01/09/2024
Cortical/cerebral vision impairment is the leading cause of vision loss in children in Western countries.
People with CVI generally have functioning eyes but have damage to areas of the brain related to vision. The vision loss results from the brain’s inability to properly integrate and organize visual information that it receives from the eyes.
It is difficult to imagine how a child with CVI perceives their environment. Yet, it is vital to try and imagine their visual world in order to work towards being more inclusive of people with CVI. The following exercises help us to imagine and are handy to help explain CVI to children.
⁃ Imagine that you are looking at a blackboard full of complicated math equations, much higher than your level of math. You can see all the numbers and symbols, but you cannot understand what you are seeing. Similarly, a child with CVI may see a world full of colours and shapes but not be able to make meaning from the visual images. They may not know that the colours and shapes are a car, a hat or their teacher.
⁃ Imagine that you are at a sports stadium, full of people, and you know that your sister is somewhere in the stadium. You visually search but you cannot see her among the thousands of faces. You can see that there are faces, but the visual environment is too complex for you to locate a specific person. However, if the stadium is darkened, and a bright light is shined behind your sister, you are able to readily spot her.
While these analogies help simplify CVI, the reality is that each child with CVI presents with unique visual characteristics and needs. Some ways to be more inclusive of people with CVI are to:
⁃ Announcing your presence, telling a child that you're smiling, or that another child looks upset can help a child with CVI to read situations and feel more socially connected.
⁃ Avoid sensory overload by providing bold, high contrast, plain and clutter-free presentation. A noisy, busy environment can overload children with CVI. Things are easier to locate on a plain, high contrast background, as the brain doesn’t have to work so hard to process visual information.
