What is visual impairment?
Visual impairment refers to any condition in which a students visual function, despite maximal correction (e.g., eyeglasses), is insufficient to allow the normal visually mediated daily functions that a student of that developmental stage. This can be defined as either visual acuity (a significant impairment in the ability of eye and/or brain to produce or interpret a sharp visual image) or a significant restriction in a students visual field (the total area that a person can see without moving the eyes or head).
Many people have some type of visual problem at some point in their lives. Some can no longer see objects far away. Others have problems reading small print. These types of conditions are often easily treated with eyeglasses or contact lenses. But when one or more parts of the eye or brain that are needed to process images become diseased or damaged, severe or total loss of vision can occur. In these cases, vision can’t be fully restored with medical treatment, surgery, or corrective lenses like glasses or contacts. The American Foundation for the Blind estimates that 10 million people in the United States are visually impaired. Visual impairment is a term experts use to describe any kind of vision loss, whether it’s someone who cannot see at all or someone who has partial vision loss. Some people are completely blind, but many others have what’s called legal blindness. They haven’t lost their sight completely but have lost enough vision that they’d have to stand 20 feet from an object
