Dear AccessWorld readers,
To close out the month of February, we at AccessWorld are celebrating Low Vision Awareness Month. For many years, we have focused our February issue on a combination of low vision and seniors, but the content is generally meant to be of use to anyone with recent vision loss, no matter their age.
This month, we primarily focus on low vision. My predecessor, Lee Huffman, once defined low vision as
"Low vision" is a term commonly used to mean partial sight, or sight that isn't fully correctable with surgery, medications, contact lenses, or glasses. In the United States, the most common causes of low vision are age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, cataracts, and diabetic retinopathy. Some people are born with conditions such as albinism or optic nerve damage that can result in low vision. People of all ages, from infants to seniors, can experience low vision, most often due to eye disease, but also due to eye injury
People who lose their vision later in life have a very different path from those who lost their vision in childhood. Outside the issues of having vision for a while before coping with its loss, the way that the public school system trains students with vision loss to function in life and society during their education is a major boon. That being said, there are many resources available for the person new to vision loss who is seeking to learn the skills to thrive in their daily life. Organizations such as Hadley have a wealth of content to assist someone with newly onset vision loss, there are often local resources of which you can also take advantage. I personally find the VisionAware directory of services incredibly useful in finding both local and national organizations that can be of help to people new to vision loss. Anecdotally, I have heard from others/seen for myself that the local chapters of both the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) are extremely helpful and welcoming to people who have recently experienced a loss of vision. I'm not sure if it is currently up to date, but I stumbled across the E.A.R.S. for Eyes low vision support group directory and found it to be extremely comprehensive, listing low vision support groups down to the county level.
I would also suggest trying all of the access tools you have available to you; you never know what you will find useful. Even if something doesn't seem that it will be relevant to you, for example a screen reader for someone with high functioning low vision, you might find yourself surprised. When I was young, I had relatively high functioning low vision. Even so, I found that I preferred to use speech and braille instead of magnification since I found it more efficient and less strain on my eyes. I could never use magnification with the vision I have now so I'm very thankful that I learned the use of a screen reader early. I'm also aware of people with high functioning low vision who use a number of tools to be most efficient. For example, someone might not need to use a cane to travel but chooses to use VoiceOver on their iPhone instead of magnification.
I hope you enjoy this issue of AccessWorld and thank you for being readers of our magazine.
Sincerely,
Aaron Preece, AccessWorld Editor and Chief
American Foundation for the Blind
This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.
