Visual aids for low vision

By Denis Langlois

About half a million Canadians are currently living with low vision or vision loss that is significant enough to impact their quality of life.

Every 12 minutes, another Canadian will begin to lose his or her eyesight.

The charity Canadian National Institute for the Blind has created a retail enterprise of assistive products for people who are blind or partially sighted.

More than 15,000 Canadians use the shop each year.

All proceeds from the store, which can be found at shop.cnib.ca, supports the CNIB, which provides more than one million hours of support each year to Canadians.

Here are some of the products available from Shop CNIB:

Esch 2.1X telescopic glasses are designed especially for people with vision loss.

 

The Power-Mag Plus Pocket 3.5X Magnifier was engineered for low energy consumption and long battery life.

 

The portable Explore 5 magnifies images on its video screen and can be connected to a large screen television for impeccable image magnification.

 

The 13-watt Ott-Lite lamp simulates nature’s daylight, which means less glare, and less energy use.

 

The Ruby handheld video magnifier can lie flat to help people read books or the newspaper or the flip-out handle can transform this device into a standard magnifying glass.

 

Cocoons polarized fit over sunglasses block out sunlight and glare from all angles.