What Is Low Vision?
What is low vision?
Low vision is a visual impairment that cannot be corrected by medical or surgical intervention and is severe enough to interfere with the performance of activities of daily living but still allows some usable vision.
This is a very important distinction from working with individuals who are completely blind. They must have some type of usable vision that we can maximize and try to use to help them function better and perform ADLs. In situations where they are not able to use their impaired vision, we would use sensory substitution with other senses such as hearing and touch. And in some cases smell, if they are cooking.
Vision Facts
The impact of low vision on a person's quality of life is severe. Eighty to ninety percent of new learning typically occurs through our visual pathways. Most of us are visual learners; that is how we get our information and how we receive it at such a fast speed. This is done by seeing versus hearing. Our auditory system helps with supporting the information that we are seeing, but vision definitely provides information at the fastest speed.
Vision provides the building block onto which we develop our cognition and motor skills. Think of an infant that is laying there and starts to look around. They want to interact with brightly color objects in their environment. Then, the infant wants to turn and move to engage with those objects. That is why they begin to roll, reach, and start to cross the mid line because they are trying to get to objects in their environment. Motor skill development is motivated by what we see. A child who is born without sight tends to be delayed in developing motor skills because they are not able to see what they want in the environment and no longer have the motivation to search the environment. They tend to lag in developing motor skills because of this lack of motivation.
Vision directs our search and navigation of the environment. As we enter an environment we look around. We may look for somebody that we recognize or for obstacles that may be in our way. If we see a wet floor sign in a hospital hallway, we may either detour in another direction or go around with very careful steps so that we know that we will not slip. Looking for exit signs is another example.
Vision is our primary sense. It is the first tool to alert us to danger. Vision provides us information at a faster speed than any other sense. Think about some of the most wonderful things you have seen in your life and maybe some of the not-so-wonderful things you have seen in your life. They leave a very great impact on us as individuals, and how you see and interpret it is what shapes who you are as a human being.
