This article describes a device, the Visual Hand Display, used by pediatric ophthalmologists at the Children's Low Vision Center (Boston) to evaluate a child's postoperative visual functioning. The device consists of different sized black stripes on white circles and a face. (DB)

Offers three reasons as to why some children encounter difficulty with educational activities involving vision: (1) inability to perceive and hold detail in mind, (2) lack of time given to accomplish task, and (3) introducing too many activities at one time. (MG)

This article reports on a study of the methods that 21 ophthalmologists used to assess the visual acuity of children with multiple impairments and the difficulties they encountered. Additional means of assessing visual function and alternative means of communicating the results are suggested. (Author/DB)

Assessment of visual acuity, using Teller Acuity Cards, was combined with observations of behavioral state to indicate central nervous system activation in 24 individuals with mental retardation. Results indicate that forced-choice preferential-looking technique can be used to test visual acuity in this population unless the participant is drowsy.…

Project InSights trained elderly volunteers to conduct peer education programs on vision health. A majority of 55 volunteers felt they provided an important service and made a useful contribution. A majority of 560 participants in the vision education learned something new and about half intended behavior changes related to vision. (Contains 19…

Analysis of interview results were used to compare the perceptions of mothers (N=16) of infants (half typically developing, five with low vision, and three with blindness). Although all parents reported similar levels of receptive understanding, parents of infants with low vision or blindness reported less expressive preverbal communication.…

In addition to their restricted peripheral fields, persons with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) report significant problems seeing in low levels of illumination, which causes difficulty with night travel. Several devices have been developed to support the visual needs of persons who have night blindness. These devices include wide-angle flashlights,…

Anomalies in colour vision constitute a particular type of sensory deficiency whose influence in educational contexts has attracted surprisingly little research attention given its ubiquitous use in various learning activities as a code, an aid, or even as the focus of the activity itself, especially during early education. We here describe a…

Does repetition blindness represent a failure of perception or of memory? In Experiment 1, participants viewed rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sentences. When critical words (C1 and C2) were orthographically similar, C2 was frequently omitted from serial report; however, repetition priming for C2 on a postsentence lexical decision task was…

This study of 90 adults (aged 55?80) who lost their vision assessed their dispositional optimism, social comparisons, coping strategies, and wellbeing. The findings suggest that optimism and positive social comparisons play an important role in stimulating the motivation to cope adaptively with vision loss and that enhancing optimism and social…

Retinitis pigmentosa is a rod-cone dystrophy, commonly genetic in nature. Approximately 60-80% of those with retinitis pigmentosa inherit it by an autosomal recessive transmission (Brilliant, 1999). There have been some reported cases with no known family history. The symptoms of retinitis pigmentosa are decreased acuity, photophobia, night…

Adults with low vision who seek clinical low vision services need to be able to read (that is, to interpret or understand words, numbers, and symbols in print meaningfully). Reading difficulties that adults encounter during low vision therapy may be directly connected to a visual impairment or may be related to other reading problems, such as…

This national study reviews national and state policies and guidelines, as well as surveys and focus groups of administrators and teachers, on the implementation of policies for students with low vision to gain visual access to the general education curriculum. The findings demonstrate that few states provide the necessary services to enable…

This article reports on a study that explored the prevalence and predictors of functional disability that are due to visual problems as opposed to functional disability that is due to other health problems. It also discusses the implications for psychosocial and rehabilitative interventions that target different types of disability. (Contains 5…

Many simple experiments can be performed in the classroom to explore the physics of vision. Students can learn of the two types of receptive cells (rods and cones), their distribution on the retina and the existence of the blind spot.