From lab to Lab - the science behind mobility

When people think of Guide Dogs, that's exactly what they think of a guide dog but there's so much more going on behind the scenes.

Guide Dogs funds hugely important research into a broad spectrum of areas affecting visually impaired people. Last year we funded around £600,000 of on-going projects, a significant sum by any standards, but this gives us so much ‘bang for our buck’ in terms of the help we can offer blind and partially sighted people.

The ophthalmic research programme we help fund investigates the causes of sight loss, as well as finding new ways to preserve, improve and make the most of remaining vision, to help as many people as possible get out an about. For example in the last year we have been looking at the potential development of a soft pulse laser treatment for age related macular degeneration.

We also look closely at the psycho-social effects of the trauma of sight loss, specifically studies into depression and withdrawal, to make sure we can provide the right support.

This is also being looked at by colleagues in the visual impairment sector and was enshrined as an aim of the UK Vision Strategy.

If you look at the way blind and partially sighted people are going about their daily lives, they’re making more and more use of new accessible technology, so we have to make sure our own expertise is keeping up.

We are taking the lead on this by developing our own technology such as the go walkies phone app – the first of its kind by Guide Dogs in Europe - and we’re working closely with manufacturers on research and development.

We are of course also world leaders in canine research. Recently we’ve been looking at screening Labradors for the eye disease PRA. This means the dogs we eventually partner with blind and partially sighted people are in the best of health and have had cutting edge training. This gives the partnership a great chance of being successful and long lived.

The word research may conjure up images of scientists in lab coats working on some impenetrable formula, but it is much more than that, it is the building blocks of everything we do to help blind and partially sighted people get out and about. Guide Dogs’ mission is empowerment, and when it comes to our research, knowledge really is power.