VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
Visual Impairment (VI) pertains to issues with sight which interferes with students’ academic pursuits. As stipulated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), it is defined as “an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance.The term includes both partial sight and blindness.” Medically, it was defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a condition wherein one’s eyesight cannot be corrected to a “normal level.”
Understanding the world of those individuals with visual impairment (VI) is difficult for persons with normal sight. This section will show and let you experience what visually impared persons actually see through simulations and activities. Informations are included as well.
Understanding the world of those individuals with visual impairment (VI) is difficult for persons with normal sight. This section will show and let you experience what visually impared persons actually see through simulations and activities. Informations are included as well.
Systemic Conditions
Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired
- Diabetes
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Cerebrovascular (brain blood vessel) disease or stroke
- Atherosclerotic disease (cholesterol deposits in blood vessels, including those of the eye)
- Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)Ñusually due to infection with cytomegalovirus, a virus that affects the eye
- Vitamin A deficiency
- Infections involving the eyes
- Some eye infections, including those caused by parasites, are more common in developing countries. Infections in a pregnant woman can affect the fetus. This type of vision loss, present from birth, is called congenital blindness.
- Macular degeneration
- Cataracts
- Glaucoma
- Eye injuries
- Tumors involving the eye or surrounding structures in the head and neck
Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired
- Cortical Visual Impairment
- Retinopathy of Prematurity
- Optic Nerve Hypoplasia
- Albinism:
- Optic Nerve Atrophy
During infancy:
During early childhood:
- Lack of eye contact
- No blinking to bright light
- Do not look at his/her hands
- Do not visually follow moving objects in front of his/her face
- Slow response to voiceless toys or parents’ faces; respond only to sound
- No imitation of others’ expressions and actions
- Do not actively reach out for his/her favorite toys
- Fear of gross motor activities, such as crawling
During early childhood:
- Often keep his/her head down; lack eye contact with others
- Limited facial expression and body language
- Tend to hold objects very close to the eyes when looking at them
- Abnormal responses to bright light (gazing at light excessively or trying to avoid it)
- Often bump into objects or fall over, and get confused with directions
- Search for his/her way using hands
- May press on eyeballs with fingers
- Jerky movements of the eyeballs
PROPER ETIQUETTE TOWARDS PEOPLE WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
- Feel free to use words that refer to vision during the course of a conversation. Vision-oriented words such as look, see, and watching TV are a part of everyday verbal communication. The words blind and visually impaired are also acceptable in conversation.
- Be precise and thorough when you describe people, places, or things to someone who is totally blind. Don't leave out things or change a description because you think it is unimportant or unpleasant.
- Don’t avoid visually descriptive language. Making reference to colors, patterns, designs, and shapes is perfectly acceptable.
- When you speak about someone with a disability, refer to the person and then to the disability. For example, refer to "a person who is blind" rather than to "a blind person."
- If a friend, relative, or stranger on the street is traveling with a dog guide, do not pet the dog, offer it food, or distract it in any way while it is working. Dog guides are not pets but highly trained mobility tools.
- If you see someone who is blind or visually impaired about to encounter a dangerous situation, be calm and clear about warning the person. For example, if he or she is about to bump into a stanchion in a hotel lobby, calmly and clearly call out, "Wait there for a moment; there is a pole in front of you."
- Do not take care of tasks for the person that he or she would normally do, such as change television channels, cut meat, or salt and pepper food. First ask if the person needs help, then offer to assist. Most people with a visual impairment will tell you if they would like some assistance.
- If you are asked to complete a task for someone, always leave things in the same place you found them.
- Do not move furniture or other articles in your friend’s home or your own home without letting the person know.
What do blind people see?
Are you curious of what blind people actually see? or is there something that they could actually see? If you want to know here is a video below of Mr. Tommy Edison from The Tommy Edison Experience, a telling what is it that they see as a blind individual. Hope you learn a lot from him.
