Current Perspectives in Low Vision and its Management

Abstract

Visual impairment is a growing public health challenge worldwide. Low vision has a huge impact on the patient's physical and mental capabilities. In children, visual impairment has a significant impact on their education, environmental learning, growth and hence, their career. Low vision rehabilitation (LVR) aims to enhance the individual's functional ability and independence by maximizing the use of the residual vision. With the wide availability of internet, devices like smart phones and tablets are increasingly being used as low visual aids. Despite these ongoing advances in the field of LVR, lack of awareness about low vision services amongst the eye care practitioners as well as the patients remain a major barrier in the uptake of these services. Hence, in this review we outline the principles and details of various low vision aids with stress on the modern low vision rehabilitation services.