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Visual Impairment

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33 views4 pages

Visual Impairment

Uploaded by

Eyuel
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Visual Impairment

Visual impairment is a term that experts use to describe any kind of vision loss (Salvin, 2013).
Although there are different classifications of visual impairments, researchers mostly use the
general category: low vision and blindness. According to WHO (1992), cited in Tabin & Kelley
(2007) low vision is the inability, even with corrective lenses, to clearly see at a distance of 6
meters (20 feet) what individuals with normal vision can clearly see at a distance of 18 meters
(60 feet), and blindness is the inability to read the largest letter on a vision chart at a distance of 3
meters (10 feet) (Tabin & Kelley, 2007).

What is blind

Blindness is defined as the state of being sightless. A blind individual is unable to see. In a strict
sense, the word "blindness" denotes the inability of a person to distinguish darkness from bright
light in either eye. The terms blind and blindness have been modified in our society to include a
wide range of visual impairment. Blindness is frequently used today to describe a severe visual
decline in one or both eyes with the maintenance of some residual vision.

Vision impairment, or low vision, means that even with eyeglasses, contact lenses, medicine, or
surgery, someone doesn't see well. Vision impairment can range from mild to severe.
Worldwide, between 300 million-400 million people are visually impaired due to various causes.
Of this group, approximately 50 million people are totally blind. Approximately 80% of
blindness occurs in people over 50 years of age.

Health professionals usually define visual impairments in terms of visual measurement using a
vision chart called Snellen chart. Snellen chart has letters of different sizes that are read by one
eye at a time from a distance of 20 feet. People with normal vision are able to read the 20 ft line
at 20 ft – 20/20 vision (Medical Dictionary, 2016).

The problem of visual impairment is worldwide. A meta-analysis study conducted by WHO


(2010) on visual impairment using selected studies of different countries of the world revealed
that the estimated number of visually impaired people in the world was 285 million: 39 million
blind and 246 million having low vision. Of these, 18.939 million were children between 0 to 14
years of age from which 1.421 million are blind, and the remaining 17.518 million have low
vision. African visually impaired people including Ethiopia constitute 26 million share from
which 5.888 million (15%) are blind and 20.407 million (8.5%) have low vision.

Yemane et al. (2006) have also conducted a national blindness and low vision survey in Ethiopia
on 25,650 people who were available for examination by the survey team and found that the
national prevalence of blindness is 1.6% and that of low vision is 3.7%. On the other hand,
Hailie and Destaye (2013) conducted a study on 784 clients whose age is older than 14 years and
who came to hospital for eye examination. In the study, it was found that the prevalence of visual
impairment and blindness was 15.3% and 14.4 %, respectively.

Problems of visually impaired children in Ethiopia

Social problems

Social problems of visually impaired children involve both the attitude of the family and
community. No parent in the world wants to have a blind child. When parents observe a new
born blind child, they may be confused, frightened, annoyed, and may blame each other for the
child’s impairment. In Ethiopia, these psychological tensions are mainly aggravated by negative
perception of the society. Disability for the majority of Ethiopian people is perceived as
something that comes as a result of sin of parents or grandparents. Tirusew et al., (1995) stated
that particularly the rural people believed that disability is a punishment that a person having a
disabled child earns from God for his or her bad acts. They also perceive disability as something
that results from evil spirit; i.e., when a child is caught by devil (“buda” or “seytan”).

The society also perceives a blind child as a burden to the family, dependent and an object of
pity (Tirusew et al., 1995). These perceptions of the community may overwhelm parents and
coerce them to keep the impaired child at home. This hinders the child from interacting with the
environment at least using the remaining sense organs and hampers his/her cognitive,
psychosocial and physical development (Tirusew et al., 1995).

Psychological problems

The psychological problems of visually impaired children especially the blind ones include
dependency and hopelessness. Tamru (2005) stated that by negatively criticizing and showing
unnecessary pity, the society not only demoralizes the blind children but also denies them the
opportunity to participate in certain socio-economic activities like education and jobs. Such types
of societal attitudes about the blind in turn negatively affect the attitudes of the blind themselves.
That means that the blind tend to see themselves as others see them. Therefore, they are forced to
accept the inverted public view of their limitations which in turn leads them to develop feeling of
hopelessness and high level of dependency.

The success of human beings stems from their motivation to do things. However, when people
experience feelings of hopelessness and dependency, they become less motivated and unable to
initiate themselves to do their best.

Educational problems

Access to education is a big problem for visually impaired children, particularly for the blind
ones all over the country (MoE, 2006; Tirusew, 1999). Nowadays, MoE is implementing
inclusive education to create equal opportunity of learning for all students regardless of poverty,
gender, ethnic background, language, learning difficulty, and impairment (MoE, 2006; Kassie,
2013). On the contrary, as it is reported in MoE (2006) ordinary schools tend to refuse to enroll
children with special educational needs, particularly those with apparent disabilities like
blindness and deafness. This implies that the written educational policy and strategies have not
been fully implemented yet.

The implementation of inclusive education requires the provision of the necessary human and
material resources for the diverse needs of all students (MoE, 2006). For example, according to
Heward (2006), to address the educational needs of visually impaired children, the schools
should have specially trained teachers or itinerant teacher consultants and provide different types
of special instructional materials and skills. A blind student needs to have access of Braille,
Braille’s speak, tactile aids and manipulative technological aid for reading; prints such as
optacon (optical to tactile converter) and Printed E, computer and orientation, listening training
to improve listening skills, and mobility training, electronic travel aids and cane skill. Similarly,
a student with low vision needs to access optical devices, large print and classroom adaptation in
terms of light and sitting arrangement (Heward, 2006; Heward & Orlansky, 1988; MoE, 2006).
Thus, furnishing schools with the required diversified educational resources for all children is a
big assignment as well as a problem that needs to be solved for MoE.

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