Learning how to live with low vision

When it comes to life expectan­cy we’re reach­ing ages that our ances­tors could only ever dream of – with over 85s becom­ing the fastest grow­ing age group in the UK. But extra time on the plan­et is tak­ing a toll on our bod­ies and, par­tic­u­lar­ly, our eyes.

The world’s age­ing pop­u­la­tion means that the num­ber of peo­ple with low vision is expect­ed to dou­ble over the next 20 to 30 years, pre­dicts the Inter­na­tion­al Agency for the Pre­ven­tion of Blind­ness (IAPB).

Accord­ing to Roy­al Nation­al Insti­tute of Blind Peo­ple (RNIB), there are more than two mil­lion peo­ple in the UK liv­ing with sight loss severe enough to have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on their dai­ly lives, such as not being able to dri­ve. Those fig­ures are pre­dict­ed to rise to more than 2.7 mil­lion by 2030 and near­ly four mil­lion by 2050.

How low vision can impact a person’s life

Low vision not only affects a person’s inde­pen­dence but has sig­nif­i­cant psy­choso­cial and eco­nom­ic impacts, says the IAPB. These can include access to edu­ca­tion and employ­ment, high­er risk of falls, dif­fi­cul­ties with dai­ly liv­ing and increased depen­dence.

“For patients, the hard­est thing is no longer being able to dri­ve – fol­lowed by watch­ing TV, read­ing, shop­ping and using pub­lic trans­port,” says Maria Pikul­s­ki-Hugh­es, eye clin­ic liai­son offi­cer at St Helens Hos­pi­tal, Mersey­side.

Dif­fer­ent con­di­tions can have huge­ly vary­ing impacts on vision, explains Dr Louise Gow, spe­cial­ist lead in eye health for RNIB. “Mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion, for exam­ple, affects cen­tral vision – so you have dif­fi­cul­ty recog­nis­ing faces or read­ing a food label. How­ev­er, glau­co­ma affects periph­er­al vision – you can still recog­nise faces and read med­i­cine pack­ets but you might have trou­ble spot­ting a bus approach­ing from your left or right.

“Sight loss due to eye dis­ease relat­ed to dia­betes can affect both cen­tral and periph­er­al vision – with an even greater impact on qual­i­ty of life. Usu­al­ly, it’s what the per­son used to do for leisure that is impact­ed the most – so dri­ving, read­ing, see­ing grand­chil­dren and paint­ing,”  she says.

“But there are solu­tions and a dis­pens­ing opti­cian or low vision prac­ti­tion­er would look at how to help them con­tin­ue doing these things. Advances in tech­nol­o­gy mean we have devices that you can use to switch your heat­ing on and off with­out fid­dling with but­tons, or voice-recog­ni­tion gad­gets to access infor­ma­tion.”

It is easier today than ever before to live with low vision

Ms Pikul­s­ki-Hugh­es agrees that being pos­i­tive is the way for­ward. “It’s the sense we dread los­ing – but there is life after sight loss,” she says. “You learn to adapt and cope with what you have. When it comes to shop­ping, most super­mar­kets and big stores now offer an assist­ed shop­ping ser­vice. You just sim­ply have to say: ‘Can I have an assist­ed shop, please?’ Small­er shops are even more help­ful and hap­py to pro­vide a per­son­al touch. For exam­ple, staff in card shops will describe the pic­ture and read out the verse to help you choose.”

She adds: “Pub­lic trans­port is also eas­i­er these days for those with low vision. Oper­a­tors like Vir­gin organ­ise assis­tance where­by some­one will meet you at the sta­tion and help you to your seat, fetch refresh­ments from the on-board shop and help you onto the plat­form at the oth­er end. And if you explain to a bus dri­ver that you have low vision they should make allowances – like let­ting you sit down before pulling away.”

When it comes to let­ters and state­ments you have the right to ask for these to be sent in your pre­ferred for­mat, says Dr Gow. “So, for exam­ple, you could ask for big print, audio or braille. Those things can make life so much eas­i­er.”

Improve­ments are also being made in the world of finance with new mea­sures includ­ing apps, talk­ing cash machines used via a head­set, high-con­trast screens, raised dots on key­pad but­tons, mod­i­fied plas­tic cards and in-branch acces­si­bil­i­ty with bet­ter light­ing and lay­out.

Trav­eleyes trav­ellers feel­ing hiero­glyphs on the Kar­nak Tem­ple Com­plex, Egypt

Helping public places become more accessible 

Char­i­ties like The Bea­con Cen­tre in Wolver­hamp­ton also work with busi­ness­es, shop­ping cen­tres, hous­ing asso­ci­a­tions and even the­atres to train staff to become sight-friend­ly.

“We show teams how to guide peo­ple with a visu­al impair­ment and also use sim­u­la­tion glass­es to give an idea of what it’s like to live with dif­fer­ent eye con­di­tions,” says the charity’s Helen Brown.

“All work­places can become more sight-friend­ly with just a few sim­ple changes. One of the first things we advise is for com­pa­nies to look at the font size they use. Just switch­ing to a size 14 font or above can make a mas­sive dif­fer­ence to those with sight issues and pre­vent  oth­ers from squint­ing at the screen.  We tell peo­ple to think about colour con­trast as well, black writ­ing on a blue back­ground might look great but it’s not  sight friend­ly.

“And where there are employ­ees with sight loss we also advise that staff announce them­selves when they enter or leave a room and main­tain a tidy work­place. A box on the floor might be vis­i­ble to most peo­ple but it can cause a trip haz­ard for oth­ers.”

It’s the sense we dread los­ing – but there is life after sight loss. You learn to adapt and cope with what you have

Helping those with low vision see the world

The Access to Work scheme, run byJob­cen­tre Plus, pro­vides advice, sup­port and grants for equip­ment that may help in the work­place, such as voice-recog­ni­tion soft­ware.

Improve­ments are even being made in the hol­i­day and leisure indus­try. Trav­eleyes, a com­mer­cial tour oper­a­tor which takes blind and sight­ed trav­ellers around the world togeth­er, is the brain­child of entre­pre­neur Amar Latif who had lost 95 per cent of his vision by the age of 18.

“No trav­el com­pa­ny would accom­mo­date an inde­pen­dent blind trav­eller,” he says. He launched Trav­eleyes to make  the world more acces­si­ble for blind and visu­al­ly impaired trav­ellers. Sight­ed trav­ellers, who get a 50 per cent dis­count on their trip, help guide and describe sights to trav­ellers with  visu­al impair­ments.

“Not only do we receive great feed­back from our blind trav­ellers, but sight­ed peo­ple love our trips too,” he says. “They often com­ment on how they  take in more sur­round­ings as they describe the sights and explore the des­ti­na­tion with their oth­er sens­es.  Trav­el is more than just the see­ing of sights, and when you start look­ing with your oth­er sens­es, the world becomes more alive.”