WESC Foundation to unveil revolutionary research programme next week

WESC Foundation (formerly known as the West of England School and College for young people with little or no sight) is hosting a two-day International Conference on 23 and 24 April at its campus on Topsham Road, Exeter and the organisation will welcome Visual Impairment (VI) experts from around the world, including the United States.

The aim of the conference, now in its fourth year, is to share knowledge and discuss the advances being made in the field of visual impairment. WESC Foundation, a designated high performing specialist centre, provides education for more than 100 blind or visually impaired children and young people and is at the forefront in the development of visual neuroscience technology. The services provided by the organisation ensure students will experience the widest possible range of services in education, care, therapies, and mobility.

WESC Foundation is pleased to be able to host the international conference again as the organisation believes it is really important to bring together visual impairment knowledge from specialist international speakers to those directly and indirectly impacted or affected by visual impairment. Over the two days, WESC Foundation will welcome hundreds of parents, carers, representatives from local authorities, specialist schools and colleges, professionals in the field and commissioners with the aim of increasing their understanding about neuroscience, as well as keeping up-to-date with developments in the field.

There are around 25,000 children in Britain with a severe visual impairment that requires specialist education support, which equates to approximately 2 in every 1,000. The causes of visual impairment in children are extremely varied, but cerebral visual impairment (damage to areas of the brain associated with vision, rather than damage to the eye itself) is among the most common.

The conference has again attracted the attention of world renowned visual impairment experts, including Christine Roman-Lantzy, Director of the Paediatric VIEW programme at Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Greg Goodrich, Supervisory Research Psychologist and Optometric Research Fellowship Coordinator from VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Andrew Jacks Lt Col RAMC, Defence Consultant Advisor in Ophthalmology and Adam Ockelford, Professor of Music at the University of Roehampton.

A variety of relevant subjects will be covered, ranging from insights into Dr. Goodrich’s research which has focused on the treatment of polytrauma veterans with visual loss returning from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to Professor Adam Ockleford’s experiences of how children with learning difficulties, including blindness and autism, can develop musically and he will also illustrate a range of practical applications.

During the two-day event, attendees will also learn about an exciting new collaboration between WESC Foundation and Lincoln University. Together they have been awarded a £130,000 grant for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership- Europe's leading programme to help organisations work with higher education or research and technology organisations to obtain knowledge, technology or skills which they consider to be of strategic importance -  which will apply the very latest research in visual neuroscience to develop expertise in childhood cerebral visual impairment at WESC, and to design an effective computer game to improve visual skills of visually impaired children.

Ben Bradshaw MP comments: “It is fantastic news that we are hosting such a worthwhile event right here in Exeter, and one that is attracting scholars and specialists from overseas who will be helping share knowledge about the advances being made in the field of visual impairment. 
 
We are also thrilled to learn that WESC Foundation is at the forefront in the development of visual neuroscience technology and we look forward to witnessing the results of the computer game programme and how it may help improve the lives of people with visual impairment.” 
 
Jonathan Waddington, Knowledge Transfer Partnership Associate, will be based at WESC Foundation for two years and he will inform delegates of his work to date and will provide further detail about the partnership.

Tracy de Bernhardt Dunkin, Principal and CEO at the WESC Foundation, comments: “This is a tremendously exciting development for WESC and the culmination of five years’ work to introduce learning and research around neurological visual impairment. We are delighted to be employing our first visual neuroscientist, supervised by University of Lincoln as previous research has shown that visual search training can lead to significant recovery of visual function following damage to visual centres of the brain. We plan to expand our research and development department further over the coming years to reflect our interest in this highly specialist area of work which is so relevant to many young people with visual impairment across not only the South West but also the UK as a whole.”