Eye Health & Learning

Low vision

Low vision generally refers to significant vision difficulty that remains even after appropriate treatment or ordinary spectacle correction and affects everyday activities.

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A Rolled Sleeves Foundation school eye-care programme in progress

The goal is effective access

Low-vision support is not about promising normal vision. It is about helping a person use available vision effectively and reducing barriers in learning and daily participation.

Possible tools

Depending on professional assessment, support may include magnification, monocular devices, enlarged or adapted materials, improved contrast, lighting changes and other assistive visual tools.

The learner needs to understand the tool

Providing equipment without teaching the learner how and when to use it can limit its value. Families and educators may also need practical guidance.

Support should be individual

Different learners with similar clinical descriptions may function differently. Low-vision interventions should therefore be matched to the person, task and environment rather than distributed as generic equipment.