Painting the world for people who don't see color

Defying expectations, cataract surgery in Indian children is endowing them with vision—and shedding light on how the brain learns to see.

In the past, people in poor countries who became blind due to cataracts often had no hope of improvement because of the high costs of treatment. Nepalese ophthalmologist, Sanduk Ruit, perfected a cheap and effective cataract removal technique which allows his patients to see again.

Twelve million people are blind in India, and are robbed of their livelihoods as a result. A hugely successful chain of cataract hospitals in India helped its business by treating half its patients for free.

In Honduras, tens of thousands of people have hearing disabilities. The National Autonomous University of Honduras has developed software that converts spoken language into an avatar on the computer who signs for the hearing impaired. Teachers in classrooms can teach hearing impaired students with this new software.

Software and apps are helping millions of Americans trying to solve civil problems on their own.

New apps like Tap Tap See and Be My Eyes are helping blind people solve everyday problems by combining smartphone video technology with an army of volunteers. The app allows a blind individual to take a photo or video of an item that the person needs to "see"; it then either automatically interprets the photo and announces it aloud to the user, or, if the app itself cannot identify the object, sends it to a real person somewhere in the world who can.

In the Netherlands, city councils are piloting remarkable new technology to make roads safer and friendlier for cyclists and pedestrians through the use of apps that improve the efficiency and sensitivity of traffic lights to the elderly, disabled, and young children. Improved traffic flow is a key part of the way forward into a greener, safer urban future.

Two major pharmaceutical companies are offering discount cancer drugs in some African countries in an initiative modeled on the aids campaign. In African countries access to cancer treatment is scarce due to high prices of medicine, lack of medical staff and equipment and lack of awareness about the disease among the population; leading to higher death rates than in the developed world. The partnership to combat this also includes the American Cancer Society and IBM who are working to simplify cancer treatment guidelines and to make them available as an online tool to any hospital with an internet connection

When you step on an airplane, you might not be thinking about people who use wheelchairs, neither are airlines. People who need to use wheelchairs have faced a number of challenges on airplanes, like lost and damaged wheelchairs, not being able to use the restroom, and feeling dehumanized. Some people, are taking matters into their own hands.

The way cities are built in the United States makes getting around without driving a car difficult. This means that, for an increasingly aging population, mobility can be a significant issue, leading to challenges such as missed medical appointments and loneliness that can actually decrease lifespan. But in the age of the sharing economy, ride services such as Lyft and Uber reach out to the demographic that arguably needs them most, partnering with medical centers and hospice providers to get smartphone technology - or more "old school" alternatives such as hotlines - into the hands of senior citizens.