All parents face a mix of joys and challenges when welcoming a new child into the family. Being told that your new son or daughter has a visual disability makes the task of sharing the world with that child seem much more daunting. It will be difficult, but it is an adventure which you both can survive. This book will provide you with some insight into the obstacles you will face, pitfalls to be avoided, joys to be shared, and hope for what is to come. What expectations should you have? What resources are available to assist your child? Where do you find them? Is it possible for your child to become a happy, successful member of society? This book addresses these questions and others, with a foreword by career ophthalmologist and eye surgeon Griffith C. Steiner, M.D.

The ability to see deeply affects how human beings perceive and interpret the world around them. For most people, eyesight is part of everyday communication, social activities, educational and professional pursuits, the care of others, and the maintenance of personal health, independence, and mobility. Functioning eyes and vision system can reduce an adult's risk of chronic health conditions, death, falls and injuries, social isolation, depression, and other psychological problems. In children, properly maintained eye and vision health contributes to a child's social development, academic achievement, and better health across the lifespan. The public generally recognizes its reliance on sight and fears its loss, but emphasis on eye and vision health, in general, has not been integrated into daily life to the same extent as other health promotion activities, such as teeth brushing; hand washing; physical and mental exercise; and various injury prevention behaviors. A larger population health approach is needed to engage a wide range of stakeholders in coordinated efforts that can sustain the scope of behavior change. The shaping of socioeconomic environments can eventually lead to new social norms that promote eye and vision health. Making Eye Health a Population Health Imperative: Vision for Tomorrow proposes a new population-centered framework to guide action and coordination among various, and sometimes competing, stakeholders in pursuit of improved eye and vision health and health equity in the United States. Building on the momentum of previous public health efforts, this report also introduces a model for action that highlights different levels of prevention activities across a range of stakeholders and provides specific examples of how population health strategies can be translated into cohesive areas for action at federal, state, and local levels.

When children and adults apply for disability benefits and claim that a visual impairment has limited their ability to function, the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) is required to determine their eligibility. To ensure that these determinations are made fairly and consistently, SSA has developed criteria for eligibility and a process for assessing each claimant against the criteria. Visual Impairments: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits examines SSA's methods of determining disability for people with visual impairments, recommends changes that could be made now to improve the process and the outcomes, and identifies research needed to develop improved methods for the future. The report assesses tests of visual function, including visual acuity and visual fields whether visual impairments could be measured directly through visual task performance or other means of assessing disability. These other means include job analysis databases, which include information on the importance of vision to job tasks or skills, and measures of health-related quality of life, which take a person-centered approach to assessing visual function testing of infants and children, which differs in important ways from standard adult tests.

(Large Print Version) All parents face a mix of joys and challenges when welcoming a new child into the family. Being told that your new son or daughter has a visual disability makes the task of sharing the world with that child seem much more daunting. It will be difficult, but it is an adventure which you both can survive. This book will provide you with some insight into the obstacles you will face, pitfalls to be avoided, joys to be shared, and hope for what is to come.What expectations should you have? What resources are available to assist your child? Where do you find them? Is it possible for your child to become a happy, successful member of society? This book addresses these questions and others, with a foreword by career ophthalmologist and eye surgeon Griffith C. Steiner, M.D.

This book begins with a promise: people with severe vision loss can be trained and equipped to function as sighted. The author, himself legally blind for 30 years, fulfills that promise with precise information and guidance on improving life through visual rehabilitation. The book explains fundamental facts about eyes and vision, including the causes and varieties of blindness, and then moves on to the new skills the partially sighted person must learn. Specific approaches and devices are covered in depth, including eccentric viewing and driving with telescopic glasses, and the visual and electronic aids that can help overcome the effects of vision loss. In spite of his own limited vision (20/240), Dr. Chapman uses a computer without a voice synthesizer, watches TV, and even drives, and he shows readers how to do the same.

The definitive history of the societal forces affecting blind people in the United States and the professions that evolved to provide services to people who are visually impaired, The Unseen Minority was originally commissioned to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the American Foundation for the Blind in 1971. Updated with a new foreword outlining the critical issues that have arisen since the original publication and with time lines presenting the landmark events in the legislative arena, low vision, education, and orientation and mobility, this classic work has never been more relevant.