Creating Measures of Rehabilitation Outcomes for People who are Visually Impaired: The FIMBA Project

Abstract

This article reports on the development and initial implementation of a self-report outcomes measurement instrument. The instrument, tested with veterans in programs at four Veterans Administration Blind Rehabilitation Centers, provided assessments of their functioning on 32 personal and social activities at the beginning and near the end of their programs.

Health Conditions, Activity Limitations, and Participation Restrictions among Older People with Visual Impairments

“…While some researchers have examined the broad psychosocial effects of vision loss (Williams, Brody, Thomas, Kaplan, & Brown, 1998;Wulsin, Jacobson, & Rand, 1991), others have examined the performance of specific tasks (Freedman & Martin, 1998;Havlik, 1986;Watanabe, 1994). Still others have investigated the effect of visual impairment on broad measures of activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living (Branch, Horowitz, & Carr, 1989;Horowitz, 1994;Long, Crews, & Mancil, 2000), as well as the relation of the person to the environment (Fangmeier, 2000;Long, Boyette, & Griffin-Shirley, 1996;Wahl, Oswald, & Zimprich, 1999). This growing body of knowledge indicates the 454 Journal ofVisual lmpairment & Blindness, August 2001 complex circumstances experienced by older people with visual impairments, and these investigations highlight the importance of creating interventions to address the multidimensional concerns characterized by visual impairment among older people.…”

Home-based Environmental Lighting Assessments for People who are Visually Impaired: Developing Techniques and Tools

“…As outcomes have become more important for accountability (Babcock, Goodrich, Head, & Boyless, 2000;De l' Aune, Welsh, & Williams, 2000;Horowitz, Leonard, & Reinhardt, 2000;La Grow, 2000;Long, Crews, & Mancil, 2000) and quality of care continues to be a focus for researchers, home-based vision rehabilitation specialists will be called on to integrate the recommendations of center-based vision rehabilitation specialists into the post-center-based follow-up training process. As a starting point, this assessment tool should be introduced to clients to determine whether the lighting levels suggested by the tool actually work.…”

Research Reports: The Reading Behavior Inventory: An Outcome Assessment Tool

“…For example, Stelmack, Stelmack, and Massof 's (2002) study suggested that the majority of items on the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire were not amenable to testing the outcomes of vision rehabilitation, whereas Szlyk et al's (2004) analysis of the Veterans Affairs Low Vision Visual Functioning Questionnaire was specifi cally designed to test the outcomes of vision rehabilitation. Examples of other outcome measures include the Functional Independence Measure for Blind Adults (Long, Crews, & Mancil, 2000) and the Blind Rehabilitation Services Functional Outcomes Survey (De l'Aune, Welsh, & Williams, 2000). Most studies have targeted outcomes as a global concept, which leaves the need to evaluate the effectiveness of specifi c interventions.…”