Tips and tools for adapting to vision loss

Dear Savvy Senior,

Can you recommend some good resources or products that can help seniors with severe vision loss? My wife has diabetic retinopathy, and it’s gotten worse over the past year.

Need Help

Dear Need,

I’m very sorry about your wife’s vision loss, but you’ll be pleased to know there are many resources and a wide variety of low vision products and technologies that can help with many different needs.

According to the American Optometric Association, it’s estimated 12 million Americans age 40 and older are living with uncorrectable vision loss, which is often caused by age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy. These conditions become more common with age and can make daily tasks like cooking, reading or watching television much harder.

But optometrists who specialize in low vision — reduced vision that can’t be rectified with glasses — have many aids and technologies that can help. Here are a few different low vision products as recommended by Consumer Reports, along with some suggestions for finding a specialist who can help your wife adapt to her vision loss.

Magnifiers and adaptions

Once reading glasses are no longer sufficient, there are other devices that can help. These include handheld magnifiers with a light and magnifying domes that can be placed on top of a page.

Telescopes mounted on glasses can work for people who need help seeing farther away.

For those who have lost part of their visual field due to a stroke or brain injury, prisms mounted to the lenses in glasses can move an image from an area someone can’t see to the area of their vision where they can. This can help people get around without bumping into obstructions.

Driving may no longer be possible, but some people with certain types of low vision can do so safely using a bioptic telescope — a telescopic device attached to glasses — which makes distant objects, like road signs, visible. And some changes at home can make your space easier and safer to navigate, such as putting bright tape on the edges of stairs and getting rid of clutter.

High-tech tools

Most smartphones and computers today have built-in accessibility settings that can help your wife by reading aloud text on the screen, making default text sizes larger and increasing screen contrast. She also can take a photo with her phone of something she wants to see, then boost the brightness, contrast or zoom. Televisions also may have accessibility features you can adjust to make watching easier.

Phone apps for people with low vision also can be a big help. These include magnification apps like SuperVision+ Magnifier and apps such as Seeing AI and Envision AI, which can look through your phone’s camera and turn text into speech, describe a scene in front of you, identify objects or even recognize faces.

There also are handheld or wearable devices, like OrCam, that can read documents or describe the scene you are looking at.

Low vision specialist

To get some help, find your wife an optometrist who is a low vision specialist. They can help her figure out how to best use the vision she does have and recommend helpful devices.

There also are vision rehabilitation services that can make a big difference. These services provide counseling, training on how to perform daily living tasks with low vision, and training on how to use visual and adaptive devices that can help improve quality of life. They also offer guidance for adapting your home that will make it safer and easier for your wife to maneuver.

Her regular eye doctor may be able to recommend a low vision specialist, or you can search the AOA.org website, which lets you filter for specialists in low vision. To locate rehabilitation services and other low vision resources in your area, call the American Printing House Connect Center at 800-232-5463.

Send your questions or comments to questions@savvysenior.org or to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.