Do you find yourself bumping into things on one side of your body? Have you got difficulties with text navigation? Do you knock things over on one side? Do you startle when people suddenly appear out of no-where?
These are common experiences for adults and children with visual field impairments.
In hemianopia, a person cannot see anything on one side when they are looking straight ahead. They can compensate by turning their eyes or head.
In hemi-inattention, a person has difficulty drawing attention to objects, people, or the scenery on one side of the body and this tends to be worse in busy or cluttered environments. To compensate, or access that side of the visual field, eye- and head movements are not effective and the person needs to turn their body.
Hemi-neglect is a severe form of hemi-inattention, whereby people might only eat from one side of their plate or only shave one side of their face. You can imagine that this can have a more serious impact on everyday activities.
Compensation strategies, visual search and reading strategies can be effective in order to improve everyday function. As part of a CVI assessment, the exact nature of the visual field impairment can be identified and suitable interventions are discussed.