Patients with homonymous visual field defects experience disabling functional impairments as a consequence of their visual loss. Compensatory visual exploration training aims to improve the searching skills of these patients in order to help them to cope more effectively. However, until now the efficacy of this training has not been compared to…

Central scotomas--areas of the nonseeing retina within the central 20 degrees of the visual field--are present in approximately 90% of vision rehabilitation patients. They vary in size and shape and can be small or large, symmetrical or asymmetrical, round or irregularly shaped. Most central scotomas border fixation on one side and can be overcome…

Adults with visual impairments experience a loss of balance and mobility, which presents a barrier to independence and is associated with the fear of falling. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which visual status, age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and the strength of quadriceps and hamstrings contribute to compromised…

Choroidal neovascularization is a rare condition where aberrant blood vessels behind the retina grow and then bleed, eventually becoming blind areas called Fuchs' spots. A woman suffering from this rare eye disease speaks about the challenges of coping with the visual disability and her determination to make the best of what life has to offer.

Investigated was whether partially seeing children see the Snellen E, printed in selected colored inks on various colored backgrounds, at different distances in terms of initial recognition and best focus. (Author)

The paper examines issues concerned with the education and employment of individuals, primarily males, with color vision deficiency. After a brief introduction, the first chapter looks at adult problems such as employment areas in which the disability presents problems. The next chapter considers problems of children, noting the heavy use of color…

The study assessed transfer of visual training for myopia using two different training stimuli and a single subject A-B-C-A design with a male student volunteer. A procedure including stimulus fading and reinforcement (positive verbal feedback) was used to effectively improve performance on both behavioral acuity tests during the training phases…

Comparison of 2 totally blind, 2 visually impaired, and 9 normally sighted children (ages 5-8) on tasks of visual perspective taking found that the totally blind children were older than the other children when they mastered the tasks, made the highest percentage of errors before mastery, and made different errors. (Author/DB)

The article proposes helping visually handicapped clients make optimal use of remaining vision for travel in unmodified environments. Structured discovery learning exercises covering pattern recognition, depth perception, central acuity, and central field vision with peripheral field loss are offered. (Author/DB)

Twenty-five older adults with age-related macular degeneration were separated into one of three groups: in-clinic training, take-home-training, or no-training. After testing, results showed that the ability to distinguish figure from ground is an improvable skill with the take-home group improving the most. (Author/DB)

Discussed is the nature of a central scotoma, or decreased central vision, and described are current techniques for training an individual to use the peripheral retina. (Author/IM)