Handbook for successful ageing - 9.8 - 9.8.5

9.8 Some advice for the ideal usage of the eyesight by visually impaired people
 

9.8.1 Enlarging visual aid
 

If eye glasses are no longer adequate, you need optical visual aids, and for reading perhaps also electronic enlargement aids. If you have not left the house on your own until now, you could perhaps at least go out with a monocular (a telescope for only one eye), with which you can read house numbers, schedules, etc..
 

In Germany your eye expert makes the medical diagnosis. With this diagnosis you then go to your optician, who will discuss the following provision of visual/ electronic vision aids, test them or adjust them to your individual needs. Afterwards your eye specialist will check that you don’t have any problems with your vision aid and issue a prescription for it.
 

9.8.2. Good illumination

Not only your reading area, but also your entire house should be optimally illuminated, so that you do not feel dazzled anywhere, but also not encounter total darkness anywhere, where you could lose your footing or bump into something. In this regard, you should consult a lighting technician. He can also advise you about the optimal internal lighting of your cupboards, such as lamps which begin to illuminate as soon as you open the doors. He should however be aware of your special needs and difficulties by speaking to your optician or your ophthalmologist.
 

On the street, a broad-rimmed hat or a cap could prevent being blinded by the sun.
 

9.8.3 Rehabilitation trainer
 

The rehabilitation trainers for orientation and mobility will show you how you can optimally use your remaining vision and your monocular in public space, the trainers for daily life skills how you how do this at home. Also ask them to show you how you could write letters using a screen-reading device, fill in remittance slips and resolve cross-word puzzles, and, if possible, also the best way to hold your head to make optimal use of your remaining vision.
 

9.8.4 Contrasts
 

Further, it is very important to have strong contrasts at home; the more an object's colour varies from another, the easier it is to see and identify it. Such objects can be as follows:

- Light switch, sockets, device buttons, telephone and other keys, dressing hooks, wardrobe handles, and doorbells, which can either be colour-coded or marker points, which you can get at a toyshop can be glued on to them;

- Door frames, table, cupboard, wash basin, and bath tub edges, the upper and lower steps of a staircase, mops, brooms, frier, pans and cover handles, parts of a vacuum cleaner, cleaning bucket, etc., which you can paste with a contrasting band;

- pillows on a chair;

- a cover on a couch;

- a contrasting table cloth (above all on a lower table, so that you do not hit your shin against it );

- on the other hand a single-coloured table cloth, on which things appear lighter;

- Stools or pictures contrasting the wall;

- A window picture in a glass door;

- a bridge which faces a room;

- when eating, plates and cutlery, which contrast with the table cover and from each other, ideally darker plates for bright dishes and vice versa, or dishes with coloured edges; if you drink your coffee black you can find it easier, and moreover it is healthier (see above, 1.4.1 animal fat); you will get used to it quickly;

- Bright drinks in darker vessels and vice versa;

- in the kitchen dark ingredients in bright background and vice versa as well as

- black felt pen on white paper.
  

Check yourself as to which colours contrast the best for you. If you identify a colour particularly well, place the cups and glasses on a mat in this colour, so that you do not bump into them.
  

9.8.5 Optimal reading
  

Print products for the visually impaired appear in large print, as a rule in Arial. In order to be able to read other information optimally, if you are not on the Net, with the help of relatives or friends, try on the monitor to check which font style and size you can read best, and, if you’re not using a computer yourself yet, have documents printed in this font.
  

If you go to mass in church, request the priest's office to print out the hymns for you accordingly or to tell you the numbers of the hymns if you or your housemates can print the hymns yourselves. Also, request this from the leader of your seniors' circle.
  

If you do not have any helpful sight, try to do your reading through other means. You can track a line with your fingers or a pen, on a dark paper or on the page with a cardboard window for each line. In the latter case, avoid being blinded.
 

If your field of vision is restricted by the side rim, rotate the reading device by 90 degree, in order to read from top to bottom.

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