Professionals: Caregivers & Healthcare

 Tips for Working with Seniors with Vision Loss

This section connects caregivers and health professionals with advice for working with older adults with vision loss. These sites offer basic tips and guidelines for interacting with people who have a visual impairment, suggestions for identifying vision loss in older people, hints for caregivers, and ideas for program design and best practices.

Below is a list of topics you'll find in this section. Click on a title to jump to a specific topic.

Caregivers: Advice & Resources

Helping Residents with Vision Impairments, Illinois Council on Long Term Care
Creative and practical advice for improving the quality of life of the visually impaired. Describes how to recognize vision loss in older people, the social and psychological effects of low vision, and advice on adaptations and devices.

Living with Vision Loss: A Resource for Caregivers, Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB)
This 25-page handbook includes sections on understanding and adjusting to vision loss, low vision aids, and caregivers’ checklists for nurses, dining room staff, social workers, and others. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Living with Vision Loss: Ensure Good Care for People Who Are 'Hard of Seeing', Sacramento County Network of Care
The dangers of ignoring vision loss in older adults; specific steps to ensure better care.

Serving Older Persons with Visual Impairments and Their Caregivers: Suggestions for State Units on Aging, National Association of State Units on Aging
Practical suggestions for ensuring that the services provided under the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) are responsive to the needs of older persons with vision loss and their caregivers.

Vision Loss Among Older People, American Foundation for the Blind
Information on referral, vision rehabilitation, and service provision for staff of aging and disabilities resource centers.

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Healthcare Professionals: Advice & Resources

Caring for Patients who are Blind or have Low Vision, Vision Australia
Guidelines for making hospital stays as comfortable as possible for patients who are blind or visually impaired.

Tips for Hospital Staff Members and Caregivers, Blindskills, Inc.
Tips for hospital personnel caring for people who are blind or visually impaired; includes suggestions for communication, guiding, and orienting the person to the room.

Professional Etiquette with People who are Blind or Visually Impaired

Tips for Assisting People who are Blind or Vision Impaired, Vision Australia
Helpful tips for people who have limited experience interacting with people who are blind or visually impaired.

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Program Design & Personnel Training

A Bill of Rights for Older Americans Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired, American Foundation for the Blind
These guidelines are designed to ensure that older persons who are blind or visually impaired have equal access to programs and services.

Bridging the Gap: Best Practices for Instructing Adults Who Are Visually Impaired and Have Low Literacy Skills, American Foundation for the Blind
This free, self-paced online course provides literacy teaching techniques and an understanding of the issues faced by adults with visual impairment and low literacy skills.

Integrating Older Persons Who Are Visually Impaired into a Senior Center, American Foundation for the Blind
Aimed at senior center staff members, these changes will make the building and programming accessible to those who are visually impaired.

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Research: Professional Services for Seniors with Vision Loss

Evaluation in the Older Blind Independent Living Program: Advantages of a Structural Equation Modeling Approach, Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness
A study of measurement quality, services evaluation, and methodological approaches.

The Prevalence of Blindness and Visual Impairment among Nursing Home Residents in Baltimore, New England Journal of Medicine
Although the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment increases with age, most surveys of ocular disease do not include nursing home residents.

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