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Vision Rehabilitation
What is vision rehabilitation?
Vision rehabilitation is a comprehensive and holistic approach for helping people to make the most of their existing vision. It involves teaching them how to cope with partial or complete blindness by making adjustments in their lifestyle and/or work routine to enable them to lead productive and relatively independent lives.
Rehabilitation is a combination of learning daily living and work-related skills, and the use of suitable low vision devices, along with professional counseling.
How can we help?
Optical devices
- High-powered magnifying spectacles
- Hand magnifiers in different powers and sizes
- Stand magnifiers
- Telescopes for distance viewing
Non optical devices
- Reading guide, writing guide, signature guide
- Bold line notebooks
- Felt-tipped pens and soft lead pencils
- Notex for currency identification
- Needle-threader
- Folding cane
Is low vision evaluation very expensive?
No. It costs the same as a regular eye examination, and takes a couple of hours. At LVPEI, 50% of patients, who are economically underprivileged, are treated free including provision of low vision devices. A team of professionals from Meera and L.B. Deshpande Centre for Sight Enhancement at LVPEI offer assessment, prescription and training in the use of low vision devices.
Will a child with low vision be dependent all her/his life on someone else?
Taking into consideration a person's individual needs, physical capacity, age, family environment and the willingness to learn, she/he can be trained to move about independently and safely. Daily living skills like cooking can also be provided to them. Dr. P R K Prasad Centre for Rehabilitation of Blind and the visually Impaired, at LVPEI offers physical, social educational and economical rehabilitation services to the blind and the visually impaired.
How do I know if I have low vision?
Here is a quick checklist of some common symptoms, which could indicate low vision. If your answer to one or more of these questions is
'yes', you could be suffering from an eye problem related to low vision or progressive loss of vision.
Q. Do you find it difficult to recognise friends and relations even when they are standing quite close to you?
Q. Do you find it difficult to do things that require near vision, like reading, sewing, cooking or carrying out small repairs at home?
Q. Do you find it difficult to select and match the colours on your clothes?
Q. Do the lights at home and outside seem dim and pale?
Q. Do you find reading road signs, numbers and letters on buses, names of shops, more difficult than before?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it could be an early warning sign of eye disease. However, there might be other reasons for the symptoms too. Therefore, if you notice any of these problems, you should immediately make an appointment with an ophthalmologist or eye doctor.
If there has been a change in your eyesight recently see an ophthalmologist or optometrist as soon as possible. The sooner your condition is diagnosed and treated, the better your chances of retaining your vision.
Here are some important questions to ask your ophthalmologist, optometrist, or other eye care professional.
Q. What do the changes in my eyesight mean? Will it get any worse? Can it also get better?
Q. Will regular use of spectacles or contact lenses help improve my vision?
Q. Is there any medical or surgical treatment available, which can help my condition?
Q. What can I do to protect or preserve my current vision?
Q. Will diet, exercise, or other lifestyle changes help?
Q. If my vision cannot be corrected, can you refer me to a specialist in low vision?
Q. Where can I get a low vision examination and evaluation done? Where can I get
vision rehabilitation advice?
Questions for your specialist in low vision
Q. How can I continue my normal, routine activities?
Q. Are there any resources available to help me in my job? What special devices are
available, which can help me at school, work, or in my normal daily activities,
such as cooking or reading?
Q. What training and services are available to help me live better and more safely
with low vision?
Q. Where can I find individual or group support to cope with my vision loss?
Q. What other type of counselling and training can help me make the best of my
condition, and where are they available?
How can you help them?
People who have low vision are not always aware of it. This is especially true of children with congenital vision defects or disabilities, which set in when they are still very young.
Children may not be aware that their limited vision is unusual, because they have no experience of normal vision and may think that the condition or deterioration is normal. Or it may be possible that a child realizes there is a problem but is unable to communicate it to the adults around.
Although it is less unusual for low vision in adults to go undetected, it is not entirely impossible.
Be aware of low vision signs: People with low vision may be unwilling to admit their problem, or may not be willing to discuss it. Or they may not think that any solutions exist. To help such people, whether adults or children, it is important that there is general awareness about symptoms for vision problems.
Be aware of the symptoms of low vision, so that others around the affected person (care-givers, teachers, parents, and other relations) can identify the problem, help the patient to recognize it, and seek the means to provide possible solutions and remedies.
Secondly, be aware of the fact that although some low vision conditions are irreversible, many can be treated. Moreover, often the condition can be improved upon or at least prevented from deteriorating further. In most cases it is of vital importance to treat the problem as soon as possible, since the quicker the condition is identified, the better the chances of retaining the existing vision in the affected eye.
Thirdly, even in cases of advanced deterioration, or partial or complete blindness where the condition itself cannot be helped, the patient can be rehabilitated. This is done through counseling, use of low vision devices to supplement their visual abilities, and learning of skills to lead a relatively normal and independent life - in school, at home, or at the workplace.
Low vision - warning signs
It is not always easy to detect low vision problems. They are often confused, especially in the case of children, with problems of intellectual capacity, attention deficiency or behavioral issues. It is thus important to watch out for symptoms that indicate possible visual disability. These symptoms include:
- Eccentric viewing: Instead of looking at a relatively distant object, like a blackboard or television directly, does the person seem to tilt his or her head sideways, to the left or right, to try and see better?
- Wandering eyes: Instead of remaining steady while
focused on one object, does the person's pupil seem to 'wander' in a jerky or erratic movement?
- Close working distance: Do they need to read, write, or stitch holding their work much closer to their eyes than is normal?
Some of the most common indications that are easily noticeable by observers are:
- Face recognition: Failing to recognise even close friends and family, unless they are standing very close, is an indication of possible visual impairment.
- Mobility: Moving awkwardly and frequently bumping into things.
- Not being able to recognize colours and inability to distinguish clearly between different colours is also associated with low vision problems.
People with low vision are often not taught how to use their low vision as efficiently as possible, and lose confidence in using their residual vision. Many myths about low vision are passed on to patients, either by other patients or by doctors who have not been trained in rehabilitation.
Myths about low vision
- Holding printed material close to the eye when reading is harmful and may damage the eye.
- Reading for long periods continuously is harmful for one's eyesight.
- Reading ability is correlated with visual acuity, binocular vision, and depth perception.
- A child with low vision is likely to become blind, and should be taught Braille in advance.
- The use of optical low vision devices further damages the eye.
- Low vision may deteriorate further if people watch television from too close.
- Children with poor vision will automatically need glasses or low vision devices.
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