In the United Kingdom alone, 2 million people are living with sight loss, with someone’s world being altered by the revelation of sight loss every six minutes. Furthermore, 37,000 children and their families are living with sight loss in England and Wales.

Statistics reveal that one in five individuals will experience significant sight loss during their lifetime, highlighting the importance of proactive eye health care and support.

Choosing to Succeed When You Have Sight Loss

We know that it isn’t easy and sight loss will impact people in different ways. Here are some success stories to give you inspiration:

Derry woman with sight loss doesn’t let it hold her back as she opens inclusive gym

A Co Derry woman, who lives with sight loss, is hoping to go from strength to strength with her new gym business. Brimming with a new-found confidence, Noreen Kelly, launched the new venture after struggling for some years to find work because of her sight loss. Noreen, 44, was diagnosed with Usher syndrome in her 20s and has lived with sight and hearing loss for most of her adult life.

Read More here

RNIB Launches Short Film Challenging Misconceptions About People With Sight Loss 2023

The Royal National Institute of Blind People has released a new short campaign film featuring actors with sight loss that uses humour to challenge public misconceptions. The #BeforeYouAsk films which are part of the U.K.-based charity’s overall See The Person Not The Sight Loss campaign that launched last year are aimed at dismantling many commonly held myths about how individuals with visual impairments live their lives and what they can accomplish.

Nan Mthembu (above) from East London shows how sight loss won’t stop her wearing makeup – RNIB AND THE&PARTNERSHIP

Impact on employment

Only 27% of working-age blind or partially sighted people are in work, compared to 51% of disabled people and 75% of the general population.

Even where sight loss is a factor, people can still enjoy productive and rewarding careers. That is, so long as the right support, workplace adjustments and assistive technology are in place.

This is often down to preconceived ideas on the part of both the employer and the employee. Maybe the individual has applied for jobs, but they haven’t got anywhere and they put this down to their disability. Or the potential employer simply doesn’t know how they’d make adjustments for an individual with sight loss. But the fact is that people with sight loss can do most jobs, as long as they have the correct reasonable adjustments in place.

Think of singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder and member of the House of Lords David Blunkett. Obviously where sight is a safety critical aspect of a job – like a pilot or a police officer – then someone with sight loss can’t do that role. But in many cases, they can. They just need the right support.

Typical reasonable adjustments

Reasonable adjustments can include things like magnification software to help make the text bigger on computers, iPads and tablets. Also, technology that can speak back all the text on a screen. Not everything has to cost a huge amount of money in terms of technology. Sometimes, it’s just about the employer having some understanding. The main thing is not being afraid to ask questions about what the individual might need. Not everybody knows what they might need, especially if they’re new to sight loss. They may not know how to engage with specialists that understand what support is available and how to get the right outcome for an individual.

It’s really important that an individual has a workplace assessment to make sure they can get the right adjustments to help them, not only in their work life but also in their home life. This whole-person view is vitally important.

The Access to Work scheme supports blind and partially sighted people who are in employment, enabling them to work alongside their colleagues. Learn more: https://www.rnib.org.uk/living-with-sight-loss/equality-and-employment/information-for-jobseekers/access-to-work/

Could Apple’s Vision Pro Significantly Augment Sight For The Visually Impaired?

The use of electronic headsets deploying camera and display systems to improve vision for the close to one billion people around the world living with sight loss that cannot be corrected with regular glasses has been a long-held aspiration within the field of assistive technology.

Early variants of such technology have existed since the nineties but, in the three decades that have followed, a market-leading high-end device with the requisite blend of rich true-to-life optics and wearability for the user has failed to materialize.

The significant challenge of meaningfully replicating natural sight, particularly if the image then needs to be magnified, relies heavily on deploying highly advanced cameras and displays – the likes of which have simply not been available in either bespoke low vision systems or consumer virtual reality and augmented reality headsets to date

This could well be about to change when Apple’s Vision Pro headset, unveiled in June 2023, officially launches in the U.S. in early 2024. Though the price point of the $3,499 mixed reality spatial computer doesn’t exactly scream out “accessibility” the tech specs are certainly tantalizing for anyone with an interest in camera vision in relation to low vision rehabilitation.

The low vision community has its fingers crossed that amidst the hype and media clamour both Apple and the Vision Pro’s app developers are sufficiently aware of the device’s potential to augment real-world experiences for people with sight loss that are fundamentally about a lot more than just novel ways of interacting with a computer.

Guide Dogs play a key role in supporting those facing the challenge of sight loss

Most of us take being able to walk down a busy street, catch a bus or nip to the shops for granted. But for someone living with sight loss these can sometimes be challenging and overwhelming experiences. This is where guide dogs can be a real lifeline, providing a safe and effective way for people to maintain their independence. Labradors, golden retrievers and German shepherds have been, and remain, the most common pure breeds on the programme.

But historically the golden retriever crossed with the Labrador has produced the most successful guide dog of all, combining many of the great traits of both breeds. Other breeds such as curly-coated retrievers, and standard poodles have also been crossed with established breeds to offer secondary benefits such as shedding less hair which may be advantageous to owners with allergies. At the age of six weeks, they start their initial training with a puppy raiser, who plays a vital role in their early socialisation and education. They are introduced to different sights, smells and sounds – such as busy roads and public transport – and they also attend classes to learn how to behave properly around other people and dogs.

They are taught to walk ahead on the lead and obey simple commands such as sit, down, stay and come. When the puppy is between 12 and 14-months-old, they are ready to start their basic training and are looked after by a fosterer during evenings and weekends.

If the training is successful, their new four-legged friend is awarded with a white harness and their working partnership begins. A guide dog will normally work for around eight years before they retire.

Guide dog owners receive regular visits from a mobility specialist so they can get any additional guidance they might need throughout their time together. People always say it must be hard to give the dogs up but it’s nice because the puppy raisers get to pick a home for that dog, and train the client with the dog and look after that partnership.

For more information, see guidedogs.org.uk