“It’s amazing what a big problem it is for so many people to just pour themselves a drink,” says Dawn DeCarlo, OD, MS, director of UAB's Low Vision Rehabilitation Center. For those with low vision, sticking your finger in your cup to determine when it’s full works for cold drinks, she says, but not for hot ones and not for guests.

 

The solution lies in a gadget that hooks to the rim and sounds off when the glass is full. But most people, and many physicians, may not know about this simple solution and so many others. “If a person with low vision has all their faculties, they just need the tools to stay safe and to be taught how to use them in order to stay independent. That’s the mission of the Center,” DeCarlo says.

 

The Low Vision Rehabilitation Center works through referrals, including self-referral, and sees around 700 new patients a year. “There’s no amount of sight that’s too little or too much for us,” DeCarlo says. “Even people with relatively good vision may have problems with a specific task. We have the time and equipment to address that specific need.”

 

For example, some patients may “see well according to the eye chart, yet they’re miserable,” DeCarlo says. The problem may stem from eye charts being in high contrast of black on white, but the real world being in shades of gray. “So if you don’t see well in low contrast, you have a lot of problems. We see a lot of people with 20/40 vision suffering from poor contrast sensitivity.” In those cases, the Center works with different types of lighting and filters to maximize that person’s ability to function for particular tasks. They also recommend simple solutions such as using dark dishes for light foods and vice versa to make things more discernible to the patient in their everyday life.

 

Working directly with a rehab eye doctor offers patients access to and the comfort of medical knowledge concerning their eye health as they work with various rehab therapists. Though the Center medical staff doesn’t talk specifics about a patient’s condition, they do talk about the condition in general and its impact on the patient’s life. “It’s hard to shift gears from eye health — which is what their doctor focuses on — to rehab. I have the time to talk,” DeCarlo says. She usually spends a good hour with first-time patients.

 

Having a doctor involved in the rehab process also assures that patients are under the best eye health care, “so we’re not prescribing a magnifier when what’s needed is a retina specialist,” DeCarlo says.

 

The self-referrals often arrive because they’ve fallen through the healthcare cracks. “They hear their doctor say he can’t do anything more for them, so they quit going,” DeCarlo says. “So first we get them an appointment back with their doctor. We don’t want them losing more vision.”

 

Though most insurance plans cover vision rehabilitation services, they rarely cover the cost of adaptive equipment. “But doctors should not be afraid of whether their patient can afford what we do. We can help them. We have recourses,” she says, citing grants and funding from a recent fundraiser called Songs for Sight.

 

Besides helpful gadgets, like the filled-glass indicator, the Center offers patients an array of magnifiers, electronic magnification, telescopes, and high-powered lenses and glasses. For instance, small hand-held telescopes allow people, and especially children, to read the menu at McDonalds again or the blackboard at school. People can also learn to thread needles, write checks, and perform workplace, kitchen, and grooming tasks they may have given up with their impaired vision.

 

Some may also keep driving with the use of bioptics telescopes. These are miniature telescopes mounted in eyeglasses above the normal sight line. By tipping the head down, the telescopes come into the line of sight allowing wearers to see details much farther away. “The driver uses the part of the glasses below the telescope most of the time, but uses the telescope to check traffic signals or road signs,” says DeCarlo. “Bioptic driving has only been possible since 2005. Many doctors and patients are just becoming aware of this, so we’re prescribing more every year.”