8 Tips for Adapting to Low Vision Life

The article gives 8 tips for adapting to low vision life

By Zoomax-Living with Low VisionPublished about a year ago • 3 min read

Dealing with low vision life presents challenges in many ways, some obvious, some less so. However, while there are different types of low vision, one thing everyone living with low vision shares, is the challenges in adapting to the condition after it occurs. As a life changing moment, developing low vision for whatever reason means real disruption in anyone’s life, here are some ways that can make the transition to low life living less stressful.

Common Situations That Lead To Low Vision

There are a number of causes of low vision, and it can affect people at any age. However, you can break those causes down into two types, accidents or disease. Accidents can happen to anyone at any time, and if it results in injury to the eye, that can cause 20/200 vision or a range of other low vision conditions. But that is not all, while eye injuries are the obvious cause of low vision from accidents, blows to the head or other causes of brain injuries can have a similar outcome, leading to someone having to adapt to a low vision life. Diseases cause visual impairment too, and there are several common conditions that can lead to low vision life.

Macular Degeneration

Affecting the retina, Macular Degeneration causes a slow loss of vision over time, and is usually associated with the aging process.

Cataracts

This is where the lens becomes cloudy, either as a whole or in part. Because the cluding reduces the amount of light that reaches the retina, it causes a loss of vision that gets worse as the clouding intensifies.

Glaucoma

This disease affects the optic nerve itself and is often caused by issues with the flow of fluid within the eye.

In addition to these, other problems include Diabetic Retinopathy, Amblyopia, Retinal Detachment, and retinitis, Pigmentosa. With so many different reasons for the cause, it shouldn’t be a surprise that there are a number of types of low vision that can occur as a result. These include a loss of central vision and loss of side, or peripheral, vision, which explain themselves. There are other types of low vision too, blurred vision that means everything is out of focus all the time, even with corrective glasses, and night blindness that makes it almost impossible to see in dimly lit situations, not just at night...

The Difficulties Faced When Living With Low Vision

While low vision life impacts almost everything you do, there are some notable areas where it can be incredibly difficult to cope and where aids and guidance can make a real difference. The inability to read and write as you used to do is perhaps the most impactful, as it has such a profound effect on how we live from day to day. Email, work, just discovering a new book or website that you enjoy are things that suddenly become so much more difficult to accomplish.

This is exacerbated by the lack of low vision resources to help in these and other situations. While you may be able to ask for Ophthalmologist suggestions to help you, the chances of being able to find an accessible home for low vision or other support structures to help you get used to low vision are low. This is even more of an issue given the nature of low vision life, as it impacts everything we do, making it very difficult to get used to in the beginning. But there are things you can do, and tools out there to help. While the transition is always going to be a challenge, here are 8 tips to help you adapt to low vision life.