Diagnosis
It is important that people be examined by someone specializing in low vision care prior to other rehabilitation training to rule out potential medical or surgical correction for the problem and to establish a careful baseline refraction and prescription of both normal and low vision glasses and optical aids. Only a doctor is qualified to evaluate visual functioning of a compromised visual system effectively. The American Medical Association provides an approach to evaluating visual loss as it affects an individuals ability to perform activities of daily living.Screening adults who have no symptoms is of uncertain benefit. Prevention
The World Health Organization estimates that 80% of visual loss is either preventable or curable with treatment. This includes cataracts, onchocerciasis, trachoma, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, uncorrected refractive errors, and some cases of childhood blindness. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that half of blindness in the United States is preventable. Management
Mobility
Many people with serious visual impairments can travel independently, using a wide range of tools and techniques. Orientation and mobility specialists are professionals who are specifically trained to teach people with visual impairments how to travel safely, confidently, and independently in the home and the community. These professionals can also help blind people to practice travelling on specific routes which they may use often, such as the route from ones house to a convenience store. Becoming familiar with an environment or route can make it much easier for a blind person to navigate successfully.
Blindness, in this sense, is used both metaphorically (to refer to someone who was ignorant but later became knowledgeable) and literally, as a reference to those healed in the Bible. In the later years of his life, Newton himself would go blind. H. G. Wells story "The Country of the Blind" explores what would happen if a sighted man found himself trapped in a country of blind people to emphasise societys attitude to blind people by turning the situation on its head. Bob Dylans anti-war song "Blowin in the Wind" twice alludes to metaphorical blindness: How many times can a man turn his head // and pretend that he just doesnt see... How many times must a man look up // Before he can see the sky? Contemporary fiction contains numerous well-known blind characters. Some of these characters can see by means of devices, such as the Marvel Comics superhero Daredevil, who can see via his super-human hearing acuity, or Star Treks Geordi La Forge, who can see with the aid of a VISOR, a fictional device that transmits optical signals to his brain. Sports
Blind and partially sighted people participate in sports, such as swimming, snow skiing and athletics. Some sports have been invented or adapted for the blind, such as goalball, association football, cricket, golf, tennis, bowling, and beep baseball. The worldwide authority on sports for the blind is the International Blind Sports Federation. People with vision impairments have participated in the Paralympic Games since the 1976 Toronto summer Paralympics.