Book Review: Primary Low Vision Care

Low vision assistants are critically needed to fill the manpower shortage in low vision care if complete services are to be available to all visually impaired persons. It is important that formal training programs provide these paraprofessionals with the knowledge basic to low vision care. Assistants must be qualified to perform at least half of the necessary diagnostic procedures, take case histories, train the patient to use the low vision aid and provide follow-up care, write reports, and make referrals to other agencies when needed. Professionals and paraprofessionals work as a team toward improved low vision care.

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Comprehensive Low Vision Care: Part One

Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness ◽

10.1177/0145482x7406800301 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 68 (3) ◽

pp. 97-103

Author(s):

Dagmar B. Friedman ◽

Carter B. Tallman ◽

John E. Asarkof

Keyword(s):

Low Vision ◽

Medical Center ◽

Electronic Devices ◽

The Public ◽

Boston University ◽

Visual Problems ◽

Vision Rehabilitation ◽

Multidisciplinary Staff ◽

Impaired Person ◽

Vision Care

The program of vision rehabilitation at Boston University Medical Center is described. From July 1970, to July 1973, 1,000 patients were seen by a multidisciplinary staff of ophthalmologists, optometrists, and social workers. The staff, using an array of optical, mechanical, and electronic devices, plus additional professional consultation, made possible through the cooperation of state and voluntary agencies, focused their attention on the specific visual problems of the patient and the associated psychological, social, and economic difficulties which limited his activities. Teaching professionals and the public about the problems of the visually impaired person, the techniques of vision rehabilitation, and the availability of low vision services is included in the clinic program.

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Low vision care in patients with amblyopia following surgery for childhood cataract in India

Visual Impairment Research ◽

10.1076/vimr.5.2.73.26266 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 73-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sarfaraz A. Khan ◽

Murali K. Aasuri ◽

Rishita Nutheti

Keyword(s):

Low Vision ◽

Vision Care ◽

Childhood Cataract

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Childhood Visual Impairment and Unmet Low-vision Care in Blind School Students in Ghana

US Ophthalmic Review ◽

10.17925/usor.2012.05.01.11 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 05 (01) ◽

pp. 11 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christine Teki Ntim-Amponsah ◽

Keyword(s):

Low Vision ◽

Care Providers ◽

School Students ◽

Childhood Blindness ◽

Barriers To Access ◽

Lower Socioeconomic ◽

Negative Perceptions ◽

Corneal Blindness ◽

One Year ◽

Vision Care

Most causes of childhood blindness in Ghana are avoidable. Over 40 % of the students in the school for the blind in Ghana have functional residual vision that requires low-vision care. Corneal blindness is the commonest form, followed by cataract. Retinal blindness is rare and is usually from hereditary or congenital causes. The Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI) in the Ghana health service has been very successful, with measles coverage for under one-year-olds of 95 %. This should now translate into a decline in measles-related corneal blindness, a common preventable occurrence. This then brings challenges in cataract management into focus. Provision of sustainable intervention services for low-vision care in children is a priority for the Prevention of Childhood Blindness program in Ghana. Barriers to access range from parents’ negative perceptions, societal/cultural misconceptions, and inadequate resources, to absence of collaboration and coordination between low-vision care providers and weak national support. Clients usually come from families within the lower socioeconomic groups and often find the low-vision devices unaffordable. A successful program for intervention is more likely to succeed when it is subsidized, at least until a reasonable impact has been made. One must, however, strike a good balance between cost recovery, which is more likely to ensure sustainability of the program, and subsidization.

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Réapprendre à voir le monde : Rééduquer les personnes atteintes de dégénérescence maculaire en exploitant les capacités perceptives et cognitives de la vision périphérique

Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement ◽

10.1353/cja.2006.0009 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 24 (4) ◽

pp. 339-352

Author(s):

Guillaume Giraudet ◽

Christian Corbé ◽

Corinne Roumes

Keyword(s):

Visual Information ◽

Vision Loss ◽

Peripheral Vision ◽

Low Vision ◽

Contextual Information ◽

Age Related Macular Degeneration ◽

Sensory Data ◽

Eccentric Fixation ◽

Age Related ◽

Vision Care

ABSTRACTAge-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is a frequent cause of vision loss among people over age of 60. It is an aging process involving a progressive degradation of the central retina. It does not induce total blindness, since it does not affect the peripheral vision. Nonetheless, it makes difficult to read, drive, and perform all daily activities requiring fine details perception. Low-vision care consists in inducing an eccentric fixation so that relevant visual targets impact an unaffected retinal locus. It is necessary but not sufficient to enhance visual extraction. The present work aims to draw the attention of low-vision professionals to the necessity of developing new re-education tools. Beyond the perceptual re-education linked to an optimization of visual information extraction, a cognitive re-education should also be provided in order to enhance the interpretation processes. Indeed, the spatial-frequency properties of the visual world no longer match patient perceptual habits. The visually impaired person has to learn again to use these new sensory data in an optimal way. Contextual information can be a precious help in this learning process. An experimental study involving young people provides elements for another method of low-vision care, in terms of visual cognitive re-education.

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