Lee Breuer states that “There is a general total world historical connection between blindness and mystical insight… The clearest representation of that of course in the United States is the black gospel singer.”

A 2004 study from the University of Montreal confirmed the existence of this “mystical insight,” as the study concluded that those who lose their sight at early ages can detect differences in tonal pitch better than the sighted, often leading to musical ability.

In honor of Black History Month, Murray Street Productions, a New York-based marketing and production firm, has produced a series of radio specials paying tribute to the rich history of blind musicians in the African American community.

Its research has generated a variety of original interviews and transcripts, while unearthing rare archival and commercial recordings. It has brought to life the stories of several influential blind musicians and shed insight onto their impact in the music industry.

The radio series has been playing on Public Radio International stations this month, and Murray Street Productions is now asking the public to help preserve its research in a complete audio documentary and multimedia website.

The company’s blind-friendly website, Heavenlysight.org, will bring the library of interviews, musical recordings, multimedia content, and blog posts to the public as a resource for education and entertainment. In order to obtain the funding needed to make Heavenlysight.org possible, Murray Street Productions launched a Kickstarter campaign, hoping to raise $18,000 for the design and development of the site. If you want to pitch in and help, visit Heavenly Sight’s Kickstarter page here.

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Creating a video game for the blind sounds like a very difficult task, as nearly every video game in existence involves visual onscreen environments. Rupinder Dhillon, a student at UC Santa Cruz, was up to the challenge with the development of her video game project, Rock Vibe.

As a class project in 2008, Rupinder and two of her colleagues developed a Rock Band-like game for the PC, which allowed blind gamers to participate by responding to vibrations. Unlike other video games for the blind, which mostly employ auditory cues, Rock Vibe can be played by the blind and sighted alike.

The game uses the Rock Band guitar and drum kit coupled with a specially designed device using vibrating motors. In the current version of Rock Vibe, the vibrations are delivered through armbands and wristbands, but the developers plan to improve on these designs. When you feel a vibration on a specific spot on your arm or wrist, you click a corresponding button on the guitar or hit the corresponding part of the drum kit. You have a few hundred milliseconds from when you first feel the vibration to respond. If you respond in time, you will hear the correct note in the song.

If you don’t respond in time, or hit the wrong button, an audible click is heard. When the user finishes a level, the program’s speech synthesizer tells you your score. The game uses the same type of visual interface as Rock Band, so sighted users can follow along onscreen as well.

The game tested well and was presented at two gaming and development conferences, which is why Rupinder is attempting to further her devlopment. She is using Kickstarter to raise funds, which she plans on using for further research and development to improve the software and hardware for Rock Vibe. With 44 days left on her Kickstarter funding project, she already has over $12,000 of the $32,000 she needs.  When the game is finished, which it is expected to be in about one year, Rupinder plans on donating several copies of Rock Vibe to schools and centers for the blind.