Moving Low Vision Rehabilitation: Recovery Based Lighting Intervention in Denmark

Background/IntroductionLighting is crucial for the visually impaired citizen to handle everyday life, and has historically been an important aspect of the low vision services. Lighting assessments have been conducted in the laboratory and informed by the diagnostics, by adjusting the ceiling light and measuring the visual acuity at a distance of 3 meters.PurposeA recovery based lighting assessment, aiming to improve the quality of life of visually impaired citizens, have been developed by a group of low vision consultants. But what role do the approach play in the service?MethodDuring the winter seasons of 2017/18 and 2018/19 60 visually impaired citizens participated in the intervention, accompanied by a relative. In the specific home environment and guided by the consultant and a narrative interview, the citizen described challenges in performing everyday activities due to their vision and the current lighting conditions. The light and the visual function were measured in relation to 3 activities of importance. The citizen and his/her relative were invited to the lighting lab where different lighting arrangements were tested. Summing up the lighting assessment, the consultants drew the recommendations on a printed photo taken of the specific home environment. A follow up after 1‐3 months, repeated the measures (VFQ‐25, Canadian Occupational Performance, Groffman Visual Tracing test, and the Farnsworth Dichotomous test (D15)).PerspectivesThe intervention showed improvement of quality of life, in self‐assessment of the performance of near task activities.The narrative interview concerning lighting and everyday activities enabled articulations and reflections on the visual impairment in context.Acknowledging the knowledge of the citizen, due to their everyday practices in their physical and social context, and their embodied knowledge in the lighting lab help to adjust the rehabilitation.The future aim is that the intervention is shared and implemented in other low vision services.