You can still see. You can find your way around the house, recognize a familiar voice, and tell when the sun is out. But the mail has become a struggle, faces blur until someone is close, and your glasses don’t seem to help the way they used to. A new prescription didn’t fix it, and you’re not sure what else to ask for.
If that sounds familiar, you may be living with low vision. It’s more common than most people realize, and there’s more that can help than most people expect.
What Low Vision Means
Low vision is vision loss that can’t be fully corrected with regular glasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery, and that makes everyday tasks harder. It isn’t the same as needing a stronger prescription, and it isn’t the same as being blind. Most people with low vision still have useful sight. The goal of low vision care is to help you use it.
Eye doctors also use numbers to describe it:
- Low vision often means seeing 20/70 or worse in your better eye, even with glasses.
- Legal blindness in the United States means 20/200 or worse in your better eye, or a field of vision of 20 degrees or less.
The numbers matter for things like benefits and driving, but they don’t tell the whole story. Two people with the same eye chart results can have very different experiences, depending on what part of their vision is affected and what they want to do.
Common Causes
Low vision usually comes from an eye disease or a change in how the brain processes what the eyes see. Some of the most common causes:
- Macular degeneration, which blurs central vision, the part you use for reading and recognizing faces.
- Glaucoma, which usually affects side vision first, making it easier to bump into things or miss a step.
- Diabetic retinopathy, which can leave vision patchy or uneven.
- Stroke or brain injury, which can take away half of the visual field in both eyes.
- Inherited conditions, such as retinitis pigmentosa, which can narrow vision over time.
Your eye doctor diagnoses and treats these conditions and keeps watch over your eye health. Low vision care works alongside that care, focusing on the everyday side: how you read, cook, get around, and do the things you enjoy.
Signs It Might Be Time for a Low Vision Visit
- Your glasses help, but not enough, and a new prescription didn’t change much
- Reading the mail, labels, or a phone screen has become a chore
- Faces are hard to recognize until someone is close
- Glare or moving between bright and dim rooms makes it harder to see
- You’re bumping into things, missing steps, or losing your place on the page
- You’ve set aside a hobby, stopped driving at night, or stopped going places you used to enjoy
What Low Vision Care Looks Like
A low vision visit starts with what you want to be able to do. From there, you try real tools on real tasks, such as:
- Magnifiers, from handheld and stand models to electronic ones that enlarge text and boost contrast
- Telescopic glasses that bring faces, signs, and screens into view
- Therapeutic filters and tints that cut glare and improve contrast
- Prism glasses for some types of field loss
- Lighting changes and simple tools like writing guides and bold markers
Then you practice with the ones that work until they feel natural. Because our lab is steps away, custom glasses and lenses can be made and fine-tuned right here. Learn more about Low Vision Optometry, or see what to expect at your first low vision visit.
A Note on Sudden Changes
If your vision changes suddenly, such as a new blind spot, a shadow or curtain over part of your vision, or a sudden increase in floaters or flashes, contact your eye doctor right away or go to the emergency room. Low vision care helps with vision loss that has been diagnosed and is being managed, not with new or sudden changes.
Low Vision Optometry
Bring Us the Task That’s Gotten Harder
Reading the mail, seeing faces, watching TV, getting around. Our low vision optometrists will test magnifiers, telescopes, filters, and lighting on the things you want to do, then show you how to use what works.
Optometry appointments are required. A family member or friend is always welcome to come along.
