How To Live With Low Vision

By Liz Segre; updates by Gary Heiting, OD

Living with low vision can be challenging, although many devices are available to help people with this condition use their remaining vision to greatest advantage.

Eye care professionals use the term, "low vision," to describe significant visual impairment that cannot be corrected with standard glasses, contact lenses, medicine or eye surgery.

Low vision includes loss of best-corrected visual acuity — to a level worse than 20/60 in the better eye, measured with a standard eye chart — or visual field loss such as tunnel vision or blind spots. It also describes legal blindness and almost total blindness.

Low vision has a variety of causes, including eye injury, diseases and heredity. Sometimes low vision involves a lack of acuity, meaning that objects appear blurred. Other times, it involves a significant loss of peripheral vision and visual field. Other symptoms of low vision include light sensitivity, distorted vision or loss of contrast.

The eyesight of a person with low vision may be hazy from cataracts, blurred or partially obscured in the central visual zone because of macular degeneration or distorted and/or blurred from diabetic retinopathy. Also, people with glaucoma or retinitis pigmentosa can lose their peripheral vision and have difficulty seeing at night.

Children as well as adults can be visually impaired, sometimes as a result of a birth defect or an injury. But low vision more commonly afflicts adults and seniors. Vision loss can be very traumatic, leading to frustration and depression.

Many people who develop eye problems that cause low vision lose their jobs. According to Lighthouse International, among visually impaired Americans of ages 21 to 64, only 43.7 percent are employed. Among normally sighted people in this age group, 80 percent are employed.

Not being able to drive safely, read quickly or easily see images on a television or computer screen can cause people with low vision to feel shut off from the world. They may be unable to get around town independently, earn a living or even shop for food and other necessities.

Some visually impaired people become completely dependent on friends and relatives, while others suffer alone.

That's a shame, because many ingenious low vision devices and strategies exist to help people overcome vision impairment and live independently.

Top: You can use the versatile Acrobat LCD video magnifier from Enhanced Vision for reading, writing and self-viewing. Bottom: The portable FarView video magnifier from Optelec has up to 90X zoom, can store images and can connect to a computer or video screen. For closeups, please click on the photos.

If you have a vision impairment that interferes with your ability to perform everyday activities and enjoy life, your first step is to see an eye care professional for a complete eye exam.

Poor vision that cannot be corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses could be the first sign of a serious eye disease such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma or retinitis pigmentosa. Or it could mean you are developing a cataract that needs removal. Whatever the case, it's wise to take action before further vision loss occurs.

If your eye doctor finds that you have a vision loss that cannot be corrected with eyewear, medical treatment or surgery, he or she can refer you to a low vision specialist.

Usually an optometrist, a low vision specialist can evaluate the degree and type of vision loss you have, prescribe appropriate low vision aids such as magnifiers, telescopes and video magnifiers, and help you learn how to use low vision aids.

The low vision specialist also can recommend non-optical adaptive devices, such as large-face printed material, audio tapes, special light fixtures and signature guides for signing checks and documents.

If necessary, your specialist or eye doctor also can refer you to a counselor or mental health professional to help you cope with your vision loss.

[Page updated December 2009]