Fundamental aspects of low vision service

It is important to be familiar with the reasons behind a patient’s eye conditions to be able to successfully provide low vision solutions. Patients often want to learn more about the cause of their visual impairment, its likely progression and approaches that could potentially be taken to combat it. When taking a patient’s medical history and fitting a visual aid, knowing the medical basics also makes it easier to understand what patients say. In addition to finding out more about the causes of impaired vision and relevant development stages, you will also receive some basic tips for offering low vision solutions.

At the onset of a visual impairment, people most often complain about losing the ability to read. Image size, lighting quality and image sharpness are the three key factors that influence reading. In addition to refractive causes, pathological conditions also often reduce the visual acuity of visually impaired people. It is therefore important to use the appropriate tools for taking various measurements to successfully fit visual aids. This video provides an overview of the necessary tools and explains their use.

Once the basic values such as refractive error, visual acuity and contrast sensitivity have been established, the magnification power required for near and distance viewing is determined. It can be significantly reduced with appropriate lighting. Find out here, step by step, how to determine the relevant magnification power and required lighting for different visual tasks.