Sights for Hope to introduce advanced technology for the visually impaired this spring

Sights for Hope received funding to bring advanced technology to visually impaired people in Lehigh Valley. 

The funding, $40,000 from the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind (PAB), part of $1.5 million funding to PAB from the Department of Human Services, will enable Sights for Hope to buy more than a dozen pairs of high-tech devices that it says will enhance personal independence for people with visual impairments. 

The devices include a revolutionary voice and gesture-activated device that recognizes faces for the user and reads to the user text from any book or surface; a state-of-the-art wearable augmented reality magnifier that enhances what the user can see; and wearable devices that can project streaming video in front of the user’s eyes, Sights for Hope said.  

Demonstrations for the new devices will be held at Sights for Hope’s Lehigh Valley Services Center in Allentown, at its Monroe Services Center near Stroudsburg, and at sites throughout its communities this spring. The organization will start community demonstrations in the fall.  

Sights for Hope’s objective is to make people with visual impairments more familiar with the devices and more likely to acquire them. 

 “The chance to increase awareness of these devices is an opportunity to make a purposeful impact on the lives of people in the Lehigh Valley and Monroe County who have visual impairments,” said Jennifer Pandolfo, associate director and director of services of Sights for Hope.  

“Inspiring technological advances such as these expand the ways in which barriers to independence and success can be removed and the lives of those we serve can be transformed,” she said.  

Sights for Hope was started in 1928 by two groups of Lions Club members who formed branches of the PAB in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Sights for Hope is presently one of 25 independent members of PAB.