Vision Impairment and Blindness

On this page

Basics

• Summary
• Start Here
• Symptoms
• Diagnosis and Tests

Learn More

• Living With
• Related Issues
• Genetics

See, Play and Learn

• Videos and Tutorials
• Test Your Knowledge

Research

• Statistics and Research
• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

Resources

• Reference Desk
• Find an Expert

For You

• Children
• Teenagers
• Older Adults
• Patient Handouts

Summary

If you have low vision, eyeglasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery may not help. Activities like reading, shopping, cooking, writing, and watching TV may be hard to do. The leading causes of low vision and blindness in the United States are age-related eye diseases: macular degeneration, cataract and glaucoma. Other eye disorders, eye injuries, and birth defects can also cause vision loss.

Whatever the cause, lost vision cannot be restored. It can, however, be managed. A loss of vision means that you may have to reorganize your life and learn new ways of doing things. If you have some vision, visual aids such as special glasses and large print books can make life easier. There are also devices to help those with no vision, like text-reading software and braille books.

The sooner vision loss or eye disease is found and treated, the greater your chances of keeping your remaining vision. You should have regular comprehensive eye exams by an eye care professional.

NIH: National Eye Institute

Start Here

• Low Vision (National Eye Institute)

Symptoms

• Eye Symptoms (American Academy of Ophthalmology) Also in Spanish

Diagnosis and Tests

• Dilating Eye Drops (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus)
• Eye Exam and Vision Testing Basics (American Academy of Ophthalmology) Also in Spanish

Living With

• Assistive Devices: MedlinePlus Health Topic (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish
• Living with Low Vision (American Occupational Therapy Association) - PDF
• Low Vision Rehabilitation Teams and Services (American Academy of Ophthalmology) Also in Spanish
• What Is Low Vision? (American Foundation for the Blind)

Related Issues

• Abnormal Head Position (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus)
• Talking with Your Eye Doctor (National Eye Institute) Also in Spanish

Genetics

• Alström syndrome: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Autosomal dominant congenital stationary night blindness: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Autosomal recessive congenital stationary night blindness: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Boucher-Neuhäuser syndrome: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Bradyopsia: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Choroideremia: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Fundus albipunctatus: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Manitoba oculotrichoanal syndrome: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Mucolipidosis type IV: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Ophthalmo-acromelic syndrome: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Osteoporosis-pseudoglioma syndrome: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• RAB18 deficiency: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• SOX2 anophthalmia syndrome: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Wagner syndrome: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• X-linked congenital stationary night blindness: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)

Videos and Tutorials

• Seeing (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish

Test Your Knowledge

• Braille Bug: Games (American Foundation for the Blind)

Statistics and Research

• Eye Health Data and Statistics (National Eye Institute)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Blindness (National Institutes of Health)
• ClinicalTrials.gov: Vision Disorders (National Institutes of Health)
• ClinicalTrials.gov: Vision, Low (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Poster Session: Quantifying Visual Snow Symptoms with a Matching Task.
• Article: Suppressing Retinal Remodeling to Mitigate Vision Loss in Photoreceptor Degenerative Disorders.
• Article: The impact of sensory impairments and eye diseases on cognitive function...
• Vision Impairment and Blindness -- see more articles

Reference Desk

• How the Eyes Work (National Eye Institute) Also in Spanish

Find an Expert

• American Foundation for the Blind
• Find an Ophthalmologist (American Academy of Ophthalmology) Also in Spanish
• Finding an Eye Doctor (National Eye Institute)
• National Eye Institute

Children

• About the Eye (National Eye Institute)
• Cortical Visual Impairment (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus)
• Delayed Visual Maturation (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus)
• Keep an Eye on Your Child's Vision (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
• Kids' Quest: Vision Impairment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Your Child's Vision (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
• Your Eyes (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish

Teenagers

• Visual Impairment (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish

Older Adults

• Aging and Your Eyes (National Institute on Aging) Also in Spanish
• Your Aging Eyes: How You See as Time Goes By (National Institutes of Health) Also in Spanish

Patient Handouts

• Blindness and vision loss (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Home vision tests (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Living with vision loss (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Vision - night blindness (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Vision problems (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish