Eccentric Viewing:

Eccentric Viewing for Distance

Eccentric Viewing for Reading

Steady Eye Strategy

Volunteer Trainers for Eccentric Viewing for Reading 

Introduction

Eccentric Viewing and Steady Eye are techniques that can help a person to use their residual vision more effectively, particularly if macular disease effects both eyes.  If you still have good vision in one eye then you are probably not ready to use eccentric viewing yet.

Eccentric viewing, occurs where instead of looking 'straight at' something, an area of peripheral retina is used to look at objects.

It takes practice to master the technique, as prior to the development of macular disease your entire life has been spent using the central part of your vision to see things.  With this skill you have to teach your brain to use an alternative part of the visual field.

You probably already use eccentric viewing to some extent when looking at things around you, perhaps you turn your head to one side to better see a friend's face or the television or have spotted something tiny on the floor 'out of the corner' of your eye.

Eccentric viewing is a technique that people can learn to utilise in order to use their peripheral vision more effectively. With time and practice this combined with steady eye strategy (finding the best point of vision and then keeping the head and eyes still and then moving text) can be developed into a skill that makes reading easier, increasing reading speed and comprehension.

Eccentric viewing will never make your vision as good as it was before the onset of macular disease, as the arrangement and concentration of the cells in the peripheral retina can not provide as detailed and sharp an image as the macular.  What it can do however, is help you to maximise the use of your vision.

Not everyone is able to use eccentric vision, those that can, find it makes a tremendous difference. Lots of people with macular disease can benefit from the use of Steady Eye Strategy.

Ask at your local low vision service or your rehabilitation officer if they are able to help you develop these skills. You may also like to see our leaflet.

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Eccentric Viewing for Distance:

There are various ways to identify the best position for you to look to see an object or a person more clearly.  One that many people use as a starting point is the 'clock face' method. There are two ways of describing the same technique either what number do you need to look at to make the centre hands clear (so the number itself will be blurred)or which is the clearest number then look in the opposite direction thereby moving the clearest bit over the centre that you want to see.

Using a clock, look at each of the numbers in turn - when looking at the numbers, locate which number brings the hands into sharpest focus.  Remember that the actual number that you are focusing on may disappear or become difficult to see, as you are placing the very central part of retina over the top of the number.  When you have decided which number to look towards to give you the clearest view of the clock hands, practise looking away from the clock and then back to the chosen number.  The number position also gives you the position of where to look with other objects, for example if your best position was at 2 then when looking at objects, to see them more clearly, you need to look above and to the right of the object.

If you use eccentric viewing when watching the television, it may help to place a marker in the correct position (using the clockface method) to make the screen appear clearer.  If your number is 2 then perhaps place an ornament on top of the television and to the right, or perhaps the red power light coincides with your best point of vision.  So you focus on the light or the ornament, which may actually disappear but your view of the screen will be clearer.

Ask a friend to help you with this exercise. Imagine a large clock face around a friend's face 1 at the top, 6 by the chin and 3 and 9 by the ears.  Focusing on the point where the numbers would be, look at each one in turn.  Which number makes your friends face appear clearer?

With people you don't know well, looking above or below a persons face is less obvious than looking to one side of them, although this may not be as clear for you.

For those people who already know where their best position is also known as the Preferred Retinal Loci (PRL) we have launched a CD for use at home that can enhance the way you use eccentric viewing for distance vision.  This is the result of an MDS research project by UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital.

Follow this link for more information on The Macular Disease Society 'At Home' Eccentric Viewing Training CD.  Details of the CD will also appear in the Autumn 2008 edition of our members magazine Side View.

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Eccentric Viewing for Reading:

As reading is such a key aspect of staying independent, the Macular Disease Society decided to explore ways of enabling as many members as possible to learn eccentric viewing for reading.

In a few areas, we know that there are low vision professionals who do provide advice and training on eccentric viewing and steady eye strategies.   We are looking to improve our ability to 'signpost' individuals to these service providers where available.  There is currently no list detailing this, so we are looking to collate the information.

If you are a low vision professional that is able to provide this type of training please e-mail amanda@maculardisease.org with the relevant details. (We do recognise that in some areas it is a matter of budget constraints restriciting the availability of such training.)

To reflect that we all learn in different ways and that some people learn practical skills better with the support and encouragement of other people.  To this end, the Macular Disease Society has decided to run a series of courses to train individuals to become volunteer trainers.

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Steady Eye

Once the best area of vision is identified, you have to keep your head still and your eyes steady to receive the most benefit. So that instead of moving your eyes across the page as you read, you move the page itself from right to left. This skill takes practice to perfect as you are breaking a learnt habit – the reflex movement of the eyes when reading.

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Volunteer Trainers - Eccentric Viewing:

Our "Train the Trainer - Eccentric Viewing" courses have been specifically developed  for individuals who have macular disease themselves, enabling them to learn how to train others how to use eccentric viewing and steady eye techniqies for reading.

With time we plan to have a network of volunteer trainers working in their own local community with people who have macular disease and who want to learn how to use eccentric viewing and steady eye strategies to make reading a little easier. We do not have trainers in every area.  Individuals wishing to learn will be matched with a trainer if there is one available in their locality when that trainer has capacity.

Please note that it takes lots of practice to fully utilise these skills and not everybody can benefit from eccentric viewing, but for those who are able, it can make a tremendous difference.

If you have macular disease in both eyes and would like to learn the skills of eccentric reading and steady eye then, please call our helpline 0845 241 2041 to register your interest, but please be aware that at this stage in the project there are very few volunteer trainers and they will only be working with people in their immediate locality.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer trainer yourself to teach others the basics of Eccentric Viewing for reading, click here for more information.

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