Visual impairment

What is a Visual impairment?

A visual impairment may be defined as an impairment of visual function which cannot be improved, by the use of corrective lenses, to a level that would normally be acceptable for reading.

The degree of the impairment affects people in many different ways including:

• reduced perception, peripheral and colour vision
• distorted or blurred vision 
• difficulties with seeing in both poor and bright light
• constant or intermittent double vision
• difficulty with depth perception
• difficulty understanding, remembering or recognising what is seen

The broad definition does not encompass people with perceptual or cognitive disabilities, such as dyslexia, however SeeAbility recognizes that any form of reduced visual function may have a profound impact on anyone who also has multiple disabilities.

What causes a Visual impairment?

There are many causes of visual impairment. Some are congenital conditions (present at birth) and others are acquired later in life. SeeAbility recognizes the emotional effect the loss of vision may have, and also recognizes the different support strategies for someone who has a visual memory and someone who does not.

Support for SeeAbility staff

All the people we support have some form of visual impairment combined with other multiple disabilities. We provide comprehensive specialist in-house training on how  effectively to support people with this unique combination of needs. We provide mandatory refresher training courses for all staff to ensure that best practices are adopted at all times.

We also improve our training by listening to and working with the people we support.