Low Vision

It’s a loss of vision that limits daily life and can’t be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, medication, or surgery. It’s not total blindness: the person retains useful vision, just reduced. Our low vision program isn’t about curing the condition (the damage already done can’t be reversed); it’s about helping you make the most of the vision you have so you can regain independence in your daily activities.

When someone says "there’s nothing more to do," they usually mean there’s no treatment that can cure or reverse the damage. But that’s not the same as there being nothing left to do for your quality of life. Low vision care starts exactly at that point. With the right aids and training, many people who had stopped reading, cooking, or going out are able to do so again. The goal shifts from curing to functioning.

The most common are macular degeneration (the leading cause after age 60), advanced glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and retinitis pigmentosa. In their advanced stages, all of them leave damage that can’t be reversed. Our low vision program works with the vision these conditions leave behind, in coordination with the specialists who treat the underlying disease.

Many, chosen based on your goals: magnifiers (handheld, stand, or electronic) for reading, telescopes for distance tasks like watching TV or reading signs, specialized filters that reduce glare and improve contrast, and high-magnification glasses. The key isn’t the most expensive aid, it’s the right one for the task you want back and for your type of vision.

It’s training to make better use of the vision you have and to adapt your surroundings. It includes techniques like eccentric viewing (learning to look slightly "off-center" when your central vision is damaged), reading strategies, improvements to lighting and contrast at home, and learning to use your aids correctly. Aids truly work once you know how to use them, and that’s what rehabilitation teaches.

No, although it’s more common with age because the conditions that cause it are too. It also affects younger people with conditions like retinitis pigmentosa, complications from diabetic retinopathy, or damage from other diseases. Our low vision program adapts to every age and to each person’s goals, whether that’s studying, working, or staying independent at home.

It’s important to be honest here: low-vision aids don’t restore lost vision or cure the underlying condition. What they do is maximize and simplify the use of the vision you have, so you can go back to doing specific tasks you’d given up on. The difference in quality of life can be enormous, even though the vision itself doesn’t change. The goal is function and independence, not getting your old eyesight back.

It’s different from a standard eye exam. Instead of focusing only on your prescription, it evaluates how your vision works in real life: how much you can see, what’s hardest for you, how you handle contrast and glare, and which activities you want back. From there, we test specific aids with your goals in mind. It’s a functional evaluation, centered on what you want to be able to do again.

Not at all. Low vision care complements, it doesn’t replace, treatment of the underlying condition. You should keep up with your retina, glaucoma, or other specialty checkups, since many of these conditions need ongoing treatment to keep from getting worse. Our low vision program works in coordination with those specialists, all within the same center.