ABSTRACT
After all available treatment has been given a specialist may well refer an elderly patient for assessment to a low-vision clinic. The aim of this assessment is not only to ascertain how much useful vision remains but how the best use can be made of it to help the individual do those things that he or she wants to do. The techniques are very personal and depend as much on the sensitive encouragement as on the high technology of the lens system suggested. The aim is to restore the autonomy and independence, as well as the useful vision of the patient as far as it is possible. There is an enormous loss of privacy and of self-esteem in being unable to read a gas bill or a bank statement and it is a great achievement to restore this ability, even if reading for pleasure is lost.
