Dr. Whitaker began working with low vision patients in 1985. She is a graduate of Ursinus College and Pennsylvania College of Optometry. She also trained at the William Feinbloom Center for Visual Rehabilitation at the Eye Institute in Philadelphia where she earned a clinical excellence award. For eight years she has helped patients in the Pottstown area with low vision.

Dr. Whitaker answers some common questions about low vision:

What is low vision? If your vision is not adequate enough to allow you to do the things you desire, you may have low vision. Low vision is the result of disease, injury, or an anomaly of the visual system. Common causes of low vision in adults are age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, stroke, and diabetic retinopathy. Other causes include, but are not limited to, retinitis pigmentosa and albinism. A person with low vision is one who has a visual acuity or visual field impairment which cannot be made better medically or corrected by conventional means and feels this impairment has a negative effect on his or her daily activities. A person who is not blind and yet cannot see as well as the average person is referred to as partially sighted.
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Do all eye doctors work in low vision? Not all eye doctors work with patients in need of low vision rehabilitation. Low vision specialists have a special interest in persons who are visually impaired and usually have received specialized training in this area.
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How does a low vision evaluation help the patient? The low vision specialist does not cure the cause of low vision but rather enhances the vision that remains. This is done using special low vision devices that allow a person to improve the vision that they have by making things easier to see. This is accomplished by magnification or improving brightness, clarity, or contrast. Optical devices include specialty lenses which enlarge objects such as magnifiers, microscopes, and telescopes. Enlargement of objects can also be achieved through the use of electronic devices such as CCTV's and large print computer software. Non-optical devices are also used and include lamps, filters, large print and reading stands.
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What can I expect at a comprehensive low vision evaluation?
- Lots of questions! Dr. Whitaker will ask about your ocular and visual history, medications and general health, visual limitations and visual goals, use of light and previous experience with low vision devices.
- Evaluation of visual activity, visual field, and external ocular health
- Determination of best spectacle prescription using conventional lenses
- Evaluation for near and distance optical low vision devices
- Evaluation for non-optical devices
- Comprehensive eye health examination including testing for glaucoma and retinal health
- Training in the use of low vision devices
*Please note: All of this takes time! Expect at least three or four one hour appointments with the possibility of more.
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What are some of the common causes of low vision?
- Age-related macular degeneration is found in the senior citizen population. This disease causes degeneration of the macula or area of fine seeing of the eye. The result is decreased central or straight ahead vision, sometimes devastatingly so, which affects a person's ability to read, recognize faces and drive. Although treatment exists for some forms there is no cure. There is hope that the anti-oxidant, lutein, found in high concentration in spinach and kale and some ocular vitamins may protect against this disease.

- Diabetic retinopathy causes fluctuations in vision, the feeling of vision going in and out and decreased central vision. Patients with diabetes need to be seen by their eye care professional regularly.

- In some cases, a stroke can affect the visual field of persons making reading or driving difficult. Prisms can be used to move images into areas of seeing to help alleviate these problems.
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How do you measure success in low vision rehabilitation? Low vision rehabilitation takes time, patience, determination, and lots of hard work. It also takes a willingness to learn to do everyday tasks, such as reading, in a new and different way. Success in low vision rehabilitation is defined by only one person and that person is the low vision patient. If he or she feels that they are successful, then he or she is!
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