Living with Low Vision
What is low vision?
Low vision is defined as a visual impairment that is not correctable through surgery, medicine, eye glasses or contact lenses. Living with low vision, makes everyday tasks such as reading, shopping, recognizing faces, and even crossing the street difficult.
Low Vision is usually caused by eye diseases or other health conditions. Some of these include age-related macular degeneration (AMD), cataract, diabetes, and glaucoma. Eye injuries and birth defects are some other causes. Whatever the cause, lost vision cannot be restored. It can, however, be managed with proper treatment and vision rehabilitation.
What are the symptom’s of low vision?
Some signs to look for that may indicate visual impairment are:
- Slowness in responding or moving
- confusion in environments with low contrast or low lighting
- confusion with faces and identifying people
- difficulty locating objects that are small or low contrast
- difficulty paying attention
- avoiding activities requiring good vision
- making mistakes in tasks that have small details (i.e. taking the wrong medicine)
- fear of falling
Everyone experiences vision loss differently, even those who share the same conditions. Most chronic diseases begin with no symptoms; then progress through various stages of blurriness, distortion, dim areas and finally blind spots in either or both eyes.
What can I do if I have low vision?
Attending regular eye exams will allow your opticians to identify any areas of concern. Although, if you experience any changes to your vision, you should contact your optician immediately.
Your optician will explain your diagnoses and provide further information on adaptive devices and aids that will help you in your day to day life, such as:
- Magnifying screens – they come in different sizes, some as small as a credit card. They may help with shopping and reading labels and small print. There are larger ones that are more suitable for reading books or newspapers.
- Pocket viewer – looks like a very large-screen mobile phone and makes everything seven times larger.
- Computer screen magnifiers or screen reader software – will convert the text and images on a computer screen into speech or Braille.
- Big Button telephones
- Better lighting in the home
These are just an example of things that may help, your optician will be able to help tailor the aids to your specific needs.
Speak to us if you have any concerns about your vision.