Statistics About Children and Youth with Vision Loss

Updated September 2023

In this section you will find statistical information specific to children and youth. This is a new feature and we will be adding to it and updating it from time to time.

Please be advised that estimates of the number of children and youth experiencing vision loss differ based on the various definitions of vision loss used, as well as on the dates the data were collected, populations surveyed, and other features of data sources.

Background Information

AFB urges investigators to pay attention to the detailed background information provided along with each estimate.

Child Population (2021 ACS Data)

According to the 2022 American Community Survey (ACS), there were an estimated 600,000 children with vision difficulty in the U.S. This estimate includes approximately 290,000 males and 310,000 females with vision difficulty under the age of 18 in the U.S.

See the above table for estimated child population from 2014-2021.

Definition and scope: The children referred to in the ACS data range in age from 0-17 years and only included those children that had difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses as well as those that are blind.

IDEA Section 618 Primary Disability

Children captured here are reported by the states to the Department of Education as receiving IDEA services, and having visual impairment as a primary disability. Students who have a different primary disability and who are also visually impaired (are blind or have low vision) may be missed in this count, and children who are DeafBlind are also excluded from these numbers. Children who are DeafBlind always have some level of visual impairment.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, selected years, 1979 through 2006; and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) database, retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://data.ed.gov/dataset/idea-section-618-data-products. National Center for Education Statistics, Statistics of Public Elementary and Secondary School Systems, 1977-78 and 1980-81; Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 1990-91 through 2021-22. (This table was prepared February 2023.)

Student Population (2022 APH Data)

According to the 2022 Annual Report from the American Printing House for the Blind (APH), based upon data from January of 2021, there were approximately 55,711 U.S. children, youth, and adult students in educational settings who were legally blind. See Children Table for additional years.

Definition and scope: The students referred to ranged in age from 0-21 years as well as certain qualifying adult students and only included those students with vision loss that functioned at/met the legal definition of blindness. Legal blindness is a level of vision loss that has been defined by law to determine eligibility for benefits. It refers explicitly to those who have a central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with the best possible correction, or a visual field of 20 degrees or less. Due to reporting requirements, parents may elect not to have their children included in the data, so these numbers should be considered a floor, as they are known to be an undercount.

Data sources: 2015-2022 Annual Reports: American Printing House for the Blind, Inc. http://www.aph.org/annual-reports. The American Printing House for the Blind maintains an annual register of legally blind persons in educational settings below the college level.

Read our brief resource guide to APH data.

Prevalence

Children who are blind or low vision can be counted several ways. This table shows comparisons with rows using increasingly narrow definitions of the population. Details are provided below for the current year’s data at each level. Child Population from ACS is the broadest count of American Children who are blind or have difficulty seeing. Department of education IDEA counts only those children who receive IDEA services for a primary disability of visual impairment. Finally the APH numbers are the most narrow, with only children who receive services, qualify as legally blind, and whose parents consented to data sharing.

In the following table, for the IDEA Section 618 counts, numbers not in parentheses are the numbers of students with visual impairment as their primary disability. Numbers in parentheses represent the numbers of students designated as DeafBlind, who by definition also have a visual impairment but are not included in the larger numbers.