University Daily Kansan / Wednesday. April 5, 1989
11
Colored glasses make tasks easier
by Marian Weeks
Kansan staff writer
The minute Garry Jones put on his deep red glasses he said he felt he had knocked his personal Goliath right between the eyes.
Before getting the glasses to protect his eyes from specific frequencies of light, Jones, Lawrence sophomore, said he could only read for a short time before the letters on the lower right of the page began to flicker. The flickering letters掀 up the page until the whole page was swirling.
The syndrome afflicts 15 percent of the population who do not have learning disabilities, said Linn Suderman, director of the Irlen Clinic For Perceptual & Learning Development in Lawrence, Kansas. He said he has worked with the syndrome. About 46 percent of those with learning disabilities also have the syndrome.
Jones suffers from scotopic sensitivity syndrome, a condition in which the sufferer cannot tolerate cold.
For some sufferers, reading is an effort to make the words stay on the page to keep them from fainting.
Other symptoms of scotopic light sensitivity include preferring to read in dim light, clumsiness because of poor depth perception, problems with columns and lines on a page and burning or itching eyes. Some sufferers say they have trouble negotiating stairs and also bump into things.
The syndrome was discovered accidentally about nine years ago by Californian Helen Irlen. Irlen works with the learning disabled and those with scotino sensitiviy syndrome.
A child put a colored transparency over the
reading material on Iren's desk and told Iren that the colored plastic made the letters on the page stand still, Iren said in a "60 Minutes" interview last year.
Irren began to experiment not only with color transparencies, which change reflected light, but also with colored lenses that change refracted light, Suderman said.
Suderman said she learned about the technique when her nephew who lived in California greatly improved his perception after being fitted with colored lenses.
Suderman, a counselor for the Lawrence School District, decided to learn the Irlen techniques and applied them.
The Irlen Clinic has fitted almost 300 people with tinted glasses, developed by Irlen. The tinted glasses can help 90 percent of those diagnosed with the syndrome, Suderman said.
Of those the center has fitted, only two have needed the same color of tint, Suderman said. The clinic works with 150 tints and combines these to create a refracted light that is bothersome to their clients.
Suderman strongly recommended that clients be tested by an optometrist before coming to her clinic.
Jones said that before being diagnosed as having scotopic sensitivity syndrome he had avoided reading street signs and posters, although he did not know why.
The movement of the letters gave him headaches and motion sickness, he said, and he spent a lot of money on medication to stop nausea and expensive tests to rule out ulcers.
With his new glasses, tinted with a combination
or orown, orange, blue and coated with infrared, he said that he now had the span of focus of a full newspaper column.
newspaper boy
The night he got his glasses, he noticed that at 10 p.m. he was still full of energy and went to play basketball, he said.
He made every basket that night because, for the first time, the hoop did not seem to move when he jumped.
Jones is only one of the clinic's success stories. Lois McMillan, Lawrence graduate student, said she used to climb on her desk at the Computer Center and unplug the fluorescent lights.
win the overlays — blue in her case — McMillan said that she could read much longer and that her span of focus had increased from one to two characters to eight.
"Florenscape light just hurt my eyes something terrible," she said. "My eyes start to water and I'll
Suderman said the transparencies were a different color than the tinted glasses because transparenties shield from reflected light and the glasses shield from refracted light.
A co-worker told her about the Irlen Clinic, where she now works part time.
Kara Weinreich, of St. Louis, said light caused her so much pain that her whole neck and back became tense. She said she hurt down to her feet.
Weinreich, at her post-fitting checkup Friday at the clinic, said her deep rose-colored glasses stopped the star showers and bright lights that kept her from reading.
"Everything's relaxed," she said. "I'm not so
surprised. But the door is slammed down to
the floor when we got the right color."
KU version of Oscars gives students a chance to name favorite films
by a Kansan reporter
The nomination ballots are in and the results have been compiled for the Oscar von Javakhaw film winners.
"Casablanca" won in the classical category, and will be shown at 8 tonight. The foreign film winner "Diva" will run at 8 p.m. tomorrow. "Die Hard," which won the feature category, will be shown at 3:30, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Winner of the midnight movie category, "Brazil," will play at midnight Friday and Saturday.
All films will be shown in Woodruff Auditorium at the Kansas Union.
"We wanted a creative way to survey what kind of films students wanted to see on campus," said Sue Morrell, program manager of Student Union Activities, which sponsored the competition.
A write-in ballot was printed in the University Daily Kansas. About 100 ballots were returned, although Morrell said SUA had hoped for more.
She said other films nominated in the feature category included "Barbarella," "Empire of the Sun" and
'W
we wanted a creative way to survey what kind of films students wanted to see on campus. This is going to give us good direction for next year.'
Sue Morrell
Sue Morrell SUA program manager
"Star Wars." In the classical category, "Citizen Kane," "Gone With the Wind" and "On the Waterfront" received many votes, she said.
Popular choices for the foreign category were "Akira," "Betty Blue," "Das Boat," and "My Life as a Dog." Some votes for the midnight move went to Fraser's Piano Show. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
Morrall said SUA would try to run more midnight movies next year because of their popularity.
"This is going to give us good direction for next year," Morrell said.
Wednesday- 75¢ Draws
Thursday- 16 oz. cans $1.25
(Why go anywhere else and eat?)
Friday- Free Hamburgers in beer garden.
New, roasted peanuts everyday.
- Coming soon, Bottled Beer.
Special KU Price
Cosponsored By Informix & Connecting Point Computer Center Regular Price $399
Informix is a registered tm and Wiggz HyperServlet and HyperSheet are tm of Informix Software, Inc. Apple & Macintosh are registered tm of Apple Computer, Inc. - 1189 PM © 1999
$89
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