Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s choice for a new running mate has energized Maryland?s Republicans ready to dive into the campaign. It also inspired many of the state?s blind residents.
They aren?t merely pleased that a visually impaired person was chosen to run for the state?s second highest office. They are proud of Kristen Cox?s efforts on behalf of children and disabled people throughout the state.
“A lot of her platform is about employment and that?s a big part of our mission here” at the Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, said spokesman Rob Ennamorato.
Blind Industries hires blind people at fair wages to perform a variety of industrial and skilled work, and runs an eight-month school for adults coping with the loss of their vision.
Cox told The Examiner she began losing her vision at age 11 due to Stargardt disease, the most common form of macular degeneration in young people. Unlike most sufferers of the incurable condition, Cox said she is almost totally blind except for a very small portion of her peripheral vision.
The disease, in which compounds build up on the center of the retina, usually leaves the outer edges of the field of vision intact, said Dr. Janet S. Sunness, director of Hoover Services for Low Vision and Blindness at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. It affects about 1 in 7,000 to 10,000 people, usually around the teen years, though she has seen patients as young as 5.
Most people are left with 20-200 vision, she said.
“They?re legally blind, but they?re at a level where they can still do reading at the proper magnification. The main thing that you can do is help them with their low-vision,” she said.
Products like magnifiers, book projectors and devices which read text out loud are the most common aids to someone suffering from Stargardts.
For the disease to progress as far as it did with Cox is very unusual, Sunness said. Most people would not require a cane.