For more videos visit his channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCld5SlwHrXgAYRE83WJOPCw?sub_confirmation=1
How can you decribe a color to someone whose blind?
Did you ever experienced having a conversation with a total blind persosn? If not, then can you ever try describing what re looks like? Below is a video of kids trying to describe color to a total blind person. See how they amazingly try to describe colors.
Vision simulation
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Individuals who have normal sight might have a hard time understanding what a visually impared individual experience. Common comment of people with VI would be, "if you could see what I see, you'd understand what I'm going through." To have at least a small background about VI and somehow understand them, we have a video simulation of what persons with diferent age-related eye conditions actually see. This video is from VisionAware.com.
For further information visit the site http://www.visionaware.org/info/your-eye-condition/eye-health/vision-simulation-video/125 |
Blurry Vision
Let's try some blurry game! A blurry vision is one of the many experience difficulty of a visually impaired person. This activity will let you see the different views on an object at different blur level. Can you handle reading a text when everything seems to be blurry? Let's see to what extent can you read. Click the button below to begin with the activity. Enjoy!
Let's have a Test!
Astigmatism is a common vision condition that causes blurred vision. It occurs when the cornea (the clear front cover of the eye) is irregularly shaped or sometimes because of the curvature of the lens inside the eye. Do you want to know if you have astigmatism or not? Try this online Astigmatism test from Prokerala.com to veryfy it.
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Color Blindness Test
Do you like arts? How about painting? can u distinguish colors perfectly? Try this activity to test whether you see colors perfectly. Take the colorblindness test. In this activity all you have to do is to determine the number shown in each image. Try writing your answers on a piece of paper and click the button to see if you get it all right. An example is given below.
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Answer: 16
answer_key.docx | |
File Size: | 15 kb |
File Type: | docx |
- In 2010, the number of people visually impaired was estimated to be 285 million, of whom 39 million were blind. This is a reduction in the number of people previously estimated as being visually impaired in 2004. This can be due to better data, but also due to interventions which have reduced the number of people with avoidable visual impairment.
- Refractive errors (far and near sightedness) are among the simplest to correct cases of visual impairment; almost all of them can be corrected and normal vision can be restored with eyeglasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery.
- 90% of visually impaired people live in low- and middle-income countries. For these people the access to preventive care education, curative services and quality rehabilitation is not yet universally available.
- An estimated 82 % of all people with blindness are over 50 years old. This number is expected to increase with the world’s population aging. The leading cause of blindness for these people is cataract which is a curable condition.
- 28% of people living with moderate and severe visual impairment are in their working years. Visual limitations impact the ability of working people to conduct a productive life. This impacts their ability to find employment and support themselves and provide for their families.
- There is a need to target the exposure to risk factors (smoke, genetic pre-disposition, systemic diseases) and perform regular eye examinations to allow an early diagnosis of the disease, and early treatment to avoid or delay the onset of diminished visual function.
- In lower- and lower-middle-income countries the majority of causes of visual impairment are preventable or curable. To achieve a substantial reduction, the general public needs to be educated in preventive measures. The health care system needs to include eye care services to achieve a universal health coverage.
- The 66th World Health Assembly approved an Action Plan which aims to achieve a global reduction of avoidable visual impairments of 25% by 2019. This is an achievable target which requires the collaboration of governments, development agencies, private sector and NGOs.
- The major causes of blindness in children include cataract, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), and vitamin A deficiency. Approximately half of all childhood blindness can be avoided or treated. A global programme in 30 countries, through a partnership between WHO and Lions Clubs International, is providing eye care services to preserve and restore sight in children.
- WHO works with Member States and international partners to eliminate the main causes of avoidable blindness, focusing on priority chronic diseases (cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, Age-related Macular Degeneration, refractive errors) and visual rehabilitation, by providing direct technical assistance, piloting innovative approaches, support in monitoring and ensuring global coordination. Eye care services should now be included in universal access to health care.