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.

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.

The paroxysmal disorders present neurologists and other medical professionals with diagnostic problems across a range of disorders, including multiple sclerosis, migraine and epilepsy. This new English language edition of a compendium of the paroxysmal disorders, originally published in German as Paroxysmale Störugen in der Neurologie, is an informative and practical resource for clinicians, which provides invaluable help with differential diagnosis and management. Fully updated throughout, this new edition comprehensively covers the entire spectrum of the paroxysmal disorders, including sudden falls, headache, vertigo attacks, memory loss, visual disturbances, seizures and anxiety. Each chapter is practice oriented, covering definitions, etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, examination techniques and therapy. Detailed guidelines for gathering case-histories, essential for accurate diagnosis, are also provided. Important reading for clinicians, professionals and academic researchers working in neurology, psychiatry, epilepsy, internal medicine and ENT.

Recent vision research has led to the emergence of new techniques that offer exciting potential for a more complete assessment of vision in clinical, industrial, and military settings. Emergent Techniques for Assessment of Visual Performance examines four areas of vision testing that offer potential for improved assessment of visual capability including: contrast sensitivity function, dark-focus of accommodation, dynamic visual acuity and dynamic depth tracking, and ambient and focal vision. In contrast to studies of accepted practices, this report focuses on emerging techniques that could help determine whether people have the vision necessary to do their jobs. In addition to examining some of these emerging techniques, the report identifies their usefulness in predicting performance on other visual and visual-motor tasks, and makes recommendations for future research. Emergent Techniques for Assessment of Visual Performance provides summary recommendations for research that will have significant value and policy implications for the next 5 to 10 years. The content and conclusions of this report can serve as a useful resource for those responsible for screening industrial and military visual function.

This thoroughly updated and extended edition covers the various cerebral visual disorders acquired after brain injury, as well as the rehabilitation techniques used to treat them. These are described within a brain plasticity framework, using data from single and group case studies along with follow up observation data. This original, tailor-made approach also includes the recording of eye movements for assessing scanning performance in scene perception and reading. The book gives a brief synopsis of the historical background on the subject, alongside an outline of intervention designs and methodological difficulties in the field, and goes on to discuss the mechanisms and processes that provide the foundations for recovery of function and successful adaptation in visually impaired patients. The author concludes by analyzing the importance of the procedures and outcomes of treatments to the reduction of patients’ visual handicaps. The new edition also contains an appendix with recommendations on the case histories, diagnostics and treatments. It is ideal reading for students in clinical neuropsychology, as well as professionals in the fields of neurology, visual neuroscience and rehabilitation experts.