A New Development in Aids for Sub-normal Vision

Reading with low vision: the impact of research on clinical management*

“…In a recent study of 243 participants with AMD, Cacho and coworkers 36 confirmed previous research that the reading rate decreased significantly with increased scotoma size. They found that while near VA was the strongest predictor of the reading rate (r 2 = 0.52), scotoma size improved the prediction, together explaining 60 per cent of the variance in the reading rate.…”

“…In Australia, clinical low vision practice followed a similar pattern, with optometrists very much in the forefront. In 1954, Josef Lederer 2 published the development of a series of single high plus lenses of powers +10.75 D, +16.00 D and +24.00 D for reading with ‘sub‐normal’ vision. These lenses were the first simple (as opposed to compound) reading lenses to reduce aberrations sufficiently to be used as spectacle magnifiers for people with low vision.…”

Low‐vision care: we are doing better but not well enough

“…All this has changed. Josef Lederer from the University of New South Wales developed his high plus aberration‐corrected Lederer lenses in 1954 2 and toured Australia giving courses on low vision. Charles Keeler developed his system of aids for low vision in 1955 3 .…”

Jan Lovie‐Kitchin

“…1 Low vision was a somewhat theoretical subject for Australian optometrists in the early 1970s. Twenty years earlier, Professor Joe Lederer, 2 from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, had designed the Lederer lenses to provide optimal correction when high additions were needed for low vision patients 3,4 and he had aroused our interest in low vision with a series of nation-wide seminars in the 1950s. This was a long time ago and for many years, we had little opportunity to put our knowledge into practice.…”