Japan's near-silent hybrid cars have been called dangerous by the vision-impaired and some users, prompting a government review on whether to add a noise-making device, according to an official. The petrol-electric vehicles, which in recent months have become the country's top-selling autos, hum along almost soundlessly when they are switched from fuel to battery mode. "We have received opinions from automobile users and vision-impaired people that they feel hybrid vehicles are dangerous," a transport ministry official said. "Blind people depend on sounds when they walk, but there are ...

There's a cool new video player in the Firefox Web browser that Mozilla released on June 30. But the onscreen buttons used to control it are too small for some visually impaired users to see. So Ken Saunders, a 41-year-old, legally blind volunteer for Mozilla, took it upon himself to create a tool that makes the player easier to use for people with vision problems.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Two Merck blood pressure drugs given to diabetics to prevent worsening kidney problems do not work in that way but may prevent diabetes-related eye problems, researchers reported on Wednesday. The Vasotec brand of enalapril and the Cozaar brand of losartan slowed progression of diabetic eye damage in more than 65 percent of patients, the researchers found in a study partially funded by Merck. Kidney disease known as diabetic neuropathy causes at least 45 percent of kidney failures in the United States. Diabetes is also the main cause of ...