low vision optical aids

Enhance Your Vision Through Optical Aids

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Vision is a wonderful boon for every individual. It is the key feature that lets us see and enjoy the colourful world around us. Due to various factors, the range of vision varies from one individual to another. Vision is the ability to see or view. Vision problems should be addressed immediately as soon as it is noticed. Vision describes the range of how clearly a person can see. People suffer from various vision problems which result in decrease of eyesight. Some people will face difficulty in seeing distant objects and some cannot see the nearby objects. When timely treatment and rectification is not done for the eye defects, it might lead to blindness or nearly complete vision loss. To rectify these defects low vision optical aids and low vision non-optical aids are used.

There are many defects of eyes which cause trouble to view. Some of the commonly seen defects of eyes are cataract, nearsightedness or myopia, farsightedness or hypermetropia, presbyopia, Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD), glaucoma, and astigmatism. To overcome these defects low vision optical aids, as well as low vision non-optical aids, are used as per the requirement.

Optical Aids

Eye defects are seen due to the variation in focusing the image on the retina. To overcome various defects of eyes, a wide range of optical aids are used. Optical aids help to enhance the view and aid in magnification or enlargement of the retinal image. Low vision optical aids like reading glasses, magnifiers, and small telescopes are commonly used to correct vision defects. Low vision optical aids are designed specifically for particular usage. These are classified as:

  • Distance optical aids
  • Intermediate distance optical aids
  • Near optical aids

These optical aids are hand-held devices that can be clipped on as well as mounted in a frame. It is mainly used for reading. Many people feel blurred vision while watching TV, stitching, or while reading. These optical aids come in various shapes and sizes. Some of the low vision optical aids include digital desktop magnifiers and bioptic telescopes.

Low vision non-optical aids are mainly designed for visually impaired users. These optical aids help to increase the focus while seeing the objects. Bright colours are purposefully incorporated to increase visibility and improve contrast. Some of the low vision non-optical aids include a writing guard, a thin colored sheet of transparent plastic, talking clocks, and watches. Books with considerably large fonts also act as non-optical aids, dedicated light fixtures, and signature guides aid the users with eye defects. Even software and audio books have been developed to increase magnification and help users.

Low Vision Optical Aids

Let us know about some Low Vision Optical Aids:

Magnifying spectacles and Magnifiers: These simple devices are a great source of help for users struggling to read and watch. Magnifiers help to go hands-free and can be used anywhere for comfort.

Telescopes: These devices are mainly used to view distant objects. Telescopes can be easily attached to eyeglasses or be like binoculars.

Video Magnifiers: These devices help to magnify printed pages and pictures and can be used with smartphones and tablets.

These are some of the known low vision optical aids and low vision non-optical aids that help to correct the vision.

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