Vision loss

The National Council for Persons with Physical Disabilities in South Africa states that: "Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments.”

Sensory impairments are problems with a person’s senses, ie sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste and spatial awareness. A person does not need to have a full loss of their senses to be sensory impaired.

For example, someone who wears glasses has sight impairment, and someone who wears a hearing aid has a hearing impairment. People rely a lot on their senses to learn and to process information about the world around them.

It stands to reason then that a sensory impairment can have a serious impact on a person’s life experiences.

Vision loss will get a lot of focus this month because the South African government has set 21 September to 18 October this year aside as Eye Care Awareness Month.

Vision loss can be present at birth or start later in life; it is more common among the elderly, and most people who experience vision loss are over the age of 65.

Dual sensory impairment is when vision loss occurs in combination with another impairment, such as hearing loss. This is sometimes called “deafblindness”. Some of the causes of vision loss include injuries, eye defects, infections, albinism, macular degeneration, diabetes, glaucoma and cataracts. Health care providers like doctors and nurses play important roles in diagnosing vision problems, and work with ophthalmologists, optometrists and opticians to provide treatment. Treatment can take various forms, for example eye exercises or corrective eye surgery.

Research shows that 75 percent of vision loss is avoidable either through treatment or through prevention.

Preventative eye care includes: eating healthy, abstaining from smoking, wearing correct sunglasses, using safety glasses at work, limiting screen time (eg time spent on phones, computers and watching television), and going for a professional eye exam every year or two. Sometimes vision loss can be prevented if children are taught to practise preventative eye care from a young age.

Vision loss has varying levels of severity, and some people experience complete vision loss for their entire lives. But that does not mean they should be written off by society.

On the contrary, we should appreciate their unique talents and skills, and we should do everything in our power to find ways to include them as equal and productive members of the community.

This column gives a brief overview of vision loss. For more information, speak to your local health care provider, or contact The South African National Council for the Blind (SANCB): www.sancb. org.za Call: 012 452 3811

• Nathan Ferreira is a practitioner in inclusive education and a proponent of

inclusive communities. disABILITIES is a monthly column. natjfer@yahoo.com

Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments