Since 2006, ACTO e. V. has been organizing an uninterrupted programme of presentations 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 well received. Those affected and their relatives made good 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 promotion and training centers are involved in the conception of the forum.

SightCity and SightCity Forum 15 – 17.05.24 hybrid

This year, SightCity and the SightCity Forum will take place live and in hybrid form at the SightCity location in Kap Europa in Frankfurt! We look forward to welcoming you again at the SightCity Forum and have put together an exciting three-day program for you. Come and actively engage with the speakers and us live on site. We offer knowledge about visual impairment and blindness. A moderated discussion following the presentations will bring you into direct contact with the experts and speakers.

In patient seminars, we focus on the clinical pictures of “glaucoma”, “optical blindness and visual impairment”, “functional blindness and visual impairment” and others.
The topic “close to the labor market and innovative” is competently offered with biographical references by the network of vocational participation of the vocational training and vocational promotion centers.

Hearing and vision impairments are addressed with presentations on the medical classification of acquired hearing impairment in old age and the socio-political foundations of deafblindness and hearing impairment. Other topics at the lecture event include reading training for central visual field loss in macular degeneration and after a stroke, eye movement training to improve spatial orientation in peripheral visual field loss, rehabilitation in the case of vision loss, barriers on the Internet – how do I report them, what do I need to do?

The SightCity Forum will take place on Wednesday, Wednesday May 15 and Thursday, May May 16 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Friday, May May 17 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Kap Europa near Frankfurt Central Station in Frankfurt am Main.

With the generous and generous support of the Marga and Walter Boll Foundation and the Paul and Charlotte Kniese Foundation, we are able to offer you the contributions to this year’s SightCity Forum both on site and live online completely free of charge. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to both foundations!

The online and telephone dial-in details for the presentations can be found on the website www.acto.de/sightcity.html and the SightCity program pages.

3rd interdisciplinary specialist congress with advanced training for ophthalmologists

Too few people are still given the opportunity to continue to actively participate in life in the way that is individually possible for them, despite visual impairment or blindness caused by accidents, illness and/or age. The advisory board of the SightCity Forum has set itself the task of providing information about existing ophthalmological rehabilitation services, bringing together the stakeholders involved and discussing new ways of implementing participation. To this end, we cordially invite all specialist groups who are committed to the interests of visually impaired and blind people to take part in the third interdisciplinary specialist congress with ophthalmologist training organized by the SightCity Forum Advisory Board, either live or virtually.

As part of the specialist congress, we are offering you three focal points: A look at neighboring disciplines or abroad shows that coordination by specifically trained persons, so-called pilots or case managers, can be helpful for specific interdisciplinary care situations. In the first part of the congress, the case manager concepts of the Dutch Rehabilitation Clinic and the Rehabilitation Eye Clinic Masserberg will be presented. Based on this, the goals and possibilities of ensuring participation for ophthalmology patients with visual impairments are presented and the requirements for an ideal nationwide service for patient-individual coordination in Germany are discussed. In an interactive part, we then invite scientists and project leaders to present their concepts, research and results on ophthalmologic rehabilitation in the form of posters. The presenters will discuss the posters on site with the participants in small groups. The third focus of the specialist congress will be an ophthalmologist training session in the afternoon, which is of course also open to all other interested parties. The aim is to support ophthalmologists in familiarizing their visually impaired patients and those at risk of blindness with the wide range of services on offer, from training in practical life skills to psychological counselling. In various presentations, the legal framework for prescribing rehabilitation and the various elements of rehabilitative care will be presented, as well as a procedural model for drawing up a participation plan.

Participation in the interdisciplinary specialist congress and the ophthalmologist training course can be offered through the support of the foundations with a contribution of 30 euros for interdisciplinary specialist groups and 60 euros for medical staff – also in hybrid form.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to both foundations!

Best regards, your SightCity Forum organization team
Sabine Kampmann, Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Norbert Schrage, Beatrix Seeliger