SightCity Forum

Since 2006, ACTO e. V. has been organising a continuous programme of lectures and discussions, the so-called SightCity Forum, on all three days of SightCity. Here, experts and those affected pass on the latest scientific and medical developments and socio-legal information on the subject of low vision to interested parties. The daily patient symposia with general and up-to-date explanations on diagnosis and therapy from research are also very popular. Patients and their relatives make active use of the opportunity to ask personal questions afterwards.
The self-help associations PRO RETINA Deutschland e. V., the German Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (DBSV) e. V. and the vocational support and training centres are involved in the conception of the forum.

20 years SightCity Forum! 21 – 23.05.25, hybrid

A great anniversary! For the 20th time this year at the SightCity Forum, we are talking about the huge progress made for visually impaired and blind people. Whereas in the past there were only converted microfilm readers for tedious text recognition for the visually impaired or strange computer scribblers with OCR for the blind, the picture has changed dramatically. Development has not stood still and AI-supported devices, among other things, enable participation in social and professional contexts. Orientation systems with GPS, tags and RFID chips help those affected to navigate, and many other known and unknown helpers are available. Medical advances can minimise existing visual impairment. All of this needs to be experienced by those affected and their relatives! The ACTO e.V. team has been doing this for 20 years together with the vocational training and support centres, PRO RETINA Deutschland e. V., the German Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (DBSV) and the exhibitors and speakers at the SightCity Forum. Parallel to the SightCity aids exhibition, the SightCity Forum will feature presentations on the “high end” of the latest developments, a discussion programme for and with those affected, relatives, professionals and interested parties. We organise information on the latest scientific and medical developments and discuss social law in the context of blindness and low vision. We explain clinical pictures and the current state of therapy and research in popular patient symposia led by doctors. Patients and their relatives make frequent use of the opportunity to ask the speakers personal questions.

For years, an information block has been held regularly with speakers who are deafblind or have impaired hearing on current topics. They report on projects, educational and professional opportunities, as well as leisure activities. This year, thanks to funding from Aktion Mensch, we are able to use sign language interpreters for Thursday and Friday, enabling many deaf-blind and hearing-impaired people to follow the presentations in the forum. This will ensure accessibility. The SightCity Forum can be followed live and online. SightCity and its 20th anniversary “SightCity Forum” will meet for three exciting days with a full programme and interesting topics at Kap Europa in Frankfurt. We look forward to you being there, joining in, reporting, discussing and asking questions. We have done everything we can to ensure that discussions with experts and speakers address your problems and lead to a solution

This year’s patient symposia are dedicated to the clinical pictures “Glaucoma”, “When the lens becomes cloudy and there is another serious eye disease” and others.

The “Netzwerk berufliche Teilhabe – arbeitsmarktnah und innovativ” (Vocational Participation Network – close to the labour market and innovative) of the vocational training and promotion centres will provide you with competent information on current offers over two days.

The participation of people with hearing impairments will form part of the programme. A young programmer will present apps for deaf-blind people. Other topics at the lecture event include ophthalmological rehabilitation, current developments in live audio description, comprehensive counselling for blind and visually impaired patients from an ophthalmologist’s perspective, inclusive gaming, a block on genetic diseases, sexual abuse against children and young people with visual impairments and much more.

The SightCity Forum will take place on Wednesday, 21 May and Thursday, 22 May from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm and on Friday, 23 May from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Kap Europa near Frankfurt Central Station in Frankfurt am Main.

The online and telephone dial-in details for the lectures can be found on the websites www.acto.de/sightcity.html and www.sightcity.net.

With best regards, your SightCity Forum organisation team
Sabine Kampmann, Prof. Dr med. Dr h.c. Norbert Schrage, Beatrix Seeliger