Town Hall Meeting: Optimizing sight, living with low vision

The Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington® (POB) will hold the 2015 Vision Rehabilitation Town Hall Meeting on Sunday, March 8 at Sibley Memorial Hospital Medical Building, to present resources that can help individuals with severe vision loss retain their independence.

Topics include living effectively with low vision; updates on new research and technologies; innovations in ophthalmology residency training; and the availability of low vision rehabilitation to ensure every individual’s right to sight.

The Town Hall Meeting will feature presentations from three experts in the field of low vision: Suleiman Alibhai, O.D., director of POB’s Low Vision Learning Center; Donald Gagliano, M.D., retired colonel and former executive director of the Department of Defense Vision Center of Excellence; and Michael Summerfield, M.D., director of MedStar Ophthalmology Residency Program.

According to the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, 2.9 million Americans have low vision. That number is expected to increase by 72 percent by the year 2030. The term “low vision” refers to vision loss that makes it difficult or impossible to complete daily tasks, even with usual corrective measures such as glasses or surgery.

Low vision is most common in individuals over the age of 65 and can be a result of other eye diseases or conditions such as age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. However, it can also be a result of eye injuries, birth defects and early eye diseases. To cope with low vision, it is important to learn how to make the most of remaining vision and take advantage of assistive technologies and resources that can help people retain or regain their independence.

“You have to find ways to adapt your vision to the world as it really is, and that’s what this low vision work is really about – it’s about rehabilitation,” Alibhai said at the 2014 Vision Matters Eye Research Symposium on June 9. “No matter what you’re experiencing, you will be able to adjust and adapt.”

In addition to hearing from the featured speakers, guests will have the opportunity to visit with exhibitors and gain hands-on experience with low vision products and resources.

POB invites all community members who are personally facing vision loss, who have family members with low vision or who would like to learn more to this premiere event. For more information, visit youreyes.org/events.

Founded in 1936, the Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington® is the largest local prevention of blindness agency in the United States, dedicated to the improvement and preservation of sight by providing services, education, advocacy and innovation. The organization serves the District of Columbia, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties of Maryland, and Northern Virginia. POB screens 8,000 children annually for vision loss and strabismus and 5,000 adults for glaucoma. POB also provides thousands of low-income and homeless individuals with low-cost eyeglasses. Its Aging Eye Network, Macular Degeneration Network and Stargardt’s Network provide public programs and support groups.