Eye care for people with a learning disability
Author: Grace McGill
Did you know that people with learning disabilities are 10 times more likely to have a serious problem with their eyes? Despite this, we know that often people don’t get access to the eye care they need. People with learning disabilities are more likely to have avoidable sight loss because they haven’t had an eye test and so have missed out on the glasses or the eye treatment that they need.
My story
Eye care is a really important topic for me. I was diagnosed with bilateral congenital cataracts at 11 months old and had surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Having eye surgery at the right time has enabled me to be able to see today.
I have had lots of experience with eye care and it's not always been positive. I have had very long waits in eye clinics and struggled to manage this.
Because of my own personal experience, I am really keen to see everyone having good access to eye care services.
I work across London with my Eye Care Champion colleague, Lance. Part of our role is to raise awareness about the importance of eye care and help people to access eye care services. We also work to make eye care services more accessible to people with learning disabilities.
Eye Care Resources
SeeAbility has lots of eye care resources on our website.
We have just released a new film to tell everyone the important things about eye care.
We have also shared these messages in our new easy read factsheet.
Easy Eye Care
In South East London, there is a specialist eye test service for people with learning disabilities and autistic people of all ages called Easy Eye Care.
The service provides
- A longer eye test or multiple shorter appointments.
- A pre-examination questionnaire about the person having their eyes tested.
- A plain English eye test results form.
- Eye care from an accredited optometrist.
We want Easy Eye Care to be available everywhere so that no-one is missing out. There is more information about this on our website
Eye care for children
My eye care story started when I was very young, so I also want to tell you about our work with children. SeeAbility delivers eye tests in special schools in London. One advantage of this is that children don’t need to go to the optician or hospital for their routine eye care. After the eye test, the results are shared with parents and teachers. This means that everyone understands the child’s eye health and what support they need to make the best use of their eyesight, including glasses if required.
I have seen this service myself and the opticians and optometrists are supportive and know the child well which helps as it can be a scary and emotional experience for the children.
The brilliant news is that it has been agreed that this service will be rolled out nationally, with the potential to benefit thousands of children. We always explain that eye care is for everyone, you don’t need to be able to read or speak to have an eye test and there is support and reasonable adjustments available.
About the author
Grace McGill is a London Eye Care Champion at SeeAbility. She also likes helping people and to enjoy exercise and craft activities. You can contact Grace at g.mcgill@seeability.org.
