What is CVI?
Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI) or Cortical blindness results from injury to the brain’s visual centers in the cerebral cortex. A child with cortical blindness is able to pick up visual information with her eyes, but her brain cannot process and interpret the information correctly. The result is total or partial blindness. About 25 percent of children with hemiplegia have cortical visual impairments to parts of their visual field (hemianopsia). They are able to see objects in front of them, but can’t see objects to one side. Total cortical blindness is rare and usually occurs when there is extensive brain injury-for example, in children with severe quadriplegia.
