Q&A blindness and rehab: case for creating a welcoming front door

Were you wondering this?

I’ve been getting some great questions about blindness and why it's so hard to access services that promote independence. (I love questions!) In my experience if one person asked it others thought it too. So let's talk about a few of those questions here.

Q: If so few people are blind why all the talk about it?

A: Because it’s a growing concern. The number of adults over 40 in the United States with a visual impairment that cannot be corrected is expected to more than double by 2050– increasing from 4.24 million to 8.96 million. Source: National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine. 2016. Making Eye Health a Population Health Imperative: Vision for Tomorrow. Washington DC: The National Academies Press. p 381

Q: What does the term vision rehabilitation mean? 

A: Vision rehabilitation refers to an array of services helpful to people with a visual impairment that cannot be corrected by refractive, medical, or surgical treatments. The big idea is to provide practical adaptations that reduce the disabling impact of vision loss. Gadgets and gizmos. Magnifiers. Non-visual techniques otherwise known as “Ninja skills” according to one cool orientation & mobility instructor.

Q: Why wasn’t I aware of the benefits of vision rehabilitation?

A: Several impediments exist which make getting the word out especially challenging. One relates to the structure of care delivery systems. Eye care professionals diagnose and treat eye conditions. They are very good at what they do, but they often exist in a silo. Not only is there no roadmap for navigating vision loss there’s no bridge a patient can cross over connecting the medical providers’ office to community vision rehab specialists. Accessibility of services is also a problem. No single welcoming front door exists. Not online. Not in real life. It’s a double whammy. People struggling to find high-quality vision rehabilitation services also cannot get a direct answer about where to go to access this specialized help. Finally, public funding for vision rehab services only flows through a couple “faucets.” Those streams of funding provide vision rehabilitation services for children in public schools, jobseekers who pursue vocational rehabilitation from the state VR agency, veterans working with the Veterans Administration or people over age 55 served by the Older Blind Program. Finding the front door for one of these programs (assuming you’re eligible) can be tricky even for the well informed among us. Unfortunately, this bureaucratic patchwork quilt leaves uncovered anyone post high school, not actively seeking work, under age 54 who never served in the Armed Forces regardless of the severity of their vision loss.

Whew! Thanks for reading to the end.