It's difficult finding your way through the information on the web about visual rehabilitation. Here's a summary of what you need to know.
At the moment there are five main ways in which visual rehabilitation for hemianopia aims (or claims) to work.
1. Help people work around their visual loss by changing the way they look around ("visual search training", "scanning training", or "saccadic training").
2. Help people to read using specifically targetted therapy, such as scrolling text.
3. Increase visual sensitivity of areas of the visual field by "perceptual learning".
4. Expansion of the seeing area of visual field ("restitutive therapy"). There is still some controversy regarding whether this is actually possible.
5. Training visual attention to improve visual function.
6. Using prism lenses to shift parts of the blind visual field into the seeing field.
It's important to know that none of these methods have yet been rigorously proven to provide benefit to patients in their daily lives. However, there are studies that show that they seem to work.
There are two web-based therapies that are free to use and may help vision. They have been developed at University College London, funded by the Stroke Association (UK).
1. ReadRight (www.readright.ucl.ac.uk). Training to improve reading for people with visual loss (hemianopia) and difficulty with reading.
2. EyeSearch (www.eyesearch.ucl.ac.uk). Training to improve visual search (looking for things with your eyes).
