Maintaining your Sight As you Age

For hundreds of thousands of Canadians, vision lose has significantly impacted their lives. Many people end up becoming depressed because they’re no longer able to do daily activities like reading, writing, or caring for others. Without assistance in dealing with vision changes, many people, particularly seniors, may isolate themselves.

Although loss of sight can have major detrimental impacts on one’s quality of life, there are ways to cope with this unfortunate malady.  With the right support, tools and technologies people with low vision can learn to accomplish the activities of everyday life in new ways, overcome the challenges that vision changes may bring, and regain their independence.

Tactics to Help Cope

There are many tools on the market today that can help those with low vision enjoy the activities of everyday life.  Individuals with vision loss may improve their quality of life through rehabilitation and learning to use their remaining sight more effectively.  Often times you can find local support in your town or city; the office of your eye specialist or medical doctor is a good place to find tools, resources and information about eye health.

Plus, the Internet is an excellent source of information. You’ll find that there are several companies specializing in tools for help in dealing with vision loss.

Tools & Technologies to Help

As we well know, the 55+ demographic is a growing demographic in Canada. If you are part of this demographic, you may be noticing that the print on medicine containers, food labels and many other items on the grocery store shelves are getting tinier every year.

Below are some tools that can help you:

• Magnifiers
• Low vision sunglasses reduce glare and sharpen the contrast between colors
• Electronic book players read the book aloud
• eBook readers allow adjustable print sizes
• Personal digital assistants (PDAs) help with addresses, phone numbers, & calendar entries
• Computer accessibility settings can help with accessing digital information.

Aside from these listed tools, there are other things that may be already equipped on items you own. Both PC and Mac are equipped with assistive technology programs that will magnify and/or speak the text on your screen. Look in the Accessibility Options section; you’ll find that you may adjust the display, increase zoom and utilize voice-over options.

If you ever notice your eyesight worsening or changing, immediately schedule an appointment with an optometrist or ophthalmologist. They will conduct tests to determine whether changes in your vision may be corrected with reading glasses, or if there are other issues for concern.

If you have any concerns or would like some help living more comfortably at home or booking an in home visit, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-866-982-2737 and speak with some about setting up an at home care assessment today.