1. AS A CLASS / IN PAIRS / INDIVIDUALLY. Visual impairments: their ranges and manifestations. 30 min.

1) AS A CLASS. Answer the following questions:

• What is a visual impairment? Is it the same as vision loss?
• What eye conditions do you know?
• What degrees of low vision are there?
• Does blindness mean the a person cannot see anything?
• What do you know about the pictures below? (Google for answers if you need to).

2) IN PAIRS. Read the following information, share it in pairs and check your answers:

VARIANT 1.

Visual impairment

Eye condition

VARIANT 2.

Low vision

Blindness     

Comments for the pictures above.

Many people who have to process lots of visual information in their everyday lives and professional careers have to wear corrective glasses or lenses to compensate for vision deficiency and to prevent eyestrain. These vision aids have become a part of human culture. But, unfortunately, they may be useless for those who suffer from profound vision loss or blindness. Teaching learners with low vision inclusively is a challenge for a general educator, so constant professional development is the way to meet it decently.
Vision is tested by means of standard measurement charts (or eye charts) from the distance of 5 meters in Ukraine, 20 feet in the US and 6 meters in Australia, the UK and other countries. 

Eyecharts used in Ukraine are the Golovin and Sivtsev charts (see Picture 1). 

In the US and Canada the Snellen chart is used (see Picture 2).                  

The acuity of distance vision may be measured by:

• decimal notation (used in Ukraine. According to it '1' - is a normal eyesight index. It means that a person can read 10 lines in the Golovin and Sivtsev chart downwards. '0.5' is considered mild impairment);
• 20 feet (US) notation (e.g.: 20/20 - is a normal eyesight index in the US and Canada. It means that a person can read 8 lines in the Snellen chart (see Picture 2 above) from the distance of 20 feet. Correspondently 20/40 is mild impairment);
• 6 m notation (e.g.: 6/6 is a normal eyesight index in the UK, Australia and many other countries. It means that a person shows a normal reading ability from the distance of 6 meters).

 3) INDIVIDUALLY. Have you ever tested your vision? Try an online test.