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Visually impaired woman creates a newspaper for partially-sighted person

Shared by Elise Thioliere on 2017-05-22 12:04

About the solution

In 1997, Maryse published the first edition of her newspaper called “Mieux voir”. The aim is to make a newspaper accessible for visually impaired people. The typeface, the size and the thickness of the letters, the line space, and the contrast and the lighting of pictures are factors which make this periodical so special.
Maryse woke up one morning, in 1995, with a suboptimal central vision field, She discovered that she had contracted an Age-related Macular Degeneration. This disease is due to a dysfunction of macula, and it causes troubles in central vision field.

By discussing with her physician, Maryse realized that it didn’t exist newspaper for visually impaired. As a true reader of newspaper, Maryse decided to publish her own monthly. Martine Mauget, her ophthalmologist, has played a significant role in the success of the project. In fact, every appointment with her physician, Marie asked Maryse: “How is it going with your project ? Many of my patients are expecting this newspaper”. Marie’s patients tested several settings regarding the size of characters, colours, pictures… They helped Maryse to develop the best newspaper she could do.

Several months after the first edition, a bi-monthly was born. This new periodical was only dedicated to games.
At the beginning, Maryse faced several problems to create her company because of her disability. Once this step was done, Maryse had to find contents to build her monthly. However, a lot of national newspaper didn’t allow her to pick their articles up.

Nevertheless, Maryse never gave up, and today she developed a whole range of products such as a watch, weighing scale and board games with huge characters, and electronic magnifying glasses.

Today, “Mieux voir” counts 10 000 subscribers in 4 countries.

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2rKJV3q

More info: http://www.mieux-voir.fr/
https://youtu.be/477HnS9a8ww

This solution shall not include mention to the use of drugs, chemicals or biologicals (including food); invasive devices; offensive, commercial or inherently dangerous content. This solution was not medically validated. Proceed with caution! If you have any doubts, please consult with a health professional.

DISCLAIMER: This story was written by someone who is not the author of the solution, therefore please be advised that, although it was written with the utmost respect for the innovation and the innovator, there can be some incorrect statements. If you find any errors please contact the patient Innovation team via info@patient-innovation.com

About the author

Maryse Verhille was born in France. She became visually impaired because of a disease called Age-related Macular Degeneration. Despite of her disability, Maryse wanted to stay informed and read newspapers. However, she couldn´t. This is why, in 1996, she founded “Mieux voir”, a company which publishes monthly and bi-monthly with huge characters. These newspapers allow visually impaired to keep up with the times.

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