Southern Low Vision

12/11/2025

✨ In celebration of Genetic Counsellor Awareness Day, we’re spotlighting Lisa Kearns, Research Genetic Counsellor and Orthoptist, who works with people affected by inherited eye diseases. ✨

Lisa also focuses on Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON), a rare mitochondrial disorder that leads to sudden central vision loss. Her work raises awareness and helps people navigate diagnosis with confidence.

🔺 Why is raising LHON awareness so important?

“Many people may be unfamiliar with LHON, which can delay diagnosis. Sudden vision loss can have a major, life-changing impact. Raising awareness improves understanding and reduces misconceptions, ensuring earlier recognition and timely connection to low-vision services, support networks and research. It also can help maternally related family members who may worry about their vision loss risk to manage emotions such as fear, anxiety or guilt.

“Genetic counselling supports individuals and families to work through these feelings, understand their personal risk and discuss lifestyle, environmental and other factors that may trigger vision loss. It also provides an opportunity to explore family planning options, including emerging mitochondrial donation techniques that can help women reduce the risk of passing on the condition. This enables families to make informed decisions about their future.”

🔺 How do you support and empower people impacted by inherited eye conditions?

“Living with an inherited eye condition can bring many emotions and uncertainties. Support focuses on helping people navigate these challenges and find ways to cope and adapt. It helps individuals and families understand their diagnosis, talk through options for genetic testing and consider what it may mean for other family members, including family planning choices.

“We also connect people with low-vision services, practical aids and technology, mental health resources, peer or community groups and guidance on opportunities such as clinical trials or treatments. All to empower people to make informed choices and live life to the fullest.”

🔺 What advice would you give to someone who has just received diagnosis of an inherited eye disease or is concerned about their genetic risk?

“It can feel overwhelming. A referral for genetic counselling can help people understand their situation and genetic risk, and connect them with support. You're not alone in navigating this journey.”

🔺 What excites you about the future?

“Years ago, patients with an inherited eye disease were often told nothing could be done. Today, advances in genetic testing and research are helping us understand these conditions better – improving diagnosis and care, and creating more opportunities for clinical trials.

“It’s also wonderful to see the growing connection between researchers, clinicians and patients – driving change and ensuring lived experiences help shape future research, treatment development and supporting families.”

10/11/2025

14/10/2025

Happy Allied Health Professionals Day!

Orthoptists are university-trained allied eye health professionals and in my role, l enjoy applying my knowledge to helping patients achieve better outcomes when living with 'uncorrectable' low vision. 👁

Sometimes l also get to collaborate with physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, case managers, mobility instructors, audiologists, optometrists and nurses.

Outside of allied health, I also collaborate with eye doctors (ophthalmologists), neurologists, teachers, early childhood educators, aged care workers and general practitioners.

It takes a village to make a real difference in rehabilitation and it is great that allied health is a key part of it! 🎉

10/09/2025

It was wonderful helping out another few Geelong-based clients last week with their low vision aids.

In particular: 'Mrs B' previously loved keeping up with the sports news for her favourite footy team and for her family members, (who are also active players in VFL or regional teams!) 🏉

Her significant vision loss from Age Related Macular Degeneration was making this quite difficult though, despite wearing her best prescription glasses.

An orthoptic low vision assessment with prescription and supply of a moderate strength LED magnifier was all Mrs B needed to get back on track with her sports news updates! 💪This aid was matched to her vision level and was stronger than what she can source in a community shop.

We are concentrating much more on the central Geelong region these days for our services, so talk to your eye care or health professional if you need an aid and can pass on details of your eye health status to us! 👁🔎👁

19/08/2025

Today, our Orthoptist: Julie was pleased to be in the company of 'Ko Ko' the pug, while her lovely owner: 'Mrs N' was helped with a low vision assessment and some aids.

The visit and most of the recommended aids will be funded by The Department of Veterans Affairs.

Despite having moderate loss of distance vision from an eye condition, Mrs N's reading vision was severely impaired, but there's still lots of equipment that can help her return to both reading newsprint again and seeing the television just a bit more clearly. It just proves that everyone is unique in their vision loss journey.

Mrs N's new best friend(s) (apart from Ko Ko), will definitely be her magnifier(s)!

14/08/2025

It was a pleasure to catch up with 'Ms R' a couple of days ago.

Significantly vision impaired from a Central Retinal Vein Occlusion and Age Related Macular Degeneration, Ms R was only able to 'count fingers' from a distance of 2 metres and could not see distant eye charts at all.

Amazingly, despite this, her close up vision was something we could still work with. The orthoptic assessment showed an improvement from N80 (four times the size of large print) to N10 (magazine print) using a X5 LED hand magnifier.

An electronic magnifier will also help Ms R for newsprint and the intervention continues as we will visit again with this aid.

So, for less than $500 for these two aids, plus the price of an assessment fee, Ms R will go from 'unable to read' to reading once again.

Should vision further deteriorate, then some orthoptic 'eccentric viewing' strategies might also be helpful in the future. 👁

11/08/2025

Keep up the great work, spreading the word about early childhood vision screening: Orthoptist- Maddy, the UTS Orthoptic students and Speckles! 👁👍👁

10/08/2025

Join Peter Cracknell, Manager of Vision and Blindness Technologies, and Krystie Alfaro, Low Vision Consultant at Quantum RLV, for an inspiring and informative session on how assistive technology is transforming lives.

In this free webinar, you will:
- Discover the latest innovations like the Snow Pad and Cloverbook XL Pro
- Hear directly from a client in a live interview
- Understand how artificial intelligence is shaping wearable technology
- Learn how to access Quantum’s services, training, and support
- Wrap up with a live Q&A session

Whether you're living with low vision or supporting someone who is, this webinar is packed with practical insights and empowering solutions.

Secure your spot today and register here: https://mdfoundation-au.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jLP1n0ztSS67wfRGfECYQg