Low Vision Aids and Vision Therapy

For the Visually Impaired and Legally Blind

Low Vision Aids can maximize your remaining usable vision when conventional glasses or contact lenses are not sufficient to help you to see more than 20/70 in your better eye, or if you are legally blind. Visual conditions that can lead to visual impairment include: macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, visual loss due to stroke or craniotomy, trauma, and congenital vision problems.

Low Vision aids can help with:

Difficulty reading regular sized or small print

Blurry distance vision: bus signs, front of classroom, television

Poor night vision

Difficulty performing daily tasks such as cooking, sewing, walking

Sensitivity to glare

Difficulty driving

Loss of side vision (hemianopsia)

There are many types of Low Vision Aids including: telescopes, bioptic telescopes (telescope for driving), magnifiers for reading, microscopes for reading, field expanders, glare filters, task lighting, computer aids, and closed-circuit television reading systems. Each aid is designed for a specific task, or group of tasks. Since your vision has been impaired, it is rare that one pair of glasses is enough to help you see at different distances, in different lighting conditions, or for different activities.

Vision Therapy is beneficial in conjunction with the prescription of low vision aids. Since your vision is impaired, you must learn a new way to use your eyes, and how to use your aids. For example, if you have lost side vision in a stroke, or central vision because of macular degeneration, you need to learn to function in a world that you no longer see completely. Vision Therapy can teach skills such as peripheral awareness, scanning techniques, recognition of depth (such as stairs and curbs), spatial localization, and object localization.

Low Vision Aids can help you maximize your remaining vision to help you function more independently. The better you see, the more you can do, the better your life.