This overview of the past, present, and future of research and development related to severely visually impaired persons covers the following subjects: documentation, creation of an armamentarium of aids (including both ordinary and highly sophisticated devices), the financing of R&D, the problem of technology transfer, dealing with change, the need for better theoretical models, and new definitions of the reality in which severely visually impaired individuals and those who work with them and for their benefit find themselves.
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