Visual Impairment

Visual impairment describes a range of visual restrictions which may be caused by difficulties within the eye, visual pathways or reception/understanding of the brain.

A visual impairment may be:

• No sight at all
• Difficulty seeing objects in the distance
• Poor near vision
• Difficulty seeing in the dark
• Can only tell light and dark
• Partial sight
• Field loss (tunnel vision) – which means that peripheral vision at the edges is less clear
• Loss of central vision
• Difficulties with colour
• Severe discomfort/visual loss in bright light

There are two legal categories in the UK used for registration purposes:

1. Blind
   • visual acuity of less than 3 / 60 with a full visual field
   • visual acuity between 3 / 60 and 6 / 60 with a severe reduction of field of vision, such as tunnel vision
   • visual acuity of 6 / 60 or above but with a very reduced field of vision, especially if a lot of sight is missing in the lower part of the field
2. Partially sighted
   • visual acuity of 3 / 60 to 6 / 60 with a full field of vision
   • visual acuity of up to 6 / 24 with a moderate reduction of field of vision or with a central part of vision that is cloudy or blurry
   • visual acuity of up to 6 / 18 if a large part of your field of vision, for example a whole half of your vision, is missing or a lot of your peripheral vision is missing.